All the teenagers who won the Masters or World slalom title did it in the 60's WHY ?

[swbca]

With Charlie Ross's amazing slalom performances, he would be a good bet on getting there. But what has changed that few or no teenagers won those titles or set world records after the 60's ?

 

I skied in 3 consecutive Nationals where a skier in the boys division was expected to have the highest score for the tournament "hands down". Between them they also won the Masters and set World slalom records in the same time frame.

 

64 Billy Spencer

65 Kris Lapoint

66 Leroy Burnett

[chrislandy]

$$$, training time & school pressure I'm guessing

[lpskier]

The teenagers of the 60’s were the pro skiers of the 70’s and 80’s with the likes of Kris and Bob LaPoint, Wayne Grimditch and Ricky McCormick.

In the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s you could make a living as a pro tournament skier, so the teenagers of the 60’s stayed in the sport and went right on dominating.

[dave2ball]

@swbca there is no money in skiing anymore. The boat MFG have moved there marketing money to the surf side where there is a 3 to 1 profit margin. Also slalom courses have become very hard to gain permits for which makes training very hard unless you live in a man made lake or have access to a man made lake. which is cheap.

Once wakeboarding took off and you could put all your friends half naked girls in a boat and look like a rock star to the naked eye why would you want to deal with all the new restrictions placed on 3 event skiing.

 

[swbca]

Skiing technology also plays a role. The low performance quality of the skis in 60's were an equalizer between the young and the experienced skier. A gifted 14 year old Masters Champion from from the 60's (Bill Spencer) wouldn't have the years of skill development required to run into 43 off at 14 even if he had all the benefits of a modern equipment and training.

 

The same is probably true for Leroy Burnett who set a World Slalom record at 17+/-. In today's world he would need more time to get ahead of the top pros.

[AustinGraham]

Leroy was my uncle. It’s so cool to see people still talk about him so many years later. I’ve been searching for literally anything about him. He passed away in 2014 on a ski trip in Tahoe. Thanks guys for giving me a little something.

[UCFskier]

@dave2ball I have to admit I am a bit confused with all the boat companies sponsoring surfers and boarders. I would venture to guess virtually no one on my public lake could name a surfer or boarder.... so how does having them as a sponsored rider help the company??

[dave2ball]

@UCFskier just like having a sponsored 3 event skier helps the boat companies. Same concept just bigger profit margins. Weather or not a person on your lake can name a sponsored surfer does not matter. Sponsored skiers can show what the surf boat can do performances wise. And every Wally wants to look like the sponsored skier shown in the ad or video.

[mike_mapple]

@UCFskier I would also venture to guess that the people buying the big surf boats can not name a current pro skier, but the kids can name some of the pros for sure(wakeboarders/surfers).

 

Steel is been all over ESPN doing funny stuff behind his Xstar,

Parks is in Jackass,

Austin Keen is all over the internet.

 

They are all super marketable, but skiers tend to stay in his/her lane which makes is much harder to sponsor.

[Inboardfix]

Mary Morgan Howell won Masters this year in Women's Wakeboard for the 2nd year in a row. She's 19.

 

@mike_mapple I'm hoping Joel Poland is the 1st of many 3 eventers to gain social media attention. His expoits are truly amazing and fun to watch. His trick run at the Masters and the crowd's reaction reminded me of when Parks did a back flip off the ramp after doing a winning run back in the early years of wakeboarding's inclusion at The Masters.

 

When Joel pulled out the trick (long out of time but who cares) the crowd went nuts. Then they replayed it on the big screen in the lake and the crowd went nuts again. That's how cool it was. His online presence is a shot in the arm for the sport.