Nothing is as cool to see on the water as a skilled slalom skier or a highly skilled wakeboarder. Even Surf is lame to watch (but fun to do). The first two are aspirational. To want to do it, you need to see it (know it exists). My dad and uncles open water slalomed behind our 16 foot checkmate. Seeing those guys made me want to do it. I begged for a Waterski Magazine subscription. I wanted to do what they did, and way more (course and competition). Yes, conditions on the river sometimes sucked but in between the bad sections there was enough decent water to give hell to a few turns.
There was one public water course that people were afraid to ski because “that’s Tynes’ course and he’ll give you hell for skiing it”. Turns out, that guy wanted us skiing it even more than himself. I feel the same and it’s why I waste hundreds of dollars and hours keeping that public course going. The same reason he did.
It’s access AND aspiration. At least as far as course/competition skiing goes. If there is no knowledge that it exists, well, it doesn’t. If they don’t have a place to do it, they won’t.
The bodies that should have busted their asses chasing public policies for access chased rules, minutia, and every fad to come around. If they had advocated and lobbied for more public access, we wouldn’t be having this same discussion over and over.
So, maybe it’s on us, individually. Fight to put a course in and ski it! An $8,000 boat or a $134,000 boat doesn’t matter a damn bit. A skier behind it showing what can be done? That matters.
Access and Aspiration