Is skiing / how much is it a fading sport ?

[Huelsmma]

Huelsmma- where do you board at? Tampa Bay or do you trailer to fresh water?

In live on a private lake in N Tampa but am at McCormicks on weekends.

[jwl019]

I required my son to learn 2he skiis before he could attempt the wakeboard, now he does both. This summer he will learn to slalom, then after that he is free to do whichever he chooses. I just want him to be able to have the basics in all of them at a bare minimum so he can pass it on as well.

I also try to encourage all the newbies I take out to try to ski which at least helps them learn balance and working with the pull of the boat, I have found that that usually speeds up the time in teaching them to get up on the wakeboard. Which also makes me keep my locker full of skiis instead of the ballast I would like to have, but that's a small price to pay I guess.

I have learned that not everyone has the ballance and skill to slalom!

[Bill_AirJunky]

BTW, we have a guy who started riding with us at the end of the summer. He's into this new thing called wake skiing. Pretty cool stuff. Sort of a cross between freestyle snow skiing & wakeboarding..... jumps, 3s, 5s, 7s, fronts, backs, etc. Really cool to watch.

Pretty cool to see the stuff that Murphy & Klarich were doing 20+ years ago is making a comeback!

Edited December 11, 2012 by Bill_AirJunky

[malibuparadise]

BTW, we have a guy who started riding with us at the end of the summer. He's into this new thing called wake skiing. Pretty cool stuff. Sort of a cross between freestyle snow skiing & wakeboarding..... jumps, 3s, 5s, 7s, fronts, backs, etc. Really cool to watch.

Pretty cool to see the stuff that Murphy & Klarich were doing 20+ years ago is making a comeback!

One thing to keep in mind IMO is that slalom tricks (and trick ski tricks) seem to only be performed by pros or very experienced skiers, whereas at the park I mentioned above, I saw 10 year olds do comparably fantastic stuff on their wakeboards..i.e., a bigger bang for the buck....but I'm sure those little bugers have done a heck of a lot of laps there.

[Bill_AirJunky]

One thing to keep in mind IMO is that slalom tricks (and trick ski tricks) seem to only be performed by pros or very experienced skiers.............

On a slalom ski, I agree. But the guy we've had with us on wake skis has only been doing it for a few months. He was jumping within the first week & is hitting 3s & 5s now..... even rode out a few front flips. The kid is like 19 yrs old & not a pro. He had his buddies come out & try it occasionally too, none of which were experienced at all. Jumps came pretty easily, even a lip slide wasn't all that tough.

You probably know Kenny out at the Kauai Waterski School..... I've been riding with his kid, Ryan, lately.... well, he's like 32. He's got a pretty big bag of tricks himself... good slalom skier & SkySkier.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Bill_AirJunky

[jk13]

Must be winter.

To paraphrase a great movie, "Ride what you dig."

Have fun out there.

[CliffB]

No doubt a wakeboard is more dynamic and adaptable to all kinds of styles and techniques and maneuvers than is a ski. And, they're a lot cooler in the eyes of most people younger than 30 too.

A ski seems a bit ancient and Old Skool in comparison.....but hey, I'm ancient and Old Skool so it fits!

Strapping on a wakeboard and trying to do tricks at my age feels kind of like taking your 80 year old grampa paint balling......

Edited December 11, 2012 by CliffB

[obski]

I started out slalom skiing a long time ago, but only went occasionally for many years. When we got into boating as a family 15 yrs ago or so, the kids all wanted to wakeboard and so that is what I did too. Over the last few years though we have all gravitated to slalom skiing. We sold our VLX and bought a VTX with a cut diamond hull last year and now we spend about 90% of our time on the water slalom skiing and the other 10% wakeboarding. My kids are all now slalom skiers, but we all still enjoy some runs on the wakeboard.

[electricjohn]

My lake became a tubing lake over the last 10 years. There are a lot of people boarding, but no body is any good. I have never seen anyone land a 180 yet, just a few wake jumpers. A few surfers here and there too. I might see one person skiing a day during the week, and a couple skiers on weekends. My family (brothers, kids, cousins, and cousins kids) are about the only skiers left on the lake who ski most of the day. During summer vacation when we are all there (70 of us), we have 3 or 4 boats going pretty much non stop all day. Many thousands of dollars are spent on gas those two weeks.

[JonnyRad91]

I used to dream of riding the course every day. Now I live on a lake with one next to my dock and I have never touched it (except on my wakeboard). Skiing is cool and all but its anti social! Wakeboard boats are built to be social with lots of people. With skiing you are always trying to limit the number of people in boat for weight. Also skiing the course requires conditions that are tough to obtain on a public lake.

On my lake in WA over the last few years I have noticed a huge decline in wakeboarding. There seems to be less and less every year and even less good riders. You talk to shops and they sell wakesurf stuff 10 to 1. The battle on our lake has shifted from skiier/wakeboarder to wakeboarders vs surfers.

[Lance B. Johnson]

I think there's a lot in my generation (32 yo) who enjoy the water but whose bodies can't take the pounding from wakeboarding anymore. I essentially quit "pushing" it wakeboarding about 10 years ago after 2 blown knees and a follow up surgery (of course in addition to countless other injuries including ankles and shoulders). I might still have some fun on the board but never again with the mindset that each set requires learning something new or else its a failure. Skiing is so much easier on the body so I see 2 things happening 1) people like me get skiing again or 2) people surf more and more. The latter is going to happen no matter what but for a lot of people, after the initial fun of surfing, it gets a little stale. Thats not going to happen for skiers or footers even if they're just cruisers. I don't see the high school generation skiing but they will start in their late 20s if they really love the water.

Really your 32 and feel beat up by wakeboarding? Wow that makes me feel a lot better!! Edited December 12, 2012 by Ruffdog

[Lance B. Johnson]

I started out slalom skiing a long time ago, but only went occasionally for many years. When we got into boating as a family 15 yrs ago or so, the kids all wanted to wakeboard and so that is what I did too. Over the last few years though we have all gravitated to slalom skiing. We sold our VLX and bought a VTX with a cut diamond hull last year and now we spend about 90% of our time on the water slalom skiing and the other 10% wakeboarding. My kids are all now slalom skiers, but we all still enjoy some runs on the wakeboard.

Give me a call this summer. I would like to ski again for sure!

[Fman]

Rarely does anyone water ski on our boat, its 60% wakeboarding, 20% kneeboards and 20% surfing... Until my body cant take it anymore I always prefer a good wakeboard run, its super easy to get up but the downside is you can take some pretty good hits when falling hard. I have found a happy medium to having a good time wakeboarding and not killing myself.

Surfing for me gets boring after about 5 minutes, its fun but definitely nothing compared to wakeboarding. If you could start jumping the wake with surfgate it would add some more dynamics to it, that what appeals to me most about it.

My friend has a sky ski, I tried it once, it was pretty cool, but I HATE how difficult it is to transport and lunk those big ole skis around... Im always afraid of him dropping it on my boat! Definitely easier on the body at 40+ years old.... I guess unles you get wacked by the hydrofoil... ouch, that woud hurt. He has also taken some good falls on the Sky ski.... I guess any water sport has its dangers.

I think slalom skiing is a dying sport, you just dont see many youngsters doing it anymore... its a bummer, because its a great water sport, but for some reason has lost its appeal to many. I rarely ever see anyone slalom skiing anymore in comparison to wakeboarding and surfing. Sure is fun to watch a good slalom skiier tearing up the water at 34MPH laying it down.... true athleticism there!

[Woodski]

Great debate and interesting to see the various perspectives. We are lucky, able to ski on a course at will, free ski or barefott most anytime the water is liquid, so that and footing are the chosen water sports. Yes, short line slalom skiing is an awesome workout, but not injury free particularly when buoys are present, OTF ankle trashers.

Looking at it from the manufacturers perspective, skiing certainly at least has a pulse. The new equipment being pumped out by the boat and ski companies is amazing, new stuff non stop the last couple of years. Malibu, CC, Centurion and MC (next year) all developed new high end ski machines. Goode, HO, Radar, Sans Rival, Connelly among others all have popped out new high end skis so there is certainly a market for all that stuff. A hugh improvement for the avid/hard core ski junky compared to 5 years ago when all the resources were targeted at the boarding market.

Visually, it appears that both sports have certainly trailed off from their heyday, skiing's in the 80's, boarding much more recently. I don't see nearly the recreational activity the last couple of years compared to earlier, but what I do see is a hugh increase in tubing. I guess the easy access, low cost and ease of effort make it very appealing.

[Indebound]

My lake became a tubing lake over the last 10 years. There are a lot of people boarding, but no body is any good. I have never seen anyone land a 180 yet, just a few wake jumpers. A few surfers here and there too. I might see one person skiing a day during the week, and a couple skiers on weekends. My family (brothers, kids, cousins, and cousins kids) are about the only skiers left on the lake who ski most of the day. During summer vacation when we are all there (70 of us), we have 3 or 4 boats going pretty much non stop all day. Many thousands of dollars are spent on gas those two weeks.

where in the adirondacks are you? i laughed at your post - just true honesty in your first 2 or 3 sentences...am I not the only one that is saddened by seeing a bunch of tubers out in the lake makin' waves?

seems the northeast is a bit behind in everything water sports related. most everyone on lakes that I grew up on have bayliners, glastrons and larsons. That said i have noticed an appreciable increase in watersports boats the last 5-10 years. I grew up thinking ski nautique was the only ski boat company because thats one everyone had.

interested thread. I enjoy hearing what people's perspectives are.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Indebound

[electricjohn]

where in the adirondacks are you? i laughed at your post - just true honesty in your first 2 or 3 sentences...am I not the only one that is saddened by seeing a bunch of tubers out in the lake makin' waves?

seems the northeast is a bit behind in everything water sports related. most everyone on lakes that I grew up on have bayliners, glastrons and larsons. That said i have noticed an appreciable increase in watersports boats the last 5-10 years. I grew up thinking ski nautique was the only ski boat company because thats one everyone had.

interested thread. I enjoy hearing what people's perspectives are.

east shore of Schroon Lake, hamlet of Adirondack Edited December 12, 2012 by electricjohn

[MalibuTime]

To go back to the OPs original question, I bet skiing is not a fading sport. Of course the manufacturers could tell us exactly what is going on. My bet , based on equipment sales is this:

1. Tubing has the most sales and highest growth rate (tubes also pop/fail etc the most)
   
2. Surfing has the next highest yoy growth in sales
   
3. Skiing probably has a moderately positive growth rate
   
4. Wakeboarding is probably between surfing and skiing in growth, but probably far outsells surfboard sales
   
5. Jumpers, trick and foils are lowest in volume, but willing to bet sales are flat or better (more or less)
   
6. Not related to towboat sports, but SUP is probably far exceeding surfboards in yoy growth and total sales
   

For me, I got into boarding with a Skurfer (now screwed to Wileys ceiling) and started wakeboarding more when it was hard to get smooth water for slalom. I am forever crashing when I wakeboard, and have started to ski way more since we bougth the VTX. Part of that is hole shot, so much easier to get up, part of that is working harder to get to the lake when its smooth. I really like the aformentioned full body workout, but more than anything I am just better at skiing, so I enjoy it more. Love the speed across the wake and trying to dial in my technique. Typically I ski at 35 and 28 or 32 off, not because I am good at skiing the course at that speed /length, but because it is a blast and I ski open water.

Edited December 12, 2012 by MalibuTime

[Bill_AirJunky]

My friend has a sky ski, I tried it once, it was pretty cool, but I HATE how difficult it is to transport and lunk those big ole skis around... Im always afraid of him dropping it on my boat! Definitely easier on the body at 40+ years old.... I guess unles you get wacked by the hydrofoil... ouch, that woud hurt. He has also taken some good falls on the Sky ski.... I guess any water sport has its dangers.

I have a buddy in Alabama who was wacked with a waterski while riding a SkySki ....... Someone was teaching a slalom skier by dropping a ski, and he found it before they did.

Yea the sport has its hazards, like anything else. But the thrill of flight is like no other. And if you have all the accessories, like a foil cover & a rack, it gets easier.

Malibutime, I bet your not far off. Sad isn't it?!

-Bill

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

Edited December 12, 2012 by Bill_AirJunky

[jaciche]

I was a snowboarder until high school when I started racing and became very competitive and now freeski instead and help coach.

The same kind of happened to me with waterskiing. We have the wakesetter we own because I thought I would be wakeboarding mostly. Now barefooting is my favorite, Slalom and ski jumping come second. I also ski for a club waterski team so i'm a little biased. I only see wakeboarding as something to do when its rough out and I'm with my friends and thats when I decide to just throw tricks and see if I can land them.

I think skiing is coming back, but wakeboarding is still king. Like snowboarding, wakeboarding is easier to learn and people like to get air so they are more appealed to it. I will be a die hard skier for the rest of my life. After meeting Will Asher, Chris Parrish, Marcus Brown, Keith St. Onge, Adre de Villiers, and even Freddy Krueger, and many more amazing show skiers, just talking about the sport that we love, Slalom and Barefooting and freestyle jump just do something for me that wakeboarding will never do, im not sure if its a type of adrenaline or what, but I've been hooked.

P.S. Wakesurfing seems to be taking over, and I think it is fun, bot not worth buying and hauling a board and buying more sacks just to make a wave that pisses people off on the lake.

Edited December 12, 2012 by jaciche

[obski]

Give me a call this summer. I would like to ski again for sure!

Absolutely!

[Miljack]

good thread, I started skiing years ago when there wasn't anything else, progressed into slalom skiing, and spent some time trying to deep water start barefoot behind a friend's jet boat(!). Learned to barefoot on a boom when some guys felt sorry for me watching the debacle before them!

When we got our first inboard in '04 I was still skiing more than boarding, but, I had decided I wanted to learn how to wakeboard decently, so I spent most of my time doing that. Also it seemed we always had a boat full, so skiing was not the easiest. Over the years, I have still skiied, but it became more of a "tradition" to get a couple of sets in, and not really great fun for me.

Now that we have moved to a Vdrive, haven't had the ski on this year, and honestly didn't miss it that much. To be fair, I made some good progression on the wakeboard this year, and have found that to be very challenging to make the next steps (also hurts like h*!! when I crash!), so not much extra time to ski. My son learned on skis, but I didn't push him to continue, he now boards, so next summer I'll make more of an effort to ski a little more to just give him the kernel of an idea...

[Joeprunc]

I think as posted before skiing is a sport that you need to fulfill several variables before it is enjoyable.

1. Smooth water (no wind, no boats)

2. A boat that produces a small wake.

Wake boarding it is a lot nicer when you have smooth water and a large wake, but can still be enjoyed with rougher water and a smaller wake.

Fortunately we have more day's like this that I would like to admit, and this is why I have switched to primarily skiing. (This picture is with 6 people in our boat on the way back from lunch).

[NorrisMike]

That looks like a gorgeous slalom wake! My old 91 ProStar 190 didn't get that flat...

[Timmo]

Just observing the area that I ski at here in South Australia, there is a small group of hard core wakeboarders that are very good, the wakeboarders that fall off every time they try and jump any sort of wake and probably an equal number of knee boarders and skiers. Certainly the wakeboarders are in the main younger people who obviously recover from their crashes more quickly. When I learnt to ski (we're talking 45 years ago) there were no wakeboards and even though I did wakeboard a bit when my boys took to the sport I never really thought it was any substitute for the rush you get when you accelerate out of a hard turn on a good slalom ski. Interestingly when our boys wakeboarded they did still enjoy the occasional slalom ski however, I think it's great to be able to multi task, although I'm sure that there are some ladies out there who claim that there is no way males are capable of such a feat.

The ski shop that I frequent certainly carries a large range of skis and as mentioned elsewhere in this thread that the choice, quality of design and standard of finish etc. of skis is as good as it has ever been. Be interesting to find out what the ratio of ski/board sales are but I reckon skiing is definitely on the up compared to 10 years ago.

I guess one thing that worries me, and it has been covered in other threads previously, is that the shear popularity of wake sports could lead to their demise, I certainly hope that surfgate (or should that be the irresponsible use of surfgate) isn't the final nail in the coffin for a lot of ski areas. Over here environmental damage, disruption to other river users, no wake zones etc. is a constant source of debate. Anyway real surfers surf in the ocean along with the sharks, stingers, rocks and the worst hazard of all, other surfers, don't they??

[BlastRlxi]

I wonder how many skiers buy their first big v-drive because they or their spouse like the seating layout or spaciousness. Once they get the v-drive, they realize it sucks for skiing and decide to get into wakeboarding or surfing because it suits their boat. Do more people leave skiing for this reason versus deciding they want to try wakeboarding or surfing and then buying a new boat to support their preference?