Is skiing / how much is it a fading sport ?

[Sixball]

UP to 14 hours on our new 2012 VTX and i have still not even thought about touching a wake board. Still having too much fun learning to surf and best of all trying to find the sweat spot between 32mph to 36mph.

Only down side to our new boat, my wife lost her 18 year old engagement ring on her first slalom behind the boat on the weekend.

How much doi spend on the new one?????

Oh my!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just how big is your budget? You will be fine if its anything like the U.S. budget!

[bretski75]

Whats a wakeboard?

I grew up slalom skiing weekend wally style. SInce the late 90's I have become somewhat of a slalom snob some would say. I say snob because as it was pointed out you need certain conditions to do it right, and more importantly do it safely. Slalom specific boat and consistent water. I'm not saying glass but no random rollers in various directions.

Friends with wakeboard boats ask us to ski with them. We go and strap on a board, have a good time, but sometimes they get all weird because we won't ski behind their boat on big water. They make comments like their setup isn't good enough. But the reality is its just not safe.

Now I live on a tiny lake so having the direct drive, and enjoying slalom skiing is easy and I love it. But if I were on bigger water I think things would be a little differen't. The nice thing about the boarding is the social factor, and you can do it on busier water.

I will always be a slalom skier. You can't beat the speed and feeling ripping though a slalom course at shortline, but its definitly not for everyone. To each his own

[Fred2]

At our lake, wakebording is dying off, lots of slalom skiing happening. Theres only 1 boat that surfs, but its too shallow for surfing in general. I do see lots of wakebording boats on the highway though.

[wakemitch]

I have been on the water since I can remember, and have never had the urge to ski.

I totally appriciate what slalom skiers are doing and understand the difficulty, but it's not for me.

I think it has to be an adrenaline thing. I've never liked going fast and getting that adreniline rush.

Instead, I've always been about tricks and being technical. Anything I get on, I want to ollie it or do a shuvit. Thats why I quickly switched to wakeskating (away from wakeboarding) when I first heard about it. I go wake to wake, but I dont care for it much. I much rather do skateboard tricks and hit rails. Its just a perfsonal preference thing to me.

I think there are more people coming up like this too.

Thats why you see so many terrain parks at ski resorts. Some people love to cruise down the mountain fast and weave between trees, but others like to get creative in the park.

People are different, and people like options.

But also, I think the decline in the popularity of skiing has to do with appreciation and accessability.

• Most people who have never done a watersport will be more interested in wakeboarding because of the huge air and variety of tricks. Slalom Skiing doesnt have the visual variety (not talking about trick or jump skiing). Also, trick skiing doesnt get the air of wakeboarding.
  
• Skiing also requires a course, glass water, and a direct drive boat. Not many people have access to courses. Open water skiing can only be so fun.
  
• And because the core water skiers are all at private lakes, the regular boaters never see skiers. When you only see old men waterskiing in a straight line behind a bayliner in chop, that becomes what people think of water skiing. Regular boaters have no idea what real skiers are doing.
  
• Another reason is that not many shops support core waterskiing (beyond recreational riders). Shops arent out their promoting tournaments and trying to turn more of their customers on to the private lakes. Why? because slalom skiers have stopped supporting shops (at least in Norcal). They buy factory direct or from reps. This makes it hard to stock high end ski gear because there is no one to buy it. And when shops dont carry that kind of product, there is no need to put energy in promoting it and the sport. Product being in shops brings awarness to a sport. Customers will see it and ask questions about what it is, you show them a video, they look it up online. And that can totally stoke someone out, and then they get hooked on the sport. But if they never have that initial introduction, they might never know it exists.
  

I would love to see the sport of slalom skiing get more popular. There are a lot of adrenaline junkies out there that would much prefer it to wakeboarding/skating/surfing, but they dont even know what they are missing. Its still too much of a gamble to bring in the core product, but I make sure to play water ski clips on our shop loop and connect people with our local ski lakes and clubs. Our local ski lakes have been getting more popular and I think its great.

[BoilerUp]

I can't help but echo a lot of the comments here. I started free skiing slalom when I was younger, but it got boring with no access to a course. Started wakeboarding a few years later and that was that. I'll ski once a year to prove I still can, but that's it.

I find it hard to get my friends out behind the boat even though we're only 30ish. Most people will surf, maaaaybe wakeboard, but skiing much less slalom, forget it. I agree that it goes back to laziness and physical condition. And lazy people make good ballast.

Plus cable riding is really growing wakeboarding but it doesn't translate to skiing. A two tower cable with a slalom course would help..but that's another topic.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[Mrsamman]

I'm going to try and keep water skiing going by installing a course next year. For Christmas I got money too buy buoys. Where can I find buoys for the best price? I plan on building the rest of the course. Thanks. Scott

Edited December 27, 2012 by Mrsamman

[MalibuTime]

I'm going to try and keep water skiing going by installing a course next year. For Christmas I got money too buy buoys. Where can I find buoys for the best price? I plan on building the rest of the course. Thanks. Scott

The limited amount of searching I have done for bouys I found the best prices at Overtons.

[Woodski]

Call Ed at EZ Slalom. He is a 'Bu owner and manufactures ski courses and offers buoys.

[WTF]

As far as injuries waterskiing, I'm recovering from shoulder surgery from two dislocations on the same shoulder due to water skiing. Injuries occur waterskiing, you develop far greater speeds and are very susceptible to serious injuries. Skiing takes a toll on the body and is an excellent work out. Denny Kidder use to have a saying on a tee shirt; "If it were easy, it would be called wakeboarding"

[NorCaliBu]

Denny Kidder use to have a saying on a tee shirt; "If it were easy, it would be called wakeboarding"

He still does but now they're D3 shirts instead of Kidder shirts.

[85 Barefoot]

As far as injuries waterskiing, I'm recovering from shoulder surgery from two dislocations on the same shoulder due to water skiing. Injuries occur waterskiing, you develop far greater speeds and are very susceptible to serious injuries. Skiing takes a toll on the body and is an excellent work out. Denny Kidder use to have a saying on a tee shirt; "If it were easy, it would be called wakeboarding"

Dislocation from a fall? You do develop far greater speeds no doubt, but how many skiers do you see who are 40+ who rip? How long has Parrish been at or near the top of teh game? Mapple? Cox? You will never see that kind of longevity out of a wakeboarder, the falls are way too punishing. That said, I prefer the skinny stick to the board every day of the week, and twice on Saturdays, haha. It's definitely to each his own but as for the question as to whether slalom is fading, I don't think so, I actually see a resurgence thanks to skier-friendly bigger boats. I'm super stoked on the VTX wake with a family of five and vdrive comfort. Options will only get better and better.

[windy1]

I'm going to try and keep water skiing going by installing a course next year. For Christmas I got money too buy buoys. Where can I find buoys for the best price? I plan on building the rest of the course. Thanks. Scott

and what lake is this course going to be on?

[Mrsamman]

I'm going to order the buoys from Ez slolam, they have the best prices I've seen. Thanks for the name.

It's going to be on Ft Gibson just to the west of Toppers launch.

Thanks

Scott

[DutchMalibu]

First and foremost we're barefooters. That said, this means doing your runs early morning, late evening or now.... Off season, as it's too cold for anyone else on our river (-;

Comes summertime, crowded river, wind messing with the glass, we thoroughly enjoy same wakeboarding and surfing. In our crew we have ski, barefoot and wakeboats so we can even choose the best suited tow boat.

We're all happy that we can do a little of everything and yes we ocasionnaly take out the slalom ski to do some open water slalom....

Life's beautiful when you know the basics of many things!!!

Vast majority on our river however are wakeboarders... They just start a little later than we do on summer mornings, so all's good.....

[Dare2goBare]

DutchMalibu

Which river is it that you get to play on? Here in the Greater Vancouver area in BC, we spend all our time on the Pitt River. After our early morning barefoot burns & skis we head up into Pitt Lake to chill for the rest of the day.

[DutchMalibu]

We ski on a side branch of the 'Maas', a river which starts in France, flows through Belgium and ends up in The Netherlands where it eventually reaches the North Sea.

[gphayes]

Growing up, learning to ski on a big public lake back in the day, there were pro skiers out on the water with us. There was a ski show every weekend on open water, with slalom exhibitions, jumping, footing, etc.

Since skiing has retreated more and more to private lakes, I see the major challenge being visibility and as @sixball points out, it is harder and harder to put a slalom course out in public water anymore. Seeing skilled course skiers is truly awe inspiring and the more we get that out there, the more the sport will grow.

[Slayer]

Growing up, learning to ski on a big public lake back in the day, there were pro skiers out on the water with us. There was a ski show every weekend on open water, with slalom exhibitions, jumping, footing, etc. Since skiing has retreated more and more to private lakes, I see the major challenge being visibility and as @sixball points out, it is harder and harder to put a slalom course out in public water anymore. Seeing skilled course skiers is truly awe inspiring and the more we get that out there, the more the sport will grow.

Very well stated. I completely agree with you.

[CliffB]

I saw an article recently which showed that the number of snowboarders has been decreasing over recent years while skier numbers have held steady or increased. There's varying opinions as to why snowboarder numbers are going down, but there seems to be some amount of consensus that snowboarding isn't as "cool" as it was in the 90's, and new snow sport participants (often teenagers) are responding to that perception. Who knows, maybe, maybe not.

I wonder if the same cycle may run with wakeboarding?

I can certainly see how wakeboarding offers more variety to the participant than water skiing, particularly when it's difficult to get any flat-ish water on most public lakes. As was said above, wakeboarding allows you to run both the groomed runs and the powder so to speak.

Edited January 23, 2013 by CliffB

[UWSkier]

I don't know if skiing will ever fade away, but I will say this;

Waterskiing is like snowskiing groomed runs all day. The fun is in taking turns and going fast. Great stuff, but after a while it gets boring.

Wakeboarding is so much more diverse. It's like having the ability to ride the 'groomed runs' AND the powder.

I don't think kids care as much about what's 'cool' as what is fun. Old or young, the only one's at the mountain that ride groomers all day every day are the ones that just can't ride the powder (either because lack of ability or not wanting to get hurt/take falls)

**and on the surfing thing: Those saying 'surfing gets boring' or 'surfing isn't a workout' really need to ride a real wave. Sure, standing in one place trying to stay in the wave may get boring, but if you're pushing it....it never gets old and is a heck of a workout. Heck, our crew puts 150 hours just on MY boat a year, 80% of which are surfing, and I never get bored........and I'm huffing and puffing after every run!

The problem with skiing is you need good water to learn to progress more than wakeboarding. There's just nothing ever boring about hooking up inside 32 off at 36 MPH though. For the beginner to intermediate skier, I can see how boredom could set in. Most skiers take up another discipline before they ever get to the point where there's no way it becomes boring. Takes too long and requires frequent access to good conditions to progress to that point.

[Huelsmma]

Guess Im spoiled because I get to watch Chris Parrish on a weekly basis run 39' & 41'. I dont ski anymore but I sure do enjoy watching watching or driving skiers.

[UWSkier]

Yeah, I guess I don't mean boring in a derogatory sense. Maybe repetitive is a better way to say it. Im sure laying down a perfect turn on a ski is amazing..... Just like laying down a perfect snowboard turn is.....But the reality is that after you do that, you turn and do it again, then again, then again. There's nothing else...... no matter what level rider you are.

Comparing it to snowriding.... I love spring style, groomer days. Love the feeling of a perfect turn.... Then linking them up... It literally makes me laugh, it's SO fun. That said, if that's all snowriding was; taking turns on a perfectly prepared surface..... I'd probably only go 1/3 as much as I do.

I think that's why waterskiing has lost traction since boarding & surfing came along ... And will probably continue to do so

That's why we have a kick-ash crossover boat.