I was talking to a friend of mine who used to barefoot water ski and it made me realize I haven’t seen anyone water ski in probably 15 years. Wakeboard and wakesurf, sure, but never water ski.


Is that a dead sport?

Yes. All water sports boats now have ballast tanks for bigger waves mannn

The newer boats can dump the water pretty quick, with that said, I still ski..

My dad lives out on Lake Nocona and still goes quite a bit! I used to everyday when I was in high school but guess I burned myself out cause i haven't been in probably 15 years. I still see a few skiiers when I go back home

Never been on skis. Never will at this point.

I still slalom ski. Cut it up on mirror water. Yeah I pulled a muscle or two last summer. All good. 😎

Growing up water skiing was everywhere, we went all the time. Nowadays around here, it's jet skis or wind surfing not water skis most of the time. I had a toe bar on the back of my bay boat for skiing that got used, before I sold it.

I'll never forget my oldest Sister attempting a one ski landing near St Joe Island (used to be a cool thing to do). She hit an oyster reef and lost her ski, cut her feet up really bad on that landing. Crashed, flipped, & rolled onto the shore. End of trip, blood everywhere, had to leave for the ER. She was an AH so I thought it was funny.

The big guy on my dock used to on foot ski texoma 5 or 6 years ago. He traded that malibu for a 34 searay. He at 300ish could foot ski that malibu

Never was good with skis, knee board and wakeboarding was our thing. Kneeboarding has to be part of why my back is screwed up!

Wake boarding, knee boarding and tubes is all you'll see.

I live on Lake Whitney. I haven’t seen a water skier here in years.

I recreate at Canyon quite a bit and haven’t seen one either. Even when Medina was full didn’t see one their either

I used to slalom, but I had to get up on two and kick one off. old school.

I saw one girl on a ski this past Sunday at PK, you just don’t see it much anymore. I wish there was more of it, they like boats with no wake, as do I. I probably had my last ski session three years ago, I’m done.

Last time I watered skied was on Lake Texoma 13 years ago, water was rough white capping should have surfed it instead.
Tore my hamstring bad getting up the last time on the trick ski, no mas for me!

I used to be a skiing sombitch. Slalom mostly. Not to pat myself on the back, but I was pretty good. Las time I skied was 2 years ago. I could barely crawl back in the boat afterwards, so I'm done now. But i had noticed the trend 10 years ago. Mostly everyone had transitioned to wakeboards by then even.

We do every year at Eagle mountain lake

Rarely see it, but I used to all the time. I've got a $1k connelly ski from the mid 2000's in the attic somewhere. Boots are probably dry rotted to hell.
I think the wake surfing thing is here to stay. Slower speed, everyone can ride on the boat and enjoy themselves, drink...etc. Plus a monkey can get up on a wakeboard.

I did back in the day when I had access to good equipment. I worked on PK at a YMCA camp giving skiing lessons for a couple summers. I was in the best shape of my life. I have a couple times since, but not much. I’m too old and fat now. I don’t bounce like I used to.

I did most of my life. I barefooted on my 50th birthday in 2005. I think the last time I was on a slalom was two summers ago behind our center console boat. I would slalom now if I hadn't sold our boat last fall. We love to fish and do the water sports. If these gas prices crash the boat market we may buy another boat and I'll definitely slalom again.

I used to ski a lot when I was younger and before life and work got in the way. I was pretty good, though my younger brother might have been better. After learning to get up on a slalom ski, I never used 2 skis again. To show off, I’d ski no hands - using the left foot to hold the tow rope handle.

No way I could do any of that any more. But early in the morning, back in the day, when the water was like glass, I loved to ski. I can still hear the hiss of the ski cutting through the water.

I used to water ski a lot..I plan to renting a real ski boat with the driver this summer on lake Lewisville and take my daughter, I hope to lose 10 more lbs before we do that, your weight makes a big different. Rented a [censored] ski boat one year on Lewisville, I was so fat (about 30lbs more than I am now), the boat could not get me out of the water. Here are some pics of me in the 70. This was an O'Brien World Team Comp Slalom Ski, back then there were not a lot of options. They didn't have wake boats back then either, I wish they did, I would have really caught some air!

My wife taught me to slalom ski when we started dating back in the mid 70s, I had skied on pair before. She is part fish and loves the water. I am a big guy and no one had a boat with enough umph to pull me up on a slalom. I would come up on 2, kick one off and then start cutting like crazy (was always a daredevil). After we got married, we bought our own boat circa 1981 and have owned a boat every since. We went to the lake 3-5 days a week and most weekends for a number of years. Our adult kids started early (4 & 6 y/o). By the mid 80s I thought I was a BA on a ski, bought a Mastercraft tournament boat and joined a private lake with a course and skied there for 6-7 years, many tournaments, my best tournament run was 5 buoys at 32' off 36 mph. Kids activities took priority, so dropped back to recreational skiing when we could. As the kids got older, they got into wakeboarding and our tournament boat wasn't the greatest wake, so we upgraded to a Mastercraft X2 (205V) which is likely one of the all around best all purpose boats ever made. My wife still water skis (slalom) at 64 y/o, my son surfs & WB, my daughter WB and Slalom/pairs and just last summer we taught our 6 y/o (7 y/o now) grandson to ski on pairs. I suspect the next in line 6 y/o grandson will want to give it a try this summer, possibly both 4 y/o grandkids will want to at least try. I just captain the boat these days following 2 back surgeries, but I have given it a lot of thought several times while out on the lake the past couple of summers though.

about the only time my wife wants to ski is if the water looks like butter / glass which seems rare with the number of other boats out most of the time. She hasn't missed a summer skiing as long as I have known her (48 years) and as long as she is able, I don't see her stopping.

This is me in AR 2018 on a wake board behind a nice Sea Ray. This is when my weight was out of control and I was 30 lbs more than I am now. The boat pulled me out no problem, I was so out of shape I did not last long. I felt like a whale on a wake board lol.

This all reminded me that if you are going to teach kids or grandkids to water ski, it’s best they learn that before they learn to snow ski. Young snow skiers, when learning to water ski, tend to do a snow plow when they get the slightest bit scared. That leads to an immediate face plant. I encountered that problem with my youngest daughter, and it was really tough to get her to quit ‘snow plowing’.