The genesis of water skiing began with the simple story of trying to keep a winter activity going longer.
It started in 1922 when a Minnesota snow skier wanted to extend his skiing into warmer months. Ralph Samuelson used two eight-foot-long boards he curved at the front and a clothesline for a tow rope behind his brother’s boat, thus inventing water skiing.
In 1939, The American Water Ski Association (AWSA) organized and held the first-ever National Water Ski Championship at Jones Beach on Long Island, N.Y. Show skiing had already been around since the beginning, with exhibitions held in the 1920s and early 1930s, but this was the first national-level competition. Then, the first trick skis, which were shorter and finless, came about in 1940, allowing 180- and 360-degree turns.
By 1947, skiers were barefoot water skiing. Barefooting requires higher speeds—30 to 45 miles per hour compared to 20 to 35 miles per hour for conventional water skiing. Barefoot water skiing enabled more tricks to be performed, including backwards skiing, turnarounds, and a tumble-turn start method. While water skiing may have started in Minnesota, it came of age in central Florida, thanks to Dick Pope, Cypress Gardens, and a water ski boom that propelled the sport into a phenomenon.
Pope opened Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, Fla., in 1936 as a theme park, charging visitors 25 cents admission. Pope’s family water skied on a lake in the park, and after visiting soldiers saw them ski and thought it was regular entertainment, Pope made water ski shows a staple. Those shows became a success, and Pope became an early promoter of the sport, producing newsreels and short films that featured water skiing as advertisements for Cypress Gardens. Now, it’s estimated more than three million people water ski recreationally each year, according to a 2022 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA).
Competitive water skiing
USA Water Ski & Wake Sports (USA Water Ski), headquartered in Auburndale, Fla., sanctions more than 1,000 events each year across the United States. More than 50 of those are barefoot tournaments.
“The bulk of our members compete in sanctioned tournaments across our nine sport disciplines,” says Scott Atkinson, senior director of communications and external relations for USA Water Ski. “There is a discipline for everyone, no matter the age or skill level. Our membership has competitive water ski athletes from age four to over 90.”
USA Water Ski has more than 12,000 members, and it is affiliated with several water ski organizations, including:
- American Water Ski Association
- American Barefoot Club
- American Kneeboard Association
- National Collegiate Water Ski Association
- National Show Ski Association
- National Water Ski Racing Association
- USA Adaptive Water Ski and Wake Sports Inc.
- U.S. Hydrofoil Association
- USA Wakeboard
The sport’s competitions test speed, skill, agility, and showmanship.
“The majority of our tournaments are three-event (slalom, tricks, and jump) competitions, which take place on private water ski lakes developed for tournament water skiing,” says Atkinson. “However, some tournaments and events are held on public lakes and rivers.”
Venue requirements
Three-event water skiing and barefooting athletes prefer smooth, calm water—preferably in ski sites designed for optimal conditions. Each sanctioning organization and competition has its own course layouts and size requirements for venues. Boats, skis, towlines, and safety officials all have requirements as well.
A water ski slalom course is 850 feet long with at least 600 feet of approach space. A regulation course is about 75 feet wide, but an additional space of about 100 feet per side is needed for safety.
A comfortable, three-event venue would need to be about 15 water acres, or at least 2,200 feet long and 300 feet wide to give boats enough room to turn around. Bodies of water should also be at least five feet deep.
With the danger involved in jump competitions, ramp size and boat speeds are carefully regulated. While boat speeds differ depending on the event, it must remain consistent (within 0.5 seconds) throughout the segment. For amateur jumping, speeds range from 24.2 to 35.4 miles per hour, depending on the expected range, experience of the skier, and other factors. Ramps are 13.8 feet wide and 21.6 feet long.
Skiers have three jump attempts in a tournament. While the boat may be going 35 miles per hour, the skier is traveling faster as he or she accelerates toward the ramp. Jumps can be 40 to 100 feet. The simplest mistake can result in a crash or injury. Getting out of balance, for example, can cause the ski tip to drop down, resulting in a face-first fall. A twist of the ski can result in a dislocated hip, or a broken ankle or leg.
Depending on the acts involved, show skiing requires large lakes or rivers. Show ski routines include pyramids and ballet lines. A human pyramid can have as many as a dozen skiers for the base, and another six to make the pyramid. There are even double and triple pyramid figurations. Ballet lines can have as many as a dozen skiers in a straight line. The venue needs enough space to give skiers time to get into position. Show skiing also involves freestyle jumping and adagio doubles, which is much like couples’ figure skating with movements set to music.
Polk County, Fla.
Requirements like these put Polk County—home to 550 lakes—front and center as the self-proclaimed “Water Ski Capital of the World.”
“There is absolutely no shortage [here] of places to water ski and wakeboard,” says Michael Hogan, senior communications supervisor with Visit Central Florida, which oversees Winter Haven and Polk County, the fourth largest county in the state of Florida.
Hogan says during his four-mile commute to work, he passes two lakes with water ski ramps.
“We run roughly 20-25 events a year—a combination of adaptive water skiing at Cypress Gardens and competition events that take place throughout the county,” Hogan explains.
Venues include Martin Luther King Park on Lake Silver in Winter Haven, and the manmade Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, among many of the county’s other lakes.
Lake Myrtle is also home to the Elite Cable Park, a body of water where skiers don’t need a boat for water skiing or wakeboarding. Instead, a cable takes skiers and wakeboarders around the lake at various speeds.
“The history of water skiing in Polk County goes back to the Cypress Gardens days when it was the showplace of water skiing,” Hogan says. “You saw it in movies, music videos—back to Dick Pope, who really made it famous.”
As mentioned earlier, Pope, a pioneer water skier and founder of Cypress Gardens, did much to promote the sport of water skiing. The water ski shows at Cypress Gardens became world-renowned, and Pope sponsored the World Water Ski Championships in 1950 and 1957, as well as other tournaments which set the standard in water skiing.
Polk County was also the spring break spot for water skiers from the north, according to Hogan. While Wisconsin is a big water ski area, you can’t do so there from October to April.
“So, they all came down here,” he says.
During the heydays of Cypress Garden, celebrities like Johnny Carson, Carol Burnett, and Esther Williams came to Polk County on a regular basis to water ski. There is a lengthy history of the sport in Polk County, which is also the home of USA Water Ski Hall
of Fame.
The old Cypress Gardens is now the home of Legoland Florida Resort and the Peppa Pig Theme Park, but the parks still have a water-skiing element. Legoland has kept that history and embraced it. They now have a pirate-themed water ski show geared toward kids and held in a theater setting.
In October 2022, Visit Central Florida hosted the 100th anniversary of water skiing with the 2022 International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation Water Ski Show Tournament as the main event.
A pandemic plus
“One of the positives of COVID was that people were buying RVs and boats. They had their own method of recreation with boats,” says Hogan. “There was a big water ski push during the time we hosted the 100th anniversary of water skiing. People who hadn’t been doing watersports have discovered the joy of it.”
USA Water Ski also sees consistency in its numbers and a positive future for the sport.
“Approximately 600 local water ski clubs throughout the U.S. are affiliated with USA Water Ski & Wake Sports,” Atkinson says. “The clubs provide a working base in almost any locale for development of USA Water Ski & Wake Sports programs, and in addition are the local organizers for nearly all water ski competitions in the United States.”
He notes nearly 80 percent of USA Water Ski’s members are involved in tournament competition each year, while the remainder are recreational water skiers.
“We have maintained consistent numbers as far as membership and number of events each year,” explains Atkinson. “Much like the boating lifestyle, we are a family-oriented sport across all disciplines, and is passed on from generation to generation.”
The organization trains and maintains performance records for competitive skiers and nearly 3,000 judges, drivers, and scorers who officiate at sanctioned tournaments.
USA Water Ski also offers an array of programs, including water ski instructor certification; “Learn to Ski” clinics; officials’ education; junior skiers’ development; legislative assistance; safety training; and local, national, and international competition ranging from novice to world-level tournaments.
“We see a very positive future for the sport,” says Atkinson. “There are a lot of options when it comes to having fun behind a boat—or even a cable park if someone does not have access to a boat.”
