Will wakeskiing take off?

What's your opinion on wakeskiing? Will it ever become popular? For those of you that have tried it, do you see potential or is it just a neat toy that will get thrown aside after a couple of runs?

I do know that if HO and Stereo want to increase sales, the prices need to come waaay down. Very expensive.

It's about 20 times more popular in the southern and western states, and they tend to lead the trends. Yes, it already is popular, and yes, with economics in mind it will continue to grow. They're on the closeout sites all the time at affordable prices.

Retention ponds are a skaters best friend.

what is wakeskiing?

I have a set that im getting ready to put up for sale. Mine are the body glove brand....I liked them yes, but i'm too obsessed with boarding...Ive waterskied for about 10 or so years and I bought my wakeskis this year and used them maybe 2-3 times.
HO's are Kinda pricey..
http://www.bodyglove.com/products_detail.php?product_id=22790
Those are mine, I like em but eh, im over em..
I never see anybody on the lake with these for sure..Most everybody boards or tubes in NE Tn. Couple slalom here and there but its gone down for sure

no

A new name for trick skis

Agreed...Wakeskiing = Trick skiing...
Though the new ones have double fins on each side...thats about the big difference...

The body glove ones are equivalent to a plastic wakeboard. I'm curious to see if the HO or Stereo style skis become popular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EY1RU5IK9M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVZ9UqVUTeQ

I dunno about equivalent to a plastic wakeboard...they are pretty sturdy and feel good...they are solid and don't flex if thats what you mean? I mean I don't care either way since I dont ride em...but I think they are a good price for what they achieve...

i certainly hope not. wakeskiing is to wakeboarding like rollerblading is to skateboarding...
and we all know what the worst thing about rollerblading is....
....telling your parents your gay.

i can't wait for one of those guys to "split the difference" on a nice big rail or something...

Wow a lot of hate on here. I think its dope, why not! I am not going to start wakeskiing but its about time they made water skiing cooler. I mean come on there is really nothing that cool about slalom skiing or trick skiing. At least with these people can go big and take water skiing in a new direction. I think its no different than the direction that snow skiing is going with them rocking the halfpipe and stuff.

Power to the People who dig the pull of the boat!

Greg, I was just referring to the performance of the Body Gloves compared to the others. I agree that the price is right for them. To get a set of HOs or Stereos, you need to shell out about $700.

Hey, another fun water toy... I'm in! I wonder what they said about wakeskating back in the day...

I probably wouldn't get 'em, but hey, at least they're trying something new. I dunno how a Raley on those suckers would go...

gay, how you call this gay? looks pretty dope to me.






i probably won't start doing it (because my knees have a hard enough time with wakeboarding), but i think some of you are being a little harsh. i'd like to see some one on trick skis pull off the moves that can be done on wakeskis.

(Message edited by ironj32 on August 21, 2008)

I'm with Andy, the same hate came with the snow skiers hitting jumps, rails and pipes. The sport has taken off and these guy's kill it. It will take some time to catch but you just might see some in comps in the future. Think, starting your wake approach blind and making something out of it. It's way cool to see the progression on these things!

OK. wakeboarders have been struggling to distance themselves from trick-skiing, and our trick-skiing roots, since the beginning. i have to agree with andy, i am a tow-sport veteran and can find the fun in anything behind a boat, however this to me looks like trick-skiing of the past...so whats new about it? the boards have fins? wow, should we consider that for innovation of the year?

Andy, now I wholeheartedly agree that wakeboarding is more fun than skiing but to say there is nothing cool about slalom skiing is just whack. I guess I appreciate the fact that there is a lot of technique and power involved in short line skiing. I challenge you to sit on the shore of a private lake and watch someone get deep on a slalom course and not come away amazed. It might not be your (or my) bag, but it is damn incredible.

Wakeskiing...if you must.

Derek I hate to argue with you but the only "trick Skiing roots" wakeboarding has really is that Trick Skiers like Dean and Darin cross over from Trick Skiing to "Skiboarding" as it was called. Correct me if I am wrong but the person credited with inventing "skiboarding/skurfing/wakeboarding" Tony Finn was a surfer at heart and wanted to surf behind a boat. We definetly are not still trying to distance our selves from trick skiing, wakeboarding is probably the most "legit" watersport out there in this extreme sports world we live in. This is the same hate that people gave snow skiers when twin-tips came out for them. Now they boost higher in the halfpipe than snowboarders, spin faster, and go bigger than snowboarders. Not saying that will happen here but its about time the water ski industry re-invented itself.

At any rate, I dont think this is the innovation of the year, its certainly nothing like trick skiing if any thing its a variation of Ski Jumping.

Big Heavy you are correct sir, sorry for down playing to radtasticness of Slalom skiing.

ANDY, i have to disagree, completely. Not only were the guys you mentioned 3-event competitors, but almost all of the tricks that were originally done on a wakeboard were variations of trick ski moves. Not only the moves, but the format of competitions and riding style was very similar to trick skiing. I competed locally when I was real young in trick skiing, and as soon as I was introduced to a legit wakeboard, i hung up the skies forever. I "learned" my first wakeboard inverts on a Wake Tech Big Air, however, the rotations were exactly like the rolls we did on trick skis. We also used a heavy braided rope, probably only 50' long, to wrap, and this def. carried over to wakeboarding. It's a pretty common theme to hear anyone who has done this for over a decade talk about the influence that trick skiing had on wakeboarding (like it or not). Personally, I am stoked on how wakeboarding has stepped it up and distanced itself from the ski scene (which is dieing all over the world, BTW)and I can only hope that "wakeskiing" does not undo what wakeboarding has established by showing up as a sideshow doing spins with your legs floppin all over the place..nuthing ruins style like a hucked spin or flip and legs/arms all over the place....long winded response, sorry.

My bad. I swore it said wakeskating. Sorry.

And Derek, these are nothing like trick skis, other than there are two of them. If you were so involved you would know that. And what rotations are you supposed to when both feet are attached to an object and you flip? That attitude is old stuff, and lame.

BTW, Lavelle was a show skier, as was Zane. Parks was a 3 eventer. I don't get that hate on people that do stuff behind a boat that is different from what you do (other than tubing).

(Message edited by behindtheboat on August 21, 2008)

Ummm...Okay Derek We can agree to disagree here. I also was a 3-event skier; I started wakeboarding in 1991 on a Pink Skurfer Launch (that was purchased directly from Tony Finn) so I was there at the beginning. I learned how to do a raley, a backroll and a tantrum on a Hyperlite Pro. So you are arguing with a O.G. Rider. I was there when we rocked short shorts, and 13 inch braided handles. I am not one of the newbies.

Anyway I see your point. My only argument here is that the vision Tony Finn and others had was to surf behind the boat. Trick Skiers who started to Skruf are the ones who created the trick ski influence as soon as guys like Scott Byerly and Gator got on board the industry started to go away from trick skiing. Wakeboarding As with any new sport takes time to evolve the sport. In the beginning we all hung up our trick skies and jumped onto wakeboards because it was way different than trick skiing and way more fun. It was like discovering a new found freedom. I will be the first to admit I Trick Skied on my Wakeboard until I saw Scott ride, even the stances back then were like a wide trick ski stance. So we don’t trick ski on our skurfers any more, we wakeboard. Nothing like trick skiing (although we should bring the toehold back) I don’t think anything; even wakeskies will make us regress.

a-dub, i was just making this point...watch a wakeboarder/snowboarder/skater spin a 720, and then watch a wakeskier/freestyle skier/rollerblader huck the same trick..which do you think is going to look better? thats what is so great about wakeboarding/snowboarding/skating... i guess its just personal preference, but for the most part, riders on boards of any sort look alot more fluid and in control.

andy, i can't wait to land a blind 180 way out into the flats with my foot in the toe hold!!....dang. please don't try it!

I don't even want to think about the falls on these skis. Imagine one leg landing and the other ski swinging in and taking out your shin. Yummy.

a-dub, no offense, but i think you better re-read and re-post, you have missed both the tense (past) of my message, as well as the moral, which was..people on skis look silly when they spin/flip.
earlier in the thread i asked what wakeskiis were, i thought maybe we had something different on our hands here, but in fact they are just a trick ski with some rocker and fins...

no offense taken Derek, I get it that you don't get it. They are nothing like a trick ski, other than there are two of them. And who flips on two trick skis? (Other than me off a double up when I was a kid) Thats right, they flip on one trick ski, which would be more similar to wakeboarding than these skis. I do not see how you could compare the construction, design, or use to a trick ski other than there are two of them.

BTW, you need to see some real trickers if you think they look silly flipping.... or you must make fun of everyone flipping on a wakeboard. Outside of a ski tournament they'll do most everything a wakeboarder can, and it's being pushed for tricks such as tantrums and other rotations to be accepted as value tricks.

Being pulled behind a boat is fun, why trash what others do?

I would have to agree with those who say these skis are a lot closer to the 68" jump skis that show skiers use than a trick ski.

ok, i don't really care what length of ski you are on, what i am trying to say is that people on two skis(or rollerblades) look ridiculous (read: not fluid) when spinning compared to people on a board. is that cut and dry enough??

My personal opinion is that people on two skis look fine. They don't need a crutch (i.e. board) to hold their feet together so they can "look cool"

I will say though that fruitbooting looks ridiculous.

Derek I dissagree with you, Watch snow sking and snow boarding there is no way you can say a spin on a board looks more fluid then one done on skis. I think board spins are way more hucked. As for wake skis, I've never tried the new ones but I can tell you that stuff is hard, WAY harder then wake boarding.

Derek, sorry to disagree, but i think thats way off. A lot of skiers and rollerbladers look very fluid when they spin. I also rollerblade quite a lot, and when my friends pull huge 540's or fakie 720's i think it looks really cool. ex. 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyirYisxHHo

and just take a look at the first minute .. tanner hall rocks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR77ebQT3iY


but anyway... a guy on my lake with a PWT x star boards but he also wakeskiis with those HO lime green ones. i think its awesome, they can do a buncha flips and im pretty sure he can throw a mobe on em too. big 180's also look sweet cuz u land facing directly backwards

When big fat twin tip snow skis first came out no one bought them either it just takes time to get it all dialed in and to turn people on to it.

alright, looks like we have a difference of opinion on our hands here. i'm gonna stand by my guns and reiterate that most if not all tricks look better done on a board than on skis/rollerblades/etc...i guess thats why i wakeboard/snowboard/skate over the other options. whats next? getting barreled in overhead swells while riding two "surf-skis"??

YES! THIS SH(T(sic) IS IN FACT GAY, AND ANYONE WHO THINKS OTHERWISE IS ALSO GAY.

and we all know what the worst thing about rollerblading is....
....telling your parents your gay.

beat me to it...

I've seen a couple snow skiers that have some fairly good lookin tricks, I like the way they cross thier skis when they spin, I just don't think it would take off if it came out 5 years ago, but now, the whole trend is retro 80's neon vomit clown shoes fonzi jumped over a great white shark,

...yea I think it will be popular for a little while... may even draw more people into wakeboarding, I don't think it will draw the same kind of people as wakeboarding does though...

edit: sorry, just noticed this: "ho's are Kinda pricey.."

(Message edited by hawk7 on August 21, 2008)

I think they'll take off pretty well maybe not as fast as wakeboarding but pretty good none the less, we see kids getting amped on them everyday esspecially if they have a freestyle ski background.

As for the cost it's not that much different from a decent wakeboard setup.

I think they are SICK!

When i go snowboarding ill actually hang out if there is a bunch of skiers going through the park, where as boarders i usually just make my pass through and keep on going.

IMO tricks on skis wether it be wake or snow just look way better. Id love to try either wake or snow skis but I just cant get past the whole fear of my knees getting jacked up.

to each their own. i prefer to wakeboard, skateboard, and snowboard and its not because "its the cool thing to do". thats just the way i roll.

back in the day i used to inline and snowski. i think both are fun. i just prefer to board.

and i disagree. just my 2 cents. i've seen guys that inline, ski, ect. that can throw moves better than some of the boarders. for me its not so much what they are riding as much as it is how they are riding. i give props to anybody that has talent.

I just love the feeling of being on a board. IDK what it is about it but I feel so much more comfortable and smoother. I Skied for almost 15 yrs, and after the first day on a snowboard, even though I obviously sucked I have never been on one since then.

Something about both feet on there is fluid and smooth and BAD ASS to me!!

One thing I don't like about skiing is that grabbing your skis looks and feels way more dumb IMO than on a board.

First of all that julian bah guy is probably one of the most stylish athletes on anything (boards, skis whatever) that i have ever seen. In my opinion though i dont think it will ever catch on big. I think it will be around from now on and the few who do it will be freakin good kinda like how slalom skiing and trick skiing is now. Fewer people but most of them are really dedicated. But to disagree with a couple guys I think slalom skiing looks amazing but id rather watch it than do it.

roddyrod, i agree to a point. like on the video with the guy doing grabs and doing grab 180s, though it may be hard i dont think it looked very good....but...

look at the pics of pete kuhlman. those are legitmate grabs and they look good imho

the backwards backflip off the kickers is pretty sick. it would be rediculous if he tail grabed while doing it

I don't know if anyone has said this so sorry if I am repeating.

I think it will be interesting to see where this sport does go, I live in Minnesota and in the winter I spend most of my time freestyle skiing and I know a ton of kids who devote most of their time/lives to that too so I think it will be cool to see if it catches on in areas like this where freestyle downhill skiing is already big. Just watching those two videos I can see huge resemblances in style on rails and sometimes even in the air tricks in the cable parks. I have always thought as a freeskier that it would be awesome to hit rails on my waterskis and now it's been made possible.

Besides that I think the whole adding a handle thing makes a much bigger difference in skiing than it does in boarding, even though riding switch is second nature to me on snow I think it would be hard to do on water skis, let alone try to carve at the wake and jump off it, of course I think it would be hard to hit a half pipe switch and if you can't do that nowadays you aren't going to be any kind of a pipe skier.

Also, maybe I am thinking about this wrong, but adding the handle also changes natural and unnatural spins on snow skis to frontside and backside spins on wakeskis, which will be cool too I think.

Something I for sure would love to try with my freeskiing background, but at this point I can't imagine giving up my board for anything!

Remember snow blades? that died out quick. so will this. Seriously watching these videos on youtube made me laugh. I give it 3 years. Then it will be gone.

OK, so here's the conclusion:

All of those on this thread, who live in the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Canada) think that wakeskiing has potential and is cool. A significant number of top riders are from the Upper Midwest. Therefore, it's cool.

I've got Stereo wakeskis coming in the mail today. If anyone in Minnesota wants to try them out, just give me a shout.

Young adults that still call people gay and other things gay and make fun of other peoples past times make me laugh.....

^^^^word^^^^

I think there could be a market for it. There are probably more kids in SLC that are starting to learn to ski rather than snowboard. The sport is making kind of a come back I think. Maybe skiing will become more popular on the water as well. I will continue to board, though I skied as a kid, because I thought it was more fun. Wakeskiing looks hard, but with all the really good skiers around I bet that some pretty legit tricks could be put down.

Dude, snowblades were freakin' awesome! For like a year...maybe not even, couple rides at best...man you could spin on those babies, of course unless you landed perfectly in line with the landing, you were going to eat it or at least do some serious butt-check action. Pretty sure the only person who rides ours now is my dad because he used to play hockey and he likes to skate more than ski haha.

I still think wakeskiing is different enough to have some staying power, but I guess we'll just have to see. Besides, you can't tell me there weren't hardcore trick skiers and slalom skiers who thought 'skurfing' wouldn't go anywhere back in the day...

There was a guy at the cable today on a pair of the HO wakeskis......everytime he landed in the water i thought they were going to break. it always sounded like a slab of concrete falling to the ground. looked interesting though i guess....

Do whatcha do. It's all good.

I just have to give props to the Fonzy shout out. Just impressed that was remembered...haha.

Fonzie jumps the shark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDthMGtZKa4

I think Yes. Two things will help wakeskis to evolve - obstacles and cableparks.

i think this is the stupidest thing ive ever seen

So derek, snowboarding, wakeboarding, and skiing are about looking cool over having fun for you? If that's what gets you stoked then that's fine but if other people enjoy riding their rollerblades, skis, razr scooters, whatever, it's pretty lame to bag on them for it.

yes jay, it is gay, now if the wakeskier made a + with his skis when he was in the air, now that would be cool!

okay jo. i'll be sure tell him that because he didn't cross his skis in one of his pictures on a backwards backflip off the kicker, that some teacher from ohio has officialy declared wakeskiing gay/lame/uncool. also i'd like to add that i don't believe anyone else in the world has ever done a back backflip on skis/wakeskiis (i could be wrong though, but i'm 99% sure). i'm pretty sure that the first pic above was sent in as the official "first ever".


(Message edited by ironj32 on August 23, 2008)

I thought it was super cool seeing the guy on wakeskis at odub. He was amazing on all of the obstacles, transferring nessy, doing the backwards backflip. The dude was strait killing it!! One of the standout riders at the park. I still cant figure out how he was hitting the flatbar and aframe without losing his testicles

pete is a machine on the water...not just at wakeskiing but everything - barefooting, wakeskiing, ski jumping, wakeboarding, shoe skiing, etc.

Really the only reason twin tip snow skis took off is because you can go as big or even bigger off jumps as a snowboard and you can't on wakeskis so I say no.

I think the wakeboarders say its too much like skiing and the skiers will say its too much like wakeboarding. It really doesn't look appealing.

"yes jay, it is gay, now if the wakeskier made a + with his skis when he was in the air, now that would be cool!"

I'm just trying to say that I'd imagine it'd be far more difficult to maintian style on wakeskiis, I'm not insinuating that skiing lacks style, it simply carries the capacity to make riders roll up the windows more often, do the running man mid-air, etc., when they cross their skis mid air, they avoid this.

I saw this guy at OWC go to hit the A-frame on some, and his skis went on either side of the rail, and he went over the whole rail on his balls, pretty funny.

Here's your "+"

^^^^^Doesn't look gay to me.^^^^^


http://www.wakeskiworld.com