Wakeboarding is fastest growing sport in 2006

(air_bordan) · (air_bordan) **Join Date: Jul 2004** 04-11-2007, 11:40 AM

Saw this the other day and thought it was interesting. It's great for our sport although it means the rivers/lakes are going to be a lot more crowded in the future! Cheers

FASTEST GROWING SPORTS

According to the 20th annual Superstudy of U.S.sports participation by American Sports Data (ASD), the fastest growing sports in 2006 were: wakeboarding (+65%), snowshoeing (+43% to 2.8 million participants) and ice hockey (+42% to 3.7 million participants).

From a longer range perspective, Pilates training (+440% to 9.4 million) has had the largest participation growth since 2000, peaking at 10.4 million participants in 2005. Meanwhile, participation on elliptical trainers continues to climb steadily in U.S. fitness centers and in homes, rising 16% to 19.3 million users last year and 399% since 1999. But treadmill users (49.1 million) continue to outpace those who train on the elliptical, says ASD.

Top U.S. Growth Sports in 2006
(Ages 6+ in thousands)

2006 2005 Change

Wakeboarding 4,455 2,697 +65%
Snowshoeing 2,752 2,302 +43%
Ice Hockey 3,680 2,585 +42%
Sporting Clays 3,971 2,964 +34%
Wrestling 2,850 2,211 +28%
Trap/Skeet Shoot 5,053 4,046 +25%
Snowmobiling 5,818 4,780 +22%
Kayaking 8,377 6,962 +20%
Elliptical Trainers 19,256 16,679 +16%

(seansmitty42) · (seansmitty42) **Join Date: Apr 2006** 04-11-2007, 11:44 AM

really thats some pretty interesting stuff

(wakeparent) · (wakeparent) **Join Date: Jan 2005** 04-11-2007, 11:52 AM

Both my kids have played travel hockey all their lives it's a very expensive sport, but wakeboarding is real costly. it's a wonder its growing that fast. Baseball = glove, hat. bat,cleets. Basket Ball = Shoes, ball,and a park.

(dcooper) · (dcooper) **Join Date: Mar 2005** 04-11-2007, 12:01 PM

Elliptical Trainers... are they a sport?

(board2death) · (board2death) **Join Date: Apr 2006** 04-11-2007, 12:58 PM

Trap/ Skeet shooting?
Drive By shootings, maybe.......
I live in L.A.

(jamieb) · (jamieb) **Join Date: Mar 2007** 04-11-2007, 2:54 PM

and sporting clays...

shotgun sports climbing, nice.

and I wouldn't worry about anyone with an O/U being in any drive-bys

(njskier) · (njskier) **Join Date: Jul 2005** 04-11-2007, 5:46 PM

Thank God we beat snowshoeing!!!

(steve_jones) · (steve_jones) **Join Date: Jun 2006** 04-11-2007, 6:14 PM

I've pulled other demographics that state as much as 75% annually. Cool for the sport, bad for water.

(longhornfan) · (longhornfan) **Join Date: Oct 2005** 04-12-2007, 4:17 AM

As far as the water goes, more people riding doesn't have to mean more boats on the water. The past two summers I've probably gotten ten or more people into it. Since none of them have boats it just means less time for me on the water behind my boat.
Not to say that doesn't mean no increase in boats, just not a 65 to 75 percent increase.

xtremebordgurl 04-12-2007, 8:59 AM

what I want to know is how do they figure that out? Is it based on sales? Surveys?

(dlwsrider) · (dlwsrider) **Join Date: Apr 2007** 04-12-2007, 9:01 AM

Yea! wakeboarders are winners

(drpete3) · (drpete3) **Join Date: Apr 2007** 04-12-2007, 10:03 AM

Add me to the list. Ill be new in 2007. Looks like a blast!

(wakescene) · (wakescene) **Join Date: Feb 2001** 04-12-2007, 11:28 AM

Snowshoeing, snowmobiling, Ice Hockey are all winter based sports that require cold weather...so much for that blasted Global Warming theory!

(rockledge) · (rockledge) **Join Date: Sep 2005** 04-13-2007, 7:07 AM

I wonder if the ASD's information gathering bureau is as thorough as WBM proved to be in their 50 states of wakeboarding article? What a flawed piece of junk that article was . . .

(joeshmoe) · (joeshmoe) **Join Date: Jan 2003** 04-15-2007, 10:16 AM

there are a million boats around the great lakes, but very few wakeboarding boats here, so i'm guessing if you buy a board you are a wakeboarder
hey honey, i'm going out with the guys tonight to wrestle