Who Remembers When Bob LaPoint Jumped?

[MBD3]

Am I the only one who remembers when Bob LaPoint was one of the best jumpers in the world. He was so fun to watch

and even tougher to ski against. Here is a shot I took of here many moons ago.

 

[jimbrake]

Cool pic. I remember him taking a couple of brutal out the fronts towards the end of his jumping career. Story was he bruised his heart on one where he took a ski to the chest. Ow. I saw one of these falls at Bell Acqua Lake 1. Early '80s.

[Jody_Seal]

Anyone ever see the great outdoors?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095253/fullcredits#cast

check out Stunts at the lower part of the page.

[Horton]

http://ballofspray.com/history/843-horton-lake-1973

[Jody_Seal]

Steve-O and I just watched that one! great vid.

[thager]

Scary part is I remember when Kris jumped!

[9400]

Love that video!

[thager]

I may still have one of those old Hexcel jackets at my Mom's place. The original thin slalom jacket!

[jimbrake]

@thager - you should rock that vest with a red, white, and blue stars and stripes speedo all summer. You're going to need to grow a mustache and let your hair grow out, too, assuming that's not you right now.

[A_B]

I believe he might have taken Nationals at Tivloi Gardens in Michigan, maybe 1978 or 1979. I think @Ham Wallace was there jumping as well, I just remember his name for some reason.

The big deal watching back then was Ricky McCormick doing a flip on two trick skis.

I think I had just run the slalom course for the first time that summer and me and a friend went to watch Nationals, and that was our first exposure to tournaments.

[skihart]

The best part of that pic is the size of his skis!!! They are toothpicks compared to todays jumpers.

No wonder they are going 230+ now......what was the record back then?

[thager]

@ jimbrake Mustache I can do. Hair, not so much!!

[MBD3]

That was still back in the day that Wayne Grimdich still owned the record at 180'. Most of our jump skis were 72" to 74". Lucky Lowe, Bob LaPoint , and Ricky McCormick flirted with that record for several years. Lucky actually came the closest at the Masters popping off one that was 178'.

 

[ForrestGump]

Think about what a guy like Sammy Duvall could do behind a 409hp ZO boat on 94 inch skis. He was KILLING it to 220ft on 72-78 inch skis behind 240-275hp boats.

[Nando]

I recall in March of '79 sitting next to Bob (part of a big group of skiers) in the video lounge of the Aspen State Teachers College (great name for a bar, eh?), where they showed sports videos and they showed the shot of his fall where he bruised his heart, then again in slow mo, and again. Great reaction from the crowd and no one in the crowd who wasn't part of our group had a clue he was sitting right there. He just leaned over and said, "Anyone who would do that must be nuts."

[Rich]

Remember Mike Graser? That was a great jumper of that era. Always cut really late, NO FEAR! Also John Steinbuch. I see John in my yoga classes.

 

[DonnaGraser123]

Mike Graser was badass yes Rich latest one to cut he was a champion,RIP Michael we love you Donna and your son Anthony.

 

[mmosley899]

@jimbrake , @Nando that fall was at Groveland in '77, I used that fall to end a film I produced for MasterCraft on their pro skiers. The Hall of Fame should have a copy of it, as do I.

[mwetskier]

both bob lapoint and brother kris suffered serious injuries from jumping with kirs's bothering him for many years after. but if the story i was told is accurate brad lapoint may have gotten the most serious jumping injury of all of them. any one who knows that story will know what i'm talking about and the rest of you may not even know there *was* a brad lapoint.

[jimbrake]

@mwetskier - I skied with Brad some in the early to mid '80s. Hung out with him back during the crazy days. I don't know the Brad injury story so do tell....

[mwetskier]

@jimbrake -for the sake of decorum lets just say that he probably learned the great value of wet suit shorts for jumping after having spent a long time recovering from an intestinal parasite that he did not swallow. at least thats the story i was told. . .

[LLUSA]

@mmmosley899 that fall was at Groveland at the US Team Trials he skied in the worlds two months later. Boats in the 80's were not made to handle Bob LaPoint's.

[jimbrake]

@mwetskier - lovely. First time I ever jumped at Suyderhoud's in 1976 I jumped in my Hang Ten orange nylon trunks. Blew them completely apart, but avoided the consequences. What a fun thread this is!

[Edbrazil]

With his weight and speed, Bob would be the one to find the "Mystery Screw" at one of the Tour

sites. The local skiers would insist every year that they'd found & fixed it, but they hadn't. We

finally found it, not right at the waterline, but 2-3 feet up.

[GregDavis]

Look at Bobs arms. the dude had some guns. I pulled him through 38 off with a 240 hp 1 to 1. on a 1500 foot lake. In 1979 or 1980. lol that was scary. I also instructed Bob how to ride a dirt bike. The deal was, I would teach him how to ride, he would teach me how to ski. Well, he was a good student, and was ripping it on a dirt bike in no time. He was not a good teacher, as I never did get any good at slalom skiing. lol. lot's of good memories riding with B

[GAJ0004]

I have Tony Krupa's book Ski Tips, and there is a photo of Bob Lapoint jumping..

[CParrish43]

Finished #1 in the world in slalom and jump in the same year , only men's skier to do that to this date

[Edbrazil]

Gary Warren can confirm, but I think that Bob was the final jump distance record holder at the old

Marine World park in Redwood City. 178' @ 5 1/2 ft? When the tournament re-started at the

new park in Vallejo, they had more room. Didn't need whip-type approach. Went to 6' ramp.

[Nando]

mmosley889, yup pretty sure it was your film. mwetskier- looks like BLP is wearing the famous Turbo shorts. They (or one of their shorties) were what everyone had to have for about a year when I first started. No enemas with them, but no padding either.

[JKwakehouse]

Look at Mastercrafts most recent IG post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BDoCZsNoYqy/?taken-by=mcboatcompany

[wskier]

Back in 1979,I was lucky enough to ski with Kris & Bob LaPoint, Cathy Marlow and Deena Brush(Now Mapple) with there Maha Master Craft at Berkeley aquatic. Got to keep time. Bobs spray was hitting the back of the boat at 38' ran it like 3 times. That's when the record was 4 at 38 for years. They were testing the yellow MAHA. Funny part about it was Cathy Marlow was skiing on Kris's ski and getting into 32 off she wore double socks. Bob and Deena also took some jump sets. Pretty cool when your seventeen and watching your idol. Also Deena was driving Bob and what ever time he ask for 15.9,16.0 he got who needs zero off.

 

 

 

[lpskier]

Had the Turbo shorts. Blue jean cut offs were also effective, popular and much easier to acquire. Boy, you didn't want to jump without something with a tight weave covering your backside. Some folks spend the day at the spa getting no more cleaned out than could happen in one inopportune landing.

[dave2ball]

I remember many of those events at Berkeley Aquatic park. Seeing the pros of the day such as Deena Brush Bob and Chris La Point ski was pretty cool. If I am not mistaken the reason Bob quite jumping was because of a bad crash that bruised his heart. A cardiac contusion.

@dumbass don,t know if you remember, the coors lite tour used Master craft with a 200 HP outboard that was just as responsive as todays boat and that was also hand driving. Now what could of he done with todays skis you are right who knows. would of been great to see.

[Ronoster]

You guys are old. The difference between you and me is I never got good. But I remember watching the LaPoints break the record after record, Syderhoud muscling through keeping pace, and one of my favorites was Jimmy McCormick on his tricks. Those were the days, my friends. Now I can't find any friends who will still waterski with me. "Take my grandkids," they all say.

[bassfooter]

@A_B '78 Nationals were at Tivoli Gardens. My buddy and I went to see all the big names, and we weren't disappointed. LaPoints, McCormick, Suyderhoud, Brush...but the one I really remember was Camille. [sigh]

[A_B]

I remember everyone getting all excited when McCormick did a flip on double tricks.

Good sized crowd too.

[Nando]

I remember going to the '78 Nationals, too and one thing I remember is Bruce Jenner was there doing an interview about his skiing days. Some things change more than others...

[Horton]

@Nando I was there. I couldn't have been more than 15 feet from the man her when she did that interview. Not really sure why I remember it since I was only 9 years old at the time

[lpskier]

We had some recreational level skiers at LaPoint Ski Park several days ago. I introduced them to KLP. One said "Oh, are you Bob's brother? Cool!"

[mwetskier]

in those days bruce jenner still swerved -now he swishes.

[Edbrazil]

Bruce actually foreran the Men Slalom at the 1978 Nationals. And didn't screw up.

 

 

[harddock]

Did Bob do the shark jump stunting for the Fonz?

[Nando]

@harddock, pretty sure that was him.

[ntx]

@harddock @Nando . I think I heard it was Rickey Mccormick

[thager]

Hmmmm...Was an earlier post on this. Pretty sure both above are wrong. John Steinbush was double for Fonz.

[Drago]

I think BLP was "in" the Great Outdoors

[Mateo_Vargas]

I thought Mike Hazelwood did Great Outdoors.

[Drago]

Could be

[klindy]

According to IMDB, Bob LaPoint did the waterskiing/water stunts in The Great Outdoors (1988), The River Wild (1994) and Almost Hero’s (1998).

[Edbrazil]

The "Jump The Shark" double was John Steinbush, a good mens jumper at the time.

Now, back to BLP: I believe that he set the jump record at the Old Marine World in

Redwood City, CA. With whip-style jumping at 5 1/2 feet. Was a milestone event at

its time in the 70s and 80s. Wicked short venue for jumping; only about 1050 feet long.