Skiing Increasingly Pricing Out Middle Class

[Horton]

@Sethro I am not sure if it is as big a deal as it was in the first few years. The first year of ZO I missed very few 35s behind PP in practice and missed a lot in tournaments. These days I think my chances of running 38 are better behind PP but it seems like ZO has mellowed with age.

[ToddL]

AWSA needs to allow the $7 day pass membership for GR/F sanction participants. That would allow a new skier to show up at a tournament to "try" competing without a huge financial investment (assuming your entry fee is attractive to this segment). They could "try" competition a few times each with only a $7/day risk for AWSA "membership"/"coverage". If they get hooked, and participate in five of these day pass events, AWSA converts them to full-fledged, catalog-receiving USAWS GR members. They still can't jump, but they can ski GR events! A few of these GR competitors will get hooked and take the next step up to Competitive AWSA and Class C events. But, we have to get AWSA to let them use the $7 day pass as to get their toes wet at an event.

[ral]

@Sethro, when and why you got a cervical fusion?

 

Edit: i remembered you had the same fusion i had. How are you doing? Issues with the course. I have been ok in general, except for the screw getting loose...

[ral]

@Horton, the difference between ZO version N and the latest is radical.

[Drago]

Hmm: I ski better with ZO , and I keep trying to quit this sport but my kids won't let me.

[Horton]

@ral I am sure you are correct. It would be interesting to go back and ski the early versions. Makes me wonder if ZO has changed enough that you could train PP.

[A_B]

I think the +ZO is closer to PP. The gates are a little warmer, but that added warmth has to end up cooler in the rest of the course to come out on actual times. I feel that it gets off me more into the turns, and I was on C2 on old ZO. Could just be heavy weights like @Brady and me though...

[Horton]

@ab I agree about the gates. + seems closer but ZO will never really = PP

[A_B]

Agreed. IF, big IF, I am smooth, it feels pretty good, but when I load it up, it is not friendly! PP was a wimp for most guys over 200 pounds. A few good pulls here or there, and you are running 17.05.

[escmanaze]

Guys, it's really not that complicated. If the population grows at a faster rate than the number of skiable courses, then the percentage of folks who can do it will decline.

 

My siblings didn't all quit skiing because they couldn't afford to go borrow dad's boat and put gas in it. My siblings all quit skiing because all the lakes were insanely crowded so it wasn't fun anymore. Here in Utah, we aren't really building any more lakes, but we certainly are making more babies.

 

It is the same thing with snowskiing slopes as in the article reference above by @Ed_Obermeier. How much actual skiable acreage has been added since I was 10? Maybe 10%. How much has the population increased? double. Sure, the resorts could let more people ski the same number of acreage, but then the experience is diminished, and people just quit the sport altogether like my siblings did with waterskiing.

[A_B]

Wouldn't it be great if we could drive the cost to dig a lake down? Maybe USAWS should buy some equipment and rent it out at cost, with instructions on how to do it. That would be one way to increase the ski base....

[Horton]

@escmanaze Water skiing is not just shrinking as a percentage of the population. It is shrinking in terms of total skiers.

 

The number of USAWS/AWSA members is way down over the last 20 year. I think we are 25% of the size we were 20 years ago. (somebody check that math @jdarwin)

 

Course/lake access is a factor. ZO was a factor (maybe not a huge factor but still a factor at a time when our back is against the wall). Boat cost is a factor (see ZO). Action/Extreme Sport diversification is a major factor. Major media forgetting about water skiing to pick up other content is a factor. Mismanagement at USAWS is a factor (this one seems to be turning around for the better).

 

_________________________

 

The thing that blows my mind is there is no skiing within 1 1/2 hours of LA. Once you get to Arvin, Newberry, or Canyon Lake there is almost no club access. There is only one club where you do not need your own boat and it is struggling to find members.

 

In Arvin there are 14 lakes with slalom courses. I think there are about 20 adult tournament skiers. There are maybe 40 that round balls at all plus a few kids. Most of the lakes sit idle most of the time. Lake 3 at SkiWest is packed every warm weekend and Ironwood gets some club action but a lot of the rest of the lakes get a few wake boards or tubes and that is it.

 

It is way better up in Sacramento buy is the bottom half of the state it is hard to be a skier.

[ToddL]

Another idea to go along with my post above... Maybe AWSA could create a Class C Starter Slalom-only newbe membership at cost. Basically, this membership would be available for 2 years to a skier who has never had a Class C Active membership before. They would be allowed to ski in Class C events (not just GR), but would not be allowed to jump and possibly not even trick. I don't know what the costs are for AWSA, but surely they can do something that is like $45 for this "get them started" Class C Started type of membership. The skier would only be allowed to renew this Starter membership 1 time. If they are still skiing after 2 years of starter membership, then it is time to pay the full membership price.

[Kelvin]

@Horton Its not just about access, there's less desire/motivation to ski as well. I live in a 4 lake ski community with 70 lots and 56 houses. There are only 12 owners that ski on a regular basis, 8 of those will ski in the tournaments we have on site, only 6-7 ski tournaments in the area on a regular basis and only 3-4 of those have kids that ski tournaments. About 1/4 of the others wakeboard some, but that has dwindled in recent years. For the others that use the lakes at all, its to pull their kids/grandkids on tubes. Most have never even tried to ski.

 

The lakes are never too busy that you can't ski any time you want.

 

Its the same situation on the other 4 ski lake communities in the Houston area. Fortunately, there are enough tournament skier scattered around the area that most tournaments have a good crowd with plenty of officials/volunteers to spread the load.

[Horton]

Ok guys let me ask the impossible question.

 

Why was the sport more popular 20 years ago? What has changed in society or in the sport?

[gator1]

In a big hotel bar in Hawaii watching a Hulu demonstration with my dad. They'r up on the stage talking about how hard it is to become a Hulu dancer and how few kids are getting into it these days. How it takes years of training and only those knowledgable in the art can tell a pro from a hack. Dad leans over and says: it's just like your stupid skiing: it's really hard but nobody cares.

 

I think society became a bunch of watchers. Adults watch reality tv and the kids are fat and watch video games. We breed competiveness out of them by telling them everyone is a winner.They think a rush is clicking the mouse button.

[Ed_Obermeier]

IMO one reason it was more popular 20 years ago was more course access/availability. You could go to a lot of large lakes, reservoirs etc and stumble across a slalom course you could give it a go on. That's how I got hooked anyway. Found a publicly available course on the water (Table Rock Lake, Missouri), tried it, was hooked on rounding buoys immediately. I'm sure whoever put the course there would have cringed to watch my buddy trying to keep that old tri hull IO in the boat path while I yanked it around. More people were into it because more were able to try it out to see if it was something they'd enjoy pursuing or not. There was just a lot more readily available course access.

 

So course access I believe is a very big factor. It's just really difficult these days to get a permit to even put a course on a public lake, and if you do put one out you have to put up with a lot of idiots chopping buoys etc (flashback to myself 25+ years ago...) and creating a lot of ongoing maintenance just so you can use the course yourself when you want to. Placing/maintaining a course on public water these days is definitely a labor of love.

 

I think to someone who basically enjoys skiing to begin with but doesn't really know why, IF they get an opportunity to try a course enough times to "get it" it's almost automatic. If you want to get GOOD at it that requires a lot of time and dedication to learning HOW to become better. But I think there is a potentially very large sub set that does or would enjoy it on a more occasional basis (INT League type skiers i.e.) who maybe aren't as into getting better at it as they are just having fun with it. Think wakeboarders. How many ride boards basically just for fun versus the number who actively are trying to get good at it?

[gsm_peter]

@horton

My 2 cents

-There are many more sports available.

Many sports suffer.

-The average body mass for an 18year old has increased with type 15 lbs.

I would assume the same goes for world average potesial water skiers.

It takes quite some efforts to be resonable sucessfull.

-Younger folks tends to be less generous with efforts to run a waterski club (or any other club).

 

 

[Rpc29]

Unfortunately @OB Atlanta is a city of watchers rather than doers. Most people would much rather spend a beautiful September Saturday inside watching football and getting fat than out at the lake. It really is sad.

 

 

 

 

[E_T]

@Rpc29 I believe your statement is wrong. Lake Lainer just north of Atlanta is the busiest Army Core lake on any given holiday weekend. People do spend time on the lakes

[Brady]

@AB Speak for yourself!!!! I am a lean mean skiing machine. :)

 

@Horton, here is my opinion why the sport is not as popular. Two things, media exposure and the internet/gaming.

First, I believe the reason why so many "younger" people are taking up wakeboarding is because that is what they are seeing on TV, the Dew Tour, boat shows, and at the lakes. Even in Utah, when I went to the boat show with my kids last year, they had a pulley set up with some pro wakeboarders skiing. And Marcus Brown was sitting right there in front of them. One of the elites of the elites and the majority of people are there watching some low-level pros on a wakeboard course. Part of the media problem is that the sport is very very difficult to truly show. You either have a close up on the skier coming around the ball, or a long shot from either end of the course. Unless you are into the sport, it is not that exciting to watch. Especially when you realize just how damn easy these pros make something incredibly difficult look. If you could capture the skiers coming across the wake at 70mph, then I think you would have a more exciting venue.

 

The second thing is the dang internet with the mind suck that it is having on our youth. There are fewer kids trying new things, because they have their heads so far up Minecrafts or Force Recons ass! I only let my kids play their computers for 60 minutes a day. When I was a kid, i was doing everything I could to either ski or do something active! We are raising a generation of lazy kids who get off on gaming instead of experiencing real life!

 

My two cents

 

 

[ToddL]

I think @gator1, @OB, and @Ed_Obermeier are all correct. And this is not a switch that was flipped overnight; it has been a gradual shift over a lot of time. However, in our efforts to address competitive decline, we fail to look deep enough to the roots of our sport.

 

Many of us were recreational slalom skiers before we were buoy chasers. We probably already got up before the sun, dragged friends out to the lake regularly and skied on public lakes' glass water in coves and along the shorelines. At some point, we found out where the nearest slalom course was and made a trek to have a go at it. Once we got a taste, we were hooked. There are two elements to this path: dedication to recreational slalom & ability to practice it on public lakes. So what about now? What happened? I think that recreational slalom skiing can answer these questions. Let’s look at it more closely…

 

Being a dedicated recreational skier takes work and time. As stated above, prior generations were conditioned to work hard and strive to excel in the things which they were passionate about. Now days, it seems to me that the average kid is missing that core element of his or her being. Most of the skiing kids that I know of still got that hard work core element from their parent's example of already being competitive skiers. Heck, look at the children of any actively competitive parent (in any sport), and you will find a child who values working towards his or her own goals. This element has been watered down over time in our US society. The “everyone gets a trophy” philosophy has made hard work no longer of value. It teaches kids that if they are simply mediocre at something, that is good enough to still be rewarded.

 

The other element is the access to public water. What I am suggesting is that the decline in competitive slalom is aligned to the decline of public water slalom. Go to any public lake and count how many slalom skiers you see vs. any other water sports. They are an endangered species. When one is spotted, they are also typically someone of our generation. I just don’t see new skiers on slalom skis out there. If we can determine the root causes for the decline of public slalom skiing, we can identify why our sport's point of entry has closed up. I think we all know some of the reasons slalom skiing on public water is declining... I attribute it to the following.

 

Primarily, there used to be fewer alternative to good ol' skiing. We didn't have wake sports. We all just skied. However, I remember when knee boarding came out. I spent a set or two each trip to the lake doing that, which means I spent less time slalom skiing. With wake boarding, wake skating, wake surfing, tubing/inflatables, etc. all very available to recreational lake rats, slalom skiing is simply left with a smaller market share. Back in the day, when you went to the lake, you skied. Once you learned how to ski on two, you tried one ski. That's just what everyone did. Now, people are weekend warriors who have never even put on a pair of skis in their life.

 

Secondly, for those few who do want to slalom ski on public water, they find that it is increasingly difficult to locate the glass water. All it takes is one wake boat or even a driver slinging a tuber all over the lake to ruin the water for the slalom skier. Now, that wake sports has grown to such high levels, the ability to find smooth water is almost impossible. Slalom skiing is about smoothly carving in a fluid way along the water. When the water is filled with rollers, slalom skiing is tense, rough, and can become dangerous. Imagine what would happen if all of the snow skiing mountains decided to put moguls on every single trail. The bulk of the people would stop going to the slopes and lift ticket sales would dwindle to a very small population of skiers who enjoy that type of skiing. The same thing has happened to public water slalom skiing. Moguls have filled our public lakes and slalom is dying.

 

So, what can we do about all this? Societal changes are slow, but we can become advocates for rewarding hard work and recognizing only the actions and results which warrant recognition. Encourage others to do the same (coaches, sport organizers, teachers, etc.). Also, we need to protect public water slalom skiing. It is an endangered species. We need protected status. Wouldn’t it be great if the lakes had dedicated “No Wake Sport / Tubing” hours? Some might say that is a nice dream, but what if it could be achieved? It is pretty well expected that the public pool will have adult swim for 10 mins per hour. Why not slalom hour at the lake? Another idea is to segment a section of protected water for slalom. That may only work on non-residential/commercial lakes where a finger or cove could be designated. If that were allowed, maybe some form of wave barrier could separate the majority of the cove opening from the rest of the lake to preserve the water conditions. None of these ideas are easy, but I really believe they are a key factor in the solution.

 

No matter how it is done, if public water slalom skiing can be preserved and nurtured, our competitive sport will surely benefit.

 

[jimbrake]

@OB +1,000.

[Roger]

Two things happened to drop the popularity of water-skiing. Jet skis and wakeboard boats. Those two items ended most public lake slalom skiing IMO. In order to ski on the last public lake I was on, you had to ski at sunrise; by 9:00am or so, the water was not usable anymore.

[A_B]

and before that, it was the knee boarders...

[Brady]

@AB Were you one of the stars of this video? This video is fetchin cool man. And the music is Rad!!!!! (Is that 80's enough for you?)

 

[GAJ0004]

If you notice in the video they are using ski boats with no ballast, no towers. It really shows how good those guys are.. I met Ted Bevelaqua at the Cleveland Boat show many years ago. It was interesting talking to him. Nice guy.

[xrated]

hmm been slowly reading on this and I'm still not sure what the main question is.

 

@6balls nailed it for me though when it comes to tourneys. I am not a bouy chaser even though I have tried it and would love to try it until I could figure it out. BUT with a wife who I got into skiing and 3 kids who are getting into being behind a boat it isn't even a question on where I want to spend my weekends. Hands down every time being up at the public lake with the family and skiing with 2 other great friends and their families is going to win. Add in that between skiing we can swim, tube, drink, fish, shoot, etc and I can't see any appeal to a tournament even if I could manage to round 6 balls.

[A_B]

@Brady, good find! I wouldn't mind watching some of that alongside the slalom course in the river back In the day.

We would go out at 6am and get some nice passes in, then a couple boarders would show up and ski next to the course trying to jump the wake from some big I/O. I love owning my lake!

[LeonL]

@Toddl, all of what you said. Plus the very reason some stated, bad water conditions drove slalom skiers to private sites, then the inevitable lack of visual exposure to slalom reduced those who would become interested, then less slalom skiers at private sites.

[The_MS]

Kinis and a beer sponsor.

[XR6Hurricane]

@ToddL I'll throw another thing out there that a lot of people probably haven't thought of: BOOZE. Doesn't matter if it's the hockey game or a day at the lake, everything revolves around massive alcohol consumption nowadays. America has always loved a cold beer, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's becoming more and more the sole focus for why a group of people get together and go boating, or do anything for that matter. And they don't drink a six pack, they drink a case. I see it here all the time. Pontoon boats, deck boats, and the sandbar are king, and water skiing is dead.

 

As for restricted hours for different activities, that's an interesting thought. I don't know how it would work in terms of "slalom only" hours, but I know that the same basic idea is part of what killed the water conditions at my local lake. Let me relay the story: Back in the '70s, a group of bleeding hearts made the lake no wake from 8:00 PM to 10:00 AM. Sunset to sunrise like everyplace else just wasn't good enough. To add insult to injury, towed sports have to end at 7:30 PM. This brought about several problems. First, it eliminated that magical time at dawn or during the last 15 minutes of dusk when the water flattened out perfect and you could really ski like God intended it to be done. Secondly, with fewer hours available, everyone rushes out there right at 10:00 in hopes of getting one good run because the lake just explodes into life within minutes. You have to have the slack out of the rope at 9:58 if you want to get 5 good minutes of slalom in. Once 2 or 3 wakeboard boats take off, it's over. And lastly, it has only fueled the rivalry even more between the fishermen and skiers. The fishermen got their way and got some time set aside for themselves, and that grew into a bias on the part of the law enforcement. If you are skiing at 7:29 PM you get stopped with the lights and siren, but if a fisherman is making a wake at 9:30 AM, the cop is never around. Then that still wasn't enough, so now "for some strange reason" the fishermen hit their electric motors at about 9:50 AM and start spacing themselves equidistantly in the high traffic areas so that it's impossible to follow the traffic pattern without "annoying" them.

 

The above is why I finally started skiing on the river 10 minutes down the road, which has 18 miles without any no wake zones and you can ski dawn to dusk. Best water conditions this side of Minnesota and the slalom crowd still hangs out there. Don't know why I waited so long.

[xrated]

@OB now if there was a tourney where I could try rounding balls and then shoot some clay pigeons I'd be game.

[MattP]

@xrated Atlanta Skeet Shooting is a few miles from our lake.

[gator1]

@xrated there is. Called the gator ball n blast. Two courses in series on the Spokane river then 10 min drive to gator ranch. 1.5 scale "skeet" with e launcher set up on the ridge. Most round things bagged wins.

[gator1]

Another consequence of limited public courses is the intimidation factor. I run into many guys who say they used to chase balls on one of the former public courses around here. Invite them to the lake, though, and they don't show up. Run into them next years Christmas

[gator1]

And wife says oh you guys are so good and take it so serious Lee's embarrassed to ski with you. Hard to fix that on private site

[BCM]

I have often wondered why we don't ask more questions about where all the collegiate skiers go. If we assume 100 skiers per region per year (based upon what I saw a few years ago in the WR) that would give us roughly 100 new college grads each year. Of the folks I skied with I can think of about 30 who ski a few times a year now and only a handful who ski tournaments today. I have lost track of many more... I think that before we begin to hypothesis about why we are not attracting new skiers we should look into why we are loosing skiers who were hooked for 4 years and then left.

 

Some of it is cost, some of it is geographic, but many remain in areas with lots of skiers but stop skiing. Many of them have the skill and resources, but choose not to. If we truly want to understand why we can't build our numbers, I think this is a good group to investigate. By investigate I mean ask them, not sit in our rocking chairs waving our fists yelling "damn kids". I heard a rumor awhile back that USAWS or mabye NCWSA (I can't remember who was actually behind the idea, it was a year or so ago that I heard it...) was going to try to survey alumni about their skiing post graduation. Schools have alumni lists, to me it sounds like a logical starting point if we want to solve the problem...

 

[MattP]

@BCM In my mind college skiers don't come back for a number of reasons.

1. Skiing is expensive. In the SAC our entry for 3 events © is $25. I skied 3 event at States © this year and it was well over $100.

2. AWSA tournaments are not "fun"..

3. College skiers who get into it in college are a different bread than those who grew up in the sport. They tend to put skiing after finding a career, starting a family, paying bills and before you know it 20 years have past.

[ToddL]

@MattP yep. The best thing that USAWS could do is to maintain a contact database of all collegiate skiers and then invite them back about 15 years after they graduate. That invitation should include info about local clubs, upcoming events, and a substantially reduced awsa membership for their first year back.

[A_B]

At some point, on entry forms, there was various info you could share at the tournament, but there was never an announcer going over that stuff while you were skiing. I believe part of the problem is that tournaments are setup like machines to mow through the running order and skiers don't get "connected" to other skiers not in their group or even in their own bracket. It is hard to get good announcers, but it would help newer skiers to have a good PA system, calling out info on who is skiing, where they are from, where they ski, etc., and who is in what place... to make a tournament less of a grind. How can tournaments connect with the skiing audience and their families better?

[Marco]

@AB That is exactly what we did at the 3 tournaments our lake has hosted over the last several years (unfortunately, we can't get consensus from our lake owners to host one this year). We start with practice on Friday afternoon, followed by a gourmet BBQ dinner/cocktail party provided after practice. Most families camp at the lake, and the night life is lively but very kid friendly. Saturday and Sunday we again provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner (no Sunday dinner) with a cocktail party on Saturday night again. After skiing is done for the day, a paddle board relay race was held for all that wanted to participate, which was at least 25 people of all ages, then on to the evening festivities.

 

We have speakers set up with music and announcing all day, and it creates a really festive atmosphere. Our announcers read the skiers bios, (and sometimes ad-lib with made up humorous details). After our first tournament, word got out how much fun it was and our other 2 tourneys filled up to the point we had to turn people away. All this considering that most of the competitors have to drive 3-6 hours over the Rockies to get to our lake in Southwestern Colorado.

 

Make it fun and they will come.

 

 

[jimbrake]

Most college teams, if they are lucky, have one or two kids that actually ski outside of the collegiate scene. The rest of the team is made up of kids that either have freeskied a little or those that get clued into the fact that collegiate water skiing is a blast even if you aren't good (the "you've never skied? Good, we need jumpers." types). As soon as the collegiate season is over though, most if not all of those kids go back to their life of not skiing. You might pull a very few from a region into competitive skiing outside of college. Money is a factor, lack of non-collegiate access is a factor, AWSA format is a factor, and the fact that they just aren't that into it and it's difficult kills most of the rest. There would need to be more of a concerted transitional effort and incentives to get the collegiate novices to continue outside of college.

 

UC Davis trains at our lake in the Spring and Fall. Would be nice if the club would offer the team members some sort of a collegiate discount allowing them to continue skiing if they are around in the summer.

[rodltg2]

Skiing at a private site is BORING for the most part. Tournaments are a snooze ! And I love slalom skiing. My wife would rather watch paint dry than spend a day out at the site. Can't really blame her. Too bad public sites are far and few. Would be a a great compromise. Get my swerve on then spend the day cruising , exploring whatever.

 

I get it for those of you that don't care if the sport grows. You get more water time while the others that join the lake and rarely go , float the bill.

 

I'm kind if in that boat. Most of you lake homeowners will be getting too old to ski , not many people biting at the chance to buy a ski lake home. , and I swoop in for a deal !

[BCM]

@jimbrake - The first line tells it all, "have one or two kids that actually ski outside the collegiate scene". Personally, I believe that this would be a great starting point if we wanted to grow the sport, not the end, but a start. They already understand ski sites, slalom courses, scoring, etc. In my mind in terms of growing the sport, collegiate skiers are low hanging fruit.

 

@MattP - I think the money issues is part of the non-AWSA skiing during college, but within a year or two after that changes drastically. Within about 3 years of graduation I had a couple friends who had dropped $15k on boats and others who had joined private sites, but none of them were interested in tournaments, which leads to your number 2, AWSA tournaments are not fun. I am old enough to not want a wild collegiate tournament experience anymore, but the comradery would be nice. Things like announcers would help. My wife enjoyed attending collegiate tournaments as a non-skier, but I drug her to one AWSA tournament and she told me that I can go to the rest alone. I have often wondered if some sort of team setup (similar to collegiate) but based upon your home ski site, county, etc would help get people more interested in the other skiers. Awhile back some friends were discussing hosting a collegiate alumni tournament, you choose the school you went to, root for, etc. and you compete on a team for that school with team rankings worked out the same way as collegiate. I think it would add the fun factor back into. The Bakersfield crowd was doing a great job with the "Ski League" (I can't remember the exact name, its been a few years) with a "never run" style tournament. It was a great tournament with a very fun and festive atmosphere.

 

In short, I graduated 5 years ago, I am still in a graduate program. I don't think cost is as big of an issue as people think for recent graduates. I am on a tight fellowship and could swing it if there were ski sites closer to where I am (3hrs to nearest site... I made a career sacrifice). From my experience many can swing it financially, but choose not to. I would like to know why. We can make all kinds of excuses for them and why their generation, financial status or desire not to do anything hard keeps them from skiing. Or, we could find out from them. My concern is that the reasons that they don't stick around have as much to do with the structure of the current tournament scene and thus "us" as it does them. I could go on about this one for days as I have spent many long days in the boat discussing this issues with 70+ yo skiers and college freshman all over the country...

[6balls]

@BCM I think I'm the only guy from my collegiate ski team that still skis tourneys, and I skied three of them 2 years ago and 2 of 'em last year (not much, eh?). I have piles of fun on the water on weekends but it's most often not at tourneys....buoys a.m., family p.m. I do like to go to some tourneys as the change of pace is fun and the people are cool, but I would get bored chasing them every weekend and it would negatively impact the recreational interests of wife and kids.

 

A number of my former teammates have boats, and many live on public lakes. Some of them still ski buoys to some degree, but the majority don't. Collegiate skiing was a way for them to have a peer group, to have some fun on the water, and quite frankly to party. They can still have fun on the water and party, or perhaps the party has changed to family time but most of these kids were never "competitive skiers" in their own minds. They were college students having fun on the water. Now they are adults having fun on the water with their kids.

 

The "on the water" life is alive and well in this group, but the seriousness of posting a score is not for them. To each their own, I guess.

 

 

[The_MS]

While there are skiers out there that will ski events every weekend, most skiers are not doing that. Ski a 6 round (or less) weekend 1x per month (or less) and you will have plenty of opportunities to post PBs and mark your improvement.

[gator1]

Those who have seen me score 0 or 1 on my opening pass at the two tourneys I've attended in the last decade or so know how bad I hate the traditional slalom format. I became a jumper mainly because you get three tries every time you get wet, provided you don't crash too bad.

 

I never thought about it before, but I more or less quit going to tourneys when I had to quit jumping.

 

It'd change my mindset quite a bit if the format was four tries, best partial pass after a complete pass. I'd trade a 6 rounder two days for 2 round four try one day without batting an eye. And I'd happily pay the same money.

 

I think we tried to fix the sucky "one and done" format with more rounds, and just added cost and time, while not addressing the underlying issue: standing around waiting for a pass with the threat of "one and done" sucks, no matter how many times you get to do it a day. Even If I do well, I've left after the 2nd round, because for me its not how many times you "get" to try it, its how many times you have to try it.

 

I tried practicing one and done for a month leading up to states and regionals back in the 80s, and won some. But, it just turns fun into work. Bragging rights are not worth it. Add in the risk of divorce if I went to enough tourneys to quell the one and done dread, and that's why you'll find me behind my boat for a couple hours every weekend, at my home sites.

 

Ya, ya, ya, I know, lack of mental toughness, not a real competitor, wilt in the harsh light of competition, just go to more tournaments.... Whatever. Bottom line is I, and a number of guys I know, have more fun in the pay for pulls practice runs the night before then we do in the tournament.

[skihard]

This trruely is an interesting thread and many many great opinions have been expressed. One could toss a bunch of ideas into a hat from here, contemplate the results, naorrow it down to 3 or 4 key points and say "HEY THIS IS WHY?"

As a dude who grew up as a youngster in an area that really didnt have great skiing opportunities, then moved to a sweet lake country and tourist area, only to move away from, and back too the area due to growing up and working......................... I don't honestly believe that we can identify WHY our sport is dying in only 3 or 4 key points, but rather a whole bunch of issues!

I have said in earlier posts; costs, resourses, access, friends, boat costs, etc

I am now a guy who has been both fortunate and lucky enough to be able to build a home on a ski lake (5 weeks and we are moving in) and the I look back and reflect and think really I am doing this because I WANT TOO!!!!! Simple I WANT TO SKI! I am a terrible skier compared to the folks on my lakes that ski! Don't believe me - just ask them. Difference is I DON'T CARE I WANT TO SKI!!!!!! And you know what - I will get better and i know that. But I won;t get better without doing it!!!!!!

I don't own a $60+ ZO boat. I have a 10 year old boat with SGPP and I'm happy! One day this year I hope to round 6 bouys consistantly at 22 off and maybe I will enter the tournament that my site puts on to SUPPORT it!

Will I be a National competitor - NEVER! But I will be a guy who learned to love a sport who continues to play and support a sport I love because it's fun!

As soon as something loses it's FUN appeal and becomes to expensive you can expect to lose A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE!!!!!!!

 

 

 

[XR6Hurricane]

@gator1 The "it turns fun into work" comment is exactly why I personally have no interest. Same reason I never had interest in organized boat racing. Sunday morning on the river there are no rules other than seeing if you can get the channel markers wet. The bald eagles and northern pike are our judges and if you fall, you get up and try again...