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@tjs1295 you are probably more in touch with the real world than most of us due to your work, and you don't need to discount that at all. My partner works with youth in an area with many low-income immigrant families, so I am aware that I and many of us are in a bubble. In fact, my younger years growing up was in a low-income, immigrant family, and I am aware that my life now is quite a lot different. Waterskiing does require discretionary income, and I don't think that it is inexpensive. The point I was trying to get across is that if you are able to join the sport without owning a boat, requiring private water access, or constantly updating gear, the hobby isn't as expensive as it's often made out to be here on these forums. I often see cost as the explainer for why more people don't join this sport. But I think that at a basic level, if you have a small but limited amount of discretionary income, you can get into this hobby without a large upkeep cost, provided that you can access a boat and don't need the newest gear. You can get into this hobby for less than the cost of a car hobbyist buying a $500 beater and trying to keep it running. I know that if I needed to own a boat in order to waterski, this wouldn't be a financially viable hobby for me for the near future. But I am also lucky to live in a metropolitan area where boat access isn't too difficult due to clubs and the right networking. You make a good point that depending on where you live, not everyone has access to ski clubs. But I think that ties into one of the points I have been trying to make. If you have discretionary income and are able to access a ski club or waterski community (which is not always easy as you point out, and I think more difficult for the diverse demographics brought up in the original post), cost isn't the key limiting factor.

Owning a boat is expensive. But you don't need to own a boat to water ski. You don't need new gear either. But you do need access to a boat. --> ski clubs or knowing waterskiers For the cost of a club membership, some networking, and some boat gas, you can waterski without owning a boat. Many of us do it. And it costs even less if you're not concerned about course access on private lakes and just want to open water ski on public water. Most people entering the sport don't care about buoys. Coming out of college, I started in the sport with several year old entry-level equipment, a $60 annual club membership (no private lake, just public water), and $20-45 in gas for a 9am-4:30pm all day ski outing. As far as hobbies go, this is really, really manageable. If you throw in boat ownership, of course it becomes more expensive. Even now that I've been spending most of my water time on private water, my annual cost to maintain this hobby without gear upgrade cost is significantly lower than my annual cost to snow ski an equal amount of days.

Let me remind you that I am not the one that posed this question. I have no "motive". I don't want to turn this thread into a back and forth about me. Just offering my perspective as someone being discussed and asked about in the question being posed.

@MillerTime38, I beg to differ. I never said either of those things. No, I don't think it is your fault or anyone's fault that the community is not more diverse in the US. No, I don't think everyone except white people are purposely being excluded. No, I don't even have an opinion on whether this is something that needs to change. Please be fair. The only thing I have done is share my own unique personal experiences entering the sport and my own opinion on barriers to entry of minority demographics in the USA. Obviously, I love this sport and this community enough to spend time on this forum, right? If I share my own relevant experiences and you choose to dismiss them as complaints, that is up to you. I don't think anyone is to blame. I don't think anyone is at fault. I don't even mean to be abrasive. I understand that many people feel uncomfortable discussing diversity and race, especially with a minority in the room, and prefer to avoid it. I don't really have the option to ignore that I am different in the waterski community. All I am trying to do here is foster thoughtful discussion and offer the perspective of a someone from the "more diverse group of individuals" that is being discussed in the original post. Isn't that what this thread was opened to discuss?

@Clydesdale love what you're doing to pass the handle. I love all outreach I see to new skiers. This actually clearly highlights part of how the sport has remained remarkably undiverse. The outreach to the lake kids is awesome and an easy win, but I bet there are few diverse kids that live on/by the lake. To be very clear, I think this is absolutely awesome and I see nothing wrong with what you're doing. But, without minimizing everything that you're doing - if the community has a desire to grow a more diverse community, outreach will have to happen elsewhere beyond the lake kids, and it will take concertedly more effort. Whether or not a diverse community is something that the community at large wants and is willing to put time to develop is not up to me to say. Just putting out my thoughts as to why the lack of diversity exists. Cost has been brought up, but I don't think it's the main barrier. I joined the sport working my first full-time job out of college, not making much money. There are many people who aren't white with disposable income and expensive hobbies. They've just spent their income and time elsewhere. Edit: Not really sure what there is to disagree with in my post. If you think that something I've said here is wrong, please speak up and we can drive the conversation.

@jimbrake, @Mateo_Vargas was a huge part of fostering my interest in course skiing as a learning skier. I admit that it did not come easy for me and I really struggled with it. But I do remember his willingness to be patient, encouraging, and welcoming. I miss those park days. Hopefully, I get the chance to swing by next summer when I visit town!

The sport is not too expensive or too technical or too niche to draw interest from diverse people. Take a look at the burgeoning waterski community in South Korea, for instance. There are great skiers out there. I think the biggest issue is access. People who look like me aren't joining the sport because they don't know anyone doing it and don't understand the appeal of it, not because it wouldn't be fun for someone who isn't white. Waterskiing isn’t a sport where you can buy a set of clubs or a pair of skis and go learn on your own. You HAVE to know people. If you want to encourage (and not just want) a more diverse crowd, you will need to foster it through outreach and patience.

Most of these replies manage to completely ignore the question being asked. @Mateo_Vargas is absolutely right. Planting the seed is easy. Consistently adding the water when you're not in the "in" community is hard. Let me share my own experience: After I had the seed planted, I still didn't know anyone near me with a boat, who lived by a lake, or who waterskied. So I show up to a few local club meetings. It is intimidating, because it is immediately apparently that I am an outsider. This is still true today. I am not white. People always stare and wonder why I am there. The elephant in the room is usually never brought up. It is not uncommon that people will take initiative to introduce themselves to the other newcomers but don't want to be the first person to talk to the Chinese guy. I usually make the first introductions. I've come to understand that many people do not have much experience interacting with a Chinese-American outside of a work, retail, or restaurant setting. It is usually pretty awkward at first. Waterskiers are a friendly and well-intentioned bunch. But these initial interactions are especially intimidating and uncomfortable if you are new to the sport. It is difficult to integrate with constant reminders that you don't quite fit in. This is compounded when your friends understand through your experiences that almost everyone in the sport is white. It is the "weird" hobby that you have. You have to really, really want it to become part of the community. Things are easier now. Now I can speak the lingo. People warm up to me after they see me make a few turns on the water.

@ballsohard touches on a very key point that has (mostly) been ignored by the following replies: Wanting to grow diversity in the sport is one thing. Encouraging it is another. I am Chinese-American, and my parents were immigrants from poor farming villages. I picked up the sport at 22 years old. I have many opinions and will answer specific questions. I suspect that there won't be many other ethnic voices in the room.

Thank you all for your suggestions and advice. I ended up going with @BG1's recommendation for Shars, but with a model that had both inch and metric measurements. A little icing on the cake - a machinists forum on Google search mentioned that Shars sells from their Ebay store at significantly reduced prices, so the total cost shipped even came in under $60.

@Horton Please excuse my ignorance but why would digital be better than dial for economy calipers?

I don't intend to do much fin tuning in the near future and mostly just need something rudimentary to set my fin to stock and occasionally check it. I've decided to get a dial caliper to avoid the problems with humidity, temperature, moisture, and low battery that come with digital calipers. I'm also not yet skiing at a level where micro-tweaks with a premium Mitutoyo or Starett caliper is gonna be what's making the difference for me, so I would prefer to keep cost at or below $60. What reliable, low cost dial caliper can you recommend for $60 or less?

Ski Park in Orting, WA this morning

Odd, looks like the thread I linked from Waterski Hub where people were discussing the video was deleted