If you think you're seeing fewer water skiers on the lake than in the past, you're probably right, as newer, more trendy watersports have taken over.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Pier Watersports
June 15, 2018 - 4:39 PM
PENTICTON - The sport of water skiing has fallen on hard times appearing to have lost popularity due to generational and cultural pressures.
Greg Garward at Penticton’s Pier Watersports should know. He’s a coach and has taught various types of watersports for 20 years. He says water skiers now make up only around 50 per cent of his customers.
“Europeans are still interested in water skiing, but Canadians and locals are into wakeboarding and wakesurfing. It used to be all water skiing but now its mainly people from Europe who still want to water ski,” Garward says.
Snow skiing dipped in popularity for a number of years when snowboarding began growing in popularity, he says, but that has since reversed and snow skiing is rising is making a comeback.
“Everyone was interested in aerial tricks, flips and so on, that got really popular. In snow skiing you can still do aerials and tricks, not so much water skiing,” he says.
Parents also want to teach their kids to water ski, because that’s what they know. But when they rent a boat, the kids want to wakeboard and the parents don't know how to do it, Garward says, and that can cause problems.
He says water skiing and wakeboarding require very different techniques to get up on the water.
“The two sports require different techniques to get up on the water. The dad remembers having to hammer the throttle while there’s still slack in the towrope to get the skier to come out of the water. With wakeboarding, boats today are more powerful and the board has so much surface area, it needs to be eased up onto the water, so the dad often rips the rope out the kids’ hands,” Garward says.
The most recent watersport gaining popularity is wakesurfing. He says the sport is becoming so popular, boat manufacturers are cutting production of ski boats to make wakesurfing boats, which require the prop be located under the hull rather than behind it.
Skiers are towed close to the stern and discard the rope once the wake is up.
“Wakesurfing is probably more popular than wakeboarding now. You’re right behind the boat, which kicks up so much wake you can surf behind it on an endless wave,” he explains.
“In wakesurfing, you’re doing five miles an hour or so. You can stand there holding a beer and still wakesurf.”
— This story was corrected at 12 p.m. Tuesday, June 19, 2018 to clarify Garward's coaching status.
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