The Inventors
The water ski was invented at least four times, by four people independently of one another, over the span of about 15 years. Each inventor was probably inspired by the aquaplane.
An aquaplane is basically a surfboard, 6-10 feet long and about 3 feet wide, which is pulled behind a powerboat. The rider stands on the board, holding onto a rope. Aquaplaning was popular in Switzerland, on the French Riviera, and in many areas of the United States in the early 20th century.
Ralph Samuelson figured that two skis might work as well as one board. On June 28, the 18-year-old Samuelson tested his theory on Lake Pepin at Lake City, Minnesota. Riding an aquaplane behind a boat driven by his older brother, Samuelson put his hand-made skis on and stepped onto the water. He fell after a very brief ride.
But he kept experimenting. On July 2, Samuelson found that the best way to ride was with the ski tips slanted upward while he leaned back on the skis.
Over the next several years, Samuelson demonstrated his water skiing skills at water carnivals throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. In the process, he performed the first jump on July 8, 1925, going over a wooden ramp coated with lard. Later that summer, he was towed at 80 miles an hour behind a seaplane.
Somehow, Samuelson's early water ski exploits were lost to history until 1966, when a reporter on vacation in Lake City interviewed Samuelson and wrote a story about him.
The American Water Ski Association soon proclaimed Samuelson "the Father of Water Skiing" and made him the guest of honor for the sport's 50th anniversary celebration at the 1972 national championships in Seattle, Washington.
Until the rediscovery of Samuelson in 1966, Fred Waller had been considered the inventor of the water ski. A special effects technician for the Paramount studio at Astoria, Long Island, Waller in 1925 developed water skis to carry a motion picture cameraman for tracking shots. He quickly realized that his invention also had recreational uses, he patented the design and began marketing "Dolphin Akwa-Skees." (More than 25 years later, Waller invented the Cinerama movie format.)
In Waller's original design, each ski had a tow-line and a hand rope, and the skier simply stood on the skis. Waller later improved the design by adding bindings and substituting a single tow line, which was held by the skier.
A third inventor was Don Ibsen of Bellevue, Washington, in 1928. Like Samuelson, Ibsen was 18 years old when he made his water skis. First he tried snow skis without success, so he shaped his own skis of cedar boards, 7 feet long and 8 inches wide. During the 1930s, Ibsen became one of the first water ski manufacturers and started what was probably the first water skiing school.
It's possible that John Finney was actually the first person to make water skis. According to some reports, Finney did it in 1921, when he was only 12 years old.
The Finney family lived on Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. The father, Jack Finney, fitted a 40-foot launch with a tractor engine and built an aquaplane of two 12-inch boards. He and his two oldest daughters became known as "aqua-acrobats" for their performances on the lake.
The oldest son, John, got into the act one summer by shaping two boards (either from the family's barn or from a floor), nailing boats to them, and hooking them up behind the motor launch.
Becoming a Sport
Fred Waller was long considered the one and only inventor of the water ski mainly because he patented and marketed his invention, thus helping to create a sport.
In 1928, promoter Frank Sterling agreed to produce a water show for the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He originally used motorized skiboards, which were similar to modern jet skis, but they turned out to be unreliable in rough water, so Sterling substituted aquaplanes and water skis, which were provided by Waller. Also in 1928, Dick Pope Sr. demonstrated jumping in Miami Beach, using a pair of Waller's Akwa-Skees.
Bruce Parker made his own water skis in 1935. He doesn't appear to have been another independent inventor, because he was probably aware that they already existed. Considered the first professional water skier, Parker did so much to promote the sport during the 1930s and beyond that he became known as "Mr. Water Skiing."
Parker operated schools in New York State and New England during the summer and in Florida during the winter. He and his partner, Evie Wolford, won nationwide publicity by twice skiing from the Bahamas to Florida.
On the West Coast, Don Ibsen created a show, the Ski-Quatic Follies, in 1937 to promote the water skis he was manufacturing. At first, the show was staged only in Seattle, but Ibsen then began taking it on tour along the coast throughout the summer.
Another manufacturer, Dan B. Hains, was asked to put together a water ski show for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The show's popularity inspired Hains to found the American Water Ski Association and stage the first national championships that year at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island. Hains created the sport's three competitive disciplines, slalom, tricks, and jumping, and formulated the rules.
The jump ramp was made of wooden rollers to minimize friction and the slalom course was simply a straight line of buoys.
The World Water Ski Union (WWSU) was founded in 1946 at Geneva, Switzerland, by a group of skiers who were demonstrating their sport at a powerboat race meeting. The WWSU held the first European championships the following year and the first world championships in 1949.
When the 1950 world championships were held at Cypress Gardens, Florida, a group of skiers, mostly from North America, decided to form a new organization because they were unhappy with the WWSU. Hains became president of the World Water Ski Federation (WWSF).
In 1953, the WWSF conducted its own world championships in conjunction with the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. The WWSF merged back into the WWSU in 1955. The WWSU was renamed the International Water Ski Federation (IWSF) in 1988.
The world championships have been held every two years since 1953. Water skiing was on the World Games program in 1921 and was restored to the program in 2001. It was a demonstration sport at the 1972 Olympics and was a Pan-American Games sport from 1995 through 2003.
Cable Water Skiing
Bruno Rixen of Munich, Germany, discovered water skiing while vacationing in Holland in 1960. He enjoyed the sport except for one thing: the long wait for a boat.
It occurred to Rixen, who worked for a company that manufactured ski lifts, that a cable similar to the one used on lifts could be used, instead of a boat, to pull skiers over the water.
He built a prototype cable ski course near Munich in 1962. The first commercial course was opened in 1966 at Benidorm, Spain. A tireless salesman, Rixen traveled throughout Europe and then over the world promoting the idea.
The first cable water ski competition was held in Freiburg, Germany, in 1971. Originally, slalom and tricks were the only competitive events. Course owners at first opposed jumping because of safety and liability problems. Jumping finally became standard at competitive meets in 1981.
By 1985, there were enough cable courses and skiers to justify the first European championship event, in Lagenfeld, Germany. World championships weren't held until 1998.
There are about 150 cable courses in the world, more than a third of them in Germany.
Types of Competition
The three traditional competitive disciplines are jumping, slalom, and tricks. More recently, racing has been added to the list.
Jumps are done off a ramp 7.3 meters (24 feet) long and up to 1.8 meters (6 feet) high.
The slalom is run over a zig-zag course marked by six buoys. The course is made increasingly difficult during competition, first by increasing boat speed, then by shortening the tow rope, which reduces the skier's maneuverability.
When a skier misses a gate, he or she is eliminated. Competition continues until only one skier remains.
In tricks skiing, a competitor performs two routines of 20 seconds each. Each trick has an assigned point value and routines are judged much as in gymnastics or figure skating.
Water ski racing is a test of both the skier and the boat. There are two types of racing: marathon, generally 35 to 65 miles, and circle racing, around an oval course of about 2 miles.