Your kids and water skiing

I had a comment on this and then apparently deleted it, or didn't save it or something.

What a tease! If that happens, sometimes you can save it by hitting the back button.

I would have done that, had I known. I commented here and then added a diary post. When I checked in later, I didn't see it. I guess I moved along without saving. Sometimes work distracts me from the important things.

I was just saying you never know what sparks an interest in someone. I watch as alot of people I skied with tried to get the kids involved and none of them had the fever grab them...at least not yet. (could come back years later)

With mine, if she wants to do it that's fine and if she doesn't want to do it, that's fine as well. I give her an opportunity and if she decides to take advantage of it, that's in her hands.

With me, my older brother and sister were recreational/social skiers/boaters and that was my early exposure. My parents thought it was a huge waste of time....but they were pretty old school conservative.

First, let me say that I totally agree with your approach and have tried my best to emulate that.  I have the opposite experience, though, thank god! My soon-to-be 18-year-old daughter enjoys skiing nearly as much as I do.  I also grew up going to the lake every weekend during summer break and my parents also used the low pressure approach.  As a kid, our boats were only slightly ahead of yours.  I learned to ski at age 5 behind a 24-foot pontoon with a 55hp outboard.  I "gave up" skiing at age 8, but was known to coach from the boat.  A friend's dare is the only reason I got back behind the boat at age 10 and I've been consumed since.  My parents bought a runabout with a 165hp I/O in 1977 when I was twelve and we kept that until I bought my first inboard in 2001.  My daughter was 7 then.  She immediately took to skiing, but like me, took a break and was a wakeboarder only for a year or two until taking a hard fall on the wakeboard.  Since then, she's only done demo rides on the wakeboard for teaching her friends.  She's 100% skier now.  I repeatedly told her to ski for herself, not to do it to make me happy.  We are weekend warriors and have to ski early to get good water.  She's there most mornings!  We've recently also joined a club and get to ski some during the week.  She goes frequently then too.  She really enjoys it.  In fact, we skied at a demo with Rossi and he let her ski on his personal ski (with what became her new RS-1 boots)!  Since then she's been in my ear about getting a Strada!!  The jury is still out on that one....

She's going away to college next year and plans to ski in college.  I hope that works out for her.  Her top two schools have clubs, but a friend who is a good coach is a coach at her number 1, so we have our fingers crossed.

There's still hope for your daughter to pick it up.  Heck, look how it came to you!!  I agree with your approach 100%.

Like everything else with kids, you just never know.  Sometimes it seems like the parents' actions/desires have no bearing on what the kid does/likes whatsoever!

My family used to make the annual trip from Illinois up to White Lake in Wisconsin.  Think John Candy...The Great Outdoors. No TV, no AC, and a bunch of old cottages with (at the point in the early 80's when we started going there)  almost 60 years worth of beach sand everywhere!  There was a killer beach, a pristine crystal clear lake, and a small video game arcade (again, think 80's).  We had the time of our lives up there!  

White Lake is where I learned to ski.  It is a small lake, about 90 acres, and consequently the max horsepower allowes on the lake was 70 HP. I'd have to say that my water ski beginnings were much like Joel's.  I was in the 3rd grade when we first went and I started on a type of trainer.  I remember it as some sort of blue plastic sled looking thing that had a ski handle attached  and the tow rope attached to the sled.  All I had to do was hold on and go.  That was cool for the first year or two until I had to start on a pair of small combos.  Nothing tied together, no boom, no platform, just me, a pair of skis that were too big, and my dad helping me keep it all together.  Those days I didn't like skiing too much.  I kept falling and I was cold.  However, my parents kept after me to keep trying and I eventually got it.

I made the natural progress.  Getting up on my own, then getting outside of the wake, then trying to drop a ski, then trying to get up on one.  The thing that was cool about White Lake was (and still is) that you didn't need your own boat.  You could rent the resort boat by the hour and they provided the driver and all the equipment.  Show up and ski. That is really uncommon!.  I have tried to find other places like that and have come up empty every time.  (I think if there were more places that do that, it would allow more people to try skiing that wouldn't normally have the oportunity.)  

The thing that kept me wanting to ski was the guy that drove the boat.  He was probably a 17 year old kid at the time, but he was encoraging, he was a great teacher, and he was cool.  When I was a few years older, he would ask me to come and spot for him and his friends.  These guys would slalom and tear up the lake AND they would barefoot Ron Scarpa style (behind a 70 HP!).  It would be years and years before I even knew about a slalom course, but when I saw those guys, I knew that is what I wanted to do!  I had the ski bug and I wanted to make big sprays.  

Fast forward a generation.  My 3 kids also learned to ski at White Lake.  My oldest started when he was about 4 years old.  He has ridden the trainers but hasn't really taken to it.  I would push him a little to keep trying and he would resist more and more so I stopped because I don't want him to hate it.  Maybe someday he'll want to try again. He knows he always has an open invitation to strap some skis on.  My daughter and youngest son tried it when they were each also four and they have gotten the bug.  They even pitch a fit when they can't keep skiing because it is someone else's turn...it is certainly an bit rude and selfish of them but yet in a wierd way its kind of funny/cool too.  "Dammit, I want to ski more!"

It is such an awesome feeling seeing your kids ski for the first time. They are so little back there. I think it is particularly funny when my youngest, at age 4, would give the thumbs up or thumbs down sign to tell the driver to speed up or slow down.  It really had nothing to do with the speed of the boat.  He just realized that the driver would do whatever he wanted and he wanted to exercise his option to control the situation.  It was his first taste of power.  Hillarious.

Any way to post pictures in the comment fields?

Brian, thanks for sharing! I don't think the site framework will allow me to put photos in comments, unfortunately. You could make a new diary entry, slap this text into it, and add photos and video to it that way.

I have introduced 2 of my 3 kids to skiing and took different approaches with each.  

I don't think there is a magic formula that will apply to every child - some need pushed and others need their space.

I do think the more fun we can make the environment the better chance any child will have to associating pleasure with the skiing experience.

My best memories as a child are on the boat even though I was around 10 before I worked up the courage to ski consistently.

The boat, lake, equipment, etc. are really non-essential to a child's experience - it's all about creating fun memories.

My prediction is that Madison will be back on the water well before she's 10!

I bribed my kids this past summer with Nintendo DS's. I said that my 8 year old had to ski 10 times and my 5 year old had to ski 5 times. They both ended up doing 6 times each. They were on the boom all the times.

I think they were only doing it for the prize but it got them out there. My girl (the 8 yr. old) is not really into it. She refused to try the rope even though she was more then capable of handling it. My little guy says he likes it but I'm not sure if he really does or is just saying it to please me.

Next summer I'll have to bribe them with new games for their DS's or something like that and see how it goes.

As for my own experiences with waterskiing as a kid, I was pretty much addicted right from the get go. I was 10 and my uncle had a small boat with 35 horse power I believe and a ski handle made from a cut off broom stick.

I didn't have the opportuntiy to ski all that often but when I did, I was all over it. I went to summer camp for a week each year (it was called Joy Bible Camp ha, ha) and during free time in the afternoon you had an option to go waterskiing. All you had to do was go to the tuck shop and buy a ski ticket for $1.00 and go line up at the dock with it. The one dollar ski ticket thing cracks me up. So I was always there with my ski ticket rain or shine waiting for my ski ride on choppy public water with the camp skis and the foam life belt (this was the late 70's). Good times.

T, I think what you just said is the reality. You had the desire to ski, rain or shine because the enjoyment you got, drove you. I skied even though my parents discouraged me from skiing. I was not around tournament skiers until well into my twenties. But I did it anyway every chance I got.

I Like this post alot.  I think it addresses the issue of keeping the sport alive. 

I started skiing in the early 80's behind our 18' tri-hull with twin 40hp outboards but like most, I never took it too seriously.  I learned to deepwater start on a slalom ski (using my cypress garden combos) and even tried to run a course one time at Lake Cumberland on a summer camping trip (it really wasn't pretty at all, I don't even think we understood what all the balls were really there for anyway!).  Then came college, family, work, and no boat.  My wife and I bought our first runabout when our boys were 5 and 7 and there was zero interest in skiing by either of them.  I would occassionally slalom but nothing real serious.  We sold that boat and about 11 years ago bought our current one.  I then discovered a slalom course on the lake near our home ( actually about 10min from my driveway to the ramp ) and the addiction began.  First on the combo/slalom, then I bought a connelly mid s, then moved to double boots with a kidder redline, radar theory, etc...

I bought a pair of these plywood trainer skis at k-mart, you know, the kind with the bar between the skis and the double handle, one for the skier and one for the observer in the boat, and took them with us on a lake vacation when the kids were probably about 8 and 10.  They refused to try the whole summer until like the beginning of October on a rainy day my youngest says, "I wanna try!"  After a few failed attempts we gave up until the next year.  He figured it out the next spring, learned to slalom and wakeboard and was actually a little competition until his mid-teen years when 'hanging out with the parents' wasn't cool anymore.  We even taught about 4 or 5 of his friends to wakeboard.  My oldest only tried once, drank the lake and refuses to try again! 

Now my daugher has kids and we asked them if they wanted to try.  The oldest, Aaron, didn't try but once and drank the lake, his sister however, got up on the trainers at 4 and stayed with it.  I bought her the first "real" combos last summer at 8 and she learned to slalom by the end of the summer.  She absolutely loves it.  She was skiing with me into October without a wetsuit in 60deg water.  She is learning to cut hard but is still afraid of the wake but all things in due time.  I was worried she would quit if she took a bad fall but just the opposite happened.  She was getting real aggressive about her 4th time on the slalom ski and she went out the front of the ski at the 2nd wake.  She came up crying and I thought  "oh no, she's done for a while".  My wife asked her if she wanted to quit.  I waited anxiously as she said "Yes" through her tears.  My wife said, "For good?". She said, "no grandma, I just need to rest a while".  Now what a relief that statement was!

All of that said.  I have always remembered that too much pressure wouldn't help but would most likely hurt the chances of them wanting to ski again.  Also, a little encouragement goes a really long way.  Watching my grand-daugher slalom for the first time was like literally watching someone take their first steps!  We just gotta be patient and keep trying to pass the sport on to the next generation of future addicts!

I grew up a water skier.  I learned behind an outboard when I was 5 back in 1971 then in the mid 70s my family got the first in a string of outboards.  I think it was a 1973 Correct Craft Skier in bright orange.  This was followed by several Nautiques and a Mastercraft.  In the mid 70s my family was involved in founding a ski club that put a slalom course and a jump on the lake that we eventually moved on to.  I skied the course seriously as a kid and tricked but never really competed or jumped.  In my teens I could run deep 32 off at 36 mph but never really skied anywhere but our lake.

After college my Dad sold the boat and I basically stopped skiing from the age of probably 24 until 37 or 38 when my parents decided to sell the lake house which I bought from them along with a 2002 Malibu Response LX which my Dad had bought a few years earlier.

The first summer in the house on the lake my kids were 5 & 6 and both learned to ski that year.  We never pushed the kids into it.  We started them on a skimmer which they had done the previous summer then put them on a knee board to get used to holding the handle.  For us the next step was in the water with real skis with someone holding them up so they wouldn't tip over.  Both kids learned to get up pretty quickly.

My kids learned to ski pretty easily and we never had them on a boom.  I learned behind the boat and they did the same thing.  My kids were never afraid of the water at all and I think that helped.  We also put them on a tube with me when they were 2 or 3 which they loved doing.  I think having them used to being behind the boat on the tube helped the migration to skis.  For us the progression was tube with Dad, tube with just the two kids, skimmer pulled on shore, skimmer behind the boat, kneeboard alone and finally skis behind the boat.  

I also got back into skiing the course for the first time in years and by the end of the summer I was running into 28 off at 34 mph.

The next year my son who is the younger of my two kids (referred to as Mini Chef) really caught the skiing bug and learned to slalom and ski the course.  My daughter learned to slalom as well but isn't as into it as my son is.

Fast forward to now and my son is 12 and a Boys 2 skier.  Mini-Chef runs deep 34 mph at 15 off in the course, tricks 1200 points and jumps in the high 40s.  Jumping is his weakest event and I think he will make a big jump in slalom this coming year.  My daughter who is 13 ran the full course for the first time last year but isn't as into skiing as my son.

My son loves skiing tournaments now and even last year when my back was blown out we went to 5 or 6 even though I couldn't ski.  I am healthy again and we are already planning our schedule of events for the summer.  

Skiing with my kids is one of the best things we do.  I love being out on the water with them and a couple of days a summer we will schedule lake days just with the family.  These usually start with my son coming out at 7:30 with me and my ski buddies and skiing a couple of slalom sets and a trick set each then picking up my wife and daughter around 9 or 9:30.  My daughter will ski then my son will trick again, they will both wakeboard a couple of times and eventually when the water gets rough we break out the tube.

Skiing was a huge part of my youth with my Dad and I love that I get to share it with my kids as well.  I think it builds strong relationships that last a long time.  One of the great things I have seen at tournaments are older kids still there having a good time with their parents.  I hope to be like that with my kids over the next few years.