Winter Boredom-- Time For a Poll to Pass the Time

[harmsway]

My uncle is the person that tought myself to ski when I was 19ish. He use to drag his big cabin cruiser and the family all the way from northern Indiana to North Carolina every year or two. They would stay with us for 2 or 3 weeks and we would hit the lake every day. We have had our own boats for about 12 years. My son started skiing @ 6 yrs, wakeboarding @ 10 & picked up slalom @ 12 he's now 14. My wife after trying for 10 yrs to ski finally figured it out about 2 yrs ago & can't keep her off them now, she also started wakeboarding 2 years ago. I also started wakeboarding a couple of years ago and now my son & myself try to show each other up. Now that we have a boat we can surf behind that is the up & coming sport for this year.

[jimmobius]

My parents had the same boat for 35 years!! It was an old mahogany 18' cabin cruiser. I learned to ski behind it at 14 years old, on these old red long square tails whatever skiis. Now many years later and 4 boats later, slalom skied, tried the course a few times, then tried wake boarding in 92. Now , still wakeboarding, wakesurfing and air chair riding. I know I can do it for a few more years at least if I can keep finding people to come out with me, I am 52 now.

Jim

[kaneboats]

Can't believe nobody caught the bug after 40 -- or at least they aren't admitting it.

[rdlangston13]

I am not sure exactly how old I was when I learned to ski. Had to have been about 8th grade thought so I would say 13 or 14. My church would have a youth camp for 7th-12th grade students every summer and we would have a free time session for about 5 hours everyday and church members would volunteer to bring their boats down to the local lake (usually lake waco since our camp was usually at baylor university. I remember Mr. Ronan had an old little i/o that I would always go on and that is where I learned. Then I dated a girl whos dad has a 20 foot four winns I/O that i learned to slalom behind. Wakeboarded for the first time this last summer behind a buddies mastercraft maristar. Still ever surfed and I am not very good at any of it but ok enough to get by. Now that I have my own LSV we will see if I can't improve my skills this upcoming summer!

[kaneboats]

Doesn't matter. You're gonna have fun trying!

[sandm]

Can't believe nobody caught the bug after 40 -- or at least they aren't admitting it.

never really had the bug when I was younger. did some skiing, but nothing to really speak of, and didn't really enjoy it that much. bought my boat in july '07 at 39, so just shy of 40

[Grant M]

Can't believe nobody caught the bug after 40 -- or at least they aren't admitting it.

To be specific:
Water skiied at 11
Barefooted at 17
Surfed at 47
Wakeboarded at 48

[Mikey]

First waterskied a couple days shy of 5th birthday. We always were on holidays at time of my birthdays.As someone else mentioned ,i had to use adult skis as there was no such thing as kids skis. We actually put my shoes on inside bindings opened up because my feet were too small at the time to even stay in.First skis were very short but progressed as time went by.
By age 6,7 my dad cut up a pair of adult skis and made kids skis so i used those till about 9,10 but i was bored and wanted to try slalom. Same issue though as we had no kids slaloms. Finally i started just dropping a ski anyway and would ski slalom on a kids ski with no back boot and very shallow fin, but the challenge was just to last. Finally at age 13 i started using adult type slalom skis and all was good. I bought my own Jobe Honeycomb and never looked back. I still have that ski. Time went on and many years of trying all aspects of watersking tricks skurfer,wakeboards surfing etc,barefooting you name it. Even did some pyramids etc.goofing around.
Only thing i never had the chance to try is Jumping.Now i actually would like to try it . Kinda crazy ,but i feel the need, nothing crazy like the pros but just get out and do it. Maybe i would go back to the ski school i was at in Florida and learn from THE ROCKETMAN.

[jmvotto]

Learned to ski around 7, once had ten kids behind a 19 ft sea Ray all skiing in the mid 70's.

Barefoot at 19.

Wakeboard at 39
Surf at 41
Returned to slaloming at 39

Moomba owner at 40.

Want to barefoot again this year at 43. Have not done it in seven years......

[kaneboats]

Only thing i never had the chance to try is Jumping.Now i actually would like to try it . Kinda crazy ,but i feel the need, nothing crazy like the pros but just get out and do it. Maybe i would go back to the ski school i was at in Florida and learn from THE ROCKETMAN.

Awesome! Go for it. Never too old to try something new. But best to learn from qualified instructors when you're not made of rubber anymore.