Waterski Jump and Wakeboarding are both disciplines of the Water Skiing sport.
Wakeboarding is a water sport in which the rider, standing on a wakeboard (a shortboard with foot bindings), is towed behind a motorboat across its wake and especially up off the crest for aerial manoeuvres and tricks. Some of these tricks are the toeside edge, the heelside edge, the ride switch and the 180° spin. More advanced tricks call for what is known as inversion or “inverts”. An invert is considered any action where the board is above the head of the rider.
Waterski is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. Water ski jumpers use two long skis to ride over a water-ski jump in an attempt to travel the longest distance. In a tournament, skiers are given three attempts to hit the ramp. The winner is the skier who travels the farthest calculated distance and successfully rides away. There are no style points, simply distance. Skiers may choose their boat speed and ramp height, although there are maximums based on the skier’s gender and age.
Five significant steps in the history of Waterski
1922: Water skiing was invented in 1922 when Minnesotan Ralph Samuelson built the first pair of skis and was then towed on them behind an outboard-powered boat on Lake Pepin in Lake City (USA).
1961: Bruno Rixen invented the waterski & wakeboard cableway in Germany, an environmentally friendly development enabling one or more participants to be towed across the water at the same time using an electric motor instead of a powered boat.
1972: Water skiing is included in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich (GER) as an exhibition sport.
1981: Waterski appears at The World Games for the first time in Santa Clara (USA) as one of the founding sports and has appeared in every edition since, including the wakeboard discipline.
1995: Waterski was included in the Pan American Games for the first time in Mar del Plata (Argentina) and six other editions including the most recent in Lime (PER).
