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WATERSKI MagazineThey say necessity is the mother of invention. Never was that more true than during water skiing's maturation era in the 1950s. It had been
helter skelter through the first 28 years. But as the popularity of skiing skyrocketed in this decade, there came a need for rhyme and reason.
“There was a lot to be discovered in the 1950s,” says historian Stew McDonald. “And we had a lot of fun experimenting.”
Water skiing was becoming
less costly and more accessible. You could now ski on anything from a pond to an ocean. Big outboards, like the Mercury six-cylinder, were godsends. The square-tailed skis that had been used for every event started to develop figures that we still see today. Tournament rules were given more thought after skiers took advantage of cave-size loopholes in the original “rulebook.” The uncanny activity was turning into a true sport.
Of all the ingenious minds that helped build the sport, nobody had the natural creativity of Dick Pope Sr. The master promoter of Cypress Gardens brought water skiing into the mainstream through the 1950s. If you saw a water-skiing picture in a magazine or a spot on TV, it was the brainchild of Pope – guaranteed. It was during this time that the Gardens gained its reputation as “the water skiing capital of the world,” a moniker that still hangs over Winter Haven, Florida, to this day.
