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WATERSKI Magazine
For us, there is no bad time of year. Most water skiers are putting in their final passes before covering up the boat and shelving the skis and boards for winter. The flame that was lit back in March and blazed through summer is out cold, deep inside a gear closet with the door closed.
Not for our staff. The end of the 1999 water-sports season means we get to start on next year, long before the perilous turn to 01/01/00. Recent trade shows gave us an opportunity to see, touch and, in some cases try, the products that will be in pro shops a few months from now. We got to wipe fresh shavings off 2000-model slaloms and wakeboards, and through most of September, we took turns at the throttles of the newest boats before anyone else. Details are coming in the November/December issue of WaterSki, with a complete report of boat tests to follow in our annual Boat Buyers Guide. This is what we can share for now:
Marinas will start looking like the Chicago skyline with all the standard towers on the boat market. Not only are they useful in pulling wakeboarders, kneeboarders and early-level barefooters, but some of the towers we saw are boating's version of the Ginzu knife when it comes to usefulness.
What's really struck us this fall is the trend toward rear-engine V-drives and a precursor to the future, the first center-engine V-drive. In fact, the V-drive of recent years is nothing like what we're starting to see. Big and brawny is no longer a prerequisite for this category of ski boat. And yes, they are legitimate ski boats.
Slaloms are also headed toward a new era. For the first 50 years of our sport, everything was wood, not only skis but boat hulls and jump ramps, too. Then we left the wood on the docks, literally, and moved toward fiberglass. Starting next year, look for carbon to be the craze. Not just partial-carbon skis, but fully carbon-ated slaloms. HO, KD and Goode are at the forefront. The all-carbon ski won't be cheap (approaching $1,000), but it could eventually make fiberglass retro.
Shaped skis will continue to carve a bigger category. The O'Brien Synchro and Connelly Eclypse are new models patterned after the HO Burner and Iconn PowerCarv, all of which make skiing less demanding without sacrificing turning capability. More than one manufacturer tells us that wide skis already outsell traditional skis far and away, but the mid-level skis like the Burner are still poised to overtake all categories. “Once dealers become educated enough about the shaped skis to help consumers, that side of the market will explode,” said one.
We saw some cool design changes in wakeboards that go well beyond window dressing. Molded-in fins and shaped ends look like the dominant elements that will eventually become commonplace. You've seen bat tails and, before that, swallow tails, but several manufacturers are taking those shapes to more radical lengths for next year. Speaking of lengths, boards are definitely getting bigger — it wasn't just a mirage the past couple years. Oh, good news for recreational riders. Some of the best-selling boards from a year ago are about to be moved over to the price-point market. Which ones? You'll have to check out the magazine to find out.
Overheard:
* Perhaps the most interesting booth at the trade shows, based on the height of eyebrows being raised, was at the Solo presentation. Visitors crowded around video screens to see the driverless craft pulling slalom skiers, hydrofoilers and barefooters around the water. Word is, the makers of the Solo already have a second model — and possibly more — in the works.
* After spending part of the summer with Olympic downhill champion Picaboo Street, future Waterski Hall of Famer Carl Roberge got an idea for a new version of slalom on water. By pulling the slalom buoys farther apart and using faster boat speeds, Roberge believes he has the makings of an event called Super Slalom (like the Super G in alpine skiing). About a dozen pro skiers showed an immediate interest in participating in a pilot event scheduled for later this year in Florida.
* When Jaret Llewellyn arrived at Waterski and Wakeboard Expo in Orlando 12 days after the World Championships (held in Milan, Italy), he was greeted with congratulatory handshakes. Industry people thought he had won the world overall title. He hadn't. A mistake on a popular Web site had prematurely declared the Canadian had dethroned Patrice Martin before the finals were over. Llewellyn spent the first part of the show explaining the situation.
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