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WATERSKI MagazineBefore our sport's architects had computer-generated designs and engineering staffs, they got by just fine with a single resource: water. During the years West Coast innovators started to set the tone for our favorite pastime, the most popular on-the-water laboratory was Lake Washington, in Seattle's backyard.
“Oh, they used to do a lot of tinkering back in the day,” says HO Sports' hard goods manager Eddie Roberts, who grew up on the lake. “Don Ibsen first skied here in the late 1920s, and it just grew from there.”
Roberts' father, Ed Sr., was among the second wave of pioneers. “On any given day you could walk down the steps of Wally Burr's basement and find my dad, Herb O'Brien, Pat Connelly and Wally hovering over some new design. Then they'd take it to the lake for a spin and back to the shop for more adjustments.”
Burr's ski shapes were the most influential and anticipated to come off the water. In fact, Eddie Jr. spent Christmas Day 1955 cruising around the Seward Park Inlet on his brand-new Wally Burr signature model. “We didn't have wetsuits back then,” Roberts says. “So I just threw on my raincoat and a ski belt. Nothing was going to stop me from getting on that ski.”
Nowadays it's a bit more bearable to ski the chilly, deep water that separates Seattle and Bellevue. And even though most testing is done on smaller specialty lakes, the country's largest ski companies, and some of their team skiers, still call the Lake Washington area home.
Recreational skiers who want to push the envelope on Lake Washington can choose from a number of launches sprinkled along the 75 miles of shoreline. Skiers who get up with the sun can emulate the men who modernized our sport, while also avoiding the late-morning winds and wake-heavy ships that pass through. Of course, if you want to really feel what it was like 50 years ago, get up late and test yourself – and that new-age equipment. – Tony Smith
