Water-Ski Shows: From Beginning to End

Water-Ski Shows: From Beginning to End

Watching a water-ski show team perform can be both fun and exciting. For decades, thousands of people each summer rush down to beaches all across America to watch water ski shows. Members within the ski teams span all ages and skiing abilities. Members as young as five years all the way to skiers in their eighties may be involved in the show. Perhaps it's the pyramids, the jumping, or maybe the outrageous looking costumes and makeup which leads crowds to gather; or maybe it's the beach, warm summer weather, and friends. Whatever each individual's reason for watching a live water ski-show, a small amount of knowledge about how each act works may better their experience and understanding of show-skiing even more. There are three main sections of a typical water-ski show - beginning, middle, and end - with each section comprised of multiple acts. This paper will explain in detail how each individual act is performed within the three main sections of a show.

1. Beginning Acts

The first act, generally, in any water-ski show is the Opening Pyramid. Reaching heights of over twenty feet above the water, these human pyramids are truly spectacular. They consist of as many as five layers of skiers and up to forty people.

The pyramid is built as skiers climb onto the shoulders of the skiers below them until the final pyramid is achieved. The base, or bottom layer of skiers, are the strongest and heaviest in order to support the weight above them and are usually males; these are the skiers who hold the rope handles, holding all the weight, connected to the water-ski boat. The next layer of the pyramid usually consists of the older (20-40 years old) and strongest of the female skiers on the team. These female skiers start on the shoulders of the bottom male skiers as they sit with their legs off the dock preparing to be pulled by the ski-boat. The third layer of skiers are younger than the second layer of skiers, and almost always girls, as flexibility and being light-weight are key components for this position. Occasionally, boys will be placed on the third layer as well. The smallest and lightest girls on the team create the final fourth or fifth layer, depending upon the height of the pyramid, and upon reaching the top, wave their flags or pompoms to the crowds. Watching skiers create human pyramids while moving on the water is truly exhilarating and suspenseful as a single slip from any one of the skiers can result in the entire pyramid's collapse.

The second act following opening pyramid is the swivel act. In water-skiing, swiveling consists of only one ski per skier. The skis for this act are specially designed so the rubber boot holding the skiers foot to the ski is able to turn in a complete circle, allowing the skier to rotate. Both flexibility and balance are essential to becoming a successful swivel skier, leaving women to claim this act for themselves. Often as many as ten skiers swivel together performing synchronized rotations and moves such as skiing backwards, rotating both clock-wise and counter clock-wise, and spinning up to 720o (two 360o rotations) without pausing. Swivel skiers begin their act from a dock where they are pulled off and onto the water by the ski-boat. In some cases they may even begin with nothing but their toes holding the rope (fig. 3). Watching these talented women displaying both their amazing skiing and acrobatic skills will leave the viewer wishing for more, as many of these acts are tremendously difficult.

The tricks portion of the show is the third act in the beginning set of a water-ski show. This trick section consists of numerous stunts with many different types of equipment, including, but not limited to, wakeboards, trick skis, and sky-skis. For wake boarders, this is their chance to show off as they perform 360os, 180os, and flips from wake to wake behind the boat. In addition to wake borders, members of the team also use trick skis to show off their talent. Trick skis are very short compared to regular show skis, usually only two and one half feet in length. They also are wider and have no fin on the bottom, making balancing very difficult. Skiers using trick skis can perform surface 360os (rotating completely without leaving the water surface) and often use just one ski. Also, more advanced trick skiers are able to hold the ski rope with only their toes, similarly to swivel skiers. Another type of equipment used for the trick section of the show is the sky-ski. The sky-ski has a seat where the skier sits and a large fin protruding from under the ski (pictured in fig. 5 below). This was originally designed for paraplegics who still wanted to water-ski but has advanced to skiers of all types. Tricks performed on sky-skis include back-flips and front-flips (pictured below). Wake borders, trick skis, and sky-skis, usually complete

the trick portion of the ski show.

As the beginning acts start coming to an end, a skit on the beach is usually performed by skiers. The skit ranges from a variety of acts but is always focused on making the crowd laugh. Girls with gymnastic abilities may perform flips and cart-wheels while others dress up in costume and perform some sort of comedy show. To the right is pictured a skit entitled, "The 'Homecoming King' of the Class of 1987." Whatever the case, the skit section of the show always leaves the crowd with a laugh.

2. Middle Acts

With the beginning acts complete, the middle acts begin, starting with doubles. Doubles consists of two skiers for each double. There is the base skier which is the individual which skis behind the boat while holding the rope and there is the, "Flyer," the girl who rides on top of the base skier. Both men and women can be base skiers for doubles as long as they are strong enough to carry and lift the flyer. The flyers are always girls and are generally

on the smaller end of skiers on the ski team. Similarly to the opening pyramid, the girls begin the double act by sitting on the base skier's shoulders as they