How to Get Up on 1 Water Ski

Series Summary

Water sports are a series of extreme sports involving skis, wakeboards and motorboats where enthusiasts can demonstrate flips, turns and tricks. Including water skiing, wakeboarding, parasailing and surfing, water sports usually include a person atop one or two skis or boards being pulled by a boat across the surface of the water. Requiring both upper and lower body strength, balance and control, water sports are difficult to master but are found in both the competitive and recreational fields. In this free video series on water sports, a water skiing instructor discusses several aspects of these summertime activities. Learn to water ski and wakeboard, and find out how to master simple tricks that require balance and proper body positioning. Also, get tips on purchasing and driving a boat for both skiing and wakeboarding. Learn some new tricks this summer from water sports specialists.

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Greg Lawrence and I'm going to show you how to get up on a slalom ski. First of all, when you're in the water you're going to want to ball your body up and really pull your knees up towards your chest in order to get started. There's two different methods in order to get up on the slalom your first time, you can either drag a foot for balance in which case you will start with your front foot in the ski and your back foot dragging to the side to counterbalance your left and right motion. The other method would be to start with both feet in the boots, with both feet in the boots you can actually apply a little bit more pressure to the tail of the ski as you're rising out of the water. When you're first in the water it's very important that you crouch up as much as possible, you do not want to fight the boat meaning you're not going to want to use your strength to pull yourself up you're going to want to allow your body to be extended and your chest up over your knees to be pulled up onto the ski. Because a slalom ski has less surface area than say a wake board or an e board, it requires much more speed to plane or get up on top of the water therefore you're going to want to remain in that ball for a little bit longer say five ten seconds before you feel yourself plane up on top of the water and you're going to want to stand up and get your hips forward. That's I'm Greg Lawrence and that's how to get up on a slalom ski."