"Initially, to create a surfable wave, you had to lean the boat to one side by moving the crew and cumbersome moveable aftermarket ballast bags to port or starboard." "Innovation is making wakesurfing easier, and that's helping to drive its popularity," says Kevin Michael, executive director of WSIA. ![]() Numbers don't lie: According to the Water Sports Industry Association (WSIA), the advocate for the towed watersports industry, sales of the ski/ wake segment of boats has grown about 10 percent annually since 2013. While some athletes still crave speed, wakesurfing is less physically demanding, which explains why you may be seeing more of these boats on your local waters. Currently, customers want to wakesurf, and the demand for these boats does not seem to be diminishing." "Into the '90s those customers were focused on skiing. "The ski/wake segment has always had a strong following of loyal customers," says Bill Yeargin, president and CEO of Correct Craft, which builds the Nautique, Centurion, and Ski Supreme brands. For years wakesurfing was a novelty behind the boat, but that changed when long-board surfer Hunter Joslin screwed a fin onto a short skim board and mastered surfing boat wakes. At some point the surfer crowd showed us that, once up to speed, you could discard the towline altogether and ride the boat's wake on a surfboard. Then came wakeboarding - one board instead of two skis, the rider still clutching a towline, and, wow, the jumps and flips were impressive. For many it was an addictive adrenaline rush. This was the dawn of a very different type of fun afloat, and learning to (or trying to) water ski became a rite of passage in powerboat families. Back in the 1920s, Ralph Samuelson designed the first water skis from two pine boards and skied on Lake Pepin in Minnesota.
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