Skiing behind jon boat.

Has anyone here setup a tower on the back of their jon boat and attempted to pull skiers before? If someone has a video link, I'd love to see it.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

I guess it would depend on the jon boat. I've been on jon boats that would have no problem pulling a skier. I've been on jon boats that have trouble pulling their own weight.

I can't imagine it'd be an ideal situation, but if the boat had the power, you could just hook to the stern eyes and try it out. Don't see the need for a tower.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

I skied behind a jon boat once. 9.9 hp on a single ski. Yea, I was young and stupid. Ski was pulling like 12 in draft and I hit a sandbar, that was deep enough to not be seen, with not enough speed to flip over and landed on my shoulder and spent 2 weeks in the hospital, 6 weeks in a sling and my shoulder pops out now if I look at it wrong.

40 years later it still bothers me and I had to retire a little early from a profession I lived for, firefighting.

So I guess my point is if you're gonna do something dumb make sure you have enough water to fall in. Like a big deep lake.

85 MPH on a 68" wood comp O'brien no problem. 8 MPH behind a Jon boat very very painful.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

WHY, does everyone think you have to have a tower to ski. that is what the tow eyes are for. just put an harness to each side, and the ski rope in the center of the harness.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

There are a lot of people that ask "Can I ski behind this boat?". I always wonder, why not try it and see. A 35 or 40 hp on a 14 or 15' boat was a skiers dream in the 50's. And I never could master it but I had a friend that could get up on one behind a 10hp in high school. He would almost lay over on the ski, and drag his other foot behind him so that we were pulling him on plane then he would stand up and get his other foot in the boot. I drank a lot of water trying to learn to do that.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

I agree. Give it a try. My father had a 14" aluminum with a 18 HP Merc on it and we could ski with no problem when I was a kid. Dock starts were easiest, but it would pull us out of the water with out too much issue as well. Sure it wasn't like a dedicated ski boat, but it's what we had.

With that said, this was when I weighed about 100 lbs sopping wet as did my brother. I'm sure that made a difference too!

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

We used to ski behind small jon boats growing up in central Florida. We just tied a rope to one of the handles on the stern. Yeah, the skier could slow the boat and slide it sideways but that just added to the fun. I wonder if a tower would be counterproductive since it would generate more leverage to tip it sideways, etc.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

yep, try it out.
when i was a younger. we towed children with the fishing boat. had a 10 johnson on it. got the kids up easy on two. i also felt it was a little less intimidateing to the kids too, the smaller boat + very easy to go back and try again when they'd fall in a small fishing boat.
yep again. no tower, just ski tow rope to the handle of the boat or maybe use the bridle if we wanted to go all out...

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

Bubba1235 said:

Really depends how many oarsmen you can fit in the boat.

Click to expand...

Nah. You just need Ole Evinrude and one of his nice gasoline rowers on board.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

tashasdaddy said:

WHY, does everyone think you have to have a tower to ski. that is what the tow eyes are for. just put an harness to each side, and the ski rope in the center of the harness.

Click to expand...

Lots of folks aren't old enough to remember the beginnings of waterskiing, when the norm was small boats and small outboards pulling skiers. In my family, in the very late 50s and early 60s, we had a 13' glass over wood kit boat with a 25 hp Johnson on the back. It worked great for waterskiing, and would even pull two people on doubles out of the water, as long as they were skinny kids like we all were.

No towers. No extras. We all had a great time, and even my dad got up on two skis behind that boat with me driving. Skis from Sears and one pair was a combo, so I learned to slalom behind that boat, dropping a ski in a cove when I was up.

Today, everyone thinks it's impossible to waterski unless you have a $30K boat or better. Funny stuff.

If your little boat will hit 20mph with three people on board, you can pull a skier on doubles. No problem. Of course, the skier will be able to drag the stern of the boat around pretty easily, but my dad learned that he could repay us for that by turning tighter and tighter until we fell.

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Yeah,... the good ol' days. Why I remember back in the day....we took the skates that the skateboardedrs took the wheels off to nail on to 2X4s.. Well we took the skate part and nailed it to the top of a 2X4 and clamped in our Red Ball Jets......Went down to the canal with a long rope and a donkey...

Wish we had one of them fancy floating key fobs back then for our skate key.

Ahhh such memories!

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

Yah, well, those of us water skiing in those days set the stage for all the waterskiing since. You can laugh all you want, but that's what happened. It was invented in those days, and we sure had a lot of fun doing it.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

And one of these lovely ladies could be your grandmother, too.

Re: Skiing behind jon boat.

And here's another 1950s waterskiing photo: