Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

[dwco5051]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

Back in the early 50's behind a homemade plywood runabout powere by a 10 hp Scott-Atwater I would ride an also homemade pull board standing. The kid that owned the boat could get up on a set of homemade plywood skis. We were both about 110 #'s then. Of course no observer or life belt with the picture of the whale on it, too much extra weight. Since just about everything was made by us you can deduce that back then we were short on both money and common sense.

 

[skibrain]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

Follow up on my earlier post. (20 hp Merc on 14' aluminum boat) With some photo documentation including the boat. Me age 8, sister 10, brother 11. My sister on a pair of adult skis. My brother and me on jr. skis.

You can see from the prop wash and calm water behind the skiers that we are coming out of the water without too long a drag.

 

[cr2k]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

15' Gregor with a 9 hp. I was like 190 and it was on a 66 in wood comp O'Brien.
hit a sandbar (1 1/2 ft under) broke my arm and dislocated my shoulder.

It was a bet. Spent 4 days in the Hosp. but I won!

Oh yeah...that was 1974

 

[Damifudo]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

14 foot MFG with a 9.8 Mercury we would sit on my brothers surf board with water skis on our feet after we were up on a plan we circle by the cottage and stand up on the water skies and leave the surf board behind. So many wondered how we would ski behind a 9.8. The good news was it would run all day on 6 gals of fuel at about 40 cents a gal. 3 of us would ski all day on less than 3 dollars for the day. Love the old days.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

In the late 70's I had a 10 x 30" double deck patio boat on a lake out of Fresno CA. It was powered by a 115 hp Evinrude. A friend and I decided to see if we could single ski behind it. (seperately) We were both in our late 20's and were in the 160 lb range.

We both did it, however we were never more than knee deep in the water. Somewhere I might have some pre-digital (obviously) fotos. I'll post them if I can find them.

The fun part was that after the skier got up, the driver could leave the helm in the front of the boat and walk to the back rail and take pictures.

 

[northernmerc]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

When I started skiing in the early '60s, a 40 hp was considered more than adequate for skiing. Often, we made do with quite a bit less. When a friend's dad bought a new fiberglass 14' with a 55 hp, we couldn't imagine anything much better.

I also remember small one person homebuilt speedboats, about six to eight feet long and about three feet wide, with a 15 hp or so on them. Because they were so light, they could hit thirty mph or more. They were low and flat, and prone to submarining if hitting a wave.

 

[Capt'n Chris]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

In 1964, I had a new 12ft aluminum Starcraft with 51/2 hp Johnson. At 14, I weighed 160 lbs. The boat would pull me quite nicely on a flat plywood disc (36" diameter) with one fellow a bit smaller driving the boat. Conversely, I could pull him driving the boat equally as well.

In 1966, behind a 13ft Dorsett Ski-Doo, with a Mark 58A, we could ski barefooted by dropping either a shoe ski or a slalom.

 

[bowler]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

16ft speedboat with 50hp outboard. We were about 14 at the time. We skied and tubed with much delight!

 

[Fl_Richard]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

Slowest was a 34 foot Endeavour sailboat.

 

[dachyk22]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

last summer me 170lbs skied behind my 14 foot starcraft with a 25xd mercury with my girlfriend and buddy in the boat took a bit of draggin to get me up but got up
i remember a few years back when i was like 13 we used to "saucer" thats what we called it big plastic disk u nealed on we used to get pulled behind a 9.9 with my uncle in the boat if its all you got you find a way to make it work

 

[creativers]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

In the late 60's, I learned to ski behind a 12' wood boat with a 25hp. We later graduated to a 35hp. I don't remember how well it pulled me out of the water on a slalom, as a teenager. I think I pretty much went straight from dropping 2nd ski to a standing dock start, so didn't get pulled out of the water much.
This was no rowboat. It was designed to be a sport-runabout. In the old days, we usually had just the driver in the boat.
We thought it was normal to drag the boat down as we cut back and forth.

 

[JimMH]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

We use to ski in a pond on our farm behind a 12ft aluminum boat with a 15HP johnson. We had a 16ft larson with 75 johnson on it but it was for going to the big lakes. The farm pond was about 10 acres.

Strangest. My cousins in TX had round 2 acre irrigation ponds that had a road around the pond. My uncle made steal pole that would go in two sleeves on the bumper on an old farm truck we would tie a ski rope to the pole that went out into the pond about 15ft and we would use the truck as a tow vehicle. Yeah it was all in a circle but we were crazy teenagers in the middle of South West Texas looking for fun on a Sunday afternoon.

 

[12vMan]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

In the 80's, skied on a Kidder behind a 550 Kawi stand-up. In the 70's had a 16' Regatta with a 65hp Merc ob that was a real workhorse. Used to go twice a week and she never failed us.

 

[Ronder]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

When I was 5, learned to ski on a 12 foot boat with a 15 HP oliver. Man was that fun!!!

 

[62_Kiwi]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

...And I thought I had the most under-powered start in water skiing, but many of you guys have started with much less - which is impressive...

I learnt to ski in the mid 1970s behind a 15' runabout with a pull-start 40hp Evinrude.

As well as water skis, we also used a thing called a "bash board" which was a flat sheet of marine plywood with rope handles. We used to sit on it and get towed behind the boat. You could steer it easily by leaning to either side.

I haven't seen one of those things for a long time...

 

[skibrain]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

We had an aquaplane when I was young. I made one again about 12 years ago and it works great behind just 5-6 hp boat for kids or adults. When my son was 5, we could plane him with a fast troll/no wake speed behind the ski boat, or by jogging along the beach pulling him in shallow water.

 

[lonesouth]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

Boston whaler 13 sport with a johnson 30. we would tube with that boat all summer. coming out of a turn, the tube would pull the stern a good bit if the rider weighed enough.

 

[DonHof]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

I learned up in Minnesota behind a Chris Craft, when I got home it was behind a 14 foot Lone star with a 10hp Evinrude. That's when I was about 7-8 and 120lbs lighter.

 

[scooper77515]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

My cousins in TX had round 2 acre irrigation ponds that had a road around the pond. My uncle made steal pole that would go in two sleeves on the bumper on an old farm truck we would tie a ski rope to the pole that went out into the pond about 15ft and we would use the truck as a tow vehicle. Yeah it was all in a circle but we were crazy teenagers in the middle of South West Texas looking for fun on a Sunday afternoon.

I used to ski behind a nissan 4x4 truck with a 50' garden hose and a chunk of broom stick tied onto it. We would ski up and down the length of the "sandbar" on a bend on the trinity river in deep south texas.

Not where I learned to ski. I learned behind a 455 old jet boat. Did the truck skiing when I was in high school, and didn't have access to a boat, but HAD to do some skiing.

My dad, on the other hand, learned behind a 30 hp john boat. He always swore that 30 hp was all you really needed to get up on skis.

 

[ejnichol]

Re: Smallest or weakest you've skiied behind?

Great thread! Learned to ski behind 15ft tri hull Ebbtide with 50hp Mercury o/b. Great fun, good boat. No speed demon but plenty for skinny teenagers.