Finally, Sme Effective Beginner Water Skiing Tips

Finally, Sme Effective Beginner Water Skiing Tips
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Getting the Idea

When first starting out, it can be a huge benefit to learn some basic beginner water skiing tips. First things first, make sure that you have the right safety gear on before even attempting to get in the water. This means wearing a properly fitted life jacket, making sure you have a spotter (the driver of the boat doesn’t count), and being sure other boats, docks, and people are far from your own watercraft before attempting to ski. Once you have these basics in place, take advantage of these tips to help you get up and running your first time out on the water.

Avoid Alcohol

This should be the case anytime you get out there on the water, but you want to pay special attention to this tip when you are learning how to water ski. It’s tough enough to be able to learn the proper technique and balance required to successfully stand on skis, and alcoholic beverages can literally make it an impossible task.

Use Hand Signals

Make sure you get together with the spotter and boat driver before getting in the water, so you can all agree on some simple yet specific hand signals to be used. You might want to establish hand signals for things like “stop”, “slow down” or “speed up”. Any kind of communication you can foresee you might need to do while in the water should have a corresponding hand signal. If you are skiing with others that are seasoned in the sport, chances are that you they already have hand signals they will teach you.

Make Sure You’re in Deep Water

Ski in Water

You want to make sure you have at least six feet of clearance between you and the bottom of the lake or other waterway when skiing. This will help to ensure you don’t drag the skis along the bottom and ruin a perfectly good, expensive set of skis. It will also ensure you have enough room to navigate the skis in order to get up onto them, which is a hard task in itself when you are first starting out.

Take a Class

Even if you have had a chance to get up on some skis in the past, you probably want to learn all you can about the sport in order to improve. Taking a class both before and after your first experience on skis is an advantageous for a number of reasons. For example, it is a great opportunity to learn tricks and the correct form when doing them. Not only will these kinds of classes teach you basic beginner water skiing tips, but they will help enhance your skills as you gain more experience on the water.

References

Ezilon “Beginner’s Guide to Water Skiing” Retreived July 21, 2010

Sac Delta “Water Skiing Safety” Retreived July 21, 2010

Image Credits

Wikimedia/Commons