Wake Boards

In the mid 80s, a California surfer crossed a surf board with a water ski and called it the Skurfer. It was the dawn of what was to become wake boarding. The Skurfer did not have bindings, but early on it got foot straps. It was thick and very buoyant. It had a monster fin. It was pretty tame compared to today's wake boards, and because of the buoyancy and the one-size-fits-all straps instead of bindings, it required a lot of finesse to do much of anything on it. But it was new, and it was fun. You had a pretty fair chance of taking a showy fall every time you took it out on the lake.

By the mid 90s, the boards were compression molded and much, much thinner. They still had footstraps, but a heel strap was added which helped some. There were multiple fins on the tail of the board, but they were considerably smaller than in the 80s. The graphics were much much better. This board cut better and was more maneuverable.

Finally, by the late 90s, wake boards took on the appearance of the boards that are around today.

Our original bubble gum pink Skurfer from the 80s is hung on a wall below our last wake board.

The 90s version hangs above our front door.

We decided to give up wake boarding a few years back. Wake board tricks can be quite high impact. We plan to keep skiing for many, many years to come. One bad landing on a wake board can do very, very bad things to ankles and knees, things that older skiers like us can't really afford. Some things are best left for younger skiers!

But I sure am glad we got our fill while we could. It is fun.