Anyway, Ralph’s fun became an exhibition sport on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1920’s and early 1930’s. Official competition began in 1939 when the American Water Ski Association (now USA Water Ski) was organized and held the first National Water Ski Championship at Jones Beach on Long Island, New York.
News Article wrote on Ralph Samuelson
Skiing with Determination.
Author/s: Joyce Styron Madsen
Issue: August-Sept, 1999
What does it take to be a successful inventor? Along with creativity, inventors also need a fierce determination. When others laugh at their mistakes, they only become more determined than ever to succeed. Thomas Edison himself insisted that his “mistakes” were not failures because he learned something from every one of them. An inventor named Ralph Samuelson, no doubt, would have agreed.
Growing up in Lake City, Minnesota, amid the rolling hills which surround the Mississippi River, young Ralph Samuelson probably had plenty of time to practice skiing. The long, snowy Minnesota winters lasted for months on end. Ralph and his friends spent much of their free time skiing along the river bluffs. Even the long winter didn’t provide enough time for a skiing enthusiast like Ralph. Besides, he thought to himself as he watched a friend glide down the snow-covered hills, why do you need snow to ski? Why couldn’t you ski on water too?
Like many inventors, Ralph Samuelson was able to really look at what was there and, in his mind, see what could be there. Of course, among his friends and the townspeople, the notion of water skiing was good for a laugh, but nothing more. Still the thought of watching dare-devil Ralph, wearing his crazy “water skis,” sink into nearby Lake Pepin was enough to bring a fair-sized crowd to the lake shore that June morning in 1922. Sink is exactly what Ralph did. The snow skis he was wearing were too heavy. So Ralph tried again, this
time wearing barrel staves strapped to his feet. Again he sank. More determined that ever to succeed, Ralph sat back to analyze what he had done wrong. The water skis should work! What could he do differently to make them work?
After many more tries and a lot more sinking, Ralph finally decided the skis themselves needed to be wider, with more surface area to support him on top of the water. Ralph bought two pine boards, each eight feet long and nine inches wide. Then he softened the tips in boiling water, bent them upward, and held them in place with vise clamps so they would dry with curved tips.
After a few more tries, Ralph realized that the most efficient way to begin his water-ski ride would be with the ski tips sticking up out of the water in front of him. Putting all of these ideas together, he tried once again on July 2, the day before his nineteenth birthday. His brother started the 24-horsepower engine of the family boat. Ralph’s hands grasped the rubber-wrapped metal ring attached to the tow ropes. The skis rose up, up, up to the water’s surface, carrying Ralph along with them. Ralph Samuelson was water skiing!
Instantly, the jeers of the by-standers turned to cheers. Now – thanks to his determination – it was Ralph Samuelson’s turn to smile.
COPYRIGHT 1999 Bluffton News Printing & Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group