Viewpoint:
Waxing and Waning
By Paul Jurbala

Something's happening in Ontario water skiing - maybe in all of
Canadian water skiing. Things are changing. Is 1996 just a blip or is
this a turning point?

Out on the traditional tournament circuit, the new season has brought
weaker than usual turnouts. The first few tournaments were all down
from last years' numbers - blamed initially on the cool, wet spring,
but how long can you use that excuse? We won't know until fall, of
course, if OWSA Competitive Memberships will decrease for the 5th
straight year, but there's no question that three-event competition is
not as robust  as it once was. In 1989 the OWSA had 324 Competitive
Members, in 1995 we had 163. Elsewhere in this issue you'll find an
article about our Membership Survey, and part of the story is there.
The average age of OWSA members is fairly high, and seems to be rising.
And you can't compete forever, despite the impression you would get
from Chris Martin...

On the other hand, there's wakeboard. It's exploding! It seems all the
17-to-25 year-olds who are not slaloming and jumping are out doing
Raleys and Tantrums, not to mention the odd Stalefish. Sponsors are
arguing over the rights to the first Canadian Wakeboard Championships,
but one of them, in a recent conversation, described the traditional
(three-event) Nationals as something to run away from . The U.S. Pro
Tour (to be accurate, the Cafe de Columbia Pro Tour) is now featuring
men's slalom, men's jump, and wakeboard. Trick skiing? What's that?
I've had three calls from television producers wanting to know what
wakeboarding is and how could they film it?  I'm simultaneously
thankful that we got wakeboard competition going back in 1994, and
frightened that our volunteers (who are mostly named Nicole Maurer)
won't be able to handle the  rush.

It's not just disciplines which wax and wan, it's whole sports and
whole populations. You probably know without much reflection which
sports are hot (snow-boarding, mountain biking, rowing, beach
volleyball, basketball) and which are not (cross-country skiing, road
bicycling, and too many more to mention). If you're lucky enough to
have the table tilt toward you, you need to be in position to take
advantage fast, because the trends seem to be ever shorter-lived.
Rollerblading - has it peaked? Kneeboarding - one wakeboard sponsor
told us it was so dead, if the Wakeboard Nationals included
kneeboarding, they wouldn't want to be involved. So there.

Canada's population is becoming older. New Canadians tend to come more
often from Asian countries and move to urban areas, with Vancouver and
Toronto leading the way. What does that do to water skiing in ten
years? Will it be more like lawn bowling or more like basketball? And,
will you be working to make it your private, increasingly more
solitary, refuge from the crowd or are you ready to introduce it, in
whatever form, to some new friends?