Last Updated on April 16, 2020 by Christopher G Mendla

I heard stories from my Dad about the ski jump in the bay. As I was going through some old slides, I found some images. 

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Back in the late 1940’s and 1950’s skiing was very popular. If you knew what you were doing, you could ski behind a boat with a 20 horsepower engine. 

The idea was that the boat would pass by the ramp and the skier would go up the ramp and gracefully land back on the water. It was supposed to go somewhat like this

This is NOT how you are supposed to jump with the ramp. 

or this:

These photos were from their early attempts. My dad and his friends figured out what they were doing wrong. They had been trying to go straight up the middle of the ramp. That would create slack in the line. 

The correct way was to go up at an angle. For example, as the boat passed the ramp, if the ramp was on the left (port) side, then the skier would want to target the lower right side of the ramp and aim for the top left side. That would keep the tow rope under tension. 

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