Cypress Gardens "Ski Skat" - Page 2 - The Hull Truth

Freeebird · 05-10-2009, 08:22 AM

Never noticed this thread before, but when I learned to slalom, my first purchase was a Little Monster. A buddy of mine had a Ski Skat (the original, short one), but it was more a novelty than it was anything fun to ski on. You could really bust your face crossing a wake with that thing as you'd hit the water face first if you stuffed it.

marshwabbit · 05-11-2009, 06:51 AM

jcv, the original skeg on my ski was plastic, and about 2" deep. it didn't last too long. back in the 70's, there weren't many repair options, so i ended up with a fin off another ski, except it was deeper and longer, which made controlling it that much harder.

jxg · 05-18-2009, 11:39 AM

here's me taken the Ski Skat into Ball 5 during a slalom run (ok i lied, its not a ski skat, but it did help me learn a bit...)

Tugted · 05-18-2009, 12:08 PM

I have a pair of Cyp.Garden Banana trick skis and the flying saucer they made.

t.ray · 05-18-2009, 05:04 PM

nice cut jxg.

I had the ski skat and sure as everyone else busted my face a few times. When i was young we lived in Winter Haven (actually born there) and had elementry school classmates that lived next door to Dick Pope (founder of Cypress Gardens). His yard was just like Cypress gardens, landscaped to the 10's. In his back yard was Lake Cannon and across the street in front was Lake Howard. We skied all the lakes around their. Learned to ski by 5 and could salom before 7. Had family and friends that worked at the gardens. One of my dad's friends was one of the first if not the original kite man at the gardens. He taught us lots of things, skiing on a disk, sitting on a chair while riding the disk all the while doing 360's
Great memories form decades ago

jeeper17 · 07-14-2009, 10:17 PM

My neighbor has a Ski Skat that I tried last year and was unable to ski on. I tried dropping a ski but everytime i put my weight on to it I went straight over the front. Do you think I just need to go faster? Is it possible to deep water start one of these things. I have heading to the lake this weekend and am planning on giving it another shot. Any helpful hints would be awesome! Thanks!!

tprice · 07-15-2009, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeeper17

My neighbor has a Ski Skat that I tried last year and was unable to ski on. I tried dropping a ski but everytime i put my weight on to it I went straight over the front. Do you think I just need to go faster? Is it possible to deep water start one of these things. I have heading to the lake this weekend and am planning on giving it another shot. Any helpful hints would be awesome! Thanks!!

Never tried a deep water start with one but normal speed but you have to make sure you do not look down, kind of like teaching people to barefoot. First thing they want to do is look down at their feet and then it is face first into water

Crewlink · 07-15-2009, 10:19 AM

hmmmm nooo

eddy2419 · 07-15-2009, 10:27 AM

I think we had the Dick Pope model. A word of caution, those things are pretty old. My BIL broke one several years ago and got cut up by the skeg pretty badly as well as some splinters. Make sure they are in good shape before using them.

Coolmagoo · 08-16-2010, 11:11 AM

Does anyone remember Hedley Boats? That was my grandfathers business. Before his passing, he built the boats and the skis for Cypress Gardens. In the 50's and 60's he had designed and built a lot of boats. One of the first "Air Boats", "Pontoon Boat", also ski boats and custom boats for a lot of people.