Excutive Director Report
May 12, 2008
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Dear USA Water Ski board members, sport discipline board members, principals of
the sport and USA Water Ski staff,
USA Water Ski Executive Director’s Weekly Report- Week of May 12, 2008
The 2008 season is under way. That is hard to believe in light of the harsh weather that some parts of the
nation have been experiencing. There is a wide array of events starting to pop up on the calendar,
including the 49th Masters Water Ski & Wakeboard Tournament.The Masters, organized by Correct
Craft, is a premier competition that takes place over Memorial Day Weekend at Callaway Gardens in Pine
Mountain, Ga. I am really excited to be attending this year’s tournament.
All of this activity, excitement and hubbub brings to mind an interesting set of statistics we recently
received from NMMA’s BoatingNews.net. The statistics deal with the manufacturers shipments of new
boats thus far in 2008 and gives us a little glimpse into the health of the 2008 season. Take a look:
Wholesale shipment volumes were down 17% in January 2008, while corresponding dollars were down
10% for NMMA's 2008 control group of traditional powerboat (outboard-, stern-drive-, and inboardpowered
boats) manufacturers representing 77% of the market. Declines were spread across most major
traditional powerboat categories, except ski boats (up 4.1%). Advance data indicate trends to continue
through February (units and dollars down 18 %.) (Source: NMMA MSR)
Statistics say anything you want them to say if configured just right. The 4.1% increase in ski boats, albeit
from a control group that was measuring only January, didn’t correspond to what we thought we had been
hearing in the world. So, we did some checking. And, here is what it means. The MSR report
(manufacturing shipping report) is not a reflection of actual customer purchases, but rather reflects dealer
purchases. Manufacturers are providing huge rebates to dealers. With the rebates and some positive
results from consumers, dealers are confident in our segment (ski boats). That alone is encouraging. It
remains to be seen if dealers will be totally successful in their sales. But, history has shown dealers
normally to be accurate in their sales projections (meaning that they are not going to buy more boats than
they can sell.)
The Water Sports Industry Association (WSIA), headed by Jim Emmons and Larry Meddock, will
conduct a meeting on Monday, May 19 in Atlanta. The WSIA board of directors meeting is held in
association with that weekend’s kickoff event of the Mastercraft Pro Wakeboard Tour organized by
Bonnier World Sports and Marketing. The WSIA is fundamental to the growth of the sport. It spends a
great deal of time and resources lobbying for boating laws oriented around safety and making boating
more readily available to the mainstream. It does it of course to sell product, but also because every one
of the WSIA members is involved in some aspect of recreational boating. The latest WSIA
accomplishment has been to assume a seat on the board of the Underwriter Laboratories (UL). The UL is
involved in the examination of life preserver use by all types of water sports users, and it has a great
impact on state laws associated with life preservers. Congratulations to the WSIA and to all of us with an
interest in water sports.
The CBS College Sports Network's Collegiate Wakeboard Nationals, sanctioned by USA Water Ski,
will be staged May 16-18 in Boulder, Colo. This is big deal stuff. CBS television, which recently
purchased the College Sports Network, is investing heavily into collegiate athletic activities. Its bent is
more along the contemporary side of sport (i.e. what is hip today in the eyes of young people).
Malibu will once again be the exclusive towboat for this competition to be held in the very beautiful
Boulder Reservoir. Dan Levine and Marcus Friedrich of USA Wakeboard, and Malibu’s Lani Farmer,
have invested substantial effort in developing this event.
So, since I am now a part of this sport, I thought it would be important to actually learn how it is
done. I did the same when I was the executive director with USA Triathlon and everyone had the chance
to beat the executive director in every race I entered, and while I was with USA Taekwondo, everyone
literally got the opportunity to kick my…well, everything was kicked.
After purchasing a 2008 USA Water Ski membership earlier this year, I sought instructors willing to take
on the challenge of getting me upright on skis for acceptable lengths of time. I found one, and have skied
twice over the last couple of weekends. The second weekend was so much more successful than the first.
Both weekends left me stiff and feeling like I had just completed the IRONMAN TRIATHLON® when
Monday rolled around. I thought I was in some kind of shape, but found that my legs and upper body
really took a beating. This sport is amazing. The strength requirements make it appealing and just looking
at the fine physical specimens of both women and men of all ages in competition is awe inspiring. Maybe
some day I will get to a level where actual competition is a realistic consideration. Until then, I can
always go to the various water-sport apparel catalogues, buy stuff, and at least look like I know what I am
doing.
Have a great weekend.
Steve Locke
Executive Director
USA Water Ski
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