There is nothing casual about the way Robertson skis. For him, it's not a fun day at the lake but practice for competition. I'm told you can find Robertson, along with a small core of competitive skiers, just about any day at Lyman's lake in Duncanville beginning around 4 p.m. While I'm intimidated by his arduous ski performance, I couldn't ask for a better teacher.

Lyman tells me just seconds before getting into the water that if I'm going to ski, I'm going to ski right. I listen and wait as Lyman pulls back the throttle, and in a matter of seconds, I'm up and moving fast across the water.

In my first skiing lesson, I quickly discover that skiing is what you make it. Much like soccer, baseball, football or swimming, skiing can be a casual or competitive sport. For the competitive skiers at Lymanland, skiing is all about technique, speed and agility. I watch as skiers travel around the lake at speeds as fast as 40 miles per hour.

Another thing I learned on the lake is that skiing is a diverse sport. There's traditional skiing, and then there's trick, jump and slalom skiing. Other non-traditional forms of skiing include barefoot, wake boarding or knee boarding.

Reminding myself that I'm no professional, I get ready for my first ski attempt. I've never skied before, making me as amateur as they come. While I make it up on my first try, it's not long before my comedic wipe out. My skis slip out from under me as I'm pulled underwater. Somehow despite my sorry first attempt, I'm feeling charged and ready to go. I slip my skis back on, take hold of the rope and after a thumbs up, I'm back on top of the water.

'One of the best things is to start early. Obviously, some athletic ability is helpful for skiing. It's much easier to teach someone with no training than someone with incorrect training,' Hardy tells me.

Athletic ability, check. Prior skiing experience? Negative. While Lyman insists it's never too late to take up skiing, he tells me the best skiers today are the ones who started skiing early. He tells me that in addition to being an expensive sport to take part in, waterskiing is also often a family tradition, with some skiers starting as young as 2 or 3 years old.

Haley Runion, a sophomore jumper on the UA ski team, started skiing at the age of 2, when she got her first pair of training skis. While Runion loves traditional skiing, jumping is her forte. After beating her father's jumping record at age 11, Runion would go on to pursue competitive skiing and is now one of the top jumpers on the UA team.

When asked what she enjoys most about the sport, she tells me she's addicted to the challenge and loves the people.

'I like it because you get to hang out with friends, and I've skiied at world challenges. I've met a lot of people from all over the country,' Runion said.

Competitive skier Fred Horn also skis at Lymanland. He said that in addition to being fun, skiing is also a great way to stay in shape.

'It keeps you fit,' he said. 'If I'm not on this lake skiing, I'm in the gym, but nothing at the gym really prepares you for skiing. Skiing works your arms, legs, your rear and your core. Every time you pull, you're pulling several times your body weight. You go at such incredible speeds, and it takes a lot of control.'

UA ski coach Tom Strong adds that people underestimate the physical strength and endurance skiers have. And after one round with Lyman, I agree. Skiing takes work.

Once a skier masters the basic parallel skis, he or she can go on to try more difficult techniques such as slalom, trick and or jumping, the three traditional competitive water skiing events. In slalom skiing, skiers have to complete a zigzag course of six buoys on one ski in a given time. Skiers will travel at a faster distance following each successful round. In trick skiing, skiers perform two 20-second routines of tricks such as wake flips and multiple turns performed with the rope attached to the contestant's foot. All tricks are assigned a different point value. In jumping, the skier's object is distance. While there are maximum speeds for age divisions, skiers can increase their speeds for the jump by 'cracking the whip' behind the boat. The record distance for men is 230 feet off a 6-foot-high ramp and 170 feet off a 5-foot-high ramp for women.

While he has worked with some of the world's top skiers, Strong said he's noticed a decline in the number of people skiing. On Lake Tuscaloosa, where he used to see trick and slalom skiers, he now sees wakeboarders.

'I would say that it has dropped by 90 percent. I used to go out and everyone would be skiing years ago. You would have expected to see a lot more. But now wakeboarding is so much easier to master than regular skiing,' Strong said.

Strong said that with the number of wakeboarding injuries on the rise, he expects there will be a gradual shift back to skiing. He said that while there aren't as many young skiers today, Tuscaloosa still has a group of diehard skiers. After witnessing the comraderie the skiers at Lymanland share, I understand its allure.

Skiing may be an individual sport, but you are never alone. With Lyman as my driver and other skiers there to support me, I knew I would ski. So yes, I was slow and a little bit clumsy, but I can honestly say that I'm ready to go again. I've found a new addiction and different from smoking, it's better now than never.

'It's fun competing but it's not a very big sport,' Robertson said. 'You're close friends with everybody in the skiing community, and it's a great way to meet people from other countries.'