Most of the water skiing pros, especially slalom skiers, first gained a love of the sport using a friend's boat and skis as a child.
If you've got the love, but not yet the skill, the first step to gaining that is getting your own slalom ski! The features of slalom water skis can be a little confusing if all you've ever done is get on and go - we explain what newbies should look when buying water skis.
Given their humble origins in carved branches and planks of wood, modern slalom water ski construction really is a precise science.
There are several factors you need to consider when buying water skis for slalom or other riding: Sizing Much like wakeboard buying, the sizing of your water skis will be determined mostly by your weight.
However there's an additional factor, that is the boat speed.
As you can imagine, when the boat is going faster you have less time to weave around an obstacle and need to get your skis round ASAP...
which will be much easier with the right size ski.
That's why at some speeds you'll see a different sizing recommendation for faster boat speeds.
Sizing recommendations for buying waterskis online are found in bold below.
Width Wider skis are easier to control and more suitable for beginners, however they do take more effort to turn.
You'll often see wide body water skis with a spine on the bottom, that allows for better control for beginners.
Rocker shape As with wake boards, the 'rocker' refers to the area beneath skis, and it's curvature from tail to tip.
Buying waterskis with a larger flat area under the bindings will give you a more stable predictable ride while a more constant rocker or curve gives you a ski that will more quickly initiate a turn.
Fins These further add to the water ski dynamic underneath the board.
They'll only start to matter when you've gained a fair bit of experience in slalom water skiing.
A great way to check out how different fin shapes feel is to look for an online waterski buying store that offers 'try before you buy' facilities.
Tunnel shape You will find that some water skis have modified base shapes, some with a tunnel (really a curved area in the centre bordered by two flat areas) through the midsection.
In competition water skis, the flat edges are removed completely and the base design is called edge-to-edge concave.
This provides excellent control - but the rider needs to have developed excellent control first! Beginners should look for modified concave tunnels to get a nice compromise between usability and control.