I have been going to a family lake house in the summers all of my life and for most of my childhood we had a decent ski boat where I learned how to kneeboard, wakeboard, wake skate, and we also had this “skurfer” board. I never had a desire to learn actual water skiing tho (slalom or double). But that was several years ago, we don’t have a boat anymore and I only get to wakeboard about 1-2 times a summer if I’m lucky. This past weekend I tried to Slalom while out on a friend’s boat and felt like a fish out of water. I only gave it two attempts because it was after a day out on the water. But it was sad. I just got dragged along without even getting close to coming out of the water. I haven’t failed to get up on a board on my first try in probably 6 or 7 summers and it felt a little embarrassing. After failing twice, I switched to two skis (never skied before), popped right out of the water quicker than a wakeboard, and cruised at 30mph for maybe a minute before I tossed the rope. Managed to get out of the wake and then back in before letting go.

TLDR All of this to say that I’m pretty comfortable behind a boat but maybe I’ve been compensating balance and skill with board size and strength? Next weekend, I’m hoping to get a second shot at Slalom and hopefully I’ll be on a better fitting (larger) Ski. Can anyone offer me some advice for how to get started? Or is this just something that takes a long time to learn?