Water skiing is a blast of a sport. Granted it is not the cheapest sport to be in by any means. But for the most part once you stop growing the biggest expense is keeping your boat running and the insurance on that boat.

I have been water skiing since I was 10 years old and right now I am 41. I am hoping I can keep it up until my bones are just way to tired to keep me up. One way to keep water skiing is by starting off in shallower water or even starting off a dock. So far for the most part I am a deep water starter for the lakes I have access too.

Now the water skiing equipment you need is as follows: 

• A water ski boat that will be capable of pulling a full size grown man out of a deep water start. 
• A water skiing rope to pull said water skier.
• Water ski's that fit the people doing the water sport.
• This one shouldn't cost you a thing but a "spotter". This is a third person that will watch your skier and let you know if they have fallen or want to go faster or slower or even just let go because they were tired.

Now you can go more extravagant and buy top of the line ski's and a tricked out boat but it is not necessary to start with all the best equipment. But if you have a fast enough boat you could always learn how to barefoot ski behind the boat also!

Once you have the boat you can also get diversified and get a tube for behind the boat. Younger people for the most part are doing what is called wake boarding, which is just like snow boarding or skate boarding. As a person gets better though in wake boarding they will need other things to keep getting better and to do their tricks. 

For children (like when I was 10) they had what was called "elephant ski's". As you can picture these were wider and longer than normal ski's to help kids and adults to get out of the water faster. Now a days they have gone to copying down hill skiing and use a bar that goes on top of the ski's to keep them from separating or coming together. 

I would recommend to all people to give water skiing a try if they have the chance. It is a great sport and it is something a whole family can enjoy. If they do not like it there are so many other things to do like I said from tubing, wake boarding, knee boarding, bare foot skiing, and even some exotic items as a circle board, foot ski's, and even the rectangular board.

For the type of water ski boat you need I will just say this.. investigate what you exactly want to do if you choose this sport since all boats are created not equally. Some are only fishing or built to be more for the water skiing people instead of wake boarding. So talk about what the family wants to achieve and then go to several boat dealers and discover what might make the perfect match.