Friday, February 29, 2008

More...

On the (great?) waterski/ water ski debate.
From it's inception until 1995, The American Water Ski Association (AWSA-not the two-word moniker) )was the name of the sport's national organizing body. In 1996, The organizing body was reorganized under the name USA Waterski (note the single word), of which AWSA became one of several sport divisions. One may deduce that the unofficial stance of the new organizing body is that 'waterski' is a generic term, encompassing all watersports. 'Water ski' then refers to traditional three-event competition skiing.

Or did the new logo just happen to look better, a little tighter perhaps, without the space?

Interestingly enough, the sport's worldwide governing body is the International Water Ski Federation (IWSF-two-word moniker). Wakeboarding and three-event skiing fall under the governance of the IWSF and their two-word classification. So is it the US vs. the world?

Look at a few other English-speaking national federations:

Australian Waterski and Wakeboard federation

Water Ski and Wakeboard Canada

British Water Ski


More on this topic as new information is unearthed. It just keeps getting bigger

3 comments:

Libby said...

Let's be careful here. I'd hate to see you jump the proverbial shark.

I maintain my position from the comments below. However, I think that the one word version sounds like a Polish surname: wa-TER-ski. Like Lebowski.

Rykert said...

I had to switch topics for a while. The ranting about winter was crushing my spirit.

Rowboat Abides said...

shark jumping? the Fonz? think positive thoughts!!!