With its gentle surf, great weather and plenty of sunshine, Lake Havasu once seemed like an ideal destination for water skiers in the Southwest.

“Havas” means “blue water” in the language of the ancient Mojave Indians. For decades, from the coast of Arizona to California, the waters of Havasu have been just calm, clear, blue. As the lakes have become more popular with boaters and watercraft users, their waters have gotten a little rougher.

The decline in waterskiing on Lake Havasu may be at least partly generational, according to Jim Salscheider, former president of the Lake Havasu Marine Society.

“There are similarities between water skiing and snow skiing,” Salscheider said. “At both ski resorts, the trend has shifted from twin skis to single skis. Snowboarding is becoming more popular compared to snowskiing, and wakeboarding is becoming more popular compared to waterskiing.”

Salscheider said water skiers would need faster boats to participate, requiring speeds of around 30 miles per hour to ski effectively.

According to Salscheider, wakeboarding requires only about 25 mph.

“Water skiers prefer smooth water,” Salscheider says. “Wakeboarders need less smooth water, and with more boats floating on the lake these days, the water is pretty choppy, making it much less popular with water skiers.”

The City of Lake Havasu Tourism Authority has tried to attract water ski competitions and events to Havasu, but it has been difficult, said Jackie Leatherman, director of event marketing for Go Lake Havasu.

“I think a few decades ago, waterskiing was a much bigger sport,” Leatherman said. “We have been trying to get it back…but we need a specific kind of dock that is different than what we have on Lake Havasu today. There aren’t enough teams in the West to justify competition.”

Phyllis Wagner, who lives in Lake Havasu, remembers going water skiing on the lake with her husband and children in the 1970s.

“A lot of people were water skiing back then,” Wagner said. “Especially he said the lake was busy in the 1970s. In the early days people used to boat a lot…I think jet skis changed the lake.”

In 1968, the first personal watercraft, which became known as the Jet Ski (later copyrighted by Kawasaki), was designed by former Parker resident Clayton Jacobson. This new form of watercraft was first tested and became popular on Lake Havasu in the 1970s and his 1980s.

“We used to go to the lake on weekends,” Wagner said. “There was a cove that we used to go to… Jet skis threw it overboard.

However, according to Go Lake Havasu, there are still opportunities for waterskiing at the northern and southern ends of the lake, where the water is calmer and boat traffic is less.

“No matter how many boats there are on the lake or how harsh the weather, smooth water is never far away,” the group’s website says.