He is actually slalom water skiing on Lake Merwyn.

Single skis with 2 foot bindings are a thing.

But also possibly Skurfing.

Correction. He is slalom skiing. This is in 1980. Wake boarding was invented in 1990.

Ouch indeed even more so if you had shorts on vs jeans.

Swift reservoir?

Mobius has entered the chat

Why is it “water skiing” and not “wake skiing” then?

Then where are his skis? This man looks to me like he's wake boarding. Just 1 board, not 2 skis.

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Nah, not so bad with a dry suit. People who like water skiing are out doing it whenever possible. Pic could still be phony though. I'm not sure how you couldn't hear that eruption over the boat noise for example, and how the person taking the pic would be controlling their faculties very well.

Love like he is wearing a wetsuit.

There was Sully's plane....

He has swung wide, outside the wake. You can see the skier's own wake coming from the right, and the boats wake would also be to the right.

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Have you ever seen a jet ski?

Boeing

Anybody know where the boat waves are lol

First thought was fake too. But this could have been taken from the Gorge looking northwest…just west of The Dalles maybe.

My guess is that it’s fake. I live just south of there and grew up inundated with Mt. St. Helens media and I don’t recall ever seeing this.

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Well then where’s the jet smarty pants?

This person is waterskiing. He’s being towed behind a boat.

Mt. St. Hell YES!

She is a strikingly beautiful woman!