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Ten minutes on combo skis with Reuben, filmed in the shop at Moorooka. Everything below follows the video.
A pair of combo skis is how most people get their first ride behind a boat, and how most kids learn. They are wide, forgiving and hard to get wrong — but there are five distinct steps in the range, from a ski a four-year-old can sit on to a pair a fully grown adult can drop to one ski on. Get the step wrong and a beginner has a miserable day.
Here is how the range works, what changes at each step, and what to look at on the ski itself.
Start with the rider’s weight
Combo skis are sized by rider weight, not height and not shoe size. Heavier riders need more ski under them; lighter riders need less ski to push through the water. The number that matters is how much ski is in contact with the water, so a shorter, wider pair and a longer, narrower pair can suit the same rider.
Our range is split into four weight bands, and you can filter the collection by band:
The Junior and Youth bands overlap. A rider between 40 and 55 kg fits both, and that is deliberate rather than a mistake — it is a transition, not a hard line. The practical tie-breaker is the combo bar: junior pairs still come with one, youth pairs generally do not. If the skis still need to be held together for them, go junior. If they are keeping the skis under control on their own, go youth.
If you want a second opinion on the number, run it through the combo ski size calculator, or call the shop and we will talk it through.
The five steps in the range
Each step adds or removes a specific piece of hardware. Knowing which piece you are gaining and which you are losing is the whole decision.
1. Platform trainers — up to 35 kg
The biggest, easiest thing we sell to put a small child on. There are two kinds, and the difference matters more than it looks.
The inflatable platform trainer has a solid timber base inside an inflatable body, so it is rigid and stable, and it has a seat the child sits on. Because it floats on top of the water, there is no deep water start to learn — the child is already sitting on the ski when the boat takes up. For a nervous first-timer, that removes the single hardest part of the day.
The solid timber platform trainer has no inflatable section, so it does start in the water and the child does have to do a deep water start. With that much surface area under them it is close to effortless, but it is a step up from sitting on a seat.
Both come with a double rope and handle. One handle runs to the boat and is held by an adult. The second handle runs from there to the child, so the child can take as much or as little of the load as they want. Mostly it is there for balance, but as their confidence grows they start taking real weight and learning how the boat pulls the ski around. On the timber trainer the rope threads through the ski itself, so the boat lifts the ski out of the water rather than the child having to.
Safety — read this before you rig it. When the rope runs through the training bar or through the ski, the boat end of that rope is held by a competent, responsible adult. It is never tied off to the boat. If the child falls, that person lets go immediately.
2. Trainer pairs — up to 35 kg
The first pair of real skis. These can only be ridden as a pair — there is no rear kicker, so there is nothing to drop to.
What they do have is every piece of hardware that makes a pair easy to control:
- A combo bar across the tips, holding the skis a set distance apart.
- A double rope and handle that threads through the combo bar, so the pull lifts the skis out of the water instead of the child having to lift them.
- A rear connector across the tails, so the backs of the skis cannot spread apart either.
- A fully adjustable horseshoe binding — one size fits most children.
With the tips fixed, the tails fixed and the rope doing the lifting, there is very little a child can do wrong. This is the step that gets most kids up on their first or second attempt.
3. Junior pairs — 35 to 55 kg, around 55 inches
Two things change here, one in each direction.
You lose the double rope and handle. The rope no longer threads through the combo bar, so the rider holds the handle and takes the full pull of the boat themselves. That is fine at this size — they are stronger, and the skis are bigger with more surface area, so the start is still easy. The combo bar stays, so the skis still track together.
You gain the rear kicker. That is the toe piece on the back of one ski, and it is what opens up the next few years of skiing: learning to drop a ski, and learning proper deep water starts on one. The rear connector is gone at this point, which is what makes dropping a ski possible in the first place.
4. Youth pairs — 40 to 60 kg
The stepping stone between the trainers and a full adult pair, and where the skis start looking like adult skis.
The combo bar comes off. Most of the pairs in this band still have the inserts for one, so you can buy a combo bar separately and fit it — but some do not, so check before you buy if that matters to you. The rear kicker stays. This is the band where riders really learn to deep water start properly.
5. Adult pairs — 55 kg and up, mostly 67 inches
They come in a few lengths, but most adult pairs land at 67 inches. As with the youth skis, a lot of them have the combo bar inserts and some do not.
Whether you want the bar depends entirely on who is using them. If you are putting genuinely green first-timers on the water — friends and family who have never done a water sport — the bar takes a large chunk of the difficulty out of the start. If your adults are strong enough to hold the skis together themselves, run them separately.
What combo skis are made of
Almost every combo ski is reaction injection moulded plastic. That gets you three things at once: it is durable, it is light enough for a rider to handle out of the water, and it is very flexible. That flex is the point — it makes the ski forgiving, so a beginner who loads the ski badly does not get punished for it.
It also sets your expectations. A combo ski will never respond like a slalom ski, and it is not meant to. If you want that response, that is a different ski entirely.
Why the fin is bright. It is not decoration. When a ski comes off your foot it will often float upside down, and a plain-coloured ski upside down in chop is very hard to see from the boat. A bright fin sticking up is what you spot from fifty metres away, so you can loop back, pick it up and go again.
Bindings and the rear kicker
Standard horseshoe
The traditional combo binding, and still the right answer for most families. It is a one-size-fits-most rubber horseshoe: push the pins, slide it forward or back, and it fits the next person on the boat. That matters more than it sounds when six people are taking turns.
Combo bindings are also meant to release the foot easily in a fall. Beginner and intermediate bindings are deliberately not tight, and that is a safety feature, not a shortcoming — a loose binding is what keeps a beginner’s ankle out of trouble. Do not try to make them slalom-tight.
Lace-up bindings
Newer and more advanced combo pairs come with an actual binding much closer to what you would find on a slalom ski: a full lace-up, adjustable, with a soft foam base, a neoprene upper and a firmer foam heel piece. More support, more comfort, and more money.
Whether that is worth paying for comes down to how long you are on the water. For an afternoon, the horseshoe is fine. For a full day, a weekend or a week at the lake, a comfortable footbed is the difference between skiing until dark and stopping early with cramp.
The rear kicker
The toe piece on the back of one ski. It is what lets a rider drop the second ski mid-run and keep going on one, and it is how nearly everyone learns to slalom. It will not feel like a slalom ski — the combo is too wide and too flexy for that — but you get the feeling of gliding out over flat water on a single ski, which is usually enough to decide someone’s next purchase.
Shape: what to look at on the ski
Combo skis have got steadily wider over the last fifty years. The traditional pairs were very narrow. Most of what we sell now is a hybrid width, sitting between a full wide body and those old narrow skis, and that is the shape that gives you the best of both: maximum stability, and enough surface area that deep water starts are easy.
Beyond the outline, there are four things worth looking for on the base:
- Concave. Most pairs now have a full concave through the base so the ski can roll onto edge, in the same way a slalom ski does.
- Keel. A ridge running through the centre of the front of the ski. It splits the water and stops the ski slapping up and down — a noticeably more comfortable ride.
- Rails. Channels through the base that let a wide ski stay manoeuvrable. Width normally costs you agility; rails buy some of it back.
- Tapering around the fin. Same purpose — more manoeuvrability out of a wide ski.
Some pairs also run a metal fin. If you want to push a bit harder and actually carve on a combo — on two skis or on one — a metal fin holds its shape through the turn and holds the angle on the way out of it better than a plastic one.
Common questions
What length combo ski do I need?
Combo skis are sized by rider weight. Our four bands are Kids up to 35 kg, Junior 35 to 55 kg, Youth 40 to 60 kg and Adult 55 kg and up. The Junior and Youth bands overlap on purpose — if the rider still needs the skis held together, take the junior pair with its combo bar; if they do not, take the youth pair.
What is a combo bar and do I need one?
A combo bar clamps across the tips of both skis and holds them a set distance apart, so a beginner cannot let the skis spread on the start. Trainer and junior pairs come with one. Youth and adult pairs usually do not, but many have the inserts so you can add one later — check the individual ski before you buy if that matters.
Does my child have to learn a deep water start?
Not on an inflatable platform trainer — the child sits on the ski on top of the water and the boat simply takes up. Solid timber platform trainers do start in the water, but they have so much surface area that the start is still easy. From the junior pairs upward, deep water starts are part of the deal.
What is the rear kicker for?
It is the toe piece on the back of one ski, and it is how a rider learns to drop the second ski and keep going on one. Junior pairs and up have it; trainer pairs do not, because they are ridden as a pair only.
Why do combo bindings feel loose?
Because they are meant to. Combo bindings are designed to let the foot out easily in a fall, which is what keeps ankles out of trouble while someone is still learning. Do not tighten them to slalom fit.
Can I use combo skis to learn slalom?
Yes — that is exactly what the rear kicker is for. A combo will not respond like a slalom ski, because the moulded plastic is far more flexible and forgiving, but it will give you the feel of riding one ski and tell you whether you want to buy a real slalom ski.
What else do I need before the first run?
A correctly fitted life jacket for every rider, and a rope and handle rated for the job. Life jacket rules change from state to state, so check the requirements where you ski.
Before the first run
Two things to sort out at the same time as the skis. Every rider needs a properly fitted life jacket — there are kids’ sizes here and the full range here — and the requirements are set state by state, so check the state-by-state guide for where you actually ski. You will also want a rope and handle suited to skiing rather than whatever came with the boat.
You can see the whole combo ski range here, filtered by weight band, or come and look at them in person at our shop in Moorooka, Brisbane. If you are stuck between two bands, ring us — it is a two-minute conversation and it saves a bad first day on the water.
Presented by Reuben at Waterskiers World, Moorooka, Brisbane. If something here does not match the ski in front of you, give us a call and we will sort it out.