In 1922, after first trying barrel staves and then snow skis, eighteen-year-old Ralph W. Samuelson succeeded in waterskiing on eight-foot-long pine boards with tips curved by steaming them in boiling water. During the next fifteen years, he gave one-man waterskiing exhibitions and donated most of the admission charges to Lake City for the purchase of harbor and park land. Because of Samuelson's pioneering efforts in this popular sport, the American Water Ski Association officially recognized Lake City as the birthplace of waterskiing in 1966.