Skiing the sky.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

FALL CREEK LAKE - Mike Murphy waterskied for a living, but went hang-gliding for sport.

"I liked being on the water," said the former performer at professional waterski shows. "But I loved the flying sensation."

So it was only natural that Murphy would play a key role in the development of the device that turned waterskiing into an airborne sport.

Murphy, 55, is the co-inventor of the sit-on hydrofoil ski and owner of the Lake Elsinore, Calif., company that makes the Sky Ski brand of high performance hydrofoil.

He was here last week to conduct a two-day clinic on how to ride the Sky Ski - and to demonstrate some of the amazing acrobatic maneuvers, many of which he originated, that can be performed with it.

The Sky Ski resembles a slalom waterski with a seat on top and a long, thin strut sticking out the bottom.

At the lower end of the strut is a keel with small "wings" on its front and back.

The pressure of water flowing over those wings lifts the board - and seated rider - completely out of the water. The support strut cuts through the water like a submarine's periscope.

Riding above the water's surface is a huge advantage, says Darrel Frederickson of Just Gettin' Wet in Springfield, the Sky Ski dealership for southern Oregon and the sponsor of last week's clinic.

"You're above the roughness of the water," Frederickson said. "You can ski in white caps, you can ski in boat wakes."

And you can ski longer.

With the hydrofoil tower knifing through the water, Frederickson said, there is so little resistance that a Sky Ski rider doesn't grow arm-weary, like waterskiers or wakeboarders do.

"We call it the 'one-more-time ski,' ' Frederickson said, "because when the boat comes around to pick you up after you fall or whatever, you're not tired, you're not wore out, your arms aren't sore, so you hold up your finger and say, 'One more time!' '

Lawrence Cornelius, a 47-year old Seattle resident who took up the Sky Ski in 1998, agrees that hydrofoil skiing is easier on the body.

"It's much more forgiving than wakeboarding - wakeboarding just hammers you," he said after completing an impressive series of airborne flips and rolls.

To demonstrate the lack of stress placed on the body riding a sit-on hydrofoil, Murphy once towed his mother, Mary, across 26 miles of open ocean to Santa Catalina Island and back - on her 79th birthday. That stunt earned the Sky Ski exposure on the "Inside Edition" television program, and ink in several tabloids.

While expert hydrofoil riders like Murphy and Cornelius attract a lot of attention with their barrel rolls, forward and backward flips, kangaroo hops, skids, and 360-degree spins, Frederickson said that simply riding the Sky Ski without attempting any acrobatic maneuvers is fun.

Murphy said riding a hydrofoil ski provides a "floating" sensation similar to snow skiing in deep powder.

"You're always skiing above the surface and you've got that ability to go up and down," Murphy said. "You've got the floating, you've got flying - that is the thrill, that is the sport."

And learning to ride hydrofoil is not difficult, enthusiasts say. Murphy said he's taught paraplegics and even a 3-year-old to ride the Sky Ski.

The most difficult part of teaching a new rider, according to Frederickson, can be persuading them to try it.

"A lot of people see the wing and the big bar and think, `Oh, that's dangerous - you wouldn't get me on that in a million years.' ' he said. "But, really, it's like learning to ride a bike - a little shaky and wobbly at first, but once you get the balance thing down, you're grinning ..."

Because it involves being lifted above the water, people often assume Sky Skiing is more dangerous than other sports that involve being towed behind a boat.

"But it's very, very safe," Frederickson said. "I've been hurt way more on wakeboards and waterskis than I ever have been on a Sky Ski."

The key difference is that hydrofoil skiing is learned at much lower speeds, Frederickson said. "We only go 10 to 12 miles an hour when we start out teaching people to Sky Ski. For wakeboarding, you've got to do about 20 to 22, and for waterskiing you've got to do anywhere from 25 to 35.

"So when you impact at those speeds, it hurts. At slower speeds, it's just like a big splash. There's nothing to it."

But the acrobatic maneuvers usually involve higher speeds. What about landing after a backward flip?

The Sky Ski "lands exactly like an airplane," Murphy said. "You can land so smooth that you don't feel the landing - or you can do a crash landing."

The key is balance, coupled with a precise sense of the angle to the water formed by the hydrofoil's "wings" at any given moment.

The rider shifts his weight forward or backward to change the angle.

"You don't 'jump' this thing in the normal sense of that word, which is to push yourself up into the air," Murphy said. "What you do is expose the wing to water pressure by rocking back and pulling your toes up as hard as you can."

The "lift" created by water flowing over the wing provides the launch power.

Murphy and a former partner, Bob Woolley, own the patent on the sit-on hydrofoil ski. But another Murphy invention was actually the forerunner for the device.

"In 1972 I had a dream that I was waterskiing on my knees," Murphy said. "You know those kneeboards people ride? I made the first kneeboard. So this really wasn't the invention. The invention was the kneeboard, which evolved into this."

The problem with the kneeboard, which also utilizes hydrofoil technology, "is you can't kneel indefinitely because you shut off the blood to your ankles," Murphy said.

That led to the idea of sit-on skis.

"Woolley mounted the hydrofoil on a pair of water skis that you sat on - and it worked great," Murphy said.

"The biggest problem was that when you landed from a jump, there was nothing between your legs and the water hit you so hard it tried to come out your ears... I wasn't as tough as Woolley, so I made one that pushed the two skis together so that when you landed the water was forced outward."

A Velcro seat belt and foot straps were added, and the sit-down hydrofoil ski was patented in 1989. Murphy and Woolley formed a company called Air Chair to produce the ski. The partners had a falling out and Murphy left Air Chair in 1997, launching the Sky Ski company the following year.

Between them, Murphy said, the two companies have sold about 27,000 hydrofoil skis.

"But everybody who buys one teaches 10 of his buddies," Murphy said, "so there's probably a quarter-million people doing this."

If hydrofoil skiing is easier, safer and 10 times the fun, why aren't even more people "flying" on water.

"You don't have 10 times as many people promoting it," Murphy said. "When the wakeboard came out, they weren't patented and immediately 30 companies were making and promoting wakeboards, and they cost $69. When this came out it was $690."

Fifteen years later, Sky Ski prices start at about $1,200 and go up from there. But the sport is not as expensive as it might seem at first glance, Frederickson said.

"If you get a real high-end wakeboard, you can spend $600 or $700. Then you have to spend a couple, three hundred dollars on boots. So you're in a grand there, and the board's only going to fit one person. The same Sky Ski will work for anybody, from 70 pounds to 370 pounds. You don't need multiple boards. You don't have to do any adjusting.

"All you need is a rope and someone to tow you."

- Sky Skis and accessories are available locally from Just Gettin' Wet, 761 Hayden Bridge Place, Springfield (736-0185 or www.justgettinwet.com). Sky Ski lessons are offered by Blue Turn Watersports, 1164 S. 68th St., Springfield (726-9839).

CAPTION(S):

Above: Mike Murphy wanted to combine his passions for skiing and hang-gliding, which led to the invention of his Sky Ski. Right: Murphy was at Fall Creek Lake recently to demonstrate some of the tricks that can be performed on his invention. Thomas Boyd / The Register-Guard Murphy also allowed for casual riders to enjoy the Sky Ski, and he took his mother for a ride on her 79th birthday.