The Catalina Ski race back in the day. Love the chase Bi-Plane!

Wow! What year?

Michael

Don't know. Its hanging in the hallway of the Atwater Hotel in Avalon, along with a bunch of other vintage photos. Just thought it was timely with the Ski Race coming up in a few days.

...I think!

Water skiing was invented in 1922, the hotel in the background was built around 1930.

Looking at the boats, the lines remind me of the late 40's, but there really aren't great differences between the 40's and the 50's

The races started at Catalina Island in 1948+/-

The angle of the biplane makes it a little hard to tell for sure, but I think it is a late 30's early 40's

During WWII there were events not held for a few years, like Indianapolis, so the beginning of the 64 races at Catalina could have been before 1948 and then had a hiatus for 3 or 4 years.

BUT, the appearance of the picture reminds me of some that were donated a few years ago and they were from the early 30's

And, who is to say this picture was actually taken at one of the Catalina Race events?

Yea, I don't think this was really from a Catalina Ski Event. These boats were used to give tourists Speed Boat rides and dazzle the people coming in on the bigger commercial boats. The girls skiing were just part of the show. Your dates sound pretty close anyway.

...the two and three cockpit Chris Crafts were used for tourist rides in many places, but before that they were actually ski work horses!

When I was a kid, they were common, along with a number of other wooden boats with extrememly similar lines; for skiing.

Since I said I was curious if the picture was from a race event, I have done some additional research.

I am comfortable it is not from a race event, but I do now believe it is from a promotional event. I think I also discovered the boats are going the wrong way for it to be a race event! In a race event that close to the island they should have the island to their starboard.

If we assume 1950 +/- everything fits pretty well!

Me thinks those are "aquaplanes" (or something like that) under their feet, not skis. The "handles" seem go to the tip of the single plank, not the boats. Not quibbling, just noticing...

...correctly.

I remember those being popular in the 50's and I can't for the life of me remember what they were called. They were towed by the boat and the handle rope went to the front of them for the skier to hold on to. Some actually had like a handle bar.

In today's world we might liken them to a very crude and unsophisticated wake board. Generally they were just for non-skiers to ride on, but some riders would actually take them from side to side, jump wakes and by moving forward and aft get a little bit of a "skimming" effect from them.

That is another reason I was fairly confident it was a promotional picture and not a competition picture. I can't enlarge it enough, clear enough to tell if the riders are male or female.

I'm pretty sure this is set up too. The building in the background is a landmark of Avalon and is almost always in promotional photos.

It's called the Casino. Never had and most likely never will have gambling. "Casino" means "a place to gather" and was built by William Wrigley (the gum guy) for ballroom dancing and Big Bands. It is a very cool building in Art Deco style. The ballroom is the entire top floor. It is a huge clear span so dancers would not have columns in the way. The hardwood floor is on top of cork to soften it. The lower level has the Coolest movie theater around. It has a huge pipe organ because when it was built when movies were silent so a organist would play along. The ceiling is rounded and painted to look like the sky. When the lights go down there are lights in the ceiling that look like stars. There's also a museum on the lower level. If your ever here, take the tour.

I only tell you all this because it sounds like you like history.

Many people think all those little, insignificant, nonsensical, trivial tidbits of information are unimportant.

Again, thanks to You!