Water skiing was invented on June 28, 1922 when eighteen-year-old Ralph Samuelson of Minnesota decided if people can ski on snow,  then why can't they ski on water? Ralph first attempted to water ski on Lake Pepin towed by a power  boat by his brother. He wore skis while standing on top of an aquaplane board. This trip only lasted a couple seconds though. Finally, on July 2, 1922, after many days of hard work, he finally figured out that leaning backwards with your ski tips up leads to successful water skiing.