Water Ski Experience Hall of Fame and Museum
Polk City, Florida
It may never equal the status of some other sports hall of fames, but the Water Ski Experience Hall of Fame and Museum is no less passionate about its chosen obsession. The Hall of Fame enshrines luminaries such as Tommy Bartlett and Dick Pope (the developer of Cypress Gardens). The museum presents displays of vintage tow ropes, grip bars, and outboard motors, and a bust of Ralph Samuelson, "The Father of Water Skiing," who invented the sport in 1922. His very first pair of home-built water skis is the museum's most prized artifact.
Opened in 2002, the Water Ski Experience Hall of Fame and Museum overlooks stunt-ramp friendly Lake Grew, which was specially built just for water skiers.