Sport & Water – Waterskiing - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2018 - 68 Euro Cent

Skiing on water A new series of special issues from Austrian Post is being dedicated to sport. The focus is on less well-known sports and the stamps will be issued in themed sets. The theme for the first stamps is water sports. The first attempts at waterskiing are ascribed to the US American inventor Ralph Samuelson, who first rode across the water on two wooden skis in the 1920s. For waterskiing people generally use two skis, as for downhill skiing. The skis turn up slightly at the ends. The feet are inserted into rubber bindings and the skier holds on tightly to a handle on the towing rope, with which a motorboat or waterskiing lift pulls him across the water. The correct posture and body tension are of particular importance in maintaining one’s balance. Experienced waterskiers often switch to a single ski. In this case both feet are placed one behind the other on the same ski, with the back foot only being inserted into a strap. By contrast, wakeboarding, a fashionable sport which is becoming increasingly popular in Austria, is more like snowboarding. Competitions are staged in the fields of waterskiing and wakeboarding with boats or lifts, racing, bare foot and for the disabled. The disciplines for competitions include slalom, trick and jumping. However, even today waterskiing is not included in the Olympics. Water sports on stamps The special issue stamps for the new series will be presented at ÖVEBRIA 2018 in Klagenfurt, where the topic of water sports is particularly fitting since they naturally play a significant role on the Wörthersee. The powerful, dynamic images of the sport, created using a mixture of photography and graphic illustration, really come into their own on the - for water-related topics atypical - blue-violet background. By contrast, the colour in the right-hand section is bright and eye-catching, making it easy to differentiate between the different denominations as well as making them instantly recognisable. The cool, light blue colour of the waterskiing stamp represents water and skiing.