For all those curious how this industry developed here is a short description. Ski pylons had been on tournament inboard boats for decades. In the ’90s pylon extenders for tournament boats came on to the market to enable boarders and skiers to get more air for tricks. However at that time only tournament boats had this option, standard run-about or inboard/outboard boats had no option.
Then a couple companies realized that it wasn’t only tournament boat owners who desired bigger air when boarding. Thus in the mid ’90s came the introduction of universal pylons that allowed users to put extended pylons in their I/O boats. Big Air Pylons was incorporated in 1996 and began production of pylons in a single car garage in Duncan, OK.
One of the issues of a pylon is that it is in the center walk way of your boat and it was not easy to store boards or hang speakers on.
In the late ’90s the industry began to make the shift to wakeboard towers which allowed users to hang biminis, board racks, speakers and other accessories. Once again the tournament boats had towers that were pre-fabricated and had to be shipped by freight truck. In 1999 Big Air developed its UPS ship friendly tower that would fit virtually any boat. The tower was made using stainless steel tubing to offer extreme strength and corrosion protection for harsh environments.
Today the market has gravitated towards towers nearly completely. We see new designs and accessories continue to be created to work with and on towers.
Who knows what the future holds for towers…but it looks to be an exciting future.
