Vintage 1960s Water Skier Decal 🌊 Atlantic Embla Crest Metalical Foil Sticker

Remember Water Skier Decals? 🌊 Water Skier Decal, 1960s, Atlantic Embla Crest & Metalical

Size: 3 1/4" ~ Little to no wear, unused on its original card. ~ It is unknown if the adhesive still works, as that is usually the first thing to fail.

A tanned water skier in black trunks and sunglasses leans back on his red skis, one arm up in the air, cutting across the lake with the pines and a little island behind him and a couple of gulls overhead. WATER SKIER curves around the bottom, and the whole thing sits inside a shiny metallic foil rim. It's a round self-adhesive decal from the 1960s, never stuck on anything, still on its store card.

🔍 Two versions to choose from

Navy: dark navy-blue water, on a cream Atlantic EMBLA CREST Emblems backing card with its hang hole and the application directions printed across the top.

Blue: lighter sky-blue water, sealed in cellophane on a yellow METALICAL 49¢ header card that reads CLEAN SURFACE ★ PEEL OFF ★ STICK ON. There's only one of these left.

Same skier, same design, two different printings and two different store cards. The adhesive on decals this old may have given up over the years, and a dab of glue takes care of that if you want to put one up.

🎿 How water skiing got started

Water skiing was invented in Lake City, Minnesota, by an 18-year-old named Ralph Samuelson. In the summer of 1922 he figured that if you could ski on snow, you ought to be able to ski on water, and he spent days on Lake Pepin failing with barrel staves and snow skis. Then on July 2, 1922, at 4:11 in the afternoon, he leaned back with his ski tips up and came up out of the water on a pair of pine boards almost nine feet long. It took a while for the world to agree on who did it first, but in 1966 the American Water Ski Association officially declared it was Samuelson, on Lake Pepin, in 1922. By the time this decal was selling for 49 cents, water skiing was the thing to do at every lake in America.

🏡 Display

Frame it on its card, stick it on a cooler, a toolbox or a boat, or give it to anybody who grew up at the lake. It's a great little piece of summer.