Holy Sheep Dip! You guys seen this Rossi Video?

[Horton]

 

http://ballofspray.com/ballofspray-water-ski-news/290-chris-rossi-on-new-radar-stada-41-off

[HO 410]

I see a ski that sticks with him no matter what he does.

[Horton]

Some of the toe side turns (Off Side) are unreal good.

[block]

Wow!!

[Old MS Accout]

RADAR ROCKS

 

  

[Steven]

His onsides were almost too much!

[Horton]

there are a few 1/3/5 turns where the tip stays down and he just keeps moving though the arc

[davemac]

Wow!!  4 ball at -39 1/2 is just ridiculous!!

[skispray]

Makes me wonder how often these top skiers are running 41 in practice!  In Edged in Water, Parrish throws the fist after running it in practice and he ran it multiple times that year (2005) so I was under the impression that it's probably not all that much.  Maybe twice as often as in tournaments would have been my guess but this video makes me think otherwise.  Rossi was looking solid at 41 on both passes. 

 In that vein, has anyone heard of a score at 43 in practice better than the world record?  Not that it'd mean anything, just curious. 

[Horton]

Brent,

Well Yea!

SkiSpray,

I do not think it is run by anyone in practice very often. 43? I have heard about Andy running it at 55k . . .

[41off]

Has anybody seen the boat path and who is driving?

[T-UP]

Gees…I believe the video says TESTING or was it a record tourney, hum….

[Horton]

this is a practice / testing  - I would be very surprised of the path and times were not spot on. Rossi does not seem like a guy who would screw around  with BS driving.

[RichardDoane]

I think it shows what a great skier Chris is, he even included the 41 off pass that he didn't run.

[rq0013]

yeah that is some nice skiing, I love how the ski comes around on the offside

[auskier]

if i could ski like anyone in the world it would be rossi, period.. but..

Ive seen rossi run much nicer looking 32s - 38s than those in this video. But we have no idea what he was doing in regards to fin settings etc etc.

Can someone suggest why he chooses to 'tail' his pullout like he does lately? I cant think why you would want to do that, but im sure his reasoning behind it is next level thinking.

[Bill Gladding]

The pullout is interesting.  Looks like he is maintaining the same posture as he uses the rest of the pass and it puts a little more pressure on the ski than it supports at the slow initial speed plus it looks like he is starting just inside the wake where the ski runs slightly uphill.

I thought the -41 went better when he didn't do so much on the onside (2,4,6) but increased the work he did out of the offside.  It was like he flipped a switch because the second attempt looked very relaxed.

[Roger]

Bill has it right. I asked him about his pullout since he seems so far on the tail. He said "it's about getting the same position as in the rest of the course."

John is also right about the driving. Rossi is very "in tune" with what the driver is doing. I pulled him in our May Record at Okeeheelee (3 @ 41) and the next day asked him for some feedback on my driving. He not only spent 15 minutes discussing driving and Saturday's set, but he remembered exactly what happened at every buoy of every line length. I had taken the boat path video home Saturday night so I was very aware of where I was on the passes and he remembered it all. I knew I had one "gottcha" on his opener at 4 ball where he moved the boat a bit. His first comment was "well, you lost me at 4 ball at 32 a bit, but got right back in sync." I was amazed he had even noticed since it wasn't particularly bad and it was only 32, but he can feel what's going on with the boat better than most. He was pleased with the remainder of the set and said his PB is 3.5@41. I can see from this video, that his PB will be changing before long. I'd sure love to be at the other end of the rope when that happens /vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif

[Deke]

Roger, I wouldn't mind hearing more about Rossi's comments on driving... or anyone's comments for that matter. It is something that's rarely discussed on the forums and might be good subject for it's own thread.

[Chef23]

Why does the ski tend to wheelie more as the line gets shorter?  I really noticed it when watching Regina run her 39 off.  It seems like the ski wheelies then they re-connect to the rope.  Is this because of the additional speed carried as the line gets shorter?  I am only into 32 off so it doesn't seem to translate to where I am right now.

[Roger]

Deke,

Well, he and I got more in sync with each pass. Not sure how to describe what in sync really means except that my actions with the boat were not too early or too late;  so to him the line was always there when he needed it and never pulling him out of position before.

I am fortunate in that where I ski and drive I have two world class drivers who have helped me get to where I am and continue to help me get to where I want to be (Becky Lathrop and John Shealy). On top of that, I have gotten a lot of skier feedback from the likes of John Shealy (mid 39 skier), Jeff Kepchia (into 41 skier), and Chet Raley (into 41 skier) among others. From all of this and a lot of practice, I have been developing a feel for what to do with the boat and when and how much.

Over the last couple of years, I have pulled Chet Raley in a number of tournaments and he has been VERY helpful with feedback. He is a good enough skier that he can (in practice sets particularly) feel what you're doing with the boat and even look into the boat and see what you're doing as he completes a turn. From him, I learned that though I had a good boat path, I was over setting the boat on one side and it felt harder on that side than the other to the skier. I worked on that for the next 6 months until I pulled him in a practice set just before Nationals and he said it now felt symetrical and he liked how I held the wheel (looking into the boat at 35 off!). He ran his 8th consectutive tournament 39 off behind me in our fall record (he logs them).

Keys to success when driving (for me at least):

1) Get input from other drivers who are known to be good.

2) Get feedback from the skiers on how it felt and what you can do to make it better.

3) Pull everyone. I pull everyone I can from long line slow speed skiers to 41 off guys. You don't want to finally get that call to drive a group in a tournament and not know how to handle a shortline skier and you don't want to overcorrect for that slower/longer line skier either.

4) If you drive a record tournament, get the end course video and study how the path looks compared to the "good" driver(s) who will hopefully be on the same tape.

5) Be humble. Your job is to make the boat invisible to the skier. Believe me, they remember the good drivers AND the not so good drivers...

 

[Horton]

Roger,

If you were to ever write an instructional driving article I would love to have it as a submission (email – not forum). I do have a copy for the new Terry Winter Visualization DVD that could go your way  . . .

[Roger]

Arrgg, Item 5) Be humble. I do not consider myself the best driver there is nor do I feel qualified to write such an article. I aspire to be in the company of the best (some of whom I mentioned above), but driving is so much technique, so much common sense, and finally so much art. You can probably teach the first, better be born with the 2nd, and the 3rd only comes with experience.

There is a lot more to driving than just the in course part as well. There is around the dock as the rope gets changed, getting the settings correct for the next skier, exending the line without jerking them, pulling them up with the right amount of throttle for that skier, early alignment with the course, just to name a few. To cover everthing that I think makes a driver a "good driver" would be some article, that's for sure...

 

[aguylikeshark]

rossi's rippin' ski looks good.

 

re: reason for wheelies when the line gets shorter - since the skier is further up on the boat, more time and energy is being put down in the turn, to a slower speed. if you are not perfectly balanced over the ski at the end of the turn the tail of the ski stalls out = wheelie. if the boat picks you back up too late, your're done for. this is what makes 41 so difficult - all of the turn is done after the ball.

 

re: driving - weaving the boat is a great way to work down a pass and get into the mindset of running it. to believe you can run the pass = more relaxed skiing, less tension. for the second 41 pass pause action/ look at the boat path/wash and if it is centered or moved over to the skier's advantage.

[Roger]

Brent,

No I don't and I don't think it's common practice either. With ZO, I advance the throttle until it locks in and then advance it smoothly to past horizontal so that the system has enough throttle at it's disposal to keep the times needed. If you back off the throttle and the skier is a big puller, you will eventually get the "I don't have enough throttle chirping noise" from the system. You may still get a good time, you may not...

[SM]

You are bang on the money Roger, all the extra details count. When someone yanks me when they tighten the rope, I immediately think to myself, "well, what's the rest of this going to be like."

 

Beyond that, I doubt that I can discern between two really good drivers but I know instantly when I have a bad driver. Best yet, the bad driver truly believes that he is a good driver and gets offended when you try to point out some of the subtleties.

[lakeaustinskier]

For the rare occasions that she drives me do you'all think I can get my wife to read this thread?

[ski6jones]

I'm guessing not if you want her to keep pulling you.