Diablo weekend

[Horton]

Day One

I rolled up at about 5:30 to find Bob, Kris and Jennifer LaPoint hanging out on the dock. The grass was littered with Big Dawgs and not yet famous pro skiers. Chad Scot, Cory Humberg and lot of cool looking dudes with accents.

 

I forked out $25 skins for a practice ride. Generally a practice ride is a good idea. Today, my practice driver was the highly qualified and my old friend Durwood.  

Dee AKA Durwood Johnson has been one of my favorite drivers for almost 20 years.  Durwood hand drove me jump when I was a college jumper.

 

Today Durwood was driving practice at Diablo and seems for have forgotten that I am M3. I ran 28 off at 36 and thought, holy crap that was bad. The yet unknown but nice pro skier in the passenger seat looked a little ill watching. I then ran a painfully scary 32 off at 36. At this point I thought that Diablo was the hardest ski site on earth. When I pulled out to shorten Durwood and the dude were laughing about something…. Did I want 34 mph?  After 2 unreal crappy passes at 36 I nearly missed 32 / 34 and 35 / 34. Odd start to the weekend. If things go south I will blame Durwood for everything.

[MrJones]

This is just more evidence in support of my belief in not taking a practice set at a tournament site. The reasoning goes like this. If you are skiing well going into the tournament, why take a chance on having some driver give you a crappy pull (or a crappy boat, etc.) and shake your confidence. If you are not skiing well, you are probably better off having a couple of days off, then go into the tournament fresh/strong and hoping it will be better than home.

A good example is Bakersfield at the 2000 Nats. Lynda and I showed up on one of the other lakes at 6:45 am for a practice pull. The driver pulled MY WIFE at 36 mph on her opening pass. She is game and gave it a go. She fully ate crap from 1-2 ball at 22 off.

I have only gone against my plan one time since then. It didin't work out well either. Oh well, have fun this weekend John. Keep us informed.  

 

[Horton]

Yea but I know Dee! Ok. no more practice rides

[disland]

Interesting debate.  At Nationals this year practice was almost impossible to get. Once we got our heads around the idea it was no issue. Oh and Bakersfield practice was a disaster. We would have been way better off skipping that.

I do know in jump, a site familiarization set is very useful especially on lakes with a short set up. I typically dont hit the ramp however.

 Site fam set saved my butt 2 years ago at regionals since it was the first year of zero off and I had never taken a jump set with it before.

[Horton]

Friday 7:20

the one thing I forgot to say yesterday.... the site is unreal beautiful.

I am slurping some coffe and heading to the lake soon.

[MrJones]

Next year!!!

[Dirt]

I agree with Jones but I usually can't resist the tempatation to take a couple passes. Horton, now that you are older, you must confirm your speed with the driver. I had the same thing happen to me in the first round of a tournament this year. Open men were right before me. In the drivers defense, you look like you are going 38mph in your videos.

[jimbrake]

Dsmart - you must have video on your helicopter, right? Could you start taking some aerial video of me and my kids when you fly over Bell Acqua? I think the aerial perspective will really help us understand our angle and line better. I'm sure your boss won't mind.

thanks,

Jim

[jdarwin]

The problem w/ most practice sets is the driver.  You get the member who drew the shortest straw! 

John - we'll have practice at 12noon prior to starting at 3pm on Friday.  If you want a set, I'll drive.

[bmiller3536]

I can never pass up a practice set, especially at a new ski sight. Even though I have to admit maybe about half the time I feel like I completely wasted my time and energy

[Horton]

Skied pretty average today. No one to blame but the guy holding the handle.

Site is awesome. Fun to see all the pros and legends walking around.

I am in my hotel room editing photos and  video.

[Mateo_Vargas]

For anyone who wants to bet tomorrow on Pro skiing bring plenty of ones and meet in front of the Supra.

[Horton]

Your a bad man.... If I am not doing something for the tournement I will be there.

[ForrestGump]

Horton, was dave goode injured in that OTF? I saw the pics and your tweet about him.

[Dirt]

Jim, I don't think my boss would approve. I am working on an alternative. It involves a lawn chair, a ski rope, a bunch of balloons, a BB gun and a video camera. I'll keep you posted.

[MattP]

Looking at the head to head brackets I would say I am pulling for an upset with CP & Jeff Rodgers. CP is up in the top 3 all the time so change it up! I know Jeff does not ski a lot of pro events these days so beating Parish would be HUGE for him!

[Horton]

If you want the underdog.... how about Nate Smith? Out of nowhere he ripped yesterday.

[skidawg]

Call n8 an underdog, but he's been runnin 39 a ton

[skidawg]

Good job on postin info jth

[Weappa]

Great job on the cast and the tweets John.  I really enjoyed listening to Matt Brown yesterday, great technical comments.  Saw him ski at Laku  - the guy can ski, has to be one of the favs for the dawg.  Dave Goode -bummer on his injury.  I dumped my powershells years ago for a reason, been riding the RS-1's since with none of the velcro issues.

[kcslaloms]

Don't forget Nate Smith placed 2nd to Asher at Placid Waters Pro Event in July!

Best of Luck today Hoosier Nate!

[Horton]

Was a super fun weekend. Met a lot of BallOfSpary regulars as well as some famous skier that admitted that they read the site.

I will be posting Videos and Photos all week.

By the way I think I want to call regular BallOfSpay readers "Ballers". What do you think? Like "that Baller has a hot wife".

[ktm300]

The web casts keep getting better. The boat camera is now a must. Loved seeing the skiing from the boat.

[Than_Bogan]

Hm, the choices seem poor:

Ballers?

Sprayers?

BOSses?

BOSos?

I recommend the last one -- pronounced like "bozos," of course.

[rawly]

B.S.er's

[Chuck_Dickey]

BOSers

[Horton]

I think I am going with Ballers. Like "Chuck is a Baller from SoCal"

[ForrestGump]

I think there's a t shirt there. "I'm a baller" with the BOS logo.

[MattP]

From the Urban Dictionary Baller: Etymology: A thug that has "made it" to the big time. Originally refered ball players that made it out of the streets to make millions as a pro ball player, but now is used to describe any "thug" who is living large doing any specified action. Baller = Good Choice

[Horton]

I am good with it.

[skidawg]

Well, baller it is then