How do you ski in a current?

[Bud Man]

Did any of you see the picture that auskier posted of the thread Moomba Masters 2011 Slalom? It was something else. Those skiers where nowhere near their regular top scores and they all looked like they were really struggling.

 

I use to ski in a pond that had a current after a lot of rain. If the air was completely calm, you could see the current making a slight swirl around the buoys but I do not ever recall feeling a difference in skiing with or against the current. I guess it was not strong enough.

 

It would seem that if the gps speed control is pulling the exact speed in relation to the buoys then if there were a paddle wheel controlled speedometer, it would read fast into the current and slow with the current. Is that right? So how do you compensate your skiing technique for skiing in a swift current?

 

Think about this: If the current was flowing 34 mph and your PADDLE WHEEL SPEEDO was showing 34 mph then the gps speed control would be going 0 mph upstream and 72 mph downstream. You would never reach the course or move away from the dock headed upstream.

 

Of course the current would not be that fast, but help me process my thoughts here. So now let’s say the current it 10 mph and the gps shows us moving 34 mph through the buoys, that means we are approaching the buoy at 34 mph, but in relationship to the water, it would not feel that way, right? If the buoys were not there, it would feel like we were skiing 24 mph in one direction and 44 mph in the other direction, which means the wake behind the boat would be like a 24 mph and a 44 mph wake. However, even thought the water felt slow then fast, if we open our eyes we would see that the buoys are not coming at us any slower or faster than 34 mph. Does that mean that skiing a current would be similar to skiing a head/tail wind?

 

So what do all of you think?

 

[Ed_Johnson]

When I lived in Kauai, on the Wailua River, we would have a current in the morning from the overnight rains, 5-10 MPH. To me it felt the same as a Head/Tailwind situation. By late afternoon there would be no current, and the water was a lot warmer. Much nicer to ski in. Our only choice was to ski in the morning and be done by 9am, or the last hour before dark, due to the tourists invading the River with hundreds of Kayaks and the Tour Boats going to the Fern Grotto. If you were one of the 5 Tournament Skiers that lived there, you wanted to put a bounty on them. Especially since they launched their Kayaks right in the middle of our Slalom Course.

[test]

When I read things like " develop a floating course that drifts at the same speed as the current" I know you guys need to turn off your computer and go to the lake.

[Horton]

FYI

Test = Horton (working in site when I should be at lake)

[jackski]

I have two courses on my lake. After a heavy rain the river brings in a fair amount of water that causes a 1-2 mph current in one course only. I've skied both straight out of one and into the other. To me it just feels like you're going faster without a doubt. Maybe there should be a water speed meter on each bouy that sends a signal to the cruise to make the boat travels the exact water speed instead of a time ?? (ha ha)