What I learned on the course today... again!

[Taelan28]

1. Pull hard and then decelerate continuously. Not doing so creates slack, pull like a mofo early, then stop. I can see this with the older guy free skiing at 22 off. Whenever he would give it a little extra tug outside the wake he had slack.

 

2. Rough water affects balance. Preturn, turn and pull all affected negatively and I ski too conservatively. Some chop isn't bad, but the rolling waves from boat wakes coming and going over and over is horrible.

 

3. I'm not getting wide enough. I never got out wide enough to begin with no matter the rope length. The idea was to free ski to build consistency and get the most for my money but without some balls its hard to get out wide. With some rough water its more difficult to get outside and turn properly. I gotta pull hard right away, decelerate, stretch, turn like a broke man finding money on the ground and close that gap. The distance I need to go is about 3-5 ft past my comfort zone.

 

4. The less slack, the better the turn and transition to pull. My main enemy is slack.

 

5. I DO HAVE POWER! People have told me for a year that I ski with a lot of power. Looking at last years video not so much, looking at this years video and looking at other skiers I can see why. If the water is ok and I dont have slack I can pull pretty hard. When I ran 28 off on the course I could make wretched mistakes on the turn but I never once had trouble getting to the buoy. However I'd like to be faster, as fast as that guy in the "12 buoy madness" video. Perhaps switching to an inboard boat could help me with that.

 

6. Outboard motors are more likely to slow down on the pull and that causes slack, so I cant cant get out as wide and thus cant make a proper turn. Inboard boats are more stable. I have more stable pulls and turns. There's less slack and I can feel the difference right away. Do I drop the extra money and go behind an inboard for proper practice?

 

7. I should get a new ski... No I should get new gear. My Elite arrived quite used and since then I've knicked it with the handle several times on a fall. There's now a chip and a growing crack. Its still usable, and it would probably ski as good as another ski, but I spoil myself and my wallet is feeling heavy. When I have $20k in the bank and inflation is 5% Im losing a ski's worth of money every year. I'd like an AM 33, or another Elite would be nice as well. My Animal boots were really tight in the beginning, but now they feel a little loose. I could tighten them but the idea of new boots is more appealing to me. :D

 

8. Radar clinchers are awesome. Without these Im convinced I'd be having had problems as lifting weights and waterskiing would be too much to bare...bear... err....Spending $80 to get mediums and ditch my larges was a good idea as my grip is much tighter and more consistent. My grip has always been relatively weak, and these things make up for it. I know we recently had a debate about clinchers and concern about safety, but there is no safety issue. If you fall LET GO!

 

9. Running 28 off at 52kph is not satisfying.

[Taelan28]

I ran 28off at 55kph/34mph. It was goddamn hideous.

 

My first set of the day I was just working on getting wide, closing the gap, and eliminating slack by decelerating after the second wake like I've seen in the video of the 2009 tournament at Predator bay.

 

Overall I was inconsistent to say the least. I had a couple good cuts... like 4 out of 20. The water was rough from other wakes and I just didnt feel like skiing. Waiting in the water to go back my driver asks me how fast I wanted to go. 52? hell no, thats for girls. 55. I thought I'd surely fall. I ended up running it. It wasnt pretty at all. Madd mistakes but I was able to pull across pretty well without any panicking or hustling too hard to the buoy. Everything seemed to go slower than usual. I swear he slowed down the boat after ball 2 or 3, but he confirmed that he didnt.

 

Need to improve on getting wider, better timing , and pulling much, much harder so I can decelerate a greater distance.

 

All in all my summer goal of running 28 off has been met.