From the Instagram Feed

[Horton]

I was just looking at the instagram feed and found this. I am sure she is a nice girl but why am I in the same association as she is?

 

[Horton]

She is also very proud of her pink bong. Not my people.

 

[A_B]

She likes her sticks wide and long, probably wouldn't work in a course.

[Horton]

This discussion was created from comments split from: BallOfSpray vs AWSA.

[Horton]

Just to be clear that is a swivel ski. Odds are she is on a show team and so she would be a member of USAWS.

 

Again I am sure she is a nice girl and I am happy she enjoys skiing but what does she have in common with us?

[BraceMaker]

The question would be % of members that cross over or participate in multiple "events"

 

I've met fairly few show skiers who transfer into three event, and I've never considered joining a show ski team. Although it would seem as if the pool of persons in Show Ski is rather large.

[Horton]

@BraceMaker in Wisconsin it is a big deal. In the rest of the world it is an oddity.

 

If I were single and looking for ladies of Norwegian heritage I might consider joining.

[Wish]

I've known several ski show members who have made the jump to 3 event or just slalom. Mostly do to the dwindling number of ski shows left. IMO it's a natural progression to go 3 vent. I had several come to their first tourny to watch this year and it really peaked their interest.

[BraceMaker]

@wish - I went by the "show ski worlds" this last fall for the heck of it. And it is a different world. I think if you motivated more show ski clubs to have active tournament participants you'd really have a good thing going.

 

And the show ski teams have folks willing to go off a jump on shoe skis - they should be able to stomach some jump skis.

[tfriess]

@franks and I live in wisco and we are both on a show ski team. Here, its pretty big. Usually 5 days a week we are on the water but we would both agree that it is more fun to be skiing through a course than to be basing a pyramid. Although being in a barefoot line with 15 guys is surely a huge thrill

[XR6Hurricane]

@tfriess - the barefoot lines are awesome. I also have to say that watching 15-20 hotties swiveling in skin tight outfits with the northwoods pine trees in the background and a Miller Lite sticker on the side of the Hydrodyne is one of life's greatest pleasures. So is watching a twin rig come out of the hole at full trim.

 

 

 

[tfriess]

@xr6hurrincane I think we can all agree on those things! but walking the boat like that really takes a hard hit on the motors like that!

[fu_man]

I'm in northern Illinois and have seen the Aquanuts and the Wonder Lake shows. My ski buddy used to do show skiing as well. They do some very cool stuff and put lots of time into what they do. I love taking in a sunset show with a bunch of friends and a couple of beers. Reminds me of the Tommy Bartlet/Cypress Gardens stuff I saw as a kid. It is a totally different discipline but I do like it.

 

That picture above....are swivel skies really that wide?!?! That is one piece of equipment the my crew does not have in our arsenal at the lake. We need to get one..not for real shows...for drunken shenanegan shows (watching guys try it after drinking on the floatilla all saturday afternoon).

[BraceMaker]

Ya they're wide- I think partly so the binding can swivel around on the ski with out dragging.

 

 

[XR6Hurricane]

Swivel skiing is done at about 12-16 mph, so the width helps with that too.

 

@fu_man, I'm in northern IL too and we go watch both of those teams. Seeing the Crivitz Ski Cats while on a family vacation is actually what got me into skiing. I believe they compete in a different class due to their size.

 

Which does bring up a point. Not saying that show skiing has much in common with 3-event, but the community ski show teams probably bring more people to the sport than the 3-event competitions held at private sites and on TV ever will - at least in this part of the country. Slalom courses are pretty rare here, but you're never more than 45 minutes from a free ski show once you get north of Chicago. That said, this is just one corner of the world.