Im doing something terrible in this picture right? Can you help me from just this?

[Dirt]

That is one of my favorite pics. Another good reason to ignore Horton unless I'm taking pics.

[Horton]

@Marco the difference is we all like you

[Horton]

@kfennell become a Kilo Kai drinker and we well never abuse you like this again.

[tfriess]

@dirt from what I can see at this angle, you are bringing your arms up at the ball causing your upper body to come forward.

[Horton]

@tfriess that is exactly what I was telling them to do

[Than_Bogan]

@Omland Late means that the boat is further down the course than you'd like it to be given where you are and what you're doing.

 

The reason kfennell looks "waay late" here to me is that it looks likes the natural progression of his path may not even take him outside the next buoy. Ideally when the skier gets to where he is in the picture, the boat wouldn't be nearly that far down the course yet. The skier needs room to get out to the buoy, and initiate much of a turn before actually passing the buoy. kfennell doesn't have near enough room for that. (Again, unless it's a trick of the camera angle.)

 

Somewhat aside: While late is bad, as the line gets very short "early" is also bad. You have to be in just the right place relative to the boat. If you get out wide too soon at a very short length, it'll be impossible to maintain your width and speed, and you'll semi-crash and/or stall horribly at the ball, if you get around it at all.

 

P.S. Man, I'm only the one give actual advice, and *I* get hit with a Dislike... :)

[Marco]

I don't necessarily agree that early is bad at shortline. Watching videos of Nate at -39 and shorter, he seems to have reached his widest outbound point way up from the buoy and maintains his position down to the ball. Seems to work pretty well for him, but it may be different for mere mortals!

[ForrestGump]

Nate is HOW the rest of us should ski. Only problem is that about the only one who can do that is the great one, AM.

[Than_Bogan]

@Marco Agreed, but I'd say there's still a point of "earliness" that would be bad for Nate.

[Marco]

@Than_Bogan -I agree as well. What makes it seem to work for Nate is that he appears to closely match the speed of the boat as he approaches the buoy, thus he is able to keep a tight line without geting pulled back to the inside too early. I may be way off, but thats how it looks to me.

[madcityskier]

I'm late to the party, and unwilling to give you a hard time, as that would just be piling on.

At a glance, I see this differently than many of the comments I've read. I'm thinking that you either have changed your edge way to early, or went flat across the wake. I would like to see you getting greater angle, holding it through both wakes, and initiating the roll from the outside edge to the inside edge roughly where you're already riding flat in this pic. Where your hands are is the least of my concerns at this point.

And for the record golf sucks, time is better spent on the lake in any manner. Including curling when the water is too cold for skiing. Even bowling is better than golf, as the alleys have a/c on hot days and roofs on rainy ones.

 

[Dirt]

A lack of angle and/or not holding it long enough, along with hooking up too hard, too early will cause you arms/handle to be out and away from your body.

A lot of times we tell people their arms/handle are out/away and tell them to keep them in but we don't tell them how or why they are out.

They try to pull or hold them in but loose the battle with the 320+ HP boat.

It may be more helpful to work on letting the ski finish all the way, loading at the right time, right amount, in a solid stacked position and holding that for the right amount of time.

There is no substitute for time on the water perfecting basics and good coaching. Don't cut corners or rush your progress.

[Dirt]

It pains me to help Fennell but maybe it was not helpful.

[Than_Bogan]

@Dirt I firmly agree: You can't force your hands down nor can you force your hips up. These things happen when you do other things right.

[Skoot1123]

@dirt and @than_bogan - great comments. Since I have struggled with seperation between hands and hips, the comment : "work on letting the ski finish all the way, loading at the right time, right amount, in a solid stacked position and holding that for the right amount of time" nails it. The key is RIGHT AMOUNT. For each person that right amount will be different because of our ability levels, mass, personal nuance's etc. Some advice I have gotten was "trust the ski and speed." You will be suprised at how long you can go without HAVING to grab the handle. Helped me in just going out and seeing how long I could stay stacked on the ski and not reach back to early for the handle (part of the reason for being pulled out of position and loading tooooo early).

[Wish]

I believe Nate Has said he does not like a tight line during the reach. . He is early yes but as said above is matching the boat speed if not a tad more to give him that tight rope look but there is no tention on his line until he is ALL THE WAY AROUND the turn and hooks up at the right spot, also said above. In slow motion, that hook up with load is very very close to the ski tip hitting the white water. I find this almost impossible to do on my off side. I think thats from an unbalanced toe side feel. When I can pull it off it's a very weird felling like I'm to late to accelerate the ski but it's already moving and the little nudge at the white water is always enough. So the RIGHT SPOT/AMOUNT is totally true and generally a fix for what ails you IMHO.

 

[Horton]

http://media.tumblr.com/fe497dd337d9af8479bb6398b9565d16/tumblr_inline_mg6n5ltl6X1rxe4lt.gif

[Than_Bogan]

I suspected I was missing something before, and the panda firmly convinces me. Anybody care to explain wtf is going on in this thread? Inside joke from the start, maybe??

[kfennell]

@Horton is just a tool and want's to have skifly #2 messageboards here :|

[Dirt]

@Kfennell I agree. Tool is a bit harsh. I prefer super annoying mophead.

@Than_Bogan not that I know of. I may not be in on the joke.

[Horton]

The panda is in ref to what @wish posted

 

@kfennell grow a sense of humor

[Wish]

What.... to much? Wrong? Silly? All the above? Oh well. Thought it was a BS thread.. :)

[ToddL]

@Wish

Regarding Nate's "hook-up" with ski tip at the white water... I think this is relative to the speed he generates into and maintains throughout his turn. The more speed that is still present through the finish of the turn, the more the ski is able to "turn" all the way back to the wake. Thus, the "hook-up" is when the turn finishes (or the skier stops the turn). Nate is able to maintain speed and let the turn conclusion result in a start of a lean, so that the "hook-up" is less abrupt and later in the ski's path out of the buoy.

 

If a skier is at a slower speed, loses momentum in the turn, then the ski stalls and the "hook-up" happens out wider by the buoy. Many things can cause loss of momentum into and during the turn (poor angle before, poor timing or depth of edge change, poor connection through the edge change, handle control, etc. etc.).

 

The other element is the harshness of the "hook-up." That is sometimes due to the abrupt change in ski speed. If the ski was slow during the turn or stalled during the turn, then the "hook-up" results in an abrupt effort to speed back up. Also, if the ski's path is too aggressive out of the turn without the speed to support it, then "hook-up" will be very abrupt (the ol' overturn).

[kfennell]

So how do I carry more speed through the corners so that my hook up is more smooth, because now it is tearing the skin off my hands!

[jayski]

lead with your hip through the turn...

[skidawg]

If you had a sense of humor, u would ski better! How u like ur paycheck these days!!!

[Moskier3ev]

Clinchers man !! that will keep your skin on your hand and will continue to improve the entertainment value of your sets!!! Launched OTF's.

 

T$ is worth every $! Look at my wife she is kicking butt..

 

Kevin and I are not the only 2 guys at SMRR that their wives ski better than they do.

 

Jeff Lindsey