Slalom competition with no buoys, no cruise, no judges........ Hmmm? ...no kidding..

[Wish]

Anyone ever see this in action??? Maybe this is the answer to getting more skiers involved that do not have access to a course or private site. Food for thought. Anyone know the inventor?

..

http://www.propellergraphics.com/flagslalom/about.html

...

[DefectiveDave]

That's an interesting concept. I agree that it could be a great gateway drug. ;-)

[SkiJay]

No balls?!! I could ROCK that course!

[mwetskier]

wouldnt that be slalom skiing for skiers with no balls?

[Waternut]

Could be a really good training tool too since you'd be forced to keep your eyes down course instead of on the balls.

[skihard]

Sure is a unique idea for people without access to a course as well as including all skiers and even kneeboarders into some open water friendly fun for sure.

[skierjp]

What would be the fun in that. Also that would be a extremely narrow course. I think that is a set up for blind skiers.

[Wish]

@skierjp. I don't think it's for the blind...could be wrong but who cares. From what I gather, the flags get placed further up the gunnel towards the windshield with each completed pass as the line gets shorter. So essentially, you have to get as wide as the standard course to tag the flag with the rope. When the line is shortened and the flag is moved up the gunnel, the same course width would have to be obtained to tag the flag. You may want to read the explanation on their site but that's my take away. Looks to me like they figured out the rope angles for each loop needed to achieve normal course widths. Click on their diagram. It says "standard buoy line" and each dot on the gunnel is the same color as the loops on the rope up through 35off.

[Brady]

@Wish. When was this made? "The protractor is then removed - it's not used whilst skiing"

 

Waseth this thou created by Shakespeare himselfeth?

[RazorRoss3]

I don't think it's a narrow course, at -15 the rope is approacong the back corners of the boat at buoy width, by -32 you are moving up the boat. The flags are following the same pattern.

[Jordan]

It would help with learning how wide you have to be, but without the ball, there would be no timing to figure out.

[Wish]

Actually there would have to be timing. Another aspect I like. Stop watch in one hand the air-horn in the other (shown as equipment) for observer..... Pull out and as soon as the skier crosses the wake, horn blast and stop watch starts. 17ish seconds later and 6 flag taps and back to the wake. That would have to work better then just free skiing and guessing. Also what if you had a long enough lake run, you could do 2 or 3 courses non stop with a few seconds to collect yourself in between. Now that would be some conditioning..especially early spring.

[mwetskier]

good or bad if you have to touch the flag pole with the rope it would certainly encourage reaching forward at the shorter line lengths.

[A_B]

No disrespect, but it seems like flag football to me.

 

And of course, if you hit all the flags in practice, it wouldn't count anyway...

[doonez]

I don't think I'd like someone running one of these courses at my lake while I'm trying to sleep in!

[crashman]

I have to admit I would like to try it to see how fun it is

[Kavan]

I think that would be really fun out open waterskiing with, would make it so I wouldn't screw up so much timing when open skiing and would kind of be like endless course skiing. But how does the no speed control apply and how do the gates work?

[SkiJay]

I don't think hyper-accuracy is the goal here. I like the concept for keeping my width honest during big-lake free-skiing. Anyone who's done any amount of course skiing will ski pretty much in rhythm anyway, and you don't need to wake the neighbors with the horn either. I bet you can feel the rope hit the flag if you keep the ideal amount of tension on the line. Good training aide.

[LeSkiAvantTout]

Low-cost and can definitely see the potential for it over here in UK where many people ski without access to private lakes and courses. Good luck to the manufacturer.

[scuppers]

This is a very interesting idea! This is the crazy kind of thing that could really save slalom skiing.

[mateja]

Ha, I like how the "Ultimate" package comes with a ski boat. one stop shopping!

[Garn]

For those Lake Powell and Mead trips, I think this would be great! I want one!

[Fine409]

And if you were cheap and good at math/trig to figure out the angles, buy 2 of these and you are set!

 

http://safetyflagproducts.com/safetysuctionflag.html

 

 

[harddock]

I know this is old but it has surfaced on FaceBook recently. Has anyone tried this? Is it a good practice tool for when no course access is available or does it totally mess up your course skiing?

[UWSkier]

I know a lot of the ski schools in Korea use them. Would be cool to have them retractable like antennas on cars used to be. Of course, when I'm skiing, I'm not looking into the boat. Trying to keep my eyes downcourse as much as possible.

[DW]

My ski buddy put together a similar gizmo to help skier be wide enough. It is an LED light mounted on the pylon and pivots with the rope (ala numerous camera offerings) and when the skier gets out to proper width the light comes on. There are multiple switches inside the box so the driver selects the angle that matches the rope length. Works really well, fine tuning the light color for best visibility. Been a lot of fun to play with.

[lpskier]

Also the Virtual Slalom Skiing COMPETE app. Get it at the Apple App Store. Coming for Android in September. And VSS Virtual World Championships over Labor Day Weekend.