Real Eye Opener

[mwetskier]

in a thread about ' Point of reference for gate shot ' @wtrskior posted a youtube video with a go pro mounted on his chest or helmet and @OB pulled a screen cap showing a missed gate. i was so impressed by how he got that single frame i went on line and figured out how to do it. once i started playing around with it if discovered proof of something a good friend has told me for years.

 

my friend likes to always remind me that when i am skiing the boat is always pulling me downcourse at 53 feet per second if the rope is tight. i think i get that intellectually but its been hard for me to sense it mechanically when i am skiing. today when i pulled out individual frames like @OB did the concept really hit home. here are 3 sequential frames from that @wtrskior video when the skier is crossing the wake at the gate shot. presumably this should be the moment when all the skiers energy and effort is shooting him across course with the greatest angle and greatest resistance to the boats pull.

 

notice how in the tiny fraction of a second between the first wake and the second wake the skier is pulled down course at least 10 - 12 feet. i see this as absolute proof that we cant cross the wake with nearly as much angle as we think we do.

 

 

 

 

 

[ForrestGump]

What I'm seeing is not a lot of angle with a direct path to one ball.

[Ilivetoski]

^^^ exactly my thought @shaneH

[mwetskier]

he had more angle than that at hook up and after but has given most of it back at the wake. possibly trying to get between the gate balls at the last second you see a lot of that with guys who dont pull out wide or turn in with speed. never the less the amount of down course influence the boat has is pretty clear and it is substantial. just reinforces the need for speed through the wakes.

[Drago]

When I judge in a tower, that is very noticeable , more so with kids, much less do with mm and open

[Horton]

@mwetskier what is the rope length? If 15 or 22 off I understand. If 28 -32 off you are in a lot of trouble ...

[Horton]

I also think it is worth nothing that there is NO agreement among skiers about how important it is to be super close to the right hand gate. I am in the camp that it is not critical that you are super close but there are those that think I am out of my mind....

[mwetskier]

@Horton -not me in the photos and the line length is supposed to be -28. @wtrskior from a different thread posted his video then @OB pulled out a screen cap then I pulled out some more screen caps which are seen here in this thread.

 

original thread had nothing to do with boat induced down course slide but because the skier missed the gates up course it made a great sequence demonstrating the 53 feet per second the boat is constantly dragging us down course as skiers. even when we think we are moving straight sideways across course were not even close to that in reality.

[Stevie Boy]

For me, some coaching always confuses the issues surrounding the Gate Shot or though my Gate Shot is fairly consistent and I seem to have space and time, on one hand I hear slow the gate down stand up and do not load and on the other hand I hear, load into the back of the boat so that you can, make an aggressive edge change outbound.

 

Any Views on either of these appreciated ?

 

I generally, get wide, focus on the right hand gate bouy and turn when it looks right, maintaining back arm pressure through, to the frothy water after the second wake, if I go too hard, edge change is automatic, this can be unsettling, but gives me a really good one ball.

[colo_skier]

Regardless of angle it is interesting to see how far the handle moves down course. It would seem that if you want to reduce this effect you have to go East West faster. ie have a sharper tangent angle to the rope arc behind the boat. ie start higher up on the boat? ?????

[wtrskior]

Terry Winter: http://youtu.be/wHng0LBIVwE

[6balls]

If you stop the vid of Terry above at the first wake, on gate cut, he is still far from the gates...though he missed the gates nearside on the opening pass here, it does still illustrate how much north/south ground we cover while trying to move east/west.

 

If one employs pendulum and tangent from pendulum theory, one must also take into account that the arc of the pendulum is continually moving up-course such that the arc when one turns in for the gates is in a different position than the arc at the time of release. An understanding of this and ability to physically deal with it may alter the ideal angle and also the ideal release point thus separating the studs from the mere mortals. Hmm...this is giving me something to think about in scale drawings and hashed lines for movement of the allowed arc.

 

 

[wtrskior]

@6balls he misses the gate on just about every pass in that set of all 32s...

 

He also initiates his turn in at least 2-3 boat lengths before the gates, uses a long glide and has one massive lean going on, just past centerline it peaks and he's coming up at the rh gate ball...

 

 

[rockdog]

What I noted was the '97 SN! He's skiing an A3 so this is recent, I feel much better now!

[mwetskier]

@wtrskior -i think he may have missed every gate in that video. hardly an effective argument for the benefits of turning in early.

[wtrskior]

@mwetskier‌ its an argument that missing the gate doesn't matter. He would only need to adjust his timing a nanosecond.

[mwetskier]

@wtrskior -thats a bit of an exaggeration since a ' nano second ' technically equals one billionth of a second. the three frames i posted above equal approximately 1/8 th of a second. the entire point of this thread was to note just how far a skier gets pulled down course in a very short time which means even a small adjustment can make a huge difference in down course distance travelled.

 

the other thing to pay attention to is none of us posting here are terry winters equal and he appears to get his ski rotated around to a much great angle than the skier in your -28 video. the real answer is that every ones gate will be different depending on their style and skill level. here's a video of a skier who takes an approach that is the exact opposite of a narrow early start -

 

 

it looks like he gets out to almost 90 degrees for his turn in and from other videos you can see he turns in much later than terry winter does but he still seems to do okay in the course.