Answering Horton's call for Than video

[Than_Bogan]

Wow. Rarely do I feel so generally uncomfortable on my ski.

 

Fwiw, I had just shortened my fin by a hundredth, which should have put me BACK to my miracle settings from last season. But it felt really out of whack. More likely was me who was/is out of whack.

 

One thing jumps out at me as almost shocking from this video, and may help explain my mediocre-so-far season. I'll reveal what I see soonish. But feel free to comment on anything (and PLEASE don't feel you have to able to beat me to comment!).

 

[MattP]

@Than_Bogan‌ The only thing that jumps out at me right away would be your best passes were the ones where you were "wide" on your gates. You seem to be drifting and turning in from a very narrow position. Get up on the boat!

[andjules]

a) Nice skiing!

b) I agree with @MattP‌

c) Another thing which at first I didn't think was important, but am increasingly thinking is important: you don't always keep your head level in the turn, which leads to you kind of falling into your turn. It's more pronounced on your off-side, but you seem to manage it well. On the other hand, you tend to come into your on-side turn better (head up), but as soon as you hit the apex, your head falls back in, with your shoulders, and your falls at -35 seemed to come from the ensuing overturn. My 2¢.

[Horton]

Most of what i see is caused from the handle getting away too fast off the second wake and elbows not being tight enough at the wakes. Part of that might be from your hips being a tick back. If you slay that issue please tell me how you did it.

 

I agree with what @MattP‌ said but I think being more connected off the second wake will help keep your center of mass from moving to the inside so early. There is for sure some "chicken or the egg" issues in skiing.

 

Wide on your gates never hurts.

[GaryWilkinson]

Nice skiing Than!

1 in the early and middle passes I noticed head bobbing and shoulders followed, as said earlier, a more level head with shoulders back will give you consistent turns.

 

2 IMHO on many wake crossings, you laid off the edge too soon and stood up. This brought you forward on the ski almost each time and the head tilt etc, i believe if you held that strong leverage position ( where have I heard that term before?!) longer, then edge change with your legs coming underneath you but shoulders and back are still further back (reverse "c")? Your angle would be better coming into 2,4 balls. And with possibly a bit more outward bound speed and inertia which is a good thing coming into -35 and -38.

 

Still,my your -32 and some of those -35's looked easy!

[kstateskier]

nice skiing @Than_Bogan‌ I'll agree with what everyone has said but take it a touch further. If you watch on the video where your rope is in relation to the step pad on the side of the boat your rope (at the widest point of your gate pullout @35) is just about the middle of that step pad. While I can't personally run 35 I ski with several who run it everyday and when I watch their pullouts that line is always very far up on that pad if not in front of it. So try and use that as a marker to judge your width and how far up on the boat you are during your gate pullout.

 

I'll add one more thought. On your 2-4 side you appear to be going into your turn leading with your shoulders rather than your center of mass. Others have mentioned this as your head isn't staying level but I wanted to rephrase because we all process feedback differently. Try leading your 2/4 turns with your inside hip and see if that keeps your head more level, and your shoulders back. It might even help your ski carry through that turn and hook up with more acceptable angle (aka angle your can carry physically into 3/5).

[Skoot1123]

@than_bogan - you create some good space before the buoy on your 28 and 32 passes. A couple things I noticed: echo what @mattp said about getting wider on the gate as it seems like you drift in quite far, on your turn in for the gates it seems like your handle could be farther over to your opposite hip (might be a result of drifting back into the wakes), and your onside turns you tend to "break in" at the waist toward the centerline of the boat. Hard to tell from the camera angle if the ski arcs around "too fast" and you break at the waist to stay with the ski or if that is just a natural tendency of yours. You ski much better than me, so I have no room to talk as these are all things I need to work on too. But my two cents nonetheless.

[2tracmind]

Thanks for posting your video and I look forward to your personal assessment. I agree with what has been said, my other observations are;

Gate - Yes you could have more width but your turn in is inconsistent, sometimes your are drifting in and then going hard with handle control issues resulting. I believe your best gate was on one of your 38 attempts where you held more more width before your turn in and then progressively built speed with a centered pull at the wakes.

 

[jhughes]

That skier looks pretty familiar but skis way more balls than I do! As others said the turns seem a bit tippy and shoulder heavy, same stuff I deal with every set.

[Than_Bogan]

Since I happen to know this guy can take it, I'll be a bit more blunt than much of the good advice above:

 

1) Your offside pull is a mess. Most of the odd-even crossings have a passable leverage position from the hookup to about the first wake, after which you are just standing there like you're waiting in line at Dunkin Donuts. Gotta get down, and stay down, and then keep that handle with you when you transition to the other edge into 2/4/6.

 

2) Your gate setup is inconsistent but consistently too narrow. Start earlier, stay on the edge out longer, and then complete the turn-in before loading.

 

3) Your knees stick out in a goofy way, but perhaps you can't do anything about that.

 

4) You seem to have lost the tiny bit of progress you made last year on keeping your head level. But that isn't going to matter a lot until the offside pull is corrected, since you'll stall out at 2/4/6 regardless of any head positioning if you don't have enough space and speed.

[Than_Bogan]

@GaryWilkinson wins the prize for closest match to what I saw, and @phauswirth wins the fumble-finger prize for marking the initial post as off-topic!

 

In that set, I was about a half pass "off," so I had a little fear the video would be useless. AU CONTRAIRE! This shows some large errors, some of which I may be able to correct.

[Horton]

I fully recognize that this was video of a bad set so maybe the critiques are all unfair. But it looks like the way I feel when I'm just not hitting on all cylinders. Perhaps the handle control is the symptoms not the cause but that is what I find most concerning. I would focus on the line tension first. If you're off the line and falling to the inside getting your head level is not going to help much.

[andjules]

Good points about line tension/coming-off-your-lean into 2/4/6. I opened the topic about the level head, but a little voice in my head was wondering if it was more of symptom than a root cause. The early let-off issue might actually help my skiing (and on-side sink/overturns).

[Chef23]

@Than_Bogan get some video on a day that you feel better on the ski before you completely trash yourself. I have seen you ski much better than that this year.

[Than_Bogan]

@chef23 point taken and hopefully I will.

 

Anyhow I think there are really fundamental things happening that I need to work on before I'll have a real shot at 38 again.

[Chef23]

That is why video is good.

[Than_Bogan]

Just snuck in a quick set, mostly 32s, focusing really hard on staying down and connected on my offside. Also tried to get higher on the gate. Suddenly that rope felt nice and looong. Did a -35 at the end and smoked it.

 

So not much doubt in my mind that we've identified the right stuff to work on. I see a lot of 32s in my near future while I regain some key form elements.

[6balls]

Aw man, I was hoping this thread was your chin up video!

[Than_Bogan]

That's a great idea. Will be nice and short so nobody gets bored!

[cragginshred]

Wow, I finally get to see one of the Big Dawgs from the forum ski! Stack is great as expected at -28, breaks down at -32 going from 1 to 2 ball. You seem to be all over the place with your trunk. You Reach is toward the wake on the 1-3-5, and you Release the handle toward the pylon on the 2-4-6. I am RFF also and was doing the same thing. Once I spotted it about a month ago and began to release toward the pylon it made a big difference.

[RazorRoss3]

Always fun to watch ski video.

My comments are the height on the boat for the gate like Mattp said and then trying to stay tall/head and shoulders level as you come off the second wake

[Jordan]

Than- all of the answers to the questions about your skiing are answered here;

- Watch the skier keep his head more level

- Listen to him talk about the letting the ski carve

- watch how close his arms are to his vest

- Look at how wide his pullout is

 

 

[Than_Bogan]

Fwiw, this thread really helped me. I was able to "fix" (i.e. get back to my old level) my offside just about immediately just by focusing on it, and I've made a little progress on my gate width but need to do much more.

 

I'll be doing a lot of -32s for a while, working to dial back in a few things.

 

But since posting this thread I haven't missed a -35 -- 4 for 4 including one in near darkness.

 

So this put me back on track. I must fix my gate width before I can seriously threaten -38, but at least now I have a clear understanding of what I had lost this year relative to last.

 

I'm also finally at 99% comfort level on my new OB4 boots, so I can get back to actually working on my skiing!!

 

Thanks everyone!