Words of encouragement for Joel and others

[billb]

Hey, guys, especially Joel, I just wanted to celebrate getting in the 28off club and encourage others in the midst of the same struggle. Joel posted at the beginning of the year that he was going to try to learn 28 at 28 since 22 didn't seem to be helping him get 28. I had to do the same thing since I couldn't stop myself from repeating the same mistakes at 22 that I was making at 15. I have a good pulling position (mostly), so I could run 15 and 22 with this bad habit. 28 would not let me do it.

 

It has taken a while, but I have run a couple of 28s without doing any kamikaze diving at/around the buoys.

 

So, the purpose of this post is to tell the others taking the unusual road to keep the faith and it can happen. Good luck, guys.

[Razorskier1]

every new speed and every new rope is a victory!

[andjules]

I've been running -28 for a few years, but this has been the season where it really 'clicked' and has become easy/routine (so long as my head is on straight).

Everybody is working on different weak points of their game, but I'd like to share what helped me out of the -15/22 plateau:

Make sure my stack is strong into the wake (in my case, my position looked good, but I'd absorb the wakes too much with my knees, giving the boat back way too much; concentrating on a straighter/stiffer back leg as I came into the wakes made a huge difference)

Start letting off at the centerline - no 'extra pull' after the second wake (obviously, this requires getting good angle/lean into the wakes)

After the wakes, elbows tight to my vest, both hands on the handle longer (than I could get away with at -15/22)

My 2¢, hope it helps someone.

[andjules]

P.S. Congratulations. It's a great wall to get over!

[Than_Bogan]

@andjules Boy do those sound like my keys for -38! There is some additional gate-specific stuff I guess, but it's amazing how much each level of this sport is fundamentally the same except you just have to do it better ... again.

[Brady]

@Than_Bogan, maybe I should just start running 39 and stay on it til I get it! I can just imagine that one. pass one, got halfway to the gate. pass two, got 1 foot closer to the gate......pass479, have the best damn pull out and approach to the gate as any 15 off skier on the planet---still haven't gotten to one ball though! :)

[colo_skier]

@Brady That's funny. almost as good as the "That's the best darn deep water start you've had today." comment I got earlier this year. It was in regards to the problem I had started way earlier in the pass than were I failed.

[jhughes]

Awesome. -28 is still wildly unpredictable for me but I'm better at it this year than ever, no doubt there.

[Chef23]

My son got a concussion earlier this year at 36/22. Once he came back we didn't have any tournaments scheduled so he has been skiing different speeds and line lengths. He has run 2@35 @30 mph. And 4@32 @ 32. This afternoon he was out on a Vapor for the first time and he ran 4@28 @ 34 mph. This was the first time he has run 34 mph since getting hurt and even last year when he was running 34 he never got to 4@28 and he wasn't running 22 that often.

 

This was a long winded way of saying I think here is value to running shorter line lengths at slower speeds. It has helped his body position and I think he is going to be better prepared for 36. When he gets through 34/28 I am going to move him back to 36. Today he skied 30/22, 32/22, 34/22 then a bunch of tries at 28.

 

Once I am back skiing I think I am going to slow down and take some tries at 35 at slower speeds.

[ToddL]

I just PB-ed in yesterday's tournament, running -28 and got 2 @ -32. My last Tourney PB was back in 2006. That -28 pass yesterday was crazy easy. Strang almost, in a good way. Perfect gate 1, calm and early into my offside at 2, then everything after that was rinse and repeat until out the gates. Head game at -32 and the old habit at my offside made its appearance.

[Chef23]

Nice work @ToddL‌. With time 32 will get better.