First passes in the course this year

[Chef23]

I have been making good progress free skiing so this morning I decided to take a look at the course. As I get back into things I have been skiing on a 69" HO Charger at 30 mph and 22 off. First two passes through I went very early and turned ahead of the ball and tried to hit the wakes at the same gap between the boat guides each pass. This felt pretty good so on the third pass I set up for the gates and went for 1 ball. I didn't work quite long enough between the wakes and came up a little short so I shadowed one, got around two shadowed 3 through the rest of the course. Fourth pass I got around one and came up short at 3 and 5.

 

Fifth pass I really focused on working through the wakes on my off side pull (lff so going to 1,3, 5) and ran the full pass. Given that this was the first time I did 5 deep water starts in a set never mind running some buoys I quit after 5 passes.

 

It was awesome to run the course again. I feel like I am ahead of where I thought I would be at this point in the summer. I am going to have some things coming up in the fall which are going to limit my skiing some but I do feel like I am finally back on track.

 

Obviously I am going to run some more sets at 30 mph but I feel like I should be able to get back on my regular ski (66" Goode Mid) soon. I am still 50 lbs lighter than I was last summer so even that ski is a little big for me so I should be able to get up on it fine.

 

We will see how sore I am tomorrow. I am getting back in the gym as well this week so it should be interesting.

[jcamp]

Fantastic Mark!

 

[rfa]

Awesome! Best news of the day my friend!

[Andre]

Big congrats!

You're gonna be so sore tomorrow...in a good way!

[sunvalleylaw]

Great to hear!

[Chef23]

I don't feel too bad today. I even went to the gym for the first time yesterday. My plan right now is to try to ski MWF morning and workout those afternoons and have a recovery day when I walk and stretch in between.

[Skoot1123]

Way to go @Chef23! Great progress! Keep it up - a great inspiration to all of us.

[UWSkier]

Fantastic news! Just keep skiing! :)

[rawly]

Great news Mark. Glad you are feeling stronger and are able to ski. There is more to life than skiing , but this is what we live for. We ran our very first 35 offs on the same weekend back in 2014. I remember posting about finally running it and you also posted about running it with Jack Travers. Funny how this ski sight makes us care about people we haven't met. Good luck to you on your road to recovery.

[Chef23]

@rawly that is still the only 35 I have ever run. I started having back issues which hurt the 15 and 16 seasons. Obviously I won't be chasing that line length this year. I am hoping to come back better than ever for 2018.

[Andre]

Wednesday!!!

It's ski day!

[Chef23]

@Andre I am heading out as soon as this conference call ends.

[Chef23]

Set two in the course in the books. Unfortunately the wind kicked up big time so I only made 1 full pass it was a cross wind and I kept not holding long enough in to the cross and coming up short. I did have a couple of passes when I shadowed but also a had a couple when I hit a turn ball. Deep water starts are getting easier as is kicking my back foot in.

 

I was definitely a little tired today. I didn't ski yesterday but I did walk 3.5 miles and got a good stretch in. I think I am going to try to hit the gym today and take tomorrow off completely then ski on Friday.

[Andre]

That was quick.

You live on a lake ?

[Chef23]

@Andre I do live on a lake with a slalom course. My regular ski partners went out at 8 but I had a conference call at 8:30 so one of them picked me up at my dock after they were done. I skied my set and was back in about 40 minutes. It could have been much faster if needed but we put some gas in the boat after.

 

I am very fortunate with my skiing situation except for the fact that we are in Mass and the season is winding down.