Slalom on Jumpers

[bishop8950]

My son is running the course on combos at 15-17mph. Yesterday, I skied on jumpers starting at 15.5mph just to try to understand what its like for him and how I can better coach him. I went up through 28mph before my feet were killing me. I think I could run 30 or maybe 32mph. But it got me thinking, who knows what the top guys can do on jumpers in the slalom course? Got any stories?

[Razorskier1]

I have not done the course on jumpers, but have done some open water cutting on them. What I can say is that skiing on jump skis (if you are cutting hard) is an incredible amount of leg and core work, but in a different plane than slalom. I bet it would be a good way to cross train.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

Jumpers are quite different from the combos especially if you are on big ones.

One thing I have my kids do in the spring is practice jump cuts for 6 passes, then do 2 passes through the slalom course. I think my son ran 30mph on his 84" jumpers last spring.

Its great practice no matter how you look at it - just not quite as much fun as slippery slalom B)

[Chef23]

I ran some passes on my son’s 84s this summer and ran through 28 mph. I was coming back from illness so I was still a little tentative about falling. I was only getting the outside Ski around the ball. You really need to get off the pull early.

 

It was fun though.

[bishop8950]

@Bruce_Butterfield, it was fun and made me think about how I finish my turns on my slalom ski (too hard). Also, my jumpers are 72s. I got them just to play with the kids. But I know they are much better than my sons combos and was thinking about this when I was skiing yesterday. This said, I did put D3 Blackout High wrap on his combos so he has better control.

[fu_man]

Slalom course on jumpers....one of Lucky Lowe's drills. Although it has been a while now, all the times that I skied with him he never made me do it but it came up every time.

[LeonL]

I've known several skiers who start the season running the slalom course on jumpers. Don't recall a speed.

[eleeski]

Some college kids run the course on jumpers. A few actually make it. There's some talk about restricting that (bad idea in my opinion). I'm not sure it develops great slalom basics but the kids enjoy it. Certainly improves jumping skills. It looks pretty wild when the good skiers go for it.

 

A fun activity for both skier and spectator.

 

Eric

[6balls]

I did it this fall coming off my spiral tib/fib fracture in the spring that hosed my season...I really enjoyed it. We can get all tied up in our slalom scores...I recommend if you have access to jumpers just go do it one day for a change up...sometimes helps us remember why we got into watersports in the first place...cuz it's fun!

[ForrestGump]

Back in 2011 I toyed with the idea of giving jumping a real go and would ride my 92 inch goodmans 5 times a week. Started at 22mph and increased the speed every week. Ran long line at 34mph pretty easily after about 4-5 weeks. The jump from long line to 15 off was TOUGH, though. The biggest problem is that I'd start laughing and then it was a train wreck trying to get through the pass. lol. That first month, though, I had massive bruises no my legs. Those big Goodmans would crack me in the shins at least once a week and leave me hobbling for a day or two. So much fun, though. I'm sure some of the crashes were worth the price of admission for the boat crew. I gave it a try last year on some old 78 inch exocets and I was lucky to get through the pass at 24mph.

[jimbrake]

Hey Kevin. No good jump/slalom stories (although I think Mike Todd at BA can or used to be able to run 36 on his jumpers when he was in open), but starting teaching your son to move his hips inside his skis to finish his turns and start accelerating across instead of trying to crank them with rotary movements. As you understand, it's about edge angle and mass movement, not trying to twist/turn the skis to point somewhere. When Hayden was running the course on two, he had this natural hip move in on one side and tried to rotate on the other. The side he moved his hips on was soooo good (his current and apparently natural onside) and he got out of those turns and across course so fast while the other side was much slower to come around and accelerate. Oh, and enjoy every damn second of this time with your boys (I know you are).

[Edbrazil]

Some history: Back in the 1950s when I started skiing, many of us kids were running

slalom on jumpers in tournaments. Maybe running 28mph longline. Back in the days of

long endgates.

At the 1957 Nationals (San Diego) in Boys Slalom, Glenn Sperry won the event on 2 skis.

A feat that will never be duplicated. The number of skiers who have completed the

course at 34 mph on 2 skis is fewer than the number of today's skiers who have run

41 off. (34 mph was the max. speed back then, even for men, and at least through

the1960 Rules.) Warren Witherell probably settled the 2 vs. 1 ski argument when he

ran into way deep shortline at the 1960 Bay State Open.

A few years ago, I saw Jamie Beauchesne run 32mph and a few at 34 on jumpers.