New ski. Trouble starting.

[Yeaitsslo]

Have an older O’Brien siege 67.5. Never miss a start. Wanted to try something different, grabbed a radar butterknife and i for the love of me cannot get up on it. Completely inexperienced with the feeling. Any pointers?

[UWSkier]

Butterknife is a large ski. You should pop right out of the water on it. By any chance, have you tried a slower holeshot?

[JAS]

Bigger skis require more gradual application of power or you will get pulled forward.

[Chef23]

Did you change bindings? The Butterknife should be easier than the Siege. If you have different bindings it could make a difference.

[Jordan]

Had a friend struggle with his start while trying a Union(another large ski).

I noticed that he was pretty much pushing the ski straight out in front with the ski pretty much vertical. He couldn't hold on to the handle.

It seemed that he was managing to get all of that surface area to work against him.

While I don't know exactly what is causing your problems let me suggest that you get back to basics.

1)arms straight and chin up

2) get a bunch of the ski out of the water...front toes up near the surface.

3) front knee bent and up to your chest.

4) back heel tucked up to your butt.

5) gentle, progressive acceleration from your driver.

6) stay in a tight ball until you feel the ski rising up.

 

Go get 'em!

[SkiSam]

Biggest single trick I've been told is to touch the handle onto your front boot. Hold it until you're coming up out of the water. Rarely miss a start on any type of ski now.

[A_B]

Wide skis like to come out slow. I start the season on a big old Triumph and my daughter's boyfriend hit me like usual and I thought I was pulling 1,000 pounds out of the water.

 

Think Wakeboard start on throttle!

AB

[Ski_Dad]

+1 on less power out of the hole - if you get too much it will you pull over the front of the ski on a wide ride IMHO.

[escmanaze]

@Yeaitsslo Have you ever wakeboarded before? If so, start pretending your ski is a wakeboard.

 

Back in the late 90's and early 2000's lots of people were getting up on wakeboards for the first time. Some had significant experience in slalom skiing, some had little to no experience getting up on a slalom ski. Hands down, those who didn't bring bad slalom ski habits and trains of thought with them to the wakeboarding world had a MUCH easier time getting up on a wakeboard.

 

Those who brought years of slalom experience, especially behind older slower boats were accustomed to dragging their ski through the water in front of them for a few seconds before even beginning to think about standing up at all. So they just assumed the same would be necessary with a wakeboard. It is not. In fact, acting like you have to do that is the kiss of death on a wakeboard. You will work yourself to death trying to plow that thing through the water and and you'll completely lose control of it trying to plow it through when you approach it with the concept that you have to plow a while before standing up.

 

Those who came with little to no experience had no problem with my very basic level of coaching "just stand up". Don't fight it, don't plow, don't drag. Just stand right up as soon as the boat starts going. The newbies would actually do it, and they would be off to the races having fun. Unlike the folks who stayed in a slalom state of mind who insisted on fighting this big huge, tons of surface area board while they stayed deep in the water as long as they could.

 

So my advice to you as you seem to be moving from an old skinny slalom ski now to a big fat wakeboard-like type of ski? Same thing. Just stand up. Get out of your old slalom drag, plow, tug of war mentality. Get in to the new easy mentality. Just stand up. As fast as you have the strength to do it. Pretend it's really easy, cause on these new big fat skis...it is. And you have to get up the easy way. These new big fat skis won't allow you to get up using all your old habits of fight & drag and plow. There's just way too much surface area for you to play that game.

[Yeaitsslo]

Thanks for the help. Got up on the ski and love it. Haven’t touched my wakeboard or surfboard since. Just wanna ski. Now i gotta learn. A lot. Hahaha.