Cal Pro Am pictures - Sam Dumala

[Horton]

Sam Dumala has one of the most unique styles is skiing. Here are a few images of her gate and then heading into her on side for everyone to speculate about.

 

 

And one off side

 

 

[Nando]

Makes my back hurt just looking at still photos...

[aupatking]

Inside hip moves forward into the preturn. Gets everything moving in the right direction.

[Brewski]

Reverse C exemplified...

[Horton]

@Brewski I'm not really sure the reverse c is a solid concept to begin with but it's not what she's doing.

 

her shoulders are angled away from the pylon extra far through center line and then when she switches edges the relationship between her spine and her legs doesn't change. it's not that her feet swing underneath her if that she's already in that position and she stays there

[igkya]

I agree her gate is different, as it appears she's trying to mimic a turn outta 2, 4 ball. As for her 1 ball, unless the photos are outta order, she releases the handle, then regrips it, but the reverse-C looks like its in well in play.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

When you are 5’10” and 80 lbs you can do things alot differently than those with more typical stature. Its not really complicated.

[matthewbrown]

@Horton her upper body needs to be stacked on top of her lower body in this view of her cuts into 1.3.5. The ski is swinging too far away from the boat, causing her upper body to fall inside the ski arc too soon. As a result the ski loses speed and direction. This is why her 1.3.5 turns were on the tail at the shorter line lengths. Being stacked doesn’t just apply to the boat plane of view.

[Wish]

Pressuring/pulling/leaning on the line in her unique way to maintain swing connection and speed off CL while simultaneously removing any load on the ski allowing her to fallow the arc of the line and not get separated by continuing to load the ski past CL. Wow, that was a long sentence..and my guess. And yes, the slides are out of oder..no regrip.

[Horton]

@matthewbrown interesting analysis. Makes sense. What peaks my interest is that she is intentionally keeping her shoulders so hard to the outside. I am not saying I want to ski that way but I am saying it is unique.

 

 

[Horton]

@Bruce_Butterfield I do not think she is that light but she looks crazy lean.

[Horton]

She does almost the same thing on the other side

 

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@horton yeah I was guessing and exaggerating....But not by much.

[kc]

Two observations. 1) I’m pretty sure I could not get my body to do that. 2) It seems to be working for her. Her scores continue to increase.

[6balls]

Looks like the boat has some horrible stank or funk and she doesn't want to be anywhere near it.

[PatM]

I have skied many times with Sam through her young years. And yes everytime I see her ski I say 'ya my body cannot do that'.

[matthewbrown]

@Horton those pictures are phenomenal.

[jimbrake]

Looks like she's just trying to keep load on the line thru the edge change and stay level into and thru the turn. As a LFF, the turn at zero and how I get over and stay over my feet to establish that first acceleration is most of the ballgame. Love the pics @Horton. Thanks for posting.

[Keith_Menard]

No one notices the fingerless gloves?

 

My Chiropractor would love her...but at the end of the day...whatever works for you

[ToddL]

@"Keith Menard" those gloves work well when the skier's fingers don't fit the typical length provided on a glove that fits their palm. Really skinny hands with long fingers (or really wide hands and short fingers).

[BraceMaker]

Wife has same ones... It's for the manicure. Radar stitches the fingers so you just cut them off with scissors

[mrpreuss]

A huge effort in handle control for outbound direction, huge loss of power in poor stack, as stated by @matthewbrown

[A_B]

Slalom is still an art. :o (with some science thrown in). We don't have to look like robots.

 

I see her keeping her shoulders back and getting the ski on a turning edge, which is a critical move in my playbook to run rope that doesn't reach the buoy. Lots of counter to keep the ski moving outbound. A lot of good things. BUT, I agree, this old fat guy could NEVER be found in those positions without a lot of Tito's!

[9400]

She ran a bunch of buoys in Charleston last weekend.

[Drago]

Her "counter" is counter balance, not counter rotation. The only thing I can learn from this is it doesn't matter much what you do when there is nearly no load