Distance From Center Episode 42 (boat Driving issues)

[Horton]

 

[buoyboy1]

Horton - You should have called this Episode "Distance from Center"..... :D

[ScottScott]

 

[markn]

In listening to the episode, I thought Trent made an interesting comment. He said he did not want drivers to "be afraid" and not give a good pull. I was a senior driver and senior judge (pulled some pros into 41 a while back) and think a senior driver should have the skill set to confidently drive "without fear" of being monitored or not be a senior driver. Every driver gets caught out from time to time, myself included. My mentor, who drove a world record, was always coaching and making suggestions for improvement. He made me a better driver. He had me review my boat path videos long before it was required. Every driver wants to pull a good score or record for the skier, but it should not be at the expense "pushing the limits". I would rather "give" too little boat and be down the middle than too much. Two things are needed to be an excellent senior driver....a confident, proficent skill set and integrity.

Recently at the Swiss ELR tournament, both drivers used the surepath (?) just for reference. ALL open skiers were in the green on all passes for both drivers. Interestingly, it was a slow skier pulling a long time that got one boat guide in the red not the entire pass. I have had the pleasure of skiing behind both drivers in practice and in tournaments. Both take their art seriously and are exceedingly conscientious.

[T_C]

There is a simple solution to this issue. We just had the Sure Path system installed at our lake. The driver and boat judge have instant feed back from the pass just completed. The deviation from center is displayed on the screen for each buoy including the pre gates and entry gates. A green signal confirms the pass was in tolerance. Anything out of tolerance shows up in red with a beep warning. A decision can be made if a reride is mandatory while the rope is being shortened. No extra officials are needed. I don't think the average Joe can tell how good a boat path is from end coarse video without using something like splash eye. Making end coarse video available for everyone to see is a terrible idea because most people don't know what they are looking at.

[Geppetto]

Truth

[Horton]

A people asked why we did not talk about GPS boat tracking in this video. It is the solution but it wasn't really what we were talking about. I guess it will be the subject of a future show.

[Chad_Scott]

Great topic. Although @horton takes some heat. This is a great discussion and one that all drivers should discuss. As I driver, I aim to give the best pull I can while attempting to drive as straight as possible as the rule states. The tolerance is there for my protection as a driver not for me to aim for each pass. None of us can drive a completely straight path but that is what we should be striving for.

I think with the new sure path and ski path technology, the drivers that want to get better will improve with the use of these tools. I think this is a topic that needs to be discussed and addressed after all Those ranking list mean a great deal to the open men and women skiers.

[Mateo_Vargas]

With path technology now we can have a rankings list for drivers.

[dwfrech]

Could you put in some video to illustrate what kind of driving variations occur? I think that would help us understand what is a boat path which is almost or is out of regulation. Thanks.

[Horton]

@dwfrech