Deep start advice

[Jordan]

Good for you!. I would offer that rather than just going faster on the throttle out of the hole, try for a progressive acceleration as you start to come up. The total time and effort will be reduced, but it won't be as hard on your body and won't affect your balance. As you get more comfortable, you will be able to stand up faster. Cheers!

[VONMAN]

Who says you can't teach a old Dog new tricks. I noticed as I'm getting older (72 now) my problem is not skiing its the deep up starts. Some days I just blow starts and I don't know why. So last week I show up to the lake with no rope or handle. (I'm old and have a case of sum-timers). I borrow my ski Bud's rope and handle. His handle is Narrow, not my cup of tea but I'm sweating bullets that I'm going to blow my start. Wrong! I pop right up full control, ski doesn't want to turn right or left it just stays straight and I'm up! The next 5 starts the same!!

Two days later I'm back at the lake with my U S Gear double bent 13" wide handle. This time I place my hands in the middle of the handle (something I never do) and I pop right up. There is no fighting the ski from rolling to one side or another, just straight!! Who knew? Well I certainly didn't after all these years! After learning that little trick I haven't blown a start. No more dreading the deep water start, just skiing.

[Mtea]

Like you, I took about 20 years off from skiing before buying a house on a lake and having a real boat to pull me up. I’m in my 60s now and starts are easier than ever. I’ll add my two cents worth to the good comments here.

 

1) Lose the wetsuit. Strongly agree and definitely get skin tight swimwear. This is probably the best thing I did to have consistent successful starts. Starting is hard enough without having 50 pounds of water anchored to your butt then maybe 20 pounds the next time.

 

2) Make sure your life jacket fits and is tight. When you are in the water your jacket should not rise up and hit your ears or even leave your shoulders. If it does, it’s not lifting you up which does help. We always say that if you can breathe, it’s not tight enough.

 

3) I agree with “in gear” then “hit it” (or “rinse me off” or “giddyup”; there’s a fun thread about go phrases). Try this when you go “in gear”. Take note of the water level around you. If you are in the correct position and idling forward, you should notice that you will rise up ever so slightly in the water. If you are not rising up or worse yet sinking down, you are probably in the wrong position. I’m usually “in gear” for four or five seconds adjusting things before “hit it”.

 

4) When I rise slightly at idle (correct position) and I say “hit it” I don’t lean back or forward; I don’t change anything. I tense every muscle, arms, legs, feet, ankles and try to become a statue and just let the boat pull me out of the water. If I rise at idle I’ll rise when going faster.

 

5) A gentle and steady increase in power by the driver is the way to go as mentioned above.

[HMan66]

I’m teaching my girlfriend to drive and what really helped her on the starts was when I told her to watch the mirror. As the driver, you should know when the line is tight and the status of your skier in the water. She said that it helped a lot, and the starts are much better than they were before and she’s more confident and consistent on the pull ups.

[vtmecheng]

I hate having to tell the driver to tighten the line up because I don’t trust they will. Should be automatic.

[Vernon Reeve]

@kirkbauer I had the same issue with too much throttle. I had a driver who hadn't pulled me before, and suddenly I couldn't do a deep water start. He eventually tried way less throttle, and I got right up. I'm a big guy 6'1" 220lb on a 69" ski, so he thought I would need more throttle. I couldn't feel that he was giving it more throttle. It just felt like I suddenly couldn't get up. Glad you got it figured out also.

[Deanoski]

@Vernon Reeve glad we figure it out

[ScottScott]

I was doing a practice set for a tournament last summer at a ski school on that lake a couple days before the tournament. I missed several starts. I asked for a little more gentle pullup, and he said it was as slow as he could go. I'm not sure I get it, there really is no limit to how slow you can move the throttle forward. I know a slow pullup, I skied years behind a 3L bow rider.... Messed my back up enough I couldn't ski the tournament, and it still isn't the same. I've lost a lot of time on the water. I'm not happy.

[Jmoski]

@ScottScott - that sucks, not sure what’s up with the “I can’t go any slower”, only reasons I can think of would be:

 

1. Very short set up, so he didn’t have enough runway to accommodate a slower start and hit the desired speed for ZO to lock in at the pregates?

 

2. Before I owned a boat I rented a POS outboard for week that would stall if the driver didn’t drop the hammer on take off…

[ScottScott]

@Jmoski no, plenty of setup, and I only ski 30/32 mph. Even on a short setup, you do what the skier needs till they are on top of the water, then once up you can drop the hammer.

[Beerbattershrimp]

I read this thread with interest. So many good pointers. Like a few of us here I grew up skiing, took a long break and restarted in my 50’s with great difficulty with deep water starts. In my 60’s now and can consistently deep water start.

 

I will add these two points that help me that we’re not mentioned above.

 

I say “hit it”, take a quick breath, tighten my core, and tuck my chin and keep my head down. This helps keep my tip up.

When I restarted skiing I started a daily exercise routine focused on water skiing. I have settled on yoga for flexibility and strength and door jam pull-ups and hanging. Lots of free yoga on YouTube (I like Tim Sensei).

[Golfguy]

Stay away from the deep state