brettmainer

I hit 5 ball the other day in a headwind and glare. I knew I was narrow but thought I could get around it. Nope. Both feet came out perfectly. Reflex front and R Style rear. I am very happy safety wise with this set up.

Larping in Arvin... Somehow that visual is even better that larping in a forest. Remember to stay hydrated this summer. My skiing rabbit hole stories mostly involve various hard shells and rear binding combinations to improve performance and safety. After all that, I am pretty convinced that an old school rubber front and kicker is the best way to go. So of course, I ski on a double Reflex set up instead.

900hrs on my H5 (2016 200). It's been a great boat and great engine.

I learn something every day. I disagree with @Horton about holding back. I think there were quite a few skiers who only went for 2@39 (women) or 3@41 (men) rather than risk it to go further. As for jump, I can only surmise. However, why would Ryan Dodd go 100% in the prelims with no overall in question? He might crash, might re-injure, might have to pass. Take the safe (for the world record holder) jump and wait for Sunday.

Are Overall results solely based on the Preliminary Round scores? Or, do overall skiers who make the 12 person cut to the finals in any of three events have a chance to improve their overall score with a better final round performance? Basically, is Woman's Overall now complete, and Men's will be finalized after the conclusion of the Men's Trick event tomorrow morning, or are overall winners only crowned after the finals are over. I am pretty sure the answer to my question above is that overall is based on a single round, so just the prelim scores count. But, what if a skier made the finals cut in all three events and posted a better overall score in "Round 2" of the tournament than they did in Round 1? Does the higher Round 2 score become their overall score for the tournament, but all of the overall skiers who did not qualify for the finals in all 3 events just don't get a second round of overall? Assuming the answer to the above is, "Only the preliminary rounds have anything to do with Overall", it causes me to view some of the preliminary results differently. A slalom specialist may be content to pull up at 3@41 knowing he/she qualified for the finals, but an overall skier has to go for every 1/4 buoy, potentially falling at 3 in the attempt to get to 4. Were Krueger's and Dodd's preliminary jumps shorter than Llewellen and Poland because they took safe (for them) jumps to qualify while Llewellen and Poland went as hard as they could today due to the overall battle? I would assume that Krueger and Dodd, both being "high mileage" jumpers with Dodd recently back from injury, didn't give it everything they had today, preferring not to risk injury two days before the finals. All they had to do was qualify without injury, then go all out on Sunday. Skiers competing in overall, not just jump, don't have that luxury.

@Horton asked me to pick up 60 beers to stock the ice chest for tonight’s dinner for the 40 skiers. I am pretty sure the calculus over at Lake 1 tonight is a bit different. Because Rob is here, I went ahead and doubled @Horton’s quantity, which I am pretty sure is still much more conservative than the Saturday night rations at the college regionals.

Definitely not the best boat review ever. Perhaps the 200 is the best tournament boat ever built, but it is not the best choice for tournament skiers. It is no longer used in tournaments.

@Horton’s review seems spot on. It does not feel like other skis on the market. I missed my first pass, then started to settle in. The onside turns are fantastic and the feel into, through and off the wakes is very good. Makes lots of space and requires less effort than my XTR. Whether due to lack of familiarity, bad technique or suboptimal (for me) binding/fin placement, the offside turn is not there yet. But, that is only one ride, and it will take some more sets to get comfortable. I agree with Horton’s statement that the Pineapple feels like a front wheel drive car. Not bad, but definitely different. I am looking forward to skiing more sets on the Pineapple.

Nick was kind enough to loan me one to try. I try a fair amount of skis, but don’t recall ever being this excited to put my bindings on a ski. Maybe the C65, as that was also a departure from the norm. Tomorrow morning…this is like Christmas is August.

Do we get extra credit for running pretty 32s and 35s? @Horton has run nice 35s for 20+ years on dozens of different skis. A ski worth plunking down $2k for must be one that takes me somewhere my current ski does not. Show me 38 and 39.

@Not_The_Pug, it was probably your driving. Send her over to Lake 1 so she can give the ski a fair chance.

I don't know why, but schools seem to start weeks earlier than they used to around here. I remember starting the Tuesday after Labor day, but Mackenzie starts this Thursday, which is one of the reasons we are not going to Nationals this year. I believe it would help to slide regionals and nationals back a week, but I get that makes for a short season in the northern climates. No perfect answers.

There was no wind at the Bakersfield Nationals…@Horton should host Nationals

Matt had a way of making people feeling important. Marcus hit it on the head when he said Matt looked people in the eye and gave them his full attention. When I grow up, I want to be like Matt Brown. I will never be that good of a skier, but I can try to be that good of a person.

When Kevin and Stephanie are judging, @dirt and I will move the kegs in to their back yard and balcony. Really no need for port o potties at the tournament, we can all use @Not_The_Pug bathrooms. That should save some money.

Regionals being in Sacramento for the first time in 9 years suggests that it will be a very well attended event. @Mateo_Vargas is right. I don't think scheduling it for three days is a good idea. What if it is scheduled for only Fri-Sun and then 50% to 100% more skiers sign up than skied in Colorado this year. I believe that will likely be the case. 4 days is safer and less stressful, plus it allows folks to get practice rides on the lake they will actually be skiing on rather than just a dedicated practice lake.

A good idea. We could do something in Sacramento. Various local lakes could send their top 5 men and women’s skiers and score it like a college tournament, or maybe the total of each team’s ZBS buoys. Probably slalom only, but it would be fun. A team trophy that could reside on the winning team’s dock until the next year.

Proper that this was posted under the “technique and theory” category. For as good a skier as Matt was, his technique as a man was even better. God speed.

Several options in Sacramento if you want to drive down the hill to ski.

The root problem is that this is a declining sport. @Jody_Seal mentioned the number of skiers at an early 90s regionals. I think there was 80 of us, certainly 60+ in M2 at the 99 Nationals. There used to be 4 or more tournaments with 100 entrants each weekend in Sac any given weekend. Now it is one area tournament per weekend with only 40 or so skiers. 5x less tournament skiers per weekend. Nationals had way higher entry requirements, more participants, and a long list of skiers who wished they qualified and could go. It is a grassroots problem, not a formatting problem.

The simple fix is to drop the mandatory regionals participation requirement for nationals as is already the case for Open. This might result in slightly lower regionals participation, but I am guessing the regionals attendance drop would be less than 10%. Nationals participation would increase. My regionals and nationals participation varies by the year, usually a function of children's other activities. This year regionals was doable but Nationals conflicts. If it were the other way around next year, I would hate to have to miss nationals because of a regionals participation rule that family, work or finances does not allow. Lucky for me, the western regionals will be at my home site next year, so that shouldn't be a problem in 2022.

@skialex, thank you. .087” for XTRcc. Insightful to mention that number will change depending on ski model due to variations in tunnel depth at fin. @klindy, I completely agree with the first paragraph in your post above and completely disagree with the second. Calipers are designed and calibrated to be used with the tips. Goode website posts fin lengths measured differently than other manufacturers using the non calibrated part of their proprietary caliper. How else is one to convert to a tips measurement that can be replicated with any standard caliper?

Mackenzie and I will be there. Flights and especially rental cars are pricey this year. I miss pandemic travel pricing.

@skialex, XTRcc I guess the answer might be slightly ski dependent, but since the tips of a Goode caliper should be the same as any other caliper, there should be a fairly standard conversion obtainable by comparing length measurements with tips and jaws of a Goode caliper.

I understand the fin length measurements posted on the Goode website are measured with jaws on Goode calipers. Is there a known correction factor when using standard caliper tips? I seem to remember something like .13”