brettmainer

Why would September or October be any safer than August?

Regionals is by far my favorite tournament. There are enough competitors to make it a competition, but I am still competitive (I have never won but have come close on many occasions). I know the majority of the skiers, many only from past regionals, and it is a fun social scene. Nationals is fun, but a different feel. I do think the cut off scores are too low nowadays. M2 for example used to be 5@35 (not that M2 is crowded now because of the current low cut off.) I hear we need more participation to make Nationals financially viable, but then I hear we have too many competitors and it takes all week. Which is it? What do we want Nationals to be. An all week, 3 lake minimum, 1000 skier extravaganza, or a more elite event? I understand the financial and logistical pros and cons, and don’t personally have a strong opinion either way. There are way too many divisions, which contributes to the length of a regionals or nationals tournament. There aren’t enough junior skiers to justify 5 junior divisions. I thought 3 was the right number. Combine M1 and M2. There is no physical performance reason for separating 19yr olds and 34yr olds. Perhaps combine M3 and M4 for the same reason. Maybe some of the older divisions can also be combined as well. I prefer live competition to chasing scores. I am looking forward to competing against several comparably ranked skiers in a tomorrow's tournament that is forecast to have a 15mph head/tail with white caps. Nobody will put up a great score, but it will be fun to see who can handle the conditions the best. Unfortunately, most divisions in most local tournaments do not offer such competition, so the only competition is seeing where you stand on the regional and national ranking list. So, the ranking list does provide a sort of virtual competition. Lastly, I don’t know if we even have a State Tournament in California. Might be fun if we did, but I wouldn’t want it to replace Regionals.

Is there anyone else who tricks with a different foot forward than they slalom with? It seems that this would be healthy for the back and hips, but would require an ambidextrous athletic ability that very few have.

There is no one answer. “Wide and early” is a relative term. Relative to how you normally approach buoys at a given pass. I have felt wide and early at 38 before, but what I thought was “early” would not have been perceived as early by a top skier. Felt earlier than normal to ME though. I would say 35 is the first pass I can’t get crazy wide. Not that getting crazy wide is a good plan, but sometimes it happens, especially after going back to 32 for the last pass back to the dock after skiing 38 for a few passes.

I agree with both @Bruce_Butterfield and @Chef23. She needs to establish and maintain a wider rhythm to her skiing.

Same problems with our 2010 200 over the last couple of weeks. Converted to single puck system.

Agree that fin set up is not likely the problem. Coaching to identify and correct your limiting technique flaw and slowing the boat down 0.5mph to learn the rhythm of 38 are likely your best solutions. If you have a fin set up you crush 35 every time on, I wouldn’t start changing it.

Yes, especially if it was archived and indexed. My daughter, who also happens to be a good skier (who unfortunately has two wrecked ankles and is out for this year), does competitive cheer. I pay and tune into to her national cheer competitions when I’m not there. You select which of the several simultaneously competing event halls to watch. Think choosing Turnpike or Main Lake. Both are available, but you choose which one to watch.

That is the windiest I have ever seen your lake. Apparently the air does occasionally move in Arvin.

@Horton, you'd better hurry up. That scooter should be about there by now.

@wawaskr, I can't give a detailed comparison because my Omega experience was only a few sets last August or September and I didn't take any written notes. But, here are the basics. The Omega was fast and fun. I don't recall anything I would have it do better, but I missed 38 more than I made it in my 6 or so total tries. I no longer recall the specifics of any individual pass, so I can't provide any better details other than it was me, not the ski. The XTR seems to keep going when I get screwed up at 38 and gets me through the pass, even if it isn't pretty to look at. To be clear, even on the XTR I miss 38 more than I make it. I have never been consistent at 38 and only rarely have I run 38 back to back. The Omega (and Alpha too, as I skied that for about a month last June/July) are way less work than the XTR. I could ski 8 passes on either HO and be less beat up and tired than 6 passes on the XTR. I think that is a known attribute of the Nano 1 shape. They keep turning and working their way down course, no matter how unsightly, but it takes a lot of physical effort. Greg Badal told me that he can get just as good of a score, maybe even better, on the XTR as opposed to the Revo, but he couldn't ski a multiple round Big Dawg on an XTR and have anything left for the finals. In summary: - I have elbow and back pain skiing on the XTR but felt great after skiing the Omega. - If I was skiing at Nationals and had to choose the ski on which I would be most likely to run 38, I would pick the XTR. - If we were having a contest to see who could run the most 32s or 35s in a row, I would certainly choose the Omega. - The summary above perhaps undersells the Omega, because it felt so good I probably would have gotten in better sync with it. I was just too cheap to find out after having bought both a Radar and an XTR in the preceding two months.

@Not_The_Pug, try putting your other foot forward, it might help you. Send those videos to Marcus as well. Why are you on a 68"? Did Stephanie feed you too much over the winter? I tried a 67" Omega last summer and really liked it and would have kept it if I hadn't just spent $2k on an XTR a few weeks before I tried the Omega. The 67" seemed perfect for me at 185lbs.

The 5.7L dual puck 200 is fine so long as you are not at altitude. I owned four of them and one of the current Bell Acqua club boats is a 2010 200 (5.7L dual puck) that has 2400hrs on it and is still going strong. Not a great boat for jump if you are going over 160', but fine for everything else, including 36mph deep shortline. When the boats were new, the 6L was a $5k add. Most of the BA members prefer the 2010 200 to our 2018 ProStar (driving anyways; they are pretty much the same to ski behind). My current 2016 single puck 5.3L 200 is the best boat I have every driven or skied. Other than for resale value, I wouldn't trade it straight across for a new Nautique, Prostar or Malibu. As an aside, I do like driving and skiing the Malibu; it seems they are often left out of the Nautique/ProStar debate despite being every bit their equal. @scoke may be right about the single puck 5.7L option, but I haven't seen or skied behind one to know. I wouldn't think there are too many of them out there, as the 5.7L was getting phased out as the single puck option was being phased in. Other than converted boats, maybe only in 2015 were the 5.7L and single puck paired together, but I could be wrong about that.

No. But, support the recent virtual leagues that are based on submitted practice scores. Maybe they can become the new grass roots / intro to competitive skiing. If the ban on tournaments extends throughout the summer, just extend the rankings list to cover last 24 months rather than last 12 months. 12 months after tournaments resume, AWSA can trim the list back to last 12 months.

I plan on skiing when the weather improves. I’m not too worried about hospital level injury, especially at 32 and 35, which is where I plan on staying for the first month or so anyways. I think the bigger issue is one of, “If he is doing it, why can’t we do it?” And then, a sport or exercise that a small number of people can do while socially distancing becomes crowded. That is what happened at SoCal beaches. It is “safe” for one person to show up at dawn to surf a few sets by themselves or take a lonely run on the beach, but what about when 10,000+ bored, off work and out of school people all show up at the same time to do the same thing? Now the hard fought and extraordinarily expensive curve flattening gains of the past few weeks are endangered. Back to the ski dock. If I show up and ski with just those I have been self isolating with anyways, there is no risk of spreading the virus. If one or two other members are also there, we can easily self distance, decontaminate, etc. But what about that first 85 degree Saturday when all the members show up at the same time? On a private lake we can control this with time slots and the like, but I see the problem for public lakes, which is why the State of CA has just shut everything down for now. Once on the water, people are isolated, but what about the restroom by the launch ramp? Difficult times and difficult choices.

I’m actually with Horton on this one. I mentioned to the wife earlier today that if I was smart when the impending shutdown was imminent, I would have gotten a haircut.

@skierjp Pretty sure. I can see the water dripping from it. Boat has 700hrs. Leak started about 650hrs. @ResponseSkier I’d rather not spend a day working on it. I’m pretty busy these days. Sounds like I should open the wallet and drop it off at dealer.

Towards the end of last season, the 4th season on my 2016 200, the shaft packing started dripping to the point where the bilge comes on after every pass. I want to fix it before I put the boat back in this spring, but there is nothing to tighten or grease. A quick internet search suggests I might need to buy new dripless packing kit, which requires removing the shaft from transmission to install. Mechanical ballers who have worked on this problem, is this the only way to fix leak? If so, my big concern would be reinstalling the shaft with good alignment. Is this a real concern or is it monkey proof? Thanks in advance for any advice.

I am for the “witnessed by a rated official” handicap style score counting for Level 5 and below. Look at a M2/3/4/5 ranking list now vs 25yrs ago. The top 20 scores are the same or better now, but the hundreds of skiers on the list scoring at -32 or lower is drastically lower now. That is the portion of the ranking list that needs to grow in numbers. I see that this thread is no longer about the topic I posted when I started it (still a valid suggestion in my mind), but where the thread is now is probably more important.

Horton, don’t make it sound so bad. He almost came close to running it. The deep water start and the body position going around the island all looked pretty good.

I didn’t know @Dirt still skied. I thought he quit a few years ago after posting a worse score than Horton at the Wet Set Regionals.

I don’t pretend to be as knowledgeable or skilled as the Adams, but in simple terms, “Keep the handle in and the hips up through the center and off of the second wake.” That is all a simpleton like me has time to think of.

There was a topic a few days back that had some good ideas then some inflammatory video. The post / topic was removed, but I thought there was a good idea posted that deserves repeating. I agree with the idea of letting Class E/L/R scores last 24 months on the ranking list but Class C scores expiring after 12 months. That increases the weight of the stricter tournaments without discounting the Class C scores. Nothing controversial, but a solid idea from the person who suggested it.

I am mostly with @Bruce_Butterfield on this, but not as vehemently. I get the idea of U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18, but there currently aren’t enough skiers to make local tournaments and even Regionals populated enough for such narrow divisions. However, perhaps it will encourage more participants who will now feel competitive in their divisions. I think B/G1, B/G2 and B/G3 were ok the way they were last year. Not everyone should medal every time. Those who want it enough will strive to get better, and those who do medal will feel more sense of accomplishment than just medaling for merely showing up.

I had chronic problems with tennis elbow 20 years ago. Switched to a radius handle and the problems went away and stayed away. I developed golfers elbow last year and haven’t found a good solution, other than 6 months off over then winter. I have always got up and skied around the island two palms down. I believe all serious skiers should...why spend that time in a less ergonomic position?