david_quail

@Horton That's fantastic. I love mine but had cracked a few parts. My dealer and HO were fantastic about getting me replacements, but I'm glad to hear that the hassle of doing so will be a thing of the past.

Great product except LINK to another thread

Northern Alberta. Last year, my first set was end of April. Final one was beginning of October. Both times, water temps were around 4C. This year it was mid April, but still hopeful for an October pull. Drysuit (or camaro wetsuit) is the key. And a bunch of warm clothes in the boat / on the dock for when finished.

@dhofert hopefully this doesn't derail the thread but I just wanted to comment on setting expectations for how much one progresses from one of these ski schools. You're probably a bit ahead of where I was at when I attended 3 days of training at a ski school. Back then I'd never seen a course and was only getting out of the water 75% of the time on starts. It was my first season. I figured after 3 days of dedicated training I'd be smoking passes at 30mph, 15 off, getting into 22off. This, might be reasonable for where you're at in the learning curve, but I was in for a shock. The first thing my coach did, was slow the boat down, and have me ski in the mini course. Actually, the first few days he had me ignore the course entirely. A truly humbling experience. After 3 days I was still skiing the mini course, and felt arguably more uncomfortable than I did the first day BUT with the knowledge of what I should be doing, and with a strategy of how to get there. I think it's a lot like the first time someone takes golf lessons in that way. One step back ... And then a few steps forward. 1 week seems like a long time, but in reality, with 12 passes in a day, you're still only looking at around ... What ... < 10 minutes? ... of actual ski time each day. That's enough time for your coach to give you some fantastic instruction and feedback, but not much time to actually improve substantially. All that said, you very well may get into short line in your week there. Others have. But I guess my point in this is that I wouldn't worry too much about chasing balls and improving that count. For me, my pb didn't improve on my final day. I actually couldn't even get my pb. I honestly felt disappointed. But the payoff was huge after the fact. I left the ski school with a bunch of tips and a strategy to get to the next level, and quickly progressed when I returned home and could free ski. Enjoy!

Nate made 41 look easy. I was lucky enough to be there with my kids. Who now no longer think I'm a good skier. Damn

Doing my Ph.D. in artificial intelligence. We taught a helicopter drone to do areal stunts that expert pilots can't even do. I suspect a robotic buoy could be taught how to stay within a 1 foot radius of a center spot relatively easily. Actually, it'd be fine if the wake threw it off a few feet. So long as it navigated itself back to the starting position before the next pass. The new version of blue tooth should allow each to communicate with each other and communicate accurately its precise location. This is good since you could bipass gps ... Which is way more expensive on the battery. I feel like these could be so easy to deploy that taking them in and out of the water after each set would be fine. 30 minutes of battery is enough to get your ski in. My dji phantom can last 10 minutes of flying on its battery, so I suspect a robotic buoy could easily last 30 minutes Perhaps it's not quite there yet ... These things are always way more complicated once you start getting into the nitty gritty. and perhaps it will never be as accurate as a permanent course, but I don't see anything from the tech that makes this impossible in the near future.

Looks better. And nice crash. You do what I still do, but am getting better at. You try to rush the turn. I think we do this because watching the pros, and it looks like they start and finish the turn in about 1/10000 of a second. When in reality, the turn is accomplished from the center of the wake, until the turn ball has been rounded. It's one big progressive turn. Watch the Rathbun video on YouTube. I think it's his "lean in" drill to see how slow and progressive it is. But it results in a solid position for crossing the wakes (as opposed to being hunched over riding a flat ski ... Or swimming in the water ... at the finish). The turn will start to feel a lot more snappy once you're crossing the wake with speed, and immediately starting your edge change. With that speed and angle you can really let the ski carve. And it does so in a hurry on its own. As opposed to trying to muscle it around like a hockey skate. Keep it up... Looking better!

You all are lucky that you naturally, or habitually, or a combination of both, have built up the instincts to shut off the brain and "just ski." I am like this with hockey, which I played professionally. I'd come off from a shift where I scored a goal and literally not remember the events leading up to it (no I didn't suffer from any concussions back in the day). It was as if my body just went into auto pilot. My "bad" games were those where I was thinking too much. Unfortunately, I'm a new skier. And haven't built up the instincts. Yet. So I will often forget to edge change early. Or to not give up the handle. Or I forget that staring at my hips or ski to make sure they're aligned doesn't end well. And I'm forced into thinking about these things for the next set. Or until they become natural again. That said, I ran a pb of a modest 30mph 22 off today and all that was going through my head the whole time was to not fall down and embarrass myself in front of my buddy watching from the dock

On a slightly related note, after not missing a start all year (probably 100 starts) I switched from a vector front boot to a HO hard shell. After doing so i missed 5 of my next 11. I don't know exactly what it was ... But it felt incredibly foreign during the start. I've heard of others having difficulties adjusting to a new boot as well ... Which made me feel less like a doofus. I suppose my point, if I have one, is that while I'm sure the issue for you, as it was for me, is weight distribution. But perhaps a new ski/binding exposed it, whereas a previous ski was masking it.

I free ski a lot so can handle spinning from a fitness perspective. And am lucky enough that when I do ski the course it's at a private ski lake whose waves easily settle before re-entering the course after spinning .... but I choose to drop after each pass. Mostly to let my nerves settle and re-focus.

wrt taking wing off. I toyed with this as well when I was at a similar stage and actually did take it off for a set. But ended up putting it right back on the next time out. Like anything, there's pros and cons. A big challenge you will have as a newer skier (actually, it's not just new skiers), is generating enough speed to carry you out to get wide of the turn ball without having to pull past the wakes. In this sense, the wing is currently slowing you down and making this more difficult. But I'd say you're currently a long way from the wing being what's holding this speed back. I ended putting mine back on pretty quickly, since I wanted to really get the feel for the effect it had, in particular helping me slow down (with a ton of front foot pressure) particularity if I pulled out too long and needed to slow down to turn in for the gates. I just felt like with proper body position, I'd build enough speed, and that taking the wing off was just a band-aide (and not a very good one at that since taking the wing off alone will only get you an extra 2% of the speed you need). But others more familiar with tinkering with their ski may have a different opinion.

I posted but it somehow got deleted. So I'll try again. 1. Good job on body position in some pretty tough conditions. 2. Slalom is all about rhythm. And rhythm is all about maintaining the proper edge. And unfortunately, likely because of skiing behind a boat with a big wake, you have your edges all backwards. You make a quick turn, ride the ski flat to and through the wake, and then have to pull again to get enough distance to get wide. Watch any video of someone in the course. They turn and stay on the turning edge right to about the mid point of the wake, and then immediately switch edges to start what effectively is their next turn. Until you have this rhythm and eges, it's really hard to turn the ski efficiently (on its full edge as it casts out), rather than trying to force it around like a hockey skate. The problem though is that in order to be on your inside edge, headed towards the apex, you need to have generated enough speed headed into the wakes to carry you wide. Which requires an efficient turn. The chicken and egg of slalom!! Mini whips might be a good way to work on this while not risking a nasty OTF on a big wake. Although, in theory , you're more stable while on edge and stacked going through the wakes, I've tried to "push through" this fear behind a Bayliners wake, and regretted it. 3. About a year and a half ago I was in a very similar place you were wrt your level of skiing.

Nice work in some pretty rough water conditions. Like others have alluded to, you have your edges all backwards. You do a short little turn at the apex, then ride flat to get to and through the wakes, then pull away again to get width. Watch any video of someone getting through the course to see which edge of the ski they're on. They turn, and are on that edge to the Center of the wake (or there about) and then transition to the other edge. Until you're on your inside edge headed towards the apex of the turn like this, it's pretty hard to learn how to turn efficiently by using the edge of your entire ski as it casts around, rather than trying to turn it like a hockey skate. Unfortunately the only way to get on your inside edge headed towards the apex is to generate enough speed into the wakes to carry you out. Oh the chicken and egg of slalom!!! Its honestly pretty tough to have the courage to establish this rhythm (slalom is all about rhythm) and to pull through the wakes, when you have a pretty big wake like this. Even though I was actually more stable and got less bounce when stacked and on edge, I still managed a few too many OTFs on our old bayliner trying to "tough through" the wake. So I suppose my only tangible feedback is a) nice work on some pretty good body position and b) you have to find a way to start skiing with the proper edges and rhythm. Perhaps Mini whips are a good starting place to start working on this rhythm while not risking a wicked OTF on a big wake. Hope this helps. I was exactly where you are now about a year and a half ago.

Regina and Nate. Hands down.

"Just lean away from the boat more"

@Obrienslalom I was that "young" skier last season when I stumbled upon Rathbun's drills. I pretty much blew them off since, as you say, they appear so out dated. I came back to them this year though after realizing how on point they were with most of the modern advice and articles I was reading. Someone should put together a modern version of those drills ...

Awesome info everyone! Keep the insights coming! @eyepeeler I agree free skiing is fantastic. But with our setup I'm hoping to get a bit of the best of both worlds. We have a cabin right on the lake which we spend a week at a time at. The idea of dropping the course in on a Sunday night, skiing it all week when the weather cooperates with the family watching from the dock / playing on the shore, mix in some free skiing, and then pulling it out on Friday before the weekend lake traffic begins, sounds absolutely heavenly. A topic for another thread might be bad habits one gets into while free skiing. I'm all around "better" after a week of free skiing, but definitely pick up a few bad habits that need to be forgotten (mainly pulling past the wakes, and also not letting the ski cast out wide during the turn, and treating it more like a turn into the gates where I slow down, ride parallel to the course for a split second, then turn in).

Great tips. @jhughes just so I'm clear wrt wind, are you suggesting that driving / setting the course down facing into the wind? Ie so you have a head wind? that makes sense given the goal of keeping the course tight.

Hi there. 3 or 4 times a season we'll spend a full week out at our cabin, so I'm considering investing in a slalom course. Do folks have any recommendation? - Installation time is probably more important than anything else. Even at the expense of a perfectly straight and stable course. Most of the options I see, advertise that you can install them in as little as 20 minutes. Which I find incredibly hard to believe. Can these actually be installed in this amount of time? I've got 2 little kids, so ski time is at a premium. If it's going to take an hour to install and then another to take down, it might just not be worth it. That's 2 days worth of skiing sacrificed for a few days of course skiing. - Steel mainline vs rope? - We have cranky fishermen in our area. So it's not completely uncommon for them to take the knife to the course. Is it easy to replace missing balls / lines in this event. I shouldn't blame it all on the fishermen ... it's a fairly busy lake during the day, so some accidental damage might just happen. - EZ Slalom and Insta Slalom seem to be the 2 main options. Is there a preference? Another option?

I can't say I'm anywhere close to perfecting it ... But I'll second @ALPJr and suggest the Rathbum videos. "Luck's drill" in particular. Basically removed the turn and allows you to focus on the initial lean in and wake crossing. I should do this more often.

@savaiusini great thank you! My dealer is fantastic so I am sure they'll do everything they can to get me back on the water pronto.

Upon closer inspection, the whole right side snapped off. Definitely a hard crash, just after the wake crossing, at ball 5. More of a twisting motion than an otf. So happy it broke the plastic and nothing else. i think I would have come out of my old soft shell but kind of hate thinking about it!

@Andre yup. Thanks for the clarification. I'm at the lake for 3 more days before heading back to the city to possibly get a replacement. Considering gorilla gluing the part back in (after making sure the dealer will still take it back) vs.using my old backup ski. The boot sits pretty solidly on the place even without the broken part so thinking this would be safe. Or is that crazy talk?

The plastic mounding I believe.

Wow. Transitioning to hardshells was hard. A bunch of failed starts even! I was starting to get the hang of it and then ... My first hard fall. The good news ... I came out ... The bad news ... The plate cracked. The guy who sold me them said that a previous customer cracked theirs while testing the release on dry land. I'm wondering if others have had this issue before trying to get a replacement.