Gus

@dchristman Brilliant!!! I just did the same, 20 seconds of work, and its so much better now! I hope Reflex is listening, they should adapt their mold for this.

lol - indeed, its about the the 50m from the car to the boat, when the car is parked optimally. I do have a cover for the ski, but that is to protect the bottom from scratches, not to carry it. I find the most logical and natural place to pick it up is at the boot. It's a symmetry thing. And every time again I get punished by the hard plastic cutting into my fingers. There must be a way.

..to carry the @#$@# ski.

I'm happy with the quantum trick ski. Happy with the Reflex binding.

But it feels we have a little design flaw still left to fix. So I shout out, hoping that someone listens, French or any other language. I would like a way to carry my ski by the booth without incurring these:

Thank you. Looking forward to the first decent solution there :)

 

In my experience, there are two things that can help you make real progress with tricks: 1) plan at least one full week (the more the better..) with tricking at least twice every day. And 2) during such a week, next to the fun stuff and next to the consolidation of the tricks you know, really keep attacking the next trick; or the next few similar difficulty level tricks in your progression. I'm pretty sure that after such a week you'll see a jump in your skills. It's worth the investment!

@klindy Thanks! It doesn't look completely foolproof the way it is formulated, but as long as all the judges understand that failed wake spins should not be counted as surface spins it'll be fine I guess. Or maybe add something like: "Surface turns that cross the crest of the wake are considered wake turns and will score zero." to be less ambiguous.

Is there anything in the rules that prevents a wake (spin) trick that doesn't get enough air from being counted as a surface spin trick?

Looks like a trick ski especially designed for the cable park and its obstacles and ramps etc.

I also made DIY PVC ones, they perform reasonable, but I'm starting to think that for tricks anything pylon mounted is unsuitable. Anyone tried filming tricks using wake-eye cylon? Maybe the solution for tricks is decoupling from the pylon.

Has anyone ever heard of a drained block getting destroyed from freezing residual water?

@eleeski 3th! Congratulations Eric!!

One really nice discovery for me this season was that I can do the 'simple' toe tricks (TB,TF, TS, TWB, TWF) without having a release person in the boat, using a 'barefoot front toe handle'. One that doesn't have the so called 'bear trap'.

Another advantage of that handle is that they are usually quite wide, good for the reverse back wrap :)

The reason to do the WBB (and W5F) from inside to out is air. Its way easier to get air, you are falling off the wake, kind of. So just by moving sideways 'a bit determined' you get air already. Somehow that's easier than getting air by moving sideways uphill and trying to get lauchhed into the air. I think.

TS (a quick 130 pts) might seem scary, but its not. Reverse TS is.

TBB? Doesn't that require reverse TB?

I wouldnt bother about the 540 and 720, you have to drop O and RO for those. Slow, boring.

Instead of the O's, the BB's are faster, and you can do them fast without being able to 'hold' a reverse backwrap. Having said that, i'm still doing the O's myself :(

The WBB starting from wrap, landing backwards, inside to out is easier than a WO, or similar.

And once you got that, the step to doing a W5F, inside out is also quite small.

 

Olivier Fortamps has a nice shop: http://olivierfortamps.com/categorie-produit/slalom-en/?lang=en

Here's what came out:

Its not very lightweight due to the battery, but easy to carry, loud, I hope quite robust, and versatile. It has a 5A fuse.

And it looks a little bit like Orac, if you ignore the red beauty case I got from from a recycle shop, but not many people will know Orac.

I ended up using two of these little timer relay devices, one for the 20 second countdown and 5 seconds of light, and another, triggered by the first, to keep the beep/car horn limited to 0.5 seconds.

Its fun to use in the boat, although there were some concerns about hearing damage from the ones operating it. With just the beeper activated, not even the car horn. I didn't tell them they could disable the sound, yet.

 

I tried to score both using current point system:

Cory's run

SL5F 550

B 60

W7B 480

R 480

BB 90

W5F 310

B

W5F R 310

W7F 800

SLO 400

W5B 310

F 60

BFL 500

SL5B 550

WL5F 420

time

LB

LF

5320

 

Adam's run

 

SL5B 550

SL5F 550

SLO 400

B 60

SLBB 450

F 60

FFL 800

BFLB 750

F 60

R 750

F

BFL 500

B

BFLBB 800

R 800

BB 90

R 90

 

6710

 

 

btw when was the W7F 'upgraded' to 800 points? Before 87? I recently noticed in an old book 'guinness guide to waters skiing' that there were some changes.

 

@dchristman i've studied both in awe many times. Cory's run looks a lot more difficult to me. Somehow the flips look easy. But the flips with spins most probably are not.

@dchristman i'd have to get an old VHS and an old TV as well :) First a robbins release.. Thanks.

I once asked skicory if the tapes are available, like on DVD, or online purchase. But they are not. I'm curious about the 'super advanced' tape, would love to see that. Like how to do a W7F :)

@eleeski @Chef23 a robbins release - ok i'll get one (and a rope release as back-up) :)

@eleeski First a WO inside to outside, landing wrapped in and then a quick helicopter is an alternative I considered. Or for a W5B at the end of a run right after two WO's it would be nice to land wrapped in from a WO (or from a W5F). But I'm hesitant about trying the wrapped in landing without release. Would you try learning it without release?

Here's an slightly past beginner level question/vid in the spirit of this thread:

 

A single WO from wrapped position at the beginning of a run is relatively easy I find - probably the first WO to learn, from outside to inside. The helicopter.

However, the rules state that a reverse trick must follow the original. But WO and Reverse, both from wrapped position are way too slow.

 

So I'm working at WO from wrapped, inside to outside and then a handle pass reverse WO outside in. Getting the wrapped WO from inside to out consistent went quickly, I could almost feel the succesrate improving towards consistency as a couple of sessions went by. But getting the handle pass WO consistent appears to be a lot more work.

Here's where I am:

It looks ok, but I'm at a mere 20-25% successrate with the handlepass WO and its not improving as fast as the wrapped went. Probably just a matter of staying at it (and the trampoline on land). But tips are welcome. I'm already thinking of:

- limiting the left-right movement ('think landing on top of the wake')

- wait with jumping until the last moment, until you reach the top of the wake, I can feel how much that helps with getting air.

 

I'm a bit uncertain about when to pull.. maybe that's where the inconsistency comes from.

Same for 'where the rotation comes from' - some say 'drive it from your hips' and others say 'it comes from the handle pull'. I can feel the rotating power of driving it with your hips on land for sure. But I also tried jumping straight up on the trampoline and turn with just the handle and that also results in rotation. It seems to be a bit of both.

And my diy pylon mount is not optimal yet, but that's another story.

@Chef23 I'm almost convinced.. when I don't manage the TWF with the barefoot handle i'd be forced anyway. But when I do, I don't think I'll want to take it beyond the simple 630 pts. But never say never :) Thanks for the advice!

btw the boat in the video about the robbins release is exactly that 97 SN, same color scheme as the brochure - and same color scheme as mine.