Skierx

We seem to be making this pretty complicated. It reminds me of the Motorsport racing days when you walk through the pit area and ask someone about advice. And then you walk next door and get different advice. And by the time you get back to your pits you're very confused. How many times have we showed up at the course when someone says, so what are you working on today? Oh I'm working on counter rotation or I'm working on hips to the handle. Are all the different particular things that are said. And how many things can you think of actually while you're out there in the course? Not very many. That's when it becomes complicated. But it doesn't have to be if we're thinking about connection and swing. How do we connect?Best way I found to connect is to have my shoulders as far away from my ski as possible as I exit the turn when done correctly it puts you in a strong pulling position with the handle close to the hip as a byproduct of standing up tall exiting the buoy. If I don't stand up tall at that point I exit separated from the handle and never can make it back. How can I generate swing? As I'm tall exiting the buoy in a very strong pulling position by the time I get to centerline I had better be thinking about yawing the ski already because of centrifugal force if I wait until the second wake that may be too late and therefore I will still be on The cutting edge getting separated from the handle and slowing the swing speed down. So by yawing the ski at CL & pushing the ski out in front of me I'm able to carry all that speed that was generated by standing tall very far up on the boat and now I only have to turn a little bit to finish rather than trying to turn back 180° in the other direction. So what I'm trying to say is that all the particular body positions that are talked about so much by so many skiers or coaches happens naturally without having to think about them if I just work on connection and swing in this way.

@mbabiash , I am not a world record holder like @adamhcaldwell nor a former national champion like @AdamCord and I did not grow up on a private lake with access to pro skiers and a ski school like @Horton but I do have amazing resources NOW including BOS and team Denali. The better I understand the GUT techniques and am able to apply them the better skier I'm becoming. I went from just being able to run 22 off to running almost all the way through -32 .this has happened in a very short amount of time since I was off most of the summer and only started back in September. I have used long/ shallow for quite a while. And also short /deep by mid September I could run within one bouy with either setting. For me I found long / shallow I had to be more precise if I made a mistake I pretty much was stuck with whatever angle I had whereas with short /deep if I didn't get it quite right I could still read position the ski and get straight angle. Seems more forgiving. by late September I have made huge gains. Video showed and Cord pointed out , I needed to push my ski out in front of me more off the 2nd wake. The connection and swing thread discusses exactly that. I'm getting better at it each time out on the ski now. And at this rate I will most likely gain a whole nother pass and be much closer to where Horton is. The c75 is so good that sometimes you can screw up the pass and still end up with 6 somehow. I also have grown to like the C setting zo. Not saying you always run 6 just that sometimes you make a pass you had no business running and it's due to the performance of that particular ski. So, the c-75 short/deep plus understanding the timing the race or the dance between the skier and the boat is a beautiful thing.

@AdamCord all I can say is thank you for this post. I've studied the GUT articles many times over the last couple of years & fixed my gate approach after watching your gate video many times. So my pull out and turn into the gate has been pretty good for a while now. And I'm that kind of skier that you and @adamhcaldwell talk about that builds great angle and speed into the first wake. And then it all goes wrong from that point out to the buoy. Couple things been holding me back for years. one of them has been keeping my ski pointed toward shore off the second wake.This summer I seem to a fixed that. The other is due to my snowmobile racing background and not having much coaching. In snowmobile racing when you come into a turn at a high rate of speed there's a weight transfer that needs to take place to keep the inside ski down. I guess off the second wake I've been applying that same concept thinking I need to jump on the front of the ski to slow it down. You guys have laid it out in great detail in this thread how to ski properly and efficiently through the course. Let's just say I went out this morning and apply these concepts of kicking the ski out in front of me at centerline and remaining strong against the pylon and swinging very fast up on the boat. That was the game changer for me What a different look at the course now. I have so much time to make nice easy turns . All morning I've been running the cleanest passes of my life. Riding the c-75 it would be a shame to throw away all that angle that it builds into centerline. What & A ski and what a Grand Unified Theory of Slalom! Thanks Adams for all you've done to help improve the waterskiing industry

Wow! Having a sense of humor sure makes life more enjoyable. Having an open mind to drop the past knowledge that has kept most of us in a rut may help understand the Grand Unified Theory of slalom together. Little more flexible little less rigid could help get you past -38 off.

I LOVE my medium @ 178 pounds .

You've described it many times, & it has made a huge difference in my skiing lately. This clearly shows tremendous load in the hands while the ski is pointing down the lake. He is obviously swinging around the pylon very fast. Thousand words in that picture!

@AdamCord , Thanks! Slalom skiing for most of my life since age 7 . Now 49 . I've only been course skiing since 2012. So I've had many bad habits to break mostly chill riding. I've never had any formal coaching. The one coach I was planning on visiting is no longer with us. Someday I hope to get some coaching from either yourself or Caldwell. But in regards to technique there have been many changes. Mostly attributed to the Grand Unified Theory of Slalom. Aka, GUT. I have been much more efficient at applying those principles and spinning the rope around the pylon much faster and higher on the boat. But the Denali c-75 is clearly a ridiculously great ski. Fast or slow , it's Amazing!

My experience with High end skis, D3 NRG, Mapple 6.0, Denali c-75 . In a different post it has been said that the 6.0 is a fast ski. My previous Pb is on that ski. in snowmobile racing when we were checking clutching setups we would pull out a radar gun and see if it's faster or slower. I've never pulled out a radar gun on a water ski but this past weekend I beat my all-time PB on the Denali c-75 by 5 buoys. So I'm not sure how important top speed is but maybe speed management is beneficial. 1@34/-35.

If you're not into fin tuning maybe the CG classic would have been a good choice . Just install it with the same settings you use with the stock fin.

TAKE OFF EH! From strange brew . Or ,Ok HOSER!!

@Than_Bogan No problem. I did quite a bit of grinding to the thin last winter on the 7.5 project. Are you working short/deep , short/shallow, or Long/shallow? I was using short/shallow on the 7.5 that worked great. I haven't tried those settings yet on the c-75 .

@Than_Bogan care to share those crazy settings? I have a file . I like ? cheese.

@ReallyGottaSki , you got that right. No grinding for me. Just made sure good clean surface. It's been 3 years no problems yet. I ski it 34 I have a friend that skis at 36. I've had the boat up as high as 43 and still no problems.

Also the adjustment that helped me from centerline to the ball was moving the boot and toe loop forward .25" and shortening the fin by quite a bit. That helped a lot but what really made the difference was staying connected to the handle by keeping it on my belly button as the ski turns down course and rope swings around the pylon much faster. Arms must be bent at that point for it to work otherwise I lose all the momentum. This is much more difficult to do then all the top skiers make it look. But I have gotten much better at it and it also makes the skiing a lot less work with better the best results.

@vernonreeve I did 54 passes over last weekend working on that same thing. I already practice the gut gate . As I come through the gate trying to keep my shoulders as far away from my feet as possible as @adamhcaldwell says & @AdamCord says to keep the sternum as high off the water as possible basically the same thing. Where I've been losing all my time is from centerline to the ball. Somewhere on one of these forms I heard Caldwell mention in the transition he brings the handle to his belly button. As I watched the Terry winter video , has he come to the gate the arms are straight down by the waist and just passed centerline in the transition candle comes to the belly button arms are bent hold stat almost all the way out to the ball. This seems to be the key that all the top skiers in the world are doing very efficiently. After focusing on that portion of my run, I find myself very high on the boat and in perfect time with the belt as I finish the turn well it's pulling away from me. Huge progress lately. Ski is dialed to though. But without these fundamentals things applied ski can be dialed all it wants & still lose time.

@ReallyGottaSki @DW side spray rail from comment above.

@ReallyGottaSki I purchased smart rail from integrity Marine. Kind of pricey. Only 1.5" wide . It did help nock the side spray down but I think I may add a little more to it. The newer boats Malibu, nautique and mastercraft all have 3" to 4" wide bottom of the hull . This will work the same way.My dads 1966 Century resorter had 1.5" spray rail. Chriscraft had 5" spray rail on at least one of their models.

@Justin this is a 84 mastercraft I have. I cut schedule 80 CPVC plastic pipe. Plastic welded together and epoxied it to the transom. To knock down the spray the power slot was creating and it ended up as secondary benefit it made the wakes even smaller by lifting the back of the boat. I made sure to mount it a little higher than the bottom of the hull so as to not create a wedge effect. also added spray rails to the side to knock down the side spray this boat is known for. epoxied that on too. No drilling extra holes in the boat.

@DangerBoy that's a dangerous statement about a buyout and grabbing the talent. As much as I'd like to see the Adam's prosper, that would inevitably bring up halt to the creative juices that Flows out of those two. they may get away with their creativity at a big company for a while but eventually the big companies gets its own ideas. Probably why Andy left O'Brien skis. Just a guess. Denali has so changed the water skiing world in their step away from a conventional ski. This ski is so far away from that in every way imaginable all I can do is thank them for their efforts. And I'm glad I get to ski on one.

Yeah, I didn't realize how close I was to him on settings until after I was done. With length I started at 6.800 great connected on side. Offside was hard to get back to the handle. Went to 6.810 offside was connected great. Onside was not as good so split the difference 6.805 offside was still connected good off the ball. On side with connected as well . Great acceleration and waiting on the buoy makes it a lot of fun to ski. Denali has a where to start window of settings & a symptom tuning chart very helpful . If you go to their website click on c75 scroll all the way to the bottom you will find it.

@Ed_Johnson , warmed up at 32 MPH -22 then went to 34 & worked up to -32 off . Low wind . Airtemp 76 water temp 72

Denali c75 is simply amazing! I've been off the water for 10 weeks after a hernia surgery. Tonight was the maiden voyage. First set was pretty good. Onside with money. Offside I wasn't able to get back to the handle consistently off the ball but was still getting 6 even being separated from the handle that bad. For the second set I added .005 of length . On-site was still very good . Offside was very good. Driver couldn't tell I was back there. Two buoys off my PB. 6.805, 2.52, 1.01 DFT 7° S wing , 28.5" FB RTP size medium Going back out Sunday morning. Thanks for such a great ski @AdamCord & @adamhcaldwell .

@skiboyny I can assure you this ski build speed like no other. It's like being shot out of a cannon into the wakes. Reviewing any of the video that's been posted will confirm that. The Adams have explained the unique shape of the tunnel is what gives the c75 the lift needed to accelerate the way it does.

@Wish remind us about the things you mentioned the other day .what @adamhcaldwell says about vertical separation , standing up out of a chair, or as @AdamCord says keeping the sternum up as high off the water as possible. I agree completely about what you were saying when you tried the vertical separation everything else seems to happened on its own. I experienced the same thing.Observer from the boat said they never seen me look like that. I was literally waiting on the buoys to make my turn. Going through all the GUT articles and applying vertical separation , it all just happens naturally.