Fastguy888

Open water skied glass yesterday in Los Angels, CA in 80* weather.

The lack of opportunities for children, adults and teens to fail is the problem. I'm no sports phycologist but greatly enjoy studying this subject. Physically demanding sports presented as a means to entertain oneself falls short of justifying the extra work and risk required to participate. Recent studies of "fandom" show our brains are tricked and behave similarly watching sport on TV or playing a video game vs. physically participating. I believe its the bodies physical recovery processes and humility physical sports offer that make them so awesome and worthwhile. When your mind and body are pushed to failure; you experience a physical response by becoming stronger, you are able to build new mental synopsis that turn fear into a series of solvable problems to become better. It would also help teens if 3-event skiing disciplines had better public exposure. The current low public exposure and cool factor are likely exponentially detrimental to teen participation. A teen wired brain is looking to participate in things that will get them a mate and fame. The self fulfilment and praise from parents or coaches lessens. If a teen is lucky enough to have a circle of skiing peers that is awesome; but as soon as they can replace skiing with an activity they perceive as gaining them significantly greater fame or a mate, they will jump.

Not enough information to give you an effective answer but I want a Beanie from @horton So here is my best guess: It looks like you are enjoying some open water slalom without buoys? Hard to tell but possibly turning early, less wide than the buoys would be in some of the pics. Between the 2 hands on handle and tight rope tension in each pic you may be using the boats pull as a balance point to pull you through the turn rather than your own speed generated across the wakes. With slack or neutral rope at the apex of the turn generated by speed across the wakes; you would be forced to move your body forward to balance.

Wake Shaper on side of the boat doing wonders

I was shocked to see a RedBull post on my Instagram feed this morning of Nikolas Plytas Flipping his trick ski off a dock. I am a marketing director in the motorsports industry and enjoying following how premium Brands like RedBull relationships with different sports. https://www.redbull.com/us-en/athlete/nikolas-plytas https://www.redbull.com/us-en/world-waterski-open-2020-report I have been under a rock for the last 20 years regarding Waterskiing but back at it - full on. Sad to see how compared to the mid 90's Waterskiing especially slalom has such little exposure compared to Wakeboarding and Wakesurfing. I know the topic has been beat to death on this forum but the more we can encourage and show cross traffic for non-endemic sponsors the better we can keep the sport alive.

@Horton I live 1/2 Mile away from the Puddingstone launch in San Dimas. I have aspirations to get a slalom course put in there someday. Was once famous for drag boat racing events. Puddingstone is about the size 3 large tournament lakes running in parallel. Counter Clockwise direction boating/skiing. With 3 boats running the water is shot; but half the time, off peak summer I am the only boat at speed on the entire lake. This is ironic being in Los Angles County with 10 Million People within 30minutes of the lake. I think there were more boats / skiers in the small rural Nor Cal town I grew up in than entire Los Angeles Basin. FYI the 2028 Olympic XCountry MTB will be taking place around Puddingstone/Bonelli Park. I will be the guy skiing in the middle make slalom a passive aggressive Olympic Sport, lol.

Year round here in Southern California. My home lake open-water skiing @ Bonelli Park Puddingstone Reservoir and Club Skiing on the salt water course in Mission Bay with San Diego Water Ski Team

Make it easier for amateurs to practice; possibly through community boats / club boats / fellow member boats... Launch a AWSA Community Boat Drivers Program/License that backs boat owners, drivers with liability coverage and can help them connect with those that don't. Community outreach possibly through Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Summer Camps, Colleges... Fully embrace Wake Surfing & Wake Boarding (doing a decent job already) to reverse engineer / bring full circle the awesomeness of Slalom along with the newer sports. Improve cool factor through promotion of Pro Events. Possibly a Red Bull TV Documentary? Sounds stupid but in college I got a very nice AWSA Decal pack with my membership; I rocked it on my car and family boat with pride then and it pulled in a few new members and made be feel cool. Maybe 1st year members get a Decal Pack and 2nd year members get a shirt...

I think the professional sport should maintain a reflection of the recreational sport. If foiling ski boats become common I am all for it. I love slalom for the dynamic balance of forces; Boat, Driver, Water, Skier... Take too many of those away and its a different sport. Its a slippery slope too; dedicated ski lakes could rig a track down the middle with just a pylon pulling a skier too. Cable parks are common (although can not take a 1,000 lb side load without deflecting).

Interesting from someone who has only jumped a few times; technique does not look like it has changed much in 51 years. Obviously its in the details, speeds and equipment but compared to some sports...