ScarletArrow

As a middle of the pack L6 skier, I am example of one those guys who is usually on the outside looking in for to qualify for Regionals. However, two of my kids qualified for Regionals (and Nationals), so we went to KS last year where they skied on Friday and Saturday. Had I been allowed to ski, I would have paid for the extra night at the hotel and meals to be able to ski with my buddies in M3 on Sunday. I'm not saying lower the qualifications... I am saying just let me ski as an "unranked/unofficial" participant so I can have some fun too. I'll gladly pay the entry fee. (Now hopefully I fix this problem this year and just qualify!) I would also be an example of someone who would continue to go to Regionals over Nationals. Why? - Regionals is closer, so I can drive (even though KS was a 15 hour hike, it was easier/cheaper than flying) - Since I can drive, I can bring my whole family - It's over one weekend, immediately following the State Championships which is more favorable to the family schedule. - There's a better chance of everyone qualifying (including my youngest son and myself)

I don't like the 3 L/R tournament requirement. There are exactly zero L/R tournaments in Ohio. I don't think demanding more regulated tournaments is the answer (though I understand why you would propose it in lieu of no Regionals).

We still have some time here in Ohio before we're on the water, so we're having fun with all of the different techniques of finding the "right" foot. Of course Jodi went through some of them as well. What is interesting - and the reason for the post - is that different tests are yielding different results. I just want to make sure we get it right. We've only got one shot at this. Podium finishes, scholarships, endorsements, sponsorships, BOS front page exposure, exotic travel and fame are all at stake. /s

The past week I went to Florida for spring break and did some skiing. I took my kids to see Jodi Fisher to get some 3-event coaching and we got my 6 year old son (7 in 11 days) up on slalom for the first time (off the boom). Jodi spent a lot of time trying to figure what would be the best foot forward for him... After all his ski destiny is going to be set with this decision without him fully realizing the implications. Turns out, he can get up and ski across the lake comfortably with either foot forward. He kicks a soccer ball with his right, but he says it feels more comfortable with his LFF. Jodi seemed to favor RFF, but there were positive indicators for both. We left without a decision. I wouldn't mind him being LFF - myself and my other two kids are LFF so it would be easier to share gear and I don't have to think "backwards" when coaching him. On the other hand, my strong leg is definitely my right even though I ski LFF. I can balance on it far better when I'm in the gym and it's no surprise that my biggest issue when skiing is not enough balance on my front foot. I'm sure I would be winning Big Dawgs today if I would have just started RFF all those years ago. ;) So what say you? Go with the obvious strong foot forward and let him adapt, or go based on what feels comfortable today? I'm leaning one way, but the internet is never wrong.

I introduced a new format to the Buckeye Buoy Tour 2 years ago called "Pick Your Partner" - it's basically the opposite of "Pick Your Poison" (which is very good). It was a smashing success. Skiers are seeded and bracketed head 2 head. The losers of each bracket are placed in a pool. After Round 1, we stop skiing and have a 20 minute "draft" where the winners of each bracket get to pick their ski partner for the remaining rounds. Highest seeded skiers chooses first. Lots of strategy here, especially if you are using handicapped scoring. In my opinion, the best and most popular BBT formats are (in no particular order) 1. Run the gamut - teams of 5 collectively run 28, 30, 32, 34, 36mph; and -15, -22, -28, -32off against a stopwatch. fastest time wins. 2. Pick your poison 3. Pick your partner 4. Spin it to win it 5. 123 Slide - round 1 normal max speed, round 2 - max speed one less increment (ZBS), etc. 6. Big Dawg - same as Nautique series

@So_I_Ski Being that it's new technique to me I'm not sure exactly how or why it works the way it does. My theory is that it it's actually a less complicated move than what I was previously trying to do - palm up, handle up, inside hip forward, on the front foot. With the palm up, when I got to a new speed or line length, if I didn't super-exaggerate all 4 things at once I would end up "spinning out" backwards or just take a long, lazy school bus turn. I also found that I had a hard time picking up 3 ball with my eyes as I made my turn - probably because I can't do 5 things at once. With the palm down I only have to think about that one wrist movement as it naturally creates a better body alignment and slows down my motion. I now actually have enough time see 3 ball in front of the boat and wait for the boat to pass it before I grab the handle. Huge difference. That's just my theory anyway.

I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago in Costa Rica. I have a tendency to fall back on my ski as I go around 2 ball (offside) as my passes get harder. To correct this tendency I have always tried to reach forward with my handle up around eye level to get good front foot pressure so the tip stays down. Nick Parsons was coaching me and observed that I was reaching with my palm up. He then told me to reach with my palm down on my offside turn. Sitting in the water, I pointed out to him that would require me to rotate the handle 180*. He said, "yes - that's what I want you to do." I thought to myself, that ridiculous... seems like a lot of wasted movement. I tried it anyway, and I have no idea why it works the way it did, but Nick literally just ended 10 years of frustration of me trying to figure out my offside with that one tip. My offside turn has never been better. Maybe it was the 90* Costa Rican water, maybe it was the coconuts, but I was in late season form by Thursday. Later, Jim pulled up a video of Nate Smith doing the same thing - who knew!?

Having been to Acapulco 2x, IMHO it is not kid friendly. Unless you go during one of Gordon's designated "family weeks", there isn't likely to be any other kids there. Yes, the skiing is great but there isn't much else to do between sets on site (basketball, ping-pong and massages). So unless your child is a complete die hard and comfortable being around adults all-day, they may likely get bored. Once you're back at the villa the adults are just chillin' at the pool with adult beverages and there's not much there for kids to do. Yes, they can swim, but if they start jumping, splashing and being a kid you can bet someone with too much alcohol is going to get annoyed. You might take the occasional excursion - La Concha, surfing, golf - but that's few and far between. I'm headed to Costa Rica in a month for the first time, looking forward to it!

My son wears that vest. He seems to like it. Looks good and fits him well.

@SkiKolb When do I get my commission check? 10% right?

@Bill22 Sweet! I remember. That BBT was very full (55 skiers) which is usual right before States). I like the BBT's to have about 30 skiers max. We're in St. Mary's next year for States, just a half hour down the road - hope you come back!

I know you can't possibly please everyone (or even very few), but as a child of the 90's your choice of music made it very difficult to get through that video. ;)

The good news is that there are many quality lakes around NEO to ski. The bad news is that there are only a couple of clubs accepting members. I live in Cuy. Falls and it's 45 min for me to get to Glassy Waters. I did hear that Stillwater in Deerfield is thinking about opening their club back up. There are a couple of lakes with clubs to the west in North Olmstead and Wooster. I can tell you that most lake owners are very hospitable, but you need to come to their tournament and/or contribute in some manner. Find a way to come to some of the tournaments in the area, participate in OWSA, ski in the Buckeye Buoy Tour and I promise you will make tons of new friends and have plenty of places to ski, not just in Akron but across the entire state. I'm out at Glassy 3-4 times a week. We'll probably host a tournament or 2 next season. Looks like there might be a tournament on 9/9 at Bellalago which is only 5 min from Glassy (keep checking usawaterski.org for an update). Bootsarosa in Canal Fulton has 3-5 tournaments a year.

Where are you skiing at now? There are a couple of clubs around that you could join.

The cost is similar to Acapulco. It's not cheap. We'll be there Feb 18-25. Acapulco is great... but we've heard great things of Costa Rica and wanted to change it up. I think Horton did a write-up on his visit a few years back.

We're going to change it up and go to Waterski Costa Rica in the middle of February.

I think the Parrish video was ill-timed with threads about Nationals. Link

I think it was 35off 34mph. It's been a while (Feb '15).

I like the concept, I see two obstacles... 1 - Having the same or another host sponsor the tournament of champions. There's only so many sites in the country that are willing to put up a record tournament. Perhaps the number could be increased if a single lake could be used. 2 - The cost to rebuild the AWSA ranking system database to calculate the scores. Not impossible to overcome, but they would need to be dealt with.

Some older legends with some emerging ones. We climbed the top of this mountain. The top of the mountain.

Regarding practice at Nationals... The ratio of supply and demand for practice is more than any site can accommodate. I compliment the gentleman who was managing the practice lake at Broadside, he was very busy all day, everyday, and tried to work with me to get me in.. Like many others, I pre-paid for practice (2 sets - one each for my son and daughter). However, I was not able to get on the sign-up because of such high demand. Obviously a gap in logistics as I should be guaranteed a spot if I pre-pay. At first this was a debacle because the online registration was clear that there were to be no refunds and Registration didn't know what to say or do. I'm fine with not getting practice, but if I pre-pay for something I guess I expect to get it. Eventually the right people were able to come together and make the decision to issue refunds and I was able to get mine. Eastern Regionals seems to have this figures out because they have an online system when you pre-pay you also schedule your time to ski.

I would just like to compliment Broadside Harbor on a well run tournament. There are always hiccups when putting on a major even like this that can affect individuals (me included), but in my 3 days there I had a good time. I would like to see them host again.

My own story... I'm not good enough to qualify for Nationals, but 2 of my kids did this year for the first time and so we went. While we've regularly gone to Regionals, but when you combine both trips (since the former is required) the all-in cost was about $3.5k. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of the cost is that my wife and youngest son stayed home so we could save a little money. Nevertheless, being our first Nationals and our first trip to Boise my kids and I were really excited. Like many others we planned some activities around the skiing - we climbed a nearby mountain in the Boise Mountain range the day before our skiing. It was great way to kick off the trip and make a memory with my kids. When we first walked on site one of the first people we saw was @MarcusBrown doing his thing and my kids immediately recognized him and totally flipped out. When we had a long layover in DEN on the way home, we killed time watching all of his Flowpoint videos. We got pictures with the pro skiers, sat for hours watching the best trick and jump skiers do their thing. We cheered, consoled and celebrated with our friends when they skied. My kids were nervous and excited about their own skiing. My daughter skied her average in both events and my son tied his PB. There were great teaching moments. The #2 seed in my daughters division missed her gates on her opening pass. Heartbreaking. 5 hours later I'm buying a raffle ticket from her and she's all smiles. The skier right after my son fell at 1 ball. His dad was on the shore consoling him. As we watched all that unfold, I took the time to have a conversation with my son about what happened and what it means. You can't duplicate these conversations anywhere else. I supported the sponsors and spent about $1k in equipment (3 event skiing is expensive!) so you can add that to to the $3.5k total above. When it was time to leave, neither one of my kids wanted to leave. We just had the time of our life - and it wouldn't necessarily have improved if we skied 2 more rounds. I can't measure my ROI in dollars and cents, but I can in another way. We got home last night at 1:45am. When my daughter woke up this morning she asked me if we were going to the lake today. Now I totally understand if I had been going to Nationals for 25+ years I might become bored with the idea of getting 35th place out of 40 skiers and not want to keep spending that kind of money to get a predictable result. But I don't think that necessarily means Nationals is broken. I don't think Nationals can be all things to all skiers. I don't think it's possible to have one tournament be ultra-competitive, have multiple rounds, include non-qualified skiers, showcase professional skiers, be family friendly, convenient, cost effective and over a 3-4 day weekend. There is a time and a place for other formats like Buckeye Buoy Tour, the BOS Cash Prize, Pro-Ams, Big Dawg, etc. to do accomplish those other goals outside of the Nationals format. If we want to debate the right format for Nationals (i.e. sudden death vs. multiple rounds) that's fine, but I don't think the goal should be to try and shoehorn the other formats and take away from the prestige of the event itself. (sorry so long)

I saw the binding and ski up at Nationals and spoke with Bob - a couple of observations... The front toe strap seems legit (my biggest concern). Has some kind of plastic coating. The heel cup on the Reflex has been expanded to cradle the entire boot. On the plus side there would seem to be a lot of stability, on the downside I don't know if the "boot cup" will fit any other shell. I know there was some chatter elsewhere about the durability of 3D printing... all I can say is that it passed the look test from me. Didn't seem flimsy. The "boot cup" can fit on a normal Reflex plate (as shown above) so it can be used on any ski, or it can be removed from the plate and mounted directly to the VTX ski for even greater contact (I thought this was brilliant). Buckles are new and improved. I'll say the VTX just looks and feels different than other ski I've seen. Bob said they went back to the A1 concepts as a starting point. Very tempting to plunk down a chunk of change to try it, but 2 with kids in 3 events and one more coming up... equipment purchases for myself have to be weighed carefully. :+