ktm300

I was told that it didn't matter where I looked as long as my shoulders and the rest of my body were in the right position. However, I was told to look right at the pylon because (for me) if I did not, my shoulders would follow my turning head. It is so calming to me to pick up the next buoy early in my vision. April Coble is the best I have ever seen at being able to turn her head and get that early vision without allowing her head to turn her body with it. Something I intend to work on this year. Can swing like Jim Furyk if you can strike the ball like Furyk.

Set up end course video and film your regular drivers.

For so many skiers the only number that really matters is the price of the boat versus resale number. It has never cost me much to own boats. Buy them right and resell to a retail type buyer. For skiing purposes, they could cut out a lot of things but, some of those things would also reduce the resale number. So if it is going to cost you 1k or so to own a ski boat for a few years, why not own one that is tricked out with good stuff.

Find a good imminent domain lawyer in your area who has experience litigating cases with your State's DOT. Ask the lawyer how many such cases he/she has handled in the past ____ years, get him/her to tell you about some of those cases and the ultimate outcome, his/her perception of what you could reasonably expect in your situation etc. Must have someone who has the experience. Know where you stand legally before you deal with the State. If your State is like mine, the DOT will try to run over you. I love the idea of working with them to have them dig another lake but, it would be money well spent get good legal advice and counsel. There are so many factors that go into the value of a ski lake that have nothing to do with the price of the land; costs of diesel fuel, environmental regs, loss of use etc. Good luck.

Skiing at 34

I am in between on the size. Go up or down with this ski? 185lbs 6'

Love this guy:

I think the higher load just inside the buoy line v. behind the boat is based upon speed and movement. The slower the ski, the higher the load on the line; hence, behind the boat the load is lighter as the skier has accelerated to a higher speed. The acceleration was created between the buoy line and the center line. Skimming v sinking. @Brady Just get two monitors. porn and bos needn't be an either or proposition

I have ridden in the boat with one of the smoothest 34 guys around. Runs 39. Had a strain gauge hooked up to a laptop that would plot the load through the course. Within a ski length inside the buoy line, the peak load was about 650lbs (varied some with onside being a bit higher). Load right behind the boat was 400 or so. If you watch the West Coast Slalom video, it shows that TW peaks at around 750 right off the ball and drops down to about 400-450 at the centerline behind the boat. Glad I got to see this because it answered, for me, how to put into perspective all of the light on the line talk. "light on the line", to me, means good movement not light load. The load in motion feels lighter. I have heard but, do not know, that Mapple spikes(ed) to 1000lbs. Better get strong or stacked or both.

I sent a well used drysuit to O'Neill to taper the forearms and legs as I had lost a good bit of weight. The suit was also leaking because of age. They re-worked every seam in it; retaped and glued etc and sent it back to me. Charge? $20.00. Made a loyal customer out of me.

Dirt. One of the things that I liked about the A2 is the tip wanting to carve back to the center. Do you find the A3 to have a looser tip; less automatic carve? Thanks.

The gate shot is a constant confusion. Two top coaches coached me to be wide and late for the turn in. Nothing slow about it. Pull out when the back of the boat gets to the greens. Skied with Jeff Rodgers. He said "go down the lake until you start to panic, then go a little further" I waited until I was 100% sure that I could not make the gate. Turned in and went through the gate and had more space in front of one ball than I thought could be possible. Did not even try to turn 1 cause I was still wrapping my brain around what felt like a death defying gate shot. Like "holy &*_" Jeff smiled and said "maybe you should save that one for 41" (I don't run 38.) I have also tried and had grooved a don't pick up the line until you get closer to the first wake much less intense gate for a while. I suppose I better pick one soon and stick with it. I see Jeff's point if you are ultimately trying to create enough energy to run high enough on the boat to be wide of the buoy line at 43. Oh, he ran 41 on our lake that day. For those of you who bailed on the late and intense gate, what do you feel like you gained and/or lost going to earlier and less energy?

I skied with the PV last season. Herniated disc. Appreciated that it got me skiing when I otherwise would not have been able to ski. Loved the freedom when I skied w/o it this year. So many more choices in the preturn before the buoy. Much more of a chameleon. Can't just crank a turn and hang on anymore though. There were some times in the PV where I thought I was going to end up in the trees. Locked with no choice but to hang on for dear life. If you are healed and physically capable without risk, ski without it. The added nimbleness will make up for the lack of raw power.

Total cut and paste from Trent's reply to me. I will add the rest of what I have to say through the message function. I may or may not have the answer but I have struggled with my onside for so long, I have searched for a solution as much as anyone. Even when I was skiing my best, all I expected from the onside was to be on my feet at the wakes. Hardly confidence inspiring. Then, the fact that 80% of my misses were onside got in my head.

First, you are a very good skier. That technique can handle adding a lot more buoys. I have a lot to say about onside turn trouble and when I have a chance I'll add it to this thread. For now, one of the smartest replies I have ever gotten about my onside woes was from Trent Finlayson. His view on this is stated below The largest point is that the tail does not drift wider than the tip. Onside turn is anything but. A LOT of skiers struggle onside. Have you ever had a ski that rocked your onside and felt automatic? : -This Z turn problem is the result of a lack of speed at the completion of your turn. This "all-or-nothing" sensation you describe is unavoidable with diminishing speed. As your water speed decreases, so to does your base's (ski's) ability to support your edge angle and lean. (I try not to use many allusions, but liken this to applying your brakes while you are leaning into a turn on your bike.) On your ski, your only option is to shift your weight back if your speed is insufficient. You will continue to shift back until the pressure of the rope picks you up, and, at this point your turn has completed. You will either have not enough angle to ski your desired path, or you will have not enough speed to maintain the angle your ski has tipped into. Either way, you have not skied through the turn in an efficient manner. You mentioned running a long parallel line into the buoy. This is the problem. You have not travelled outbound through your release, and therefore the tail of your ski has not drifted wider than your tip during the set-up for your turn. As you can relate to, this is a terrible feeling. You are now rapidly losing speed, and have very little chance of carving your turn. The culprit is going to be the manner in which you initiate your edge change. Your trailing side alignment is being disrupted as you begin your release. (Trailing side is left side as your cut to one-bail.) Your trailing hip and trailing elbow need to remain connected and aligned as you release off the second wake. This trailing side alignment must remain intact as you change edges and move up to the point of your reach. The most typical problem is allowing your trailing elbow to disconnect from your trailing hip as you begin your edge change (in an attempt to ready yourself for the turn too early.) This disrupts your alignment. Your upper body gets pulled to the inside, your tip prematurely engages and you begin to run parallel with the boat too soon. This disconnect, or misalignment through the edge change is the result of too much line pressure into the wakes. This can be caused by a few different factors. -Inadequate speed through gate turn-in. This results in less angle and causes you to over-lean, (most common) -Overloading line. Leaning too hard, or dropping lead shoulder into wake. -Fin too Deep. (Too much pressure) -Fin too far forward. (Not enough drift through release) _other set-up problems. Something is causing you to have not enough angle, and too much load. This is easily addressed by examining your particular set-up. This is the big picture jump-off. Let me know your particular set-up, and we can narrow in on the root easily. Talk soon,

A friend who is relatively new to course skiing asked me about buying calipers. Anybody have a link to a set of cheap ones that will still measure the fin accurately. I think my past high end caliper expenditures were probably a waste of good money. Thanks.

@stevieboy Thanks for the reply. Onside is my weak point. At least until I get on a ski where it isn't. I have had skis where the onside rocked and it rocks now with the off in the wilderness settings I have. I have tried most everything technique wise to remedy it. I was taught that the proper way to turn the onside was with a front foot weight bias. On a lot of skis, if I do this I fall over. Part of the problem is that I like my feet close together which probably puts the rear further forward than the ski is designed for. I have tried skiing with more spread but, really don't like it. With the boots back, fin back and shallower, I can get enough drift into the onside and can make a nice front foot biased free moving turn. With the boots and fin at near stock, I get exactly what you described: back and inside high load turn. My body is forced back to keep from falling over cause the ski looses too much speed and the tail does not drift wider than the tip. The smartest thing I have ever read about the cause of my onside issues was written by Trent Finlayson. I have attempted to attach a pdf of it. One thing I do not understand is how the boots back could cause what MAD11 described on the offside.

@Mad11 I'm having this exact problem now: Also, for me when way back on some skis it will create a situation where the tip falls in occasionally on my off side and bites hard or stops. I'm nice and free one second and then the whole thing is buried and I'm spun around backwards wondering why my interlock released from the back. Usually I get there in a futile search to make a ski work on my heel side that just doesn't want to. Have learned my lesson. If it doesn't turn 2/4, put in the box and get off it. I can always make a ski turn my offside. If it doesn't work on my good side easily then no matter what I do it usually just won't. Just thoughts. On the ski I am now riding, I had to move the boots back to get the onside working. From stock fin measurements I went back 55/1000 Added 80/1000 length and took out 30/1000 depth. I laughed out loud when it simply rocked and allowed me to run my top full pass (35). After monkeying with the ski for a long time, this setup works best BUT I do get the random tip fall in as you described onside. Had one ball lined up as well as I ever will @ 38, was balanced and the ski swapped ends at the apex. Why would having the boots back cause this? I do get the tip drop occasionally at other lines as well despite being in seemingly really good position. I need to remedy this but am at a loss for what to change. Thanks.

Is the plastic chassis in the boot sewn in and covered with material or is is accessible so that if I wanted to cut it down on one side I could? How far up the ankle does the plastic chassis come? I need something that will allow me to pressure one side of the ski more than the other. Thanks.

Wiley's makes Jr bindings. Get them. The horseshoe is narrower than the adult bindings. As the kid grows, you can simply move the horseshoes apart with the holes provided. I did have to do some modifications to get the rear foot close enough to the front.

Dan, the Jr A1 has a more volume than other 62" skis. It will be plenty big. You are right about a wide ski bouncing more; way more. The other thing is that she will progress faster than you think and get the boat speed up. If you get one, I have some good setup numbers to start with.

HO A1 Team 62" is one of the best kid skis you can find. Rini suggested it for my daughter and it has been a great ski. If you call around, you can buy one new around $400.00.

Does this ski come in different flexes? One size and one flex to cover 120-200 lb skiers?

In my opinion, where you put your back foot is just as important as your front. In the past, 80% of my misses were my onside. I skied with my feet really close together for a long time. Moving that rear boot back really helps the onside and does not hurt the offside much if at all. I have been experimenting with this lately. I do miss the agility that having my feet together gives me. I was surprised by how different I felt with my feet apart in terms of my ability to move on the ski. For the longest time, I was told to turn the onside with a front foot bias. I couldn't do it and usually ended up with a back and inside high load onside turn. With the rear boot back, all of a sudden I can make front foot onside turns. My front boot is on slots and the rear with holes. I will be getting a slotted plate for the rear too so I can put it wherever I want it to be. The flat spot and placement of rocker has much to do with where the boots need to go. I skied a Warp for a couple of weeks. That ski is a continuous rocker and will allow for putting the boots just about anywhere with a fin move to match. Always on the rocker. That is how many different size skiers could ride the same size ski.

Love the clean, crisp look.