HO 410

They look fairly similar in design to what Radar is currently calling the Vector. Can't think of what they were called in the past but there should be some past topics out there about the Radar offering. I think the general sentiment is that the boots are comfortable, ski well, and the bungee laces at the ankle work a lot like they do on the RS-1.

Buoys are pretty unrelenting, and it's difficult when your opener is your hardest pass. Variety is the spice of skiing. Ride a trick, cut around on jumpers, fiddle around on a skerfer, ride a tube with the kids. Doing something other than slalom... can actually help slalom. Having something other than slalom will keep you positive about going to the lake when you're burnt out on the buoys. It's really hard to ski the course when you, I mean I, have a 'here we go again' attitude. 26 and 28 mph feels like too much work largely because you're holding the majority of the stress on you muscles instead of with your skeleton. Work on that pullout drill (just cut out one direction and stay there the length of the lake) and focus on the Basic Relaxed Position. You'll be better able to ski the slower speeds. Stay positive, when the rope is long, improvements tend to come in bunches.

A lot of the tips I've heard and seen come from the camp that our perspective is skewed, and in order to create a balance, we have to think in terms of imbalance. It may be slighlty hijacking the tread, anyone read Rossi's article on Tail Turns in the lastest issue of waterskier?

I'll have to talk to some people to see how different you should treat the graphics because neoprene is so stretchy. I'm going to guess that pointilism will be more ideal for the material. Take it with a grain of salt, I don't think I'll be in the ordering pool: The older script "Ball of Spray" font would look good going down the front. Modifying the text to look like ink running down would add a little more visual appeal. Not sure if I would want to put anything on the back. Â

Mildly off topic. Are there no viable club options in you general area?

Skifly has suffered from a serious case of forumitis for a long time. It reflects well on Horton that he is committed to maintaining the tone of face to face discussion that has always made Ball of Spray, and the original tweakers forum, stand apart. Pretty sure that running 10.25 is a big deal, even with a soft time and generous boat path. Big IF. Record capable site, ZO, and world class driving. That said, I don't know anyone that can ski within 6 buoys of a record that would be willing to post a shady score. I watched a Big Dawg take the crash of crashes partially because he was going to get generous judging at 6 ball on his -39' pass.

Thinking about the fin from the point of view in Your Ski as a Lever, it makes sense that carefully built factory numbers would be more or less on target. If the fin is there to changes the way the lever (ski) rides in the water, ideal settings should be fairly universal.

The Razor is $1395 at Miami Ski Nautiques The Fischers were a bargain at that price.

Legs go three times a week The yoga is mostly isometric. Lots of luge like stances that you stay down in for around 40 to 60 seconds at a time.  The plyometrics is a cardio heavy, leg workout. You aren't going to feel like you are lifting heavy, never the less, your legs will be worked over. There is also the legs & back workout. Lots of squats, lots of lunges. A couple of isometric wall squats. I'd say about half of the excercises give you the option to lift heavy if you're up for it: the other half is body weight and mostly single-leg.  If you workout at home, the yoga and plyo is pretty good to hold in your back pocket even if you don't care for the rest of the program. The focus is on performance over time. The workouts take between an 1 and 1 1/2 hours, with very brief rest periods. If you want to go heavy, lift three sets, and be done, it won't be that appealing.

You have to be in the ballpark to compare skis. That Fisher felt better than the Triumph because anything smaller would have felt better. I can't see the clip right now, but the responses make it sound like she's skiing very defensively. I would shelf the Fisher and go with something like a Radar Lyric. It will be better for slower speeds and will not be so critical of her technique. Blame the ski, the new one should give a mental breath or fresh air.

Not yet.

I don't think you can change the ski to address balance and expect that it won't be a problem when you cut the rope. When you increase speed, cut the rope, or both, what would just stand you up at 32mph -15', can turn into a major crash at 34mph -22'.Â

Posts south of October 7 disappear in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.........

You have to have number lock (Num Lock) turned on to use the 9-key pad. When it is turned off they keys will not usually function in normal typing, and those secondary labels (Home, PgUp, etc...) describe what will happen when used with the Alt+... shortcuts. That said, once you have a degree symbol, in the browser or in a word processor, you can copy and paste the character with your usual method.

Who is Chet Raley? Do you have a list of global rules for slalom: technique points that a skier must do to be succesful in slalom. Do you have a list of individual points of slalom style that are often mistaken to be thought of as one of those global slalom rules?

While it is technically possible that a skier could elect to go back to his or her opener, most anyone I've ever seen organizes the set to peak at the 5th pass. If you have the stamina to go back to the opener and ski up to 10 passes, God bless you. You are a better skier than I and deserve the water time. My opinion, you don't have to share it. I like my rules simple. The statistics will be interesting but your fighting 2 things that will make it hard for scores to be inflated. First, you need to get a skier's high score to come out of the third round; porbably not all that rare. Then you need that score to deviate significantly from a skiers average score.

At a three round tournament, are all three rounds applied to the rankings, or is the high score the only one that gets entered?

My history may be incorrect, but my understanding is that IWSF adopted the new rule because skiers hitting the boat was becoming an issue. The new rule also reflects the difference in quality of skiing between someone that can get back to the wakes and someone that can get into spitting distance of the next buoy. When we saw the new rule come down my skiing cohort thought that it operated using the "It won't count, so don't go there," principal: not the best way with tournament blinders on. Back in 2005, there was a clip of Parrish skiing 2 @43' (not an approved record) using the old rules. Pull all the way to two, ride that momentum back to the wakes, wave the handle and pitch the slack away. I've looked but I can't find it.

I see the new equipment, but where's your Arm-Guard?

If you monkey too much with rules, without an official rule change, you begin to change the identity of the sport. Part of the appeal of slalom is that my 4 at 34 -15' could beat a Big Dawg if he looses his lunch on an opener. Novice skiers do need/deserve different rules in certain places. If that needs to treated as a second tournament under a different sanction, so be it. Probably just gates optional and mandatory re-ride on a missed opener for a skier below a certain buoy count. My understanding is that the full buoy rules was changed to agree with the IWSF rules. I'm not 100% clear why IWSF went with the change, but I thought skier safety was a fairly large part of the reasoning. In part, I agree with that rule change because taking the handle, and a mountain of slack, to the center-line is not nearly the same thing as missing the next 1/4 buoy by a whisker. In practice, however, pitching the handle is probably the better option. That rule falls under, "It sounded a lot better in my head."

The Vice is already up on the radarskistore site. In a few words, it is a heavy Strada. It's going to be interesting to find out what the Vice does that that Strada doesn't, and also what the Strada does that the Vice doesn't.

Is it just me or does the top look a little bit like a formica countertop?

When your body is cold your muscles and connective tissue are short and tight (just like a cold o-ring). You need to be even more careful to get adequately warm and limber. Same thing if you use rubber boots. You need to heat those things up or they're going to perform several notches tighter than they would in the summer.

East TX, where about in the state are you?

I think this is one of those tips that combats the difference between what you think you feel and what it actually happening. Such as when you feel that you are balanced on the ski and your coach says, "I really want you to stomp down on your front foot in the turn." It's not that you want to put 100% of your weight up front, it's that you weren't as balanced as you though you were. Back arm pressure. It's not that you are closed to the boat, but you are not as open as open to the boat as you might feel.