Than_Bogan

OH woah. 36/-28 is HUGE. Super fun and a lot is going right if you're getting through that one!

Most of these are excellent videos from top-notch experts. What I don't think you're understanding yet is that waterskiing is incredibly dynamic, and the ideal move at one moment can be different from one just a fraction of a second later. Generally, you should expect to initiate the move from apex into the next pull by driving your hips to the handle. Then you want to arrive at the handle with some lean away because you're about to be leveraging against the boat. On that note, if you are indeed a beginner wanting to get good at the slalom course, you should focus MUCH MUCH more on building leverage than turning. The fundamental challenge of the slalom course is getting across fast enough. Turning correctly only becomes possible/relevant after you've got some reasonable leverage and can consistently accelerate cleanly through both wakes. Best plan: GO to Cobles with a completely open mind and learn how to ski correctly right from the start!

@jcamp wins the internet! Nailed the entire set of issues in one post!

@Mose From your profile you may live very far from where Radar is headquartered, but anyhow Radar has been one of the top ski manufacturers for decades now. No need to worry about quality.

More confirmation that "very impressive" and "really dumb" are not mutually exclusive categories.

@ToddL I've been trying to think of any scenario where someone could misuse such a rule, and I'm not coming up with much. The closest I can get to a concern is someone entering a tournament who just isn't consistent at starts in the first place, and taking lots of time trying to get up in the middle of a tournament. That seem far-fetched! But anyhow, we could limit it to one re-start per skier if that's even needed. Like you said, in my mind it already is a rule: All missed starts are driver error.

Cool story. This is really one of the key benefits of building up an online community, like @Horton has done with BOS and Rossi/Trent have done with Spraymakers. Slalom skiing is a wildly unintuitive sport, and without a deep understanding of how and why, most people will actually make themselves worse with more water time -- they may run a few more buoys from getting stronger etc., but they'll have even more to UNlearn in order to be able to make serious progress. I can tell you, both from my own experience and seeing others who have ultimately become decent slalom skiers, that by far the best way to get better fast is to ski with people much better than you! This is especially effective if you are willing to take a long view and change almost everything to build a foundation that will eventually take you into deep shortline. One moment I remember very clearly about 25 years ago, I was running a pass at 32 mph (15 off). My new mentor and coach @MikeT was giving me some stuff to work on, and I was having a little trouble seeing why I needed to do it, because I was running the pass fine. I never forgot the words he said next: "Your goal is not to run 32 mph; your goal is to run 32 OFF." I thought he was 100% nuts, but his confidence was inspiring. It also put into context that I was trying to learn a very different and far more effective way to ski. And while it took a few more years, I did, in fact, run 32 off, and these days I run it kinda easily (usually...)

@Mastercrafter Guess I'm not the only one who is totally sketched out by the very shallow seats in some open bows! I would never have anyone, especially not kids, sitting in those type of seats with a boat at speed.

@wettek69 That is absolutely horrible and you have my deepest sympathy. Have you taken the online course? As someone with (thank god) no actual experience in this area, it *seemed* like it provided tools to tell the difference between dedicated individuals and predators. Maybe more importantly, it advocates procedures that remove predatory opportunities, such as requiring open door meetings. But if you tell me that this training doesn't seem likely to prevent the horrible thing that happened to you, then I will believe you.

A while back, in a similar thread, someone pointed out that an older ski boat AND a pontoon boat costs less than a newer ski boat. I thought that was a brilliant idea because "multifunction" usually means bad at everything. With the two boat plan, you have the ideal boat for each scenario.

Congratulations to me: I lived long enough for $75k to be a good price on a ski boat! (You're sure I don't get three of them??)

@jhughes Experientially, it is clear that it significantly dampens the energy. I do not have a completely clear explanation of why, but foam is generally excellent at absorbing energy, because you have to push it pretty hard to deform it, but then it doesn't immediately bounce back. Kinetic energy gone. That said, it reduces the snap-back much more than I can easily explain. Something may be happening in the wave propagation along the rope?? Many things that seem instantaneous to us are actually propagating along the medium, and perhaps the tube interrupts that in some way?

Well now I gotta guess the skis! I'm gonna say the 3 skis with a legit 3 are (in chronological order): N1, c85, XTR Team. How'd I do?

/facepalm The OHP is costing USAWS nothing because a 3rd party company is profiting from our membership. This is one of the core reasons why so many of us object to our membership information being used in this way. And yes, this is selling my information to a 3rd party company. To argue otherwise is either bad accounting or disingenuous. PCI didn't want me to call them for their entertainment -- they wanted me to call them so they could profit off me. Please try to understand why so many of us find this unacceptable, and act accordingly in the future. It's not that we misunderstand. We understand, and we object.

There was plenty of communication that this was legitimate. The problem is that it isn't. I do not consider this a legitimate use of my membership in a competition organization. Please try to see through the eyes of some long-time and generally quite reasonable members, such as Bruce and (arguably) myself, and avoid this in the future.

@usawaterskiHQ Darn, I thought you were giving us some credible information until that nonsense about the Oral History project. Making it appear that I need to call a 3rd party organization to "check my membership data" is at best very misleading, and I would use the same word that Bruce did: scam. PLEASE do not sell my information to 3rd party vendors in the future and ESPECIALLY do not make it look like it is a required activity for membership. This is the kind of "cried wolf" scenario that will make people ignore legitimate requirements -- like SafeSport! After hanging up on that Oral History B.S. was the closest I've ever come to cancelling my membership. Not acceptable.

Yep -- was just about to start this exact thread. Only mildly annoying, but still annoying.

I didn't know about July Fools Day. Must be a new holiday this year.

@KRoundy I was told by a ProGear rep that you want these super tight and so at least a size down from other types of gloves. (They didn't turn out to be my favorite gloves, as Kevlar gives me a purely psychological grip improvement, but the best were probably the S even though I wear L in Kevlar gloves!)

And welcome to Massachusetts when you get here!

Why all the love for the Evo2? What's better about it?

No ZO setting is similar to Perfect Pass. ZO actively reacts to the skier, so what seems "close" to PP for one skier may be totally different than for a different skier. Just have to try them until you find something you can work with. The only generic hint I can give is that you *probably* don't want to use 3 unless you are heavy and powerful. So at least try the other 6 options before trying A3 B3 C3.

Really fascinating insight from Matteo Ianni, and his borderline obsession with rubber boots was very intriguing!

Map it for sure. Shockingly better feel. Then be patient and adapt. :)

Two hours later; still no actual Day 3 video. Anybody have a clue?