jimbrake

How is Lago Santa Fe's water situation, Clay?

Actually, could you just chuck the ski from the copter into the lake?

Dirt - I'm still in the early 2000s. I don't text. I get email and calls. Or you can speak to me on your ship's loudspeaker when you fly over the lake.

Dirt - want to come ski at Lake 1 tonight, tomorrow or Friday? I have guest passes. Jim

So, how do I get a set on this A2 that you speak of?

What the (heck) is a "bicep excretion", John? That sounds incredibly painful and disgusting. I agree it should be avoided. I also agree that trailing arm pressure through the edge change and into the preturn is key.

Hey - that is great stuff. Agreed - skiing with your kids is the best thing about the sport. Re: skiing and/or/vs. tubing. Funny thing - both of my boys (12 and 14) have turned into pretty serious slalom (and now trick and jump, too) skiers and don't need any pushing from me to practice or compete. As I like to say, the pump has been primed and they are into it all on their own now. However, some friends of ours have a house at a mountain lake and just an old family boat and a tube. Both of my boys were so psyched to go up there this past weekend and just get slung around on the tube. On the way home I asked them if they were ready to get back to skiing and they were all "yes!!" Not sure what my point is - I guess you just have to let them have some good old simple kid fun and not turn skiing into a grind. Something like that.

Just saw this thread. RioDP just so you have as many options as possible, you are also welcome to come take a set with us at Bell Acqua Lake 1. I've got some guest passes, so you'd only need to pay the per set gas fee of $11 or $15 depending on which of our Nautiques you ski behind. We also have a great coach, Mike Kusiak, that you can arrange lessons with if you are interested. Jim

Hey Doit - when Krlee is done with it, could I give it a try, too? Really want to feel the difference between it and my A1. Let me know. thanks, Jim

John - I have a large Connelly Vision front large, but it has black wraps, not blue. If you are interested, let me know and I'll take photos and send them to you. Also, have a Connelly Draft front as well. I would sell either or both for a great price. Let me know. Jim

Razorskier1 - dude, SSSHHHHHHH! Now everyone knows. I fell victim to not doing this at our regionals last week behind a very soft boat on soft water. Let my head and shoulders angulate in with the rest of my body and got too deep at 1 ball at 32 and that was all she wrote. At the beginning of the year, "level vision, head and shoulders" was all I was working on and it was paying dividends. Huge benefit in handle control, maintaining speed through the turn and light load. Then, as usual, I let a good thing slip away while working on "other things" and paid the price. The "other things" are important too, but being level is a top priority for me. Speaking of small brains (such as mine), have you seen the movie "Limitless"? If not, watch it. I want some of that stuff.

Ed - pretty consistent with C2. Last night tried B1 (should've tried B2), but that little tiny bit of delay after getting back on the handle bugged me. I will say that in practice I'm going back and forth between PP and ZO a lot and I'm not feeling a lot of difference or getting different scores anymore with PP or C2. ZO is just becoming less and less of a concern it seems like.

The discussion above regarding trailing arm pressure is great as that is what I'm focusing on now, but I'm thinking about it in a different way that is helping me a lot on all my passes -especially at 35. When you are in your edge change, your trailing arm is about to become your arm that is still on the line when you release. If you focus on trailing arm pressure through the edge change, then it's easy (for me) to feel load in that arm AFTER the edge change and maintain a tight line out to the apex of the turn. That means the boat continues to take you on an outbound path longer and it gives you much better balance into and through the turn. Just another way to ride a tight line outbound!

You guys need to quit f'in' around and cut late and kick it. Remember, just when it looks like the red is about to disappear, turn and burn. Triple cut.

Kevin - it's good, thanks. Took a couple of easy tester sets on it last week, then by Sunday was full bore.

Jim (me), Trevor, and Hayden Brake will be there seeing as how it is on our home lake (partially, anyway). I bet a beer that Horton is on the A2.

JH - I've only seen the setup for one INT event which was being held at Bell Acqua Lake 1 a couple of years ago. There was a good vibe on the Friday night before, but I didn't hang around on the weekend to see what their "culture" was like or how their event ran. The only thing I didn't dig was that there was a christian bent to the deal. They were telling me how they were going to have a little pre-ski prayer on Sunday AM. Not my gig, but whatever. How would you describe their culture that makes you want to hang out longer? To me that doesn't sound so much like a USAWS thing, but more of a whoever is running the tournament thing.

Agree - best offside, stacked position pic I've seen of you, JH. Ski just looks like it's gaining angle, too. Love my A1, but guess I better give the A2 a try. I don't want to, though, because I know I'll love it, then I'm hosed.

My 14 yo Boys 3 son likes a RTP. Not sure that the RTP helps him turn, but he likes the feel, so we are sticking with it. He is skiing into 28 off at 36. My 12 yo Boys 2 son likes a RTP, too, but he has a history of being more "wild" in his skiing and taking some nasty crashes. He was prone to hurting his front knee with his back foot coming out during falls, so I put him into double high wraps and he is fine on them now and a good bit safer with both feet in. He is into 28 at 34 mph currently. Putting him into double high wraps didn't seem to really affect his ability to turn the ski for better or worse. I would think her turn "speed" issues would be more related to her technique or possibly her setup. Got any video?

Seriously? None of you know the correct answer to the original question? Actually there are several correct answers: "your mom", "your sister", "your wife", "your girlfriend", "this chick". Where the heck is ShaneH?

Took a mallard to the shin last year.

In our area the most common seems to be "OK, (name)" to which the driver responds while checking the skier and the rope in the mirror or over their shoulder with "alright, here we go". Kind of a team thing. My 14 yo son is driving now at our private lake and I've trained him to always confirm that the rope is tight (without dragging the skier) and that he sees, in addition to hearing, that the skier is ready. My 12 yo will sometime say "OK" before the rope is actually tight so besides telling him that he needs to wait until the rope is tight or tell the driver to take the slack out, it's good that our drivers are checking the skier out closely.

what about a skier in a half pipe? Why does it have to be a snowboarder?

Thanks Texas6 and Jim T. Will probably fly into Hobby on Southwest if possible and grab a motel in Alvin so not too far from Rosharon. Heading to Port O'Connor with family after the tournament to slay some specks and reds (I hope). Appreciate the offer for rides. If I had time we'd try to hit more sites. Jim - didn't see pics that you reference.

Planning on trip to Tejas this summer (mid to late June) for me and my two sons to visit my folks. Was thinking about trying to catch a tournament at a near-Houston site while there. Any advice from the locals on tournaments/sites to go to? I checked out the south central schedule and saw one on Father's Day weekend at Ski Texas in Rosharon. Would that be a good one? Other suggestions? thanks, Jim