matthewbrown

@danbirch I think @gjohnson hit the nail on the head...I'm 5'11 and Todd is definitely taller then me but I wouldn't say by more then an inch to an inch and a half, however, I look up to Andy who is every bit of 6'2"

dehlinger gets a 1/4 buoy in every tournament he enters, they should permamently put 1/4 at the end of all his scores

I could tell you all what ski he is really on, but then I'd have to kill you all. He is 6' 175lbs....lean and mean

2nd place in Calgary last weekend, do we really need anymore confirmation?

Thanks @Horton, for getting the discussion back on track(F1 racing, give me a break). I certainly didn't mean to discount the great skiing of Wim Decree and I know he should be mentioned in this discussion especially if the reports of 5'7" are accurate. Terry and Marcus are accomplished Pro Tour veterans with multiple titles, podium finishes and world cup standings under their belt as well as having placed in the top 20 nearly every year(excluding injuries)on the IWSF world ranking list the last 10 years, and each has placed inside the top 10 at least once. Wim looks to be consistently on the list as well but a little further down, and I really don't know if Wim has had a chance to ski in as many tours as Marcus and Terry so it could be that he just doesn't have the numbers on his side. Again, at 5'7" I have nothing but respect for Wim and being a fellow lefty I would love to ski with him someday---I'm headed to west palm in a few weeks so maybe someone can hook me up with him! I liked what @DW said in reference to having the reach+handle being even across the board or at least have a tolerance for it, that would be great to watch at a record or pro tour tourney..... I think the advantage would definitely go to guys like Wim, Terry and Marcus. I've seen Marcus and Terry practice with a 6" extension on the rope, not only were their 39's much easier but instead of running 2,3 and occasionally 4 at 41, they started running 4,5 and the whole pass. But, this the nature of the sport, you can't penalize Parrish for being 6'5", I mean if a defensive back was to play as a D lineman you wouldn't make all the lineman drop 100 pounds.

@horton I do

@mattp he's got Terry by about an inch but that's a great point. I guess the same argument can be made for Marcus....I think he does have a few more pro tour wins then Terry but as far as their performances over the years it has been Yen and Yang, nearly identical. Maybe I should reword the question.....would it be fair to say that for their size, Terry and Marucs are the two best slalom skiers ever? I get the fact that being tall has some minor set backs but you will never be able to convince me that those set backs are greater then someone considerably shorter.

At maybe 5'9" he crushed a tail wind 39 at the western regionals and then went on to run 3@41 in route to victory over the likes of Nate Smith and Nick Parsons. It would be one thing if this was the first time he had skied so well but he's been quitely skiing this good for over 10 years now. There are many fantastic skiers out there and a handful that can ski as good/better then Terry but is there anyone at 5'9" who has ever run this top end buoy count on a consistent basis?

@Horton, Sundown lake#2? Looks like cameraman would be standing about on the ol Silver Fox's dock.

you don't have to pull longer at 34 then you do at 36...physics are physics....the edge change needs to take place in the same exact spot, however, the edgechange at 34 should take much longer. Good observations @shaneh and @greghind.....not nearly enough speed through the gates, which causes the line to pull the shoulders to the inside in the preturn, which causes the head to dip in as well. I would start with keeping your width on your gates, you pull out wide enough and then loose 5 or 6 feet of width for no apparent reason. Keep your width, lean inside the ski arc and get that bad boy moving....then you can work on an earlier much slower edge change which will make it that much easier to not tip the head/shoulders in the turns.

@than looking forward to seeing it!

In other words, you can't get the so called "handle control" by trying to control the handle, rather you get it by understanding and focusing on your body mechanics.

I only called BS b/c keeping your handle close to your body "handle control" doesn't give you any real insight into the physics behind what your body is actually trying to do......Nate is the gold standard for riding the natural arc of the handle out, he is a 10 out of 10 in that category.....prior to watching him ski, some of us thought we were the gold standard but after watching him ski quickly figured out that we were just a bag of dirt clawds

@webbdawg99 you are essentially running a two handed gate right now as letting go with one hand is just window dressing. To learn the one handed gate takes someone in the boat who knows exactly how to coach you and if you don't have that at least initially, it can be a futile effort. @bmiller3536 that is some great skiing. It starts at your gate, at the finish of your turn when the load comes you are on the tail of the ski with stiff legs...look at your 32/36mph gate and at 29 seconds when you are right behind the boat the ski is way too far out in front of you as your hips and shoulders are way behind your feet. Now look at 33 and 34 seconds coming into 2 ball and finishing 2 ball---it's all back foot....flex that front knee forward at the ankles and keep your hips over your feet at all times and you'll be crushing 38's but work on it at 32 until you are exaggerating it and have the concept down. Your 35 pass was considerably better as you had your hips more underneath you, however if 10 was a perfect score for weight distribution...32 would be scored about a 4 and 35 would be about a 6 so you still can improve it greatly. Your gate at 38 was nearly perfect, you can see how much more aligned you are....you just didn't create enough speed in the gate turn and had to pull too long into one ball.

Terrible news, one of the funniest most animated story telling guys I've ever known...he will be missed.

@than having skied with Jamie and of course Marcus, this is a concept we have worked on for years...unfortunately, until Nate Smith came along we thought we were doing it correctly.....and also there is another component to this that you have not mentioned that plays a major role when discussing this technique, your body position on top of the ski. First, you have to be balanced, you can't have the ski out in front of you(on your back foot through the wakes making it impossible to stay behind the handle which is what Jamie was referring to) and you also can't have the ski too far behind you(leading with your shoulders through the wakes) and lastly, the shoulders need to be tangent to the load--These sound like givens but most of us struggle in this area, and if not done correctly the upper body will be closer to the boat than the hips which will not preserve the natural arc of the handle.... Handle control in my opinion is bullshit I could be barely leaning through my gates and have great handle control but still ski inside one ball, or I could have all kinds of angle/speed through the gates and hold the handle in as tightly as possible and still ski inside one ball or at least be really narrow(pulling in with arms which keeps handle close, but also brings my upper body up out of the lean)....it shouldn't be called Handle Control, it should be called--"just make sure that your hips are closer to the boat than your shoulders for as long as possible" this preserves the natural arc of the handle. Watch Chad Scott or Rossi, they have mastered that particular technique @than of course as you stated before, things need to be done right in the first place! "the idea doesn't really work unless you can build a lot of speed and angle off the buoy -- i.e. doing the right things before the centerline"

@webbdawg99 as Bruce was saying you need to get wider for your gates but not just at 32, you need to get wider at every line length...or/and...if you are going to do that style of gate, you need to pull out much later and more aggressive so that you can at least make the turn with speed....this is the reason for the dip in your shoulders in the turns, you do not have enough perpendicular speed to keep you up through the arc of the turn and again you do not have enough speed at the start b/c at your gates, your hips are static--in other words they stay well behind the handle and are never able to catch up, not b/c your ski is not between you and the boat(sorry Bruce, have to disagree there) You need to get much more speed out wider at your starts to that you can start your edge change early, and get free of the boat.

I rode in the boat for practice for all of the top skiers on friday and the skier who ran the earliest easiest 39 was Greg Badal, and he was on the A2---the ski was clearly faster and more dynamic then the others

I agree....the out of control part had to do more with the skier then the actual ski

Yeah thanks Smart but everyone needs to give a little love to Kevin Bishop...his first Big Dawg and not only did he run 39 as good as anyone did all weekend but he made it to the sweet 16 and is going to FL!

Smart, I have Harsheesh's binding I can give it to you at Liquid Zone this weekend or you can come up here and grab it and take a set or two if you have time

Kim I've heard they have good coaches in Chico!

I did have a front row for the miracle set.... @Horton looked like he was in disbelief cutting from 1 to 2 ball at 10.75, as if he thought perhaps they forgot to shorten the rope or "man, maybe I am really this good" or, "man I should drink more beer more often"...in any event, it was all this thinking that doomed him b/c he was well on his way to at least 3 ball.

luckily for me, I have seen Jim ski over the years and would concur with @skidawg and @Mr. Jones. Finishing 1 ball with heavy hips would most likely be the culprit, probably a product of sitting back through the gate pull but you should post video so that we can be sure.

@skijay you just have to stick with it, it takes time...we've all missed a ton of openers.... @liquid d you need to come on over to the westcoast and get some hip bruises from the buoys and let the judges yank your gates just for fun