matthewbrown

If I was going peruse the skier database and look to glean the most bang for my buck, I’m not sure that I would choose Mapple or Parish to study. Nowhere on this earth do we have anyone remotely as athletic and strong as Mapple was, not to mention his perfect physical frame. Neither do we have a 6’5” ultra strong and athletic skier like Parrish. These were outliers because of their God given gifts. Because of these gifts they were not as technically sound as they could have been. I would certainly study a Nate Smith(regardless of what you think of him personally)as he has clearly shown to be the greatest skier of all time, without the Mapple gifts of size, strength and athletic ability. He rides the ski much more efficiently than anyone ever has and his scores show it. Even Freddy Winter in my eyes would be better than studying Mapple. These skiers realized that pulling as hard as you can through both wakes and then edgechanging into an immediate banked turn is not ideal. There was a better more efficient way and they’ve found it. If Mapple had Nate’s technique he would have run 43 I’m certain of it.

@Horton that is correct, your exit from the previous buoy and what you do behind the boat is the real magic. I also agree with Caldwell that I don’t want level shoulders as I’m approaching the buoy and through the initiation of the turn and there are a few of reasons why this is accurate.

This is the moment you begin to lose everything

Here’s your problem, you are a lifetime away from 2 ball but your body position suggests that the buoy is coming up in about 10 feet. You have sat back through the transition, fallen to the inside and lost all of your edge tension sending you on a narrower path. By the time you get to the buoy you are all out of moves because you did them all too early. Now you have literally nowhere to go but back.

I think the most important concept one needs to have in the back of their mind at shortline, is the ability to keep ones hips and shoulders on top of their feet from the 2nd wake to the buoy. As Adam Caldwell pointed out we are jockeying for positioning at the finish of the turn through centerline. That jockeying isn’t necessarily a heavy tug, rather it’s a fight to keep your shoulders over your hips which should be squarely on top of your feet. That gives me the best position to hold the load without feeling it but more importantly it sets me up to get all I can through the transition and high on the boat. Too many peoples idea of stack is really an angled stack. With an angled stack your body is in alignment with itself but not in relation to the ski. Hips are up and very close to the handle, shoulders are high, legs are relatively straight, yet most of the skiers mass is behind their bindings. Hence the inability to keep the ski flatter through the transition causing a harder edge change and a narrower/lower ski path. The more on top of the ski I can be through the transition, the less the ski smears early and the more potential smear I’ll have available for the actual turn. But if I had to say what should one do about this, I’d say it starts at the finish of the turn to centerline, work to keep up with your ski as you are holding your leveraged position and don’t let it escape from under you.

I agree, you can always pull harder just be ready to deal with the fruits of your labor.

My wife says it’s not long enough...

@Horton agreed, I think DFT is the most fidgety.

As @jjackkrash said, the blind test is the true test. I couldn’t disagree more that .003 makes the difference between a good ski and a great ski. If my fin is 6.855 inches long, and I’m skiing well I should be able to move it to 6.865 and not notice anything at all or at least be able to intuitively compensate after the first couple off offside turns. But my performance should not change. That’s a .01 move which is considerably larger than the .003 used as an example. Too much energy spent on fin adjustments and not enough spent on technique. Now a change in boots on the other hand, that’s a different story.

@Horton the most unkook person you know. @AdamCord the main thing to learn from this pass is not to take unnecessary 6 ball hits in practice. @liquid d watching too many of your sets with duct tape and binding parts and spray flying all over the place. @Bruce_Butterfield no buddy that was awhile ago in the golden days of the big dawg, I’ve been forced to retire since then.

I saw a Sasquatch at Line Off lake back in 86’ when Regionals were there, better bring all your mountain man wares for that place.

@LakeOneSkier I had the Vertebraplasty done, which is essentially the same procedure as the Kyphoplasty sans the balloon. My T12 was about 90% compromised with cancer and had fractured. It was a night and day difference almost immediately. However, I have not skied since then to test it out but I’ve had zero problems under normal circumstances. My procedure was done at Stanford so the quality of care was never in question.

@jjackkrash we didn’t know how good we had it then

@liquid d did you win a superswami? I remember skiing in that back in maybe 97’ at Okeheelee.

I don’t know him but have been motivated by the bits and pieces I hear about him fighting hard. He is a stranger that helped me, I can think of no greater gift.

That trick score is insane. I’m thinking somebody someday will run 4@41, 11,000+ Trick and jump 230’. That would be pushing the limits but I think it can be done. He’s certainly close to this and is young enough.

@skispray Marcus is 5’10”, Terry is 5’9”. Terry is running 41 in practice around once a week, definitely skiing the best of his life. Unfortunately, there are hardly any tournaments for him to get the chances he needs. He does however cruise it at 34 whenever he tries it

@AdamCord I can agree with all of that. I guess my point was what is ideal vs what is easier. Ideally of course is Nate, but as you were saying for everyday application for your average skier who struggles through the transition, the technique you are describing is easier to employ. As you pointed out if proper speed is generated the edgechange nearly takes care of itself. I’m probably a little jaded as I watch Terry Winter try and run 41 everyday, and the main thing that sabotages his efforts, is shooting the ski through the transition. Congrats on the 3@41 score in the fast and cold state of WA! I suspect you will run that pass in the near future.

This is a completely different looking body position than Jeff Rodgers, where the skier is staying centered on the ski. It could be due to camera angle as Adam pointed out but I think we can agree that Nate is much more on top of the ski than Jeff

This is a much more ideal position than the Jeff Rodgers pic @bsmith

@adamhcaldwell agreed on the picture angle of Jeff Rodgers, I could have found a better example. @AdamCord I hear what you are saying about if proper speed is obtained before the wakes and I agree that this should be the goal but, anytime my feet go through the wakes before my shoulders I am losing some of the whip that I have already generated. And not everyone can always generate the speed Adam Caldwell does out of every buoy. If I’m more over the ski through the transition like Andy and Nate I am able to keep my momentum and swing higher up on the boat. More importantly I am better able to keep the ski flatter through the transition when I am balanced. Shooting the ski puts me on the tail of the ski, commits me to an early harder inside edge and makes me smear to early. Maybe what you are talking about is a more balanced position through the edgechange as the ski will always need to be out in front momentarily through the transition, but I would disagree with a conscious effort to shoot the ski as being ideal through the edgechange.

As @adamhcaldwell stated the lower your hips the less ability to keep edge pressure which makes complete since and is the reason why standing taller in the transition is ideal. In addition to this, the further the ski is out in front of your COM during the transition regardless of straight legs or not, the more edge pressure you lose. So, you can have straight legs through the transition but if your ski is too far out in front of you it effectively is as if you were squatting through the transition. Jeff Rodgers was notorious for this into his 1,3,5 turn which is part of the reason why he always had huge turns on that side, his ski reached apex too soon as his body fell inside the line closer to the boat. When he got it right and stayed on top of his ski all the way out through the transition, he was pretty much unbeatable. If not for his superhuman abilities he would have never been as great as he was/is. In this picture even though his legs are relatively straight, his COM is not stacked over the ski which through the coming transition, will mimic lower hips.

So graceful