skispray

@Horton fracture events? There are currently like 80 divisions for adults and I proposed there be 3. I’m okay with strictly doing handicapped competition for amateur tournaments, but still keep the kids separate. When people are advancing against their PB’s very quickly it’s not really a competition to pit them against people with scores based on a long history. The “best” skiers at every tournament would be kids beating their PB’s by 3 passes as they reach their max speed.

@JeffSurdej I like the idea of the pros competing with no handicap. For amateurs one idea that comes to mind would be to have two division, a handicapped division and a non-handicapped division. If you sign up for a local tournament you pick which of the two you want to compete in that day, and everyone in the handicap group competes amongst themselves, while everyone in the non-handicapped division competes against themselves. Factors that would be relevant to your selection are how well you’re skiing at that moment relative to your baseline score, who else is at the same tournament, and what division they’re skiing in. You could have both handicap and non-handicap ranking lists. FWIW, I still think there should be boys/girls divisions separate from adult divisions. So to me ideally there would be divisions something like the following: Men’s No Handicap (18 yo+) Women’s No Handicap (18 yo+) Adult Handicap (18 yo+ men & women) Then either leave the boys/girls age divisions alone, making them either exclusively handicapped, or having both the handicap/no-handicap options there too.

I just want a pro tour where, at the end of the season, there’s a champion who has earned that title by skiing consistently better than their competitors at the same events, with the season being long enough to make random chance an unlikely contributor to success over the series. The boat path for every skier is reviewed so we know the scores are legitimate per the rulebook. This is how you determine who is the best of the best. I want that title to be the most prestigious accomplishment in water skiing. I want a livestream available for every event in the series. A real pro tour that legitimately determines where everyone stands because everyone participates and fights for the title because it means the most of anything. @Horton if you’re going to work to change the sport at the pro level, I submit that you should put some effort on this idea.

Spraymakers has been awesome. It’s a highlight of my work week when I can pop on some headphones and listen to what those guys have to say. Really looking forward to the next season as well. Hats off to everyone involved, it’s a great service you’re providing and it’s definitely appreciated.

Oh and especially thank you to Waterski Nation, Radar skis, and @Givego for organizing and sponsoring this series. Very cool of them to step up and do this.

Anybody here following the Waterski Nation Tour? I love the idea of a series championship like this because it shows who is showing up and performing consistently over the course of a year. Manon and Freddie are having awesome years, and it looks like they'll be the likely winners of the Tour after Swiss Pro this weekend. Jaimee Bull and Regina Jaquess will both be at Swiss Pro this weekend, so 2nd place in the final standings is up for grabs. This looks like it could be one of the best battles of the weekend. Lots of the top 10 women's skiers will be at the tournament so lots of action possible there. All of the men in the top 10 will be at Swiss Pro this weekend aside from Daniel Odvarko. I'd expect Nate Smith to be on the podium so am expecting him to pick up 2nd in the championship. He's not mathematically eliminated from winning it all but didn't attend all the rounds so is in a bit of a hole. Cole McCormick has had a strong year and that shows in his standing right now. Second place to eighth place are currently separated by 20 points, a win is worth 25 points, and they stop handing out points after 10th place, so there could definitely be some shuffling in the final standings after this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing how things shake out. I hope the tour gains traction, I'd love to see more rounds and sponsors paying for placement in the final series standings. Good luck to everyone involved.

The Hilltop ProAm seems like it would deserve a spot on this list. That tournament seems like it would be a blast.

@Than_Bogan when can we expect a new installment in the GUT series? Would love to see this stuff laid out for a geeky audience to read.

If this fall was not caused by hitting something or from your fin moving, and it is, in fact, technique related, then I would say that it stems from your weight distribution during edge change and a rush to turn the ski too soon after edge change. You can see from these still shots that your turn is much, much longer into 1 & 3 ball then it is into 5 ball. You may have been getting a bit late, or just weren't as strong out of 4 ball, and basically tried to rush your turn, initiating it very soon in relation to your edge change. Problem was, your weight distribution caused a spike in tip pressure as you changed edges, started the ski oscillating up and down. All the while, you're trying to throw it onto that inside edge and make a quick turn. The combination of simultaneous oscillation of the ski up and down along with the ski's roll angle increasing causes the ski to loose its edge, and down you go. Take a look at your rooster tail/previous ski path into 1, 3, and 5. You can see that your wake is pretty choppy into 5, whereas its quite smooth into 1 & 3. I tried to circle the chop in your wake in one of the still images below. Also, the first still of 5 ball is where I think things originated. Your tip is almost buried coming off the wakes, and I think that's what spiked the pressure and started things oscillating up and down. Not sure how to avoid that, but if that isn't what happened them I'm completely stumped. 1 ball: 3 ball: 5 ball:

Just watched your earlier fall, which looks closer to a tip pressure issue. It’s odd that you’re experiencing the issue so early in the pre-turn, but I would have a pro set your ski up properly, and also check for debris before skiing.

I had that exact same fall once. It felt like I was riding fine into the buoy and then suddenly the ski completely gave out on me, like something from the deep reached up and grabbed it, causing me to face plant onto the water. It hurt. So sitting in the water, I grab the end of my ski and pull it towards me to take a look at my fin, and I see a twig, about a foot and a half long, sitting through one of the holes on my fin! As far as I can tell, when I rolled into edge the twig was in the perfect spot to get lodged in my fin, and that caused the fall. Based on that, I believe this fall would have also been caused by a dynamic change to the ski shape while you were skiing. Was your fin or wing loose enough to move at this point in the pass? The advice about not reaching too high is also good, but the way your ski augurs into the water so dramatically makes me wonder if you hit something or got snagged on something. My advice, survey the water you plan to ski beforehand and remove any debris.

I almost never drop down a pass. If I miss I try again at the same line length. I often run back to back before shortening, at least once I’m past my opener.

You’re telling me that in the past you could choose to ski a course and you... would chose not to?!

@tap thanks for the detailed explanation! How about mounting it to the Orbit, and mounting the phone to it? Is that a specific part like a camera mount extender that's used there? Or some items from a hardware store?

@tap would you mind providing a parts list and some assembly instructions for that dampening device you’ve created? Looks intriguing and I’d like to give it a try but not sure what exactly you’ve built.

@MillerTime38 so how do you achieve that position with your upper body while your ski has changed edges? Just looking for feedback on what movements or feelings you’re trying to execute in this section of the course. Keeping my back shoulder down through the edge change is a primary goal of mine right now and I can’t say I’ve figured it out yet.

@MattP according to this it would have been around 2006 for Natalie. http://www.mattrini.com/blog/2015/3/24/natalie-hamrick-halt-interview

@MattP where did you get those heights? Of course I could be wrong, but JT at 6’0” seems off. I would think 6’1” or 6’2”. And looking at him and Will Asher next to one another, I think JT is a bit taller. That may be faulty memory, but that is my intuition. I’ve always been skeptical of some of the heights listed for pro skiers. For instance, I’m 5’10” and Marcus Brown is taller than me. Not that he’s as giant as the other skiers, but he isn’t a small guy. I do think Terry Winter is a bit shorter than me. This is all my perception from being around these guys. Not that I really know any of them but you see them at clinics, ski schools, college tournaments, etc.

@Kwoody51 I wouldn't say the goal is to take all of the bend out of your legs. Straightening your legs, especially your back leg, should help to put you into the stacked position that we're looking for, and maybe thinking about having completely straight legs will help, but I don't think you want to hit that wake with 100% rigid legs, either. You might want to try it and see if it works well or not. I think you should think about being in an aligned, tall, braced position. 100% straight legs may or may not be part of that. Ultimately, for very high end slalom I think that is the goal, but I'm not sure it's where you should be focusing right now. You want to slice through the wakes on the edge of your ski but you still need to be in an athletic position that allows you to handle the forces that will be exerted on you by the wake without compromising your position. Take a look at these pictures of Nate Smith and Fred Winter. Their legs are pretty straight, their bodies are aligned really well over the top of the ski - notice their hips are not back, they're right there with the ankles and shoulders leading the charge. This allows them to very efficiently handle the load from the boat using their entire body and to stand tall over the top of the ski.

@Kwoody51 it'll take some practice and some overcoming of fear, but ultimately it is safer to cross the wakes with your hips up/forward. That's because when they're forward they aren't really forward, they're aligned with the rest of your body, and so you're in a natural standing position that's balanced over your ski. When the ski hits the wake in this position it'll bounce a bit but the attitude of the ski won't change, it'll stay level and land off the wake in the same position it left and you just keep right on skiing. When your hips are behind your shoulders you end up with all of the load from the boat in your shoulders. When this happens the ski usually ends up trailing a bit, so when you hit the wake like this it pitches you forward into an out the front fall.

As @Horton said in the thread you mentioned, the number 1 priority for your level is how you stand on the ski at all times. If I were you, I wouldn't worry about your turns right now. They look fine and your position as you cut through the wakes is what needs focus. Onside (going from passenger's side to driver's side): What's good is that you're cutting all the way through the wake and changing edges at a pretty good spot What you need to work on is getting into a stacked, standing position. Right now, as you cut into the wakes you are bent at the waist, with your hips trailing behind the rest of your body, and there's quite a bit of distance between your hips and your handle. What you want to work on is moving your hips "up" or "forward" so that they're close to the handle. The goal is to have your ankles, hips, and shoulders all in a single line on top of the ski. So if you imagine a rod sticking straight out of the top of your ski, it should go right through your whole body. Right now, it would go through your ankles and shoulders but your hips would be behind it. As you know, @Horton likes to coach this by telling the skier to stand up taller on the ski. This should naturally bring your hips up in between your ankles and shoulders. More traditionally, this was coached by having the skier try to get their hips closer to the handle while they're in the pulling position (while keeping your arms out straight). Maybe try both to see what's more effective for you. Offside: On the toeside you are standing up and stopping your cut before the wakes, and then resuming it after having crossed them Your goal should be the same as on your onside; specifically, you want to cut all the way through the wakes on edge and then come off your edge right after To accomplish this you'll need to get into a stacked position on this side as well. The good news is that you'll want to work on the same thing as on the onside - establishing a tall, "stacked" standing position on top of the ski by getting your hips to stop trailing your ankles and shoulders, and maintaining that position all the way through the wakes. It'll probably be harder on this side, but think about your sternum and hips facing the same direction as the ski tip, stand tall and make sure your hips are forward. Basically, as you cut your arms will be out straight, but with your hips forward they should end up running down your torso, so that your handle is near your hips in a position that's both efficient for taking load from the boat and for riding on top of your ski. Note: You're probably fine at 15' but if you start working on this and run into issues where you crash and/or start to get scared of the wake, you could try 28' off or 32' off to see if it gets easier to deal with.

@Horton my assumption was that this was a cross section to show the new material but now you have me guessing.

@Than_Bogan I’m not trying to be a dick, I hope you don’t take it that way. It’s just that there’s only a point to you saying what you’re saying on this forum if it applies to the Connelly. So people are right to assume you're criticizing the ski and it'd make sense for you to just come out and say that, as you say you're apt to do. But you're not, which is why it's weird. It is the internet, and people get their wires crossed all the time, so no harm, no fowl as far as I'm concerned. I just wanted to be blunt about why this is such an odd thread from the perspective of other ballers.

@Than_Bogan I see where you’re explaining yourself, but this isn’t an engineering forum. You must have posted this because there is relevance to the water ski world, no? And the timing seems to imply exactly what that is. You say that more options are a bad thing right after a ski is introduced with more options. Then people call out the connection that no one could miss (whether intentional or not), and now you’re saying the new Connelly with the features you were criticizing in general is not at all the target of that criticism. It kind of feels like you’re gaslighting all of us!

@Deanoski thanks for posting this information. I think it needs to be echoed and maybe spelled out, as you're doing us a service by sharing this info. Please correct me if this is wrong but here's the key takeaways that I got: Any handle guard is probably better than no handle guard Some handle guards are less safe than others Specifically, hard plastic handle guards like the Fluid Motion product will prevent your head from getting into the handle 'V' much, if any, at all Conversely, with a soft/mesh guard your head can still get into the handle, although not necessarily all the way through. This is better than nothing but can still result in the handle catching on your chin and doing serious damage Conclusion: Use a hard plastic handle guard! For what it's worth, I've had a hard plastic handle guard on my handle for over 10 years and in no way has it negatively impacted my skiing. I've hardly ever noticed that it's there.