skispray

I’ve been doing CrossFit the last few years in the off season and it’s a good program but I have always had to taper way back during the season. I’d like to try a different workout regimen this ski season in the hopes of maintaining some consistency in the gym while skiing. Method by Radix seems like it could be good since it’s tailored to skiers. However, I’m not sure if it’ll be difficult to jump into it without doing their off-season program. I’m also not sure if you can start it up at any time, or if the program only starts in particular dates (for example if the phase 2 program was introduced in March, can you still start that at any point during the season?). Does anyone have any testimonials regarding the program? And can anyone answer the questions about starting it around now - is that feasible?

@prk a drill that might help is the lean drill: Pull out to one side of the boat and try to get as wide as possible. Just keep leaning down the rope. All the way down the lake. Record above process on video. Review video and adjust form. Repeat. Another question: How fast are you skiing in the course? Most likely, you'll want to slow down until you can run a full set of passes at the same speed nice and early. Spend the sets working on skiing wide and early.

@OscawanaSkier weird. It could be unique to the iPhone Xs although that seems a little strange.

Just starting off the season and would love to get some feedback so that I'm practicing the right changes from the get-go. I seem to struggle finishing offside turns and getting into a strong pulling position afterwards. Not sure if that's due to rollers or technique. Please let me know what I need to be focusing on!

@VTskier @OscawanaSkier you're right, the selfie camera is much, much better. However, one of the major drawbacks of using it is that the video seems to be mirrored so everything looks backwards when watching. Not the end of the world, but definitely awkward to watch.

Over the winter I upgraded from an iPhone 6s to an iPhone Xs. When I set up the phone the Wakeye app was moved over from my old phone and seemed to be functioning fine. However, I tried to use the app last night for the first time on my new phone (attached to a Wakeye device) and while I was driving I noticed that the video being taken was extremely shaky and blurry. I checked footage from one slalom set and one trick set and the video was so blurry that it was unwatchable. Has anyone else experienced this and know of any fix?

@eleeski when you talk about the old Quantum and old Radar what years do you have in mind?

@h2onhk not sure what it'd be called but I'm pretty sure it's a front flip 540 starting from the back position. Not an approved trick yet but hopefully he's submitted it for consideration.

@swc5150 this is not about typical dumb young dude stuff.

@Horton does the SafeSport restriction mean that he's ineligible to complete right now? If so, what jurisdiction does that apply to? Will he be able to compete at Moomba? Will he be competing at the Masters if the interim period goes through May?

@CParrish43 looking forward to watching you this year! Where are you visiting on your traveling clinic tour?

If you are serious about it I would recommend reading The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell. It’s the only ‘diet’ book I’ve ever read that actually talks about serious nutrition research and it is very convincing. He advocates a whole food, plant based diet due to the overwhelming evidence that it is the best diet for treating or minimizing the likelihood that you’ll develop many serious diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and a wide array of cancers. The broad scientific consensus is largely in agreement and recommends a diet consisting of whole (not processed) primarily plant based food with only moderate meat intake. I’ve gone to this diet at home and it was much easier than I expected it to be. I don’t follow it when I eat out because it’s difficult to do so and I feel healthy enough to get away with it. My impression is that the keto diet is just a new name for the south beach diet, or the low-carb diet, or the paleo diet. Whatever you want to call it, is it not just the idea of being low carb and entering ketosis to lose weight? I read a pro-keto book and did the diet a couple years ago (right before it started being referred to as the keto diet), but ultimately gave it up due to health concerns. Since that I’ve read several sources that indicate there can be very serious side effects and every doctor I’ve spoken to has had bad things to say about regularly entering ketosis. And I always found the idea that a significant amount of bacon is healthy to be ludicrous. I’m sure I’m being somewhat unfair to the keto diet so please feel free to correct anything I’ve misconstrued.

@Horton, tell me what you think about this. One thing that stands out when you look at me in my lean compared to a pro is that they’re much more locked in. They’re leaning more aggressively against the rope and as a result their shoulders are much lower relative to the horizon than mine are and their handle is much closer to their hips. This difference was super evident when I went from my normal passes (28-32 off, 36 mph) to short line 38-39 off in order to practice the “beat the boat” drill that @AdamCord has promoted. I noticed at those line lengths that it can be physically quite difficult to get the handle to your hips, and the same is true of 32 off relative to 15 off. For someone who has that issue to work on it seems like getting a bit lower in the knees & ankles would be needed to allow for a more aggressive lean that is still balanced. And the idea of trying to actively stand up before you get to the wakes, which I’ve heard @adamhcaldwell discuss, also seems like it can only be appropriate advice if you’ve already generated a strong lean against the rope in a stacked position. To me, standing tall would work against what’s needed for someone that has their handle too far from their hips and lacks the proper cutting speed needed to run short line.

@AdamCord so is the takeaway that you should be patience out of the buoy and just try to build all the way to the wakes? Does this change anything about the standard advice getting your handle to your hips out of the turn and keeping it there?

@Ed_Johnson yes that’s my understanding as well. So let me rephrase my argument as follows: Good swing speed is a necessary and sufficient condition for running extreme shoreline. But good swing speed can only be generated via good cross course speed from buoy to centerline. Thus, cross course speed is the first and most fundamental skill a slalom skier needs to develop. It’s necessary to run short rope. It isn’t sufficient because, as Horton mentioned, it’s still possible for everything to go haywire after the wakes, but I still believe it will be easier, and more automatic, for things to go right after the wake if you are in a truly fast, truly efficient position into the wakes, like @AdamCord is in the “good” image above. It seems like if the water is breaking well above your front toe while you’re pulling and the ski is generating cross-course speed that’s going to get you most of the way there as far as your short line potential.

One of the things I've learned a lot about in the last year or so from reading this forum is about the physics of the edge change and handle connection. I tried to improve my edge change this year based on what I'd gleaned from this forum, and I think it helped some, but the single biggest lesson I learned this year is that you can't do a "proper" edge change, which I would characterize as an edge change that occurs at the center line and allows you to maintain strong connection to the boat, unless you have excellent speed into center line. And you can't have good speed into centerline without excellent stack. In fact, as a 28-off skier I've started to believe that handle control at and after the edge change is overrated. In fact, I would go as far as to say the following: An early edge change and handle control are not important until you get to 35 or maybe 38 off, because the fundamental skill that you need to master to run 28/32/35 is good speed into centerline and, if you have that, you can run these passes with poor handle control Good stack and speed into centerline are a prerequisite to achieving an early edge change with handle control An early edge change and good handle control will be made easier, or maybe even automatic, if you have excellent stack and speed into centerline The above statements were meant to be potentially controversial in order to generate discussion, but the main reason I started this thread is because I want to know what a skier has got to do to go from the top picture to the bottom picture here. And yes, I know @Horton is going to say straighten your back leg. If that's the honest answer then that's great but I would like to get into the details. Specifically, are you thinking about straightening your back leg and standing tall as you are in your cut on the way to the wake, as opposed to doing that in the pre-turn before the buoy? If so, how do you avoid auguring into the wake and eating sh*#t?

I'm considering getting a new binding for my trick ski. I've been using a Fluid Motion Revo Max binding for many years and it's a great boot. I've replaced buckles, etc. but I think it's to the point where I might as well just get a new boot. Wondering if people have experience with the Reflex binding for tricking and how it feels and holds up? Can anyone say how these two brands stack up for trick skiing? Anyone out there using anything other than these two brands that is worth recommending?

@MDB1056 there are 20 teams at collegiate nationals and all of them qualified based on performance at collegiate tournaments this semester. In the last 12 months there are only 186 people in Mens 1 and Womens 1, combined, that have an average score of 1 at 28 off or higher per the USAWS rankings list. Mens 1 and Womens 1 include people up to age 25 so there are several people in that group of 186 that are already out of college, some of the 18-22 year olds in that group are not going to college or go to schools without ski teams. I'd guess there are maybe 100 people in undergrad that can ski an average of 1 at 28 off or better. In tricks and jump the number of "accomplished" skiers will be even smaller. And you also have to be at a school that can put up a team score good enough to qualify. Meanwhile, there are 20 teams at collegiate nationals. If you assume each team has 10 members (5 men, 5 women), then we're talking 200 participants. As such, you're inevitably going to have people at collegiate nationals that don't perform to that level. The sport is tiny, and not that many people do it at a high level. Unless nationals is going to include just 5 teams, this is what you get. I sure would prefer having a weekend where 200 college-age skiers of all abilities but equal enthusiasm get together to ski than have just 5 teams competing. If you go to collegiate nationals you'll figure out why. Most anyone that has been involved with collegiate skiing, at any ability level, will say that it's the best part of competitive water skiing. For many, it's why they are competitive water skiers at all. If you're worried about presenting the right picture for a sport in decline, you'd do much better looking elsewhere than collegiate skiing.

@MDB1056 since you are at least posing your comments as questions I'm going to assume you aren’t purposefully trying to be an ass, but your post comes off pretty rant-y and it's evident you are very naive about college skiing. First things first, there are two divisions in collegiate skiing. D1 and D2. If you saw a slalom score of 22 off that won, then that was in D2. The top five teams in D1 are home to some of the most talented skiers on the planet... including the current women’s world record holder for tricks (no, not the college record, the world record). There is more talent at those lakes in Texas than you can imagine. Now, outside those 5 teams things do drop off pretty fast and the fact of the matter is that skiing is an extremely small sport. A tiny percent of college kids have ever skied competitively before college so yeah, a lot of these kids probably did start skiing last month! By the time they’re seniors they’ll be respectable skiers, even for an AWSA tournament.

I’m looking for some feedback on my heel side flip. I’m getting more consistent at skiing away from this trick but I’m butt-checking the landing on all of my “successful” attempts this season. I can see that I tend to be back-foot heavy off the wake but I try so hard and see very little improvement in terms of that. Would love to hear a few things that I could go think about during this trick that might clean it up.

If you’re getting dragged back into the wakes before your turn in then I’d say you need to initiate the pull out later. And the proper place to start the movement will vary by skier, since we all have different gates and different pull efficiencies. To try to answer your question, though, I open at 34 mph, 22 off and pull out on that pass just before the boat reaches the pre-gates. On my 36 mph passes I pull out probably when the boat is about a boat length or half of a boat length ahead of the pre-gates, so if I were skiing at 32 mph, 15 off my first attempt I would probably pull out no sooner than when the windshield is passing through the pre-gates. But this is just a guess and also is impacted by how efficiently I’m able to get wide and how wide I get on my gates.

@Horton thanks for all the info but 9” can’t be in tolerance, so why don’t we know it was out of tolerance? And if we do know it then why are we even debating this? Let the results from the tournament stand because they all skied the same course, but void them for use in comparing to scores from other sites. Void the scores from contributing to the rankings list, etc. Other people have been asking the same thing - if something was off then why the hell don’t we know it? Why is it all just speculation? Ropes get measured, courses get checked, so why are we all standing around speculating like it’s impossible to know these things? Has there been a failure in the verification process? I’m really confused about how this can even be an issue. And if there was no failure or issue with the verification process, and the course is in tolerance, then shouldn’t we just accept it and stop talking shit? Seriously, what is going on that no one knows what the hell is happenig? This is unacceptable amateur hour stufff. And as @klindy mentioned there is an avenue for dealing with suspicions of this kind and, as far as I know, nobody in a position to question the results did diddly-squat about it. Why are people texting you saying things are off but not going through the channels available to correct them? Is this an issue of integrity (or lack thereof) for the participants that were on the ground, knew something was off, and did nothing about it?

There are so many claims being made in this thread that can’t even remotely be supported by the available evidence. @Than_Bogan has pointed out many times in the past that video and still pictures can be unusually deceptive. And yet we never seem to learn... Look at these still frames I took from the video: I watched the video in slow motion and, based on the boat guides and Ski buoys that I could see clearly, I’ve attempted to draw a straight line that is perpendicular to the course. What this clearly shows is that the camera person was significantly off from being inline with the Ski buoys. We have three objects in play here: the boat, the skier, and the camera. If the camera were placed in line with the Turn ball, then presumably we could pause the video when the boat is 90 degrees to us and expect that the skier would be at their highest point in their arc, turning the ball. But since the camera isn’t inline with the buoy, any assessment based on this idea is fundamentally flawed. Adding a line to the still-frames that better represents the angles involved, it looks much more plausible that this is 41 off. To me it seems that as he’s turning, at his highest point in the arc, it’s pretty close to 90 degrees. If you disagree, at least try to show me why! I have no personal involvement in this situation but people are throwing skiers, sites, and class C events under the bus (*cough* @Horton *cough*) but from my read of the evidence there’s just no credible way to do so.

@BraceMaker this is for use during sanctioned practice, as it would qualify guests for coverage under the USA Waterski insurance. Due to that, I think the registration with USA water Ski needs to be official and documented.

Has anyone here ever used the USA Waterski Day Pass membership for their ski guests? See the link below to a USA waterski document stating that this type of membership exists: https://www.usawaterski.org/graphics/downloads/MembershipOptions.pdf If so, how do you actually go about getting your guest signed up for one? If I go to the new member sign-up page on the website there's no option for it there. If I sign into my membership and go to my 'Upgrade membership' page there's no option for it there either. It appears to be unavailable via their website...