Craig

OB,  Can you post that information publicly?  Based on what I am learning here I know of at least one club that is under the impression they are doing everything they should be to be covered and are not. I would like to help set things straight.  Thanks in advance.

0F when I left the house this morning.  Farmers almanac is predicting a 'colder than normal' winter. I'm starting to believe...

OB, I agree, lots of variables to plot. A big assumption is that all of the human factors are constant. I think the conclusion is insightful because I am not sure if everyone even knows the conditions they ski in the most, I know I don't. Some keep a journal with lots of information but how many do that or actually review the journal looking for trends. Scoke, I know you were just talking about the ski. However, if all human factors are constant what you feel on the ski would lead directly to performance. In that sense what you feel from the ski and what your performance is would be one in the same. It makes perfect sense to me that an experienced skier likely knows how the ski feels in different conditions so the buoy count may not change a lot given a variety of temperatures. Again, I'm not trying to say this is how it is for everyone all the time no question. I have drawn conclusions based on minimal data, one of the data sets is a perceived set of data so any conclusion is really a stretch.

I will preface this post by saying first, yes, I am a nerd. If you are not, and do not wish to filter through nerdy things, here is a brief conclusion. Outcome from Scoke’s data: Scoke perceives his skiing performance to be optimized in water temperatures he practices in this most. Extended Conclusions: Slalom skiing is very sensitive to changes in water temperature. A particular ski will act differently in different water temperatures. Over time, a skier adapts to the temperatures he/she frequents the most. Thus, a skier will likely perform the best in temperatures he/she is the most used too. Some more details (the nerdy bit): Here is an overlay of scoke’s original plot (in blue) with the temperature data he provided in green. http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ZEz8NDGLxu8/TQeowiWGP8I/AAAAAAAABB0/Wd6eCSRhSLY/s640/Scokes%20Data.png I generated this plot by converting scokes temperature data into a proportion (a percentage). I did the same with the perceived performance data from the first plot in the thread. The peaks of the two plots seemed to correlate sit near each other so I thought I would try and quantify how related the two sets of data may be. I did this using a statistical method called the correlation coefficient. This is a method for determining how related two sets of data are. If you are interested in the details, do some reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson_product-moment_correlation_coefficient My analysis showed that there is at least a moderate statistical relationship between the perceived performance and the frequency of skiing at different temperatures (I calculated a number of 0.73 at 0.05 level of significance). So from this I can come to the conclusion that scoke perceives his skiing to be at its best at the temperatures he spends the most time at. Extending those conclusions a reasonable hypothesis would be that everyone skis better in the conditions they ski in the most (including temperature, water sediment quantity, wind speeds, speed control, etc.). These don’t seem like ground-breaking conclusions but I think hold some valuable insight.Â

Horton, I appreciate that. Just trying to avoid the post reading like I think I know everything about skiing or anything else. An interesting tidbit about murky water. Some water/clay/mud suspensions are known as non-newtonian fluids. In particular, shear thinning fluids. A shear thinning fluid is a fluid in which its viscosity decreases with an increase of shear stress applied to it. In other words, the harder you push on it, the less viscous it is. Could explain why some sites with murky water ski really well.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a below average skier, at best. 28 off, 36 mph FWIIW. Not trying to sound cocky in my previous post, I'm used to technical writing.

I posted this on TWSF about two months ago with respect to cold water skiing. I am a 4th year PhD student and work on thermo/fluid systems in addition to skiing. The result of this combination is that I spend a lot of time analyzing skiing. My area of expertise helps understand some aspects of the sport to a bit more depth than most, and this issue falls into that category, I think. Here are my thoughts verbatim from TWSF on the impact of cold water on skiing: I would add to this that there is no doubt a human factor here that is difficult to quantify (changes in flexibility due to clothing, desire, changes in strength and skill over the season, etc.). However, the sheer magnitude of the change in viscosity would lead me to believe that water properties play some significant role in performance. This lines up with scoke's plot, so if all other things constant, a ski is going to perform differently at different water temperatures. The most interesting part about scoke's plot is that there is a perceived optimum at all, as opposed to being near 100% for any temperature above some value. This leads me to wonder if, as a result of a high level of sensitivity to water temperature, we have to train ourselves to perform at a specific temperature. Meaning someone like scoke, who trains in very warm water, has adapted his style and equipment to ski his best at certain temperatures. Whereas, I am from much further north so my optimum may be close to scoke's but maybe shifted a few degrees cooler because of how I have had to adapt my style for generally cooler conditions. This last bit is just a theory, I have no evidence to support this claim. I would like to know what the average temperature is for scoke's ski season is, and how far off from his perceived optimum it is. Here are some plots that show the water properties as a function of temperature.http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ZEz8NDGLxu8/TQD8P4qXV0I/AAAAAAAABBg/AYPwTqI42iQ/s640/water_props_P1%20%28Medium%29.jpghttp://lh6.ggpht.com/_ZEz8NDGLxu8/TQD8QWGQQZI/AAAAAAAABBk/Uee2d5KLJ1Q/s640/water_props_P2%20%28Medium%29.jpg

I have done the program once start to finish ,two winters ago, and have been sprinkling in the workouts for the past 1.5 years to supplement other training. I plan to do a complete program again this winter starting in late December. My recommendation is to wait a week or two after you start before you add anything to the program. Plyo's and yoga are both pretty leg intensive so you might be hurting yourself by adding those exersizes to the mix. It is a pretty difficult program for anyone even if you are in pretty good shape to start with.   In general, I think the program is a really well balanced fitness program. You are probably not going to end up improving your bench or squat max when it is all over. However, you will have a lower body fat percentage, good cardio, stronger all-around, and be more flexible than when you started.

Here you go Back flip and RBF

I remember seeing some video of a one-legged skier awhile back, and perhaps even an article in WS magazine. IIRC, in the article the guy mentioned doing exactly what Than mentions, moving the single binding a bit closer to the center of the ski. That said, I looked around on Youtube and could only find this guy, he looks like he is on a phophecy, but it is hard to tell where the boot is. . Running 22off @36 with one leg gets a hats off from me!!

Boat comes with an 'emergency backboard'? :whoa:

lkb,  I know, I feel like the 4.8 should get a touch better than that. However, after digging around a bit I found this.  Here is what I have:  http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/17962.shtml  It seems to line up with my numbers fairly well.

FWIW, the 4.8L Chevy truck is a half-ton. I agree with Ed, I would not recommend towing with an S-10, or similar size.  The stopping power of the 4.8L is identical to the 5.3L, they are the same truck.

lkb, I am getting about 15/13, hwy/city not towing; 10/8 hwy/city with the boat. Not sure how representative this is of other similar trucks, bought it used, have 116k on it now. I feel like it should be a touch better than what I get...

I have a Sierra 1500, 4x4 with a 4.8L. It tows our 94 190 really easily. Pulled our boat with a 5.3L 1500, and a 6L 2500 as well, the difference between the 5.3L and 4.8L was nothing; the 2500 felt like nothing was there.  I have gone on many multi-hour trips with my truck and never doubted its towing capability with our boat. Some people are convinced that you HAVE to have a 6500lb truck with a 6.0L diesel to pull a 3000 lb boat around.

I agree, P90x is amazing.  Did it last year and I was in some incredible shape; it sure does take some commitment though. Had a lot going this winter so I did not do it again, just a couple workouts a week on top of some cardio. I am wishing I had done it again at this point. My only limiting factor last summer was my hands.  Keep up with the P90x and your aches and pains will go away.