Bud Man

I think I remember hearing that Goode measures a straight line from tip to tail and some other manufactures measure the curved length on the bottom, but not sure.

 I try to think of the four “Tâ€s to say while skiing.  I posted this on a different forum, but since you asked what I’m working on, I’ll post it here also.  Tight – When you say tight, it is to remind you to keep your hips up, shoulders back and arms tight and controlled to your vest. Practice with a handle on dry land. As you do it, repeat “tightâ€. That one word should come to represent the whole package.  Tall – Tall means tall! Your hips are up over your bindings and you are as tall as you can be. Get tall before the gates and tall before every buoy. Get tall!  Target – Come out of the buoy and look for your target. You pull towards you target. Your ski will change edges and you will still be heading for your target on the other side of your ski.  Tempo (or timing) – Try to relax throughout the whole course. You will make driving the boat easier if you keep an even tempo. You can be light on the pulls or light on the line with a relaxed even tempo.  As you approach the course, say tight. As you approach the apex of your turn in for the gates, say tall. Then look at and ski toward your target. It might be from 15 to 30 before the next buoy. You will need to find what works best for you. As you head for your target, you start all over again with tight, and then approach the buoys with tall, and then out of the buoys with target. As you do all of this try to keep a relaxed tempo.  I am not capable of thinking very much while in the slalom course. I think a lot before I ski, then get in the course and within a few passes, I think a lot about how tired I am and how I did not do what I planned to do. So, through time I have tried to work on different things that I think might help. I have found that if I bundle things into one word, I can remember one word easer that a bunch of things. Sometimes I can remember three words, but as time goes on, I’m lucky to remember two words.

Yes to Orange Polyform. Count me in. I also add water to all ten.

This is great stuff. Call Aves and tell them what you are fixing and they will send you just what you need. I like the procucts and the people. http://www.avesstudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13&Itemid=4

I think the VP of sales is a stand up guy. Try calling CJ Vlahovich at HO but email him the picture first so he will know what is going on when you call him. cj@hosports.com Phone # 1800 938-4040 Good luck.

The 9700 came in today with a Goode option fin and a standard shape carbon fin. I think the option fin looks like the back has a reverse slope up towards the boots. I think I want to start with the standard shape. I do not have a clue what the advantage of carbon has over aluminum. What is it with the carbon fin. Should I try it first or use a standard shape aluminum off of another ski I have?  I want to ski in the morning so a fast reply would be appreciated. Multiple replies would be great. Thank you ahead of time for your help.  Goode 9700, 65.5â€, 140 AMP, 144lbs, 5’ 10â€. 34 mph, Short line.

I have skied in both. My opinion is that the Strada is softer and feels more like a rubber boot than the RS-1 which feels more like a hybrid. I would guess that with the bungees at the same tension, the Strada would release easer than the RS-1. I feel that they are sized differently also. Try them on if you can.

I have read this thread and offer a term I have not seen. I have always heard and used “offside†and “onside†and have thought nothing of it being negative, but I can imagine it is not at all self explanatory to someone new to the sport. Behold, I give you OPEN TURN and CLOSSED TURN. This of course refers to your lower half. When I teach someone new to the sport, I always have them compromise by having the upper closed to an open bottom and vise versa. I did not know any better and was well into the course before I knew, so I am left foot forward and left hand under. I have heard of people switching hands mid career. I think one of the LaPoints might have.  Also, someone asked me to look at their West Coast Slalom DVD and see what I thought. After watching, my impression was that some people that were used to the sport of surfing or skate boarding got on a slalom ski and used techniques that were already ingrained in their muscle memory and did well. They look like natural athletes and might do all things well. I don’t know that it would be the best way to teach someone that did not have the same background to start slalom skiing that way.  I find it hard to agree that the following applies to water skiing; “Center of Mass in the direction of travel that gives you EFFICIENT acceleration. In other words, it is not lean against the boat that gives you acceleration, but lean in the direction of travel that gives you acceleration. Also, it is not angle that gives you speed, but speed that gives you angle.â€Â All of that seems to apply to a gravity driven sports like down a mountain or down a wave. (Before I go any further, I am not any type of engineer and I have no education in that field.) Think about this: if you grab the other end of a rope for tub-of-war, would you lean into the rope or the direction you expected the pull to come from? I think you would lean away from it. If someone where tall, they would probably want to stay tall and lean away. If they were short, they may choose to squat and sit somewhat off set so as not to give way to the pulling force. Isn’t the boat something like tug-of-war? And as for speed angle and angle speed: if I am being pulled straight behind the boat and turn my ski at an angle, I should accelerate. So didn’t the angle give me speed? Also, if I am being pulled straight behind a boat and the boat speeds up, then I would speed up. That added speed would not give me angle.  My point is that after watching the DVD, I got the impression that a bunch of words were put together for the reason to market a concept. That is my uneducated opinion.  I think the sport is advancing and the equipment is advancing because people are sharing thought and ideas and helping each other and that is great.  And as far as the old tapes of ski coaching; I think they would still apply to the old skis make way back then. You know; “pull longâ€, “split radius turn†and all that. They sure don’t apply to the new fast effortless skis being made now.  I am in awe at how easily some people flow through to course like it is as simple as a walk in the park. Sure gives me something to shoot towards.

Did the water cover your buoys for a day? I and some one else at anouther lake compared notes and realized if the water level cane up and the buoy spent a day under water, they would fade like crazy after that. I had other Overton’s buoys that turned to goo. If your leg hit them rounding a turn, the goo would get on your hair and leg and pretty much not wash off. You had to use solvent. When I first put in my red Polyforms, I really missed the orange, but I got used to the red. Saying that, I would prefer orange though. The red have been in my new lake for ten months now and look great.

If you don’t have time to read this book, look for the CliffsNotes to be published later.  I love skiing and I like tournament skiing and I think there is enough difference in the two to understand why some people would like one and not the other. I also think that groups of people are different enough to make either experience different. i.e. warm and friendly verses cold and indifferent. When I got involved with course skiing in the early 90’s, I formed a water ski club in my area. We had loads of fun. We had a bunch of non-AWSA tournaments with awards. We had practice skiing with cook-outs included and probably over thirty members. The pro tour stopped being shown on TV and overall interest faded.  I like tournaments despite some negative experiences. The first tournament I went to, I was just learning to ski the course. They had a Novice division. I place third and was very excited to know I was getting a trophy. However, they told me that someone in the Expert division had entered in the Novice division, so they gave him the first place trophy which meant that 1st got 2nd, 2nd got 3rd and I got nada. Three of us walked away feeling screwed. I was determined to progress. The next tournament, I won 1st place Novice. I don’t think tangible awards are that important, but I do think they are more special to entry level people in any sport. I played hard and move my ranking to Expert, then Master and then EP. I tied second with Rick Anderson at States. I moved out of M2 to M3 and competed at the State Championship and got third place with only fractions of a buoy separating me and Kim Bryant, Finklea Tomlinson and me.  My area usually only had two tournaments a year. I am not much for travel, but I made a point to always support and ski in the State Championship. I think it was the 1996 State Championship where I was so offended, I quit tournament skiing. By then attendance had really faded in my area. My interest had not faded. In practice, I was starting to get more consistent at -38, so I was stoked to try it under tournament pressure. In all previous tournaments I had skied, there was an equipment check table near the starting dock. They would put a sticker dot on your handle, ski and vest after checking them. There was always a dock starter checking for your three stickers as you congregated on the starting dock. On that day, they were few people to be seen anywhere. My wife and I set our chairs near the starting dock. So we could hear the intercom and follow the running order. That was given to me when I signed in that morning. I was first to ski in M3 and when my turn came, I put on my ski and got in the water. The boat pulled the rope tight and then said get out of the water, I was disqualified for not having my equipment checked. I walked down to speak to the chief judge and he handed me a rule book and told me that the equipment check was in a different area. They checked my ski and vest but NOT my handle. I was told that they were not checking handles and that NO ONE had their handles checked. I found in the current rule book that it was required to check and mark ALL THREE and that there was to be a dock starter to confirm the marks before you ski. I pointed out that they were not following the outlined rules because there was not a dock starter, not using any stickers and not checking any handles. I pointed out that we were there to have fun and to please let me ski. At the end of M3 round they took the boat around the lake and gathered about twelve people to vote. The vote was to not let me ski. I then pointed out that if they think they are so right then why are they breaking USCG listing on the boat sticker by overloading the boat. As you can imagine, that didn’t help.  I continued non-tournament skiing and teaching skiing. I eventually accomplished the -39 a few times. After about ten years, some friends of mine convinced me that things had changed and the click that used to run thing were not involved any more and I should come ski in their tournament. I took their advice and skied some tournaments. I broke our state’s M4 record by getting two buoys at -39. I was so excited to know I was going to be in a record book. Disappointedly, they put my first name in the record book with the last name of the previous holder. The next year our state was not listed at all. I knew a M3 record holder had skied himself into MM with ½ @ -41. I sent our state people a letter to point out our state had a tournament division for MM but had not added it to our record book like others had done since MM came into play. The next year that same person entered a tournament in the MM division and got, I think, 4@-39. Instead of listing him as a record holder in MM they bumped me and put him in the M4 slot. Isn’t that like taking an Open Men and bumping him into a M2 record slot? It is not good for either person. Life is great, but not always fair. Tournament skiing is great, but not always fair. I have passionately devoted twenty years to course skiing and have recently built a ski lake. I have thought about building a casket shaped like a ski boat so I can be buried inside suited up to ski; vest, gloves, handle with ski by my side. Hopefully there will be a great many years ahead before I would need it.  I would like to host some fun tournaments with cash prizes, but handicap it some how so all levels can compete on the same level. Skiing, music, food, fun and great camaraderie. But first I need grass around the lake. It would be a mess right now. I want to like to skiing tournaments more. No one is perfect and mistakes will be made. Maybe in time my interest will grow? I don’t know if anyone else is like this, but I challenge myself so hard to ski better that I often get butterflies right before I practice ski.  Bless all those who fought and who are fighting for our freedom. God bless America.

Grainger sells inserts with a kind of pop rivet gun. You can find it at their Website. I put some in a Goode ski and they seemed to work fine. However, the idea of glue on studs seems like a good one. I think they are on the Reflex Website.

My polyforms are the best I've used. Only had them for about 10 months now. I also wish they came in orange. Many other buoys I've used have faded or turned to sticky goo.

A ski shop told me they sent all of theirs back because the did not like them.

I did not like the S1. I am M4 and used to run -39 here and there and now trying to re-learn. Actually strugling with -38 right now. I did not run -38 with S1. I could run -35 with S1 but too much tail slide. I would NOT recomend S1.

I had a pair of RS-1 liners heat molded to my feet at a water ski shop. I used two toe caps because I wanted to make certain my big toe did not push on the end of the liner while skiing. After the liners cooled plus a little extra time, I think about 25 minutes, I removed my feet. I had to wait about another 25 minutes to get the feeling back in my toes. I then tried on the boots and I think they were fine. They now feel like the length has shrunk back to my toe, especial in my left one. Before I call the ski shop, I wanted to ask it any one else has experienced this. Thank you for your help. Has anyone had their boot liners shrink after they were heat molded?

I’m not sure what Eric is talking about on speed. I think I remember back when Bob and Chris LaPoint were very young the speed was faster than 36mph. The speed hurdle was the first big one for me. I started skiing later in life so I only had to ski 36mph for a few years. When I got out of M2, I had not accomplished -35 @ 36mph. Even though I skied 34mph in tournaments, I practiced 36mph until I could run -35. I even eventually went on to run -38 @ 36mph. These threads have given a lot of good advice. I’ll give you a few keys that I think are important even though some might be a repeat. 1)     Convert the power from the boat to speed in the ski but only on one side of the course. If you feel strain then you are resisting the boat’s power instead of using it. I think that “Old School†uses leverage and is easer on your body. I view “West Coast†as using you body as a counterweight. I think this requires more strength than skiing with leverage does. “West Coast†style appears to be derived from people crossing over from surfing and skating and using what they are already doing and applying it to water skiing. 2)     What ever way you choose to accelerate, you need to generate just enough speed to carry you from the center of the wake around the next buoy. I would try to never pull past the center of the wakes. 3)     Work on form, work on form, work on form. Make your good form your muscle memory. 4)     Increase speed in small increments without sacrificing your form. 5)     Video yourself and compare it to someone you are trying to ski like. 6)     Lessons are a good idea even though I have not had any. I think these are the important keys but there are many, many smaller things to work on within these fundamental keys.