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Congratulations John! It's gotta be a great feeling to see that lake filling up! :). Out of curiosity, do you have an estimate of the time it takes to fill your lake? (Days? Weeks? Month? No clue really) I think in your place I'd be checking it every other hour ! ;). Enjoy your first ride and don't forget to document all that!

I'm not a huge fan of messing with ski setups for one good reason, I know that I know nothing about ski tuning :) However, if I compare with other sports that i frequently practice (competitive tennis for my part), I have the habit of only changing ONE THING at the time.(grip or string tension or racket or balance or weight etc etc) I'm pretty sure this advice's gotta be well known amongst the many fine slalom addict gentlemen on this precious website, I'm not saying I invented it :) I'm sorry my advice isn't more helpful than what it is, but that's just my thought on this matter. Good luck with your settings! Romain

Maybe it's too late now, but if it's still time you may go to this guy's amazing videos https://vimeo.com/user10905441 (amazing job @rwskier !) and capture any view, he has tons and tons of them! I guess @rwskier gets his pics from a quadricopter with a gopro or something like this? Anyways, amazing results. Maybe ask for his permission first, but i'm guessing a cake for your son is not a big threat copyright-wise? ;) ++

Ok; I only have ONE, but I figured it was worth it. I personnally shot this one, in Acuaski, Mexico. Skier is the owner of the place, Sergio ramirez, some of you might know him. Driver is Marcos. That's the place the Font's used to ski before they (i think) moved to the states. Sergio was hitting it hard, caught some MAJOR slack on ball 2 (or 4 I don't remember), but somehow managed to get back into a somewhat good position before he was slingshot to the next buoy, came in so fast he sort of "wooped" his ski around the buoy and swung around the handle as if he was a monkey swinging from a pole. I figure I was just lucke to be shooting in burst mode, the shot before this one, he is behind the boat. The shot after this one, he is a huge ball of spray. Lucky Beginner Photographer I guess. Needless to say the set stopped right there with a torn neck and some other bruises and scratches. I always smile when I look back at this pic :) (given he made it ok through it)

In deed I don't know if it's related, but an X7 and loose-TFactor (I never tighten the laces more than a very little pull) + RTP here and never had that kind of fall either. Now I don't compete in tournaments but still, I've burried the tip a few times, it somehow always seems to come back to skiing position. But i've never experienced hardshells either so this is all I can say ;) Good luck with your recovery, hope you heal soon. Romain

@ral glad your Quest waited for you and you have an excuse for another set! ;) I guess with time we'll eventually see everything. I once pulled my friend / long time coach (30 years + skiing), for a quick set before everyone showed up at his lake. Basically the guy is a machine. He says he's ready, I hit it, he wooobbles, stands up, wobble-shaky-wobblewobble crash. Come around him he says "Man I'm sleepy today, can't feel my ski!, sorry buddy!" Sure no problem. "Hit it!" Gets up, wobblewobblewobble shaky shaky shaky CRASH Same thing, he's all "I'm sorry man, I don't know what's wrong with me" Third try, same thing, guy was about to go into depression.... Turns out he had his big'ol wooden ski fin protector still on his ski.... I obviously couldn't see it as the back of his ski was deep in water when i came around, and he couldn't see it as it was underneath / behind him.... I don't think we will ever stop making fun of him for that.

Same here in Paris France, weather has been the worse I can remember. The worst thing is, I can identify 3 main reasons not to ski: Wind Rain Temperatures (skiing is a club activity here, so when it's cold, there are not enough skiers for it to be profitable so it does not operate at all) Well this season, (usually starts on May 1st) we have had either Wind, OR, Rain, OR really cold temperatures OR a combination of these 3, for the past 2 months. I've been longing and waiting and only got 2 real days of skiing, I mean real summer skiing, nice weather, boats out, girls in the boats, people rounding buoys etc... 2 other crappy crappy days, crazy ballers ballin' and absolutely no one on the shore, everybody freezing it's bottom off... And approximately 55 days of Meteorological nonsense... Exactly the same as @AB stated, wind going south, cold, wind going north, rain, wind going south again, cold again, wind messing with you, rain&cold, etc etc... really depressing, as I KNOW, that by september 30th it will be the end of the season, this will have been a 3 months season... :(....

Well I haven't tried that many skis, BUT i've skied in more than my share of choppy nasty / ugly conditions. I live in Paris, and the only ski spot really close to me is on the Seine river. Meaning, we have stream, and a 3miles long strip of water, surrounded by trees and buildings, so if ever a SLIGHT wind kicks in, it will immediatly mess with the stream (or current whatever you call it) and we'll get massive rollers etc... From my experience, "heavier" skis perform better than "very light skis" in heavy conditions. Kinda logic, more "momentum" (Inertia or whatever you call it), so they are harder to get moving, but once they are on a path, they'll be less affected by bumps etc. i've also noticed, as mentioned above by @ski4xtc that KD's and D3's tend to perform better here than Goode's and very light carbon skis. Again, this is only my experience and observation, on this very specific spot. I know i've been to a few private lakes on days the locals said were "completely wild and crazy windy and not skiable at all" only to find out it felt like glass to me ;)

I think this guy is and absolute MUST SEE for beginners ;) http://youtu.be/XbSl6kJhimc

Hey guys! Maybe I'm completely blind, but I aven't found any footage on this record!? Is there a video out there? Searched nate's youtube channel, and other sites, nothing... :(

Salut Eudes, Elle est top ta vidéo! Désolé j'avais pas pris le temps de commenter. belle réalisation, effets présents mais pas dans l'excès ni dans le kitsch, y'a du talent de vidéographe je crois d'ailleurs que c'est pas la première que je vois de toi? Je sais plus où, Fbook, Youtube, bref. Pour répondre à ta question, je sais pas où est le soleil mais il est pas non plus à Paris si ça te rassure, on stagne à 14°c et du vent, je passerai je pense skier un peu chez vous, ça doit être nettement moins pire que chez nous! ;) A bientôt peut être Romain

I unfortunately don't do a lot of driving as I ski in a club which has its own drivers / coaches... Hopefully I'll someday have my own boat and lake and course and friends who ski into 41off so I can come back and answer this poll differently ;)

Actually it depends, I've noticed at the beginning of the season, it's more of a full wetsuit thing as I haven't been in the water for a long time, and I can't stand that freezing feeling. Then the water warms up, and towards the end of the season, when it starts cooling down again, I'm able to ski down to 60 or even less without even a shorty, or probably just a top "to take the edge off", as i've been slowly getting used to these temperatures. Being in a club here, it usually stops operating before I reach my "no way" limit, so i couldn't tell what's my low-temp point. But beginning of the season will definitely have me in a loooong and thick wetsuit.

Anyone care to comment on Marcus' (Brown..) boat? :) http://instagram.com/p/WdEomlBDY5/ http://instagram.com/p/W5u2gbhDeW/ http://instagram.com/p/WxmvEyhDZ0/ Guess he is under 30 :) And also guess HIS boat would find some buyers if it ever ended on craiglist or ebay!

Ok, so far it seems that LFF are more of a "2 handed gate" type of people whereas RFF people are more even within 1-handed and 2-handed gates. Let's hope people keep answering so we can have better data!

Let's keep these Polls rolling! Now that we know about all of your habits, let's have a look at the correlation between the gates and the foot forward. Someone said on the other thread that RFF skiers might use one handed gate more often. In my opinion it would indeed make sense, but been neither a one handed gate guy, nor a RFF alien, I couldn't tell really ;) Soooo here we go.

Make that another RFF Jb Faisy http://waterskimag.com/files/2010/11/jb-faisy-connelly-prophecy-600x462.jpg

I run do trouble not run do not handed grammatical two 35 gates off setup my inconsistent is better technique slalom poll this weird understand is little very. Sorry, I actually meant, two handed, do not run 35 (started running 2@35 only this year), my setup is very inconsistent and this is a weird poll from a grammatical point of view! Had trouble understanding it, but hey, you had guessed it right? :)

@horton I sort of wish I had never left my combo skis in the first place!

@horton, Yeah sure that works too! :) As I said there might be tons of reasons, and what you stated was just the beginning of a sentence opening to other options, it wasn't a conclusion or anything like that ! Anyways, whatever the reason, the percentage of RFF rises as you come closer to skiing seriously and that's for sure. I guess now I know i'm doomed for this sport ;), might pick up curling again? Or wood chopping? Or Chess Boxing?

Actually @horton this is exactly what I was trying to say when comparing with tennis. If you look at handedness stats, roughly 85-90% of the population is right-handed and 10-15% is lefty. When you show up at a tennis tournament, you'll notice there are at least 20-30% lefties, and in final rounds sometimes 50%. There are TONS of theories out there to explain this phenomenon, brain hemisphere , Lefties are supposed to have overall better reflexes, and also right-handed people will mostly play vs right handed people (90% of the time) so the day the have to deal with a lefty, spins are the opposite, their forehand nails our backhand (which is statistically a weaker stroke) blablabla Anyways, there have been roughly 120 participants in this poll, so if I remember well (college is far away), the margin of error for a sample of 120 is something like 8-9%, so maybe instead of 58-42 it could be 50-50 (ooor 66-34), but given the independance of our sample (I don't know how you say this in english, but let's say this sample is not "distorted", we all come from different places, different ski schools, different ages, genders etc, so it should be representative) these figures should be about correct and seem to indicate that there are overall, more LFF guys out there. On the other hand as you and other people stated, since there are so many of you RFF guys out there in the tournaments and ski clubs commited to slalom, it clearly appears that RFF either have an edge in the course, or are people that statistically have better balance, or more of something or less of something else and who have better this or that (I'm not even trying to explain what the phenomenon is with you weird RFF aliens ;) ), and who will perform better on a ski, specially in a course! Any stats for trick-skiers? maybe these are different! Romain

@waternut , in deed and that thread had something like a 60% LFF vs 40%RFF if i remember well, let's see what arises from my poll, so far it's roughly 50/50. @horton, on the other topic (the one that was closed), you said most skiers were RFF, was that your own experience and observation or did you hold that info from somewhere? i'm asking because I also wonder if at some point in the competition, one side is dominantly represented. For instance, in Tennis (my other real hobby), lefties and right handed co-exist in the same proportion as in society. BUT once you start reaching high levels (say, top college players and above), I've noticed lefties are "over-represented", which can be explained by many facts I won't go into, but I was wondering if the same happened in slalom skiing. i don't know if my broken english allows me to make myself understood? ;)

@Ryno I don't mean to be a pain in the "bottom" :) but I don't necessarily agree with your "rear foot" statement. I've heard and witnessed Surfer talks about who was a front foot surfer and who was a back foot surfer, and if I had to compare to my (tiny tiny) experience in skateboard, wakeboard, snowboard etc, i'd say actually both feet control it. Even for us slalom skiers, I feel like it's not only the front foot, even though it is the leading one. It would also be interesting to compare with "which foot do you drop when riding a bike, a motorcycle etc" at a red light ;) As far as I'm concerned, the same foot (left) always gets the heavy loads and it's the only way i feel comfortable; Kicking a soccer ball: left foot stands and right foot kicks Jumping long distance or high (basketball): left foot is the last impulse Bike: left foot is the one I drop Slalom: LFF Any wake/board/surf related activity: Left foot forward and weight 50/50 There is actually nothing I can manage to do with my right foot haha I might just cut it off! :)

Thanks @waternut, I had seen this thread, and in deed by simply adding the totals you get LFF: 75 (59,5%) RFF: 51 (40,5%) Let's see if we get the same results in my poll! Cheers

Ok, so after messing it up the first time, here is the real poll, let's determine which %-age of us slaloom skiers are LFF and which %-age are RFF. In case anyone wants info on footedness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footedness But one thing I've learned from my previous post is that people in board sports in general and skiers don't think the same way ;)