colo_skier

See this thread http://www.ballofspray.com/vanilla2/index.php?p=/discussion/2333/binding-position-question#Item_16

Double Strada's and have never been able to get the front boot off without the insert coming out attached to my foot. Been using them for 2 years now. The rear maybe 50% of the time the insert may stay. I do have the rear less sinched down though so maybe they don't get as attached to my foot quite as well in the set. Quite a few OTF's and both inserts are on my feet each time I was really glad they came out.

Number 1 rule. When its your turn to go, you go! It's not your turn to get ready!!! This one really needs to be strickly enforced. Everybody will get the hang of it if it's mandated from the start and equal for everyone. Let it start to slip and thats when the good times start to turn bad. If there is a rotation going then make sure theres a way for everyone to know when its there turn(Sign up board etc...). Also might be a good idea to find out what each and every member of the lake expects to really get out of being at the lake. You may be surprised as to how odd some people expectations of sking paradise is. Also try and laugh at he odd things that will happen it's better than getting upset and a whole lot better for you.

One of the more interesting pieces of information that a HR monitor gives me is the time to recover from max HR to an acceptable rate. I find this comes in really useful when mountain biking here in Colorado. I use it to try to guage the amount of effort I can exert on a hard climb so that I can adequately recover prior to the next climb. It helps to know the trails pretty well also. Its also nice to get feedback when your improving.

Something I have noticed is that if I try to really open my hips to the boat I then get the comment from the boat to stand up, stop squatting and get off the back of the ski. I also seem to be narrow. I seem to be in a lot better position if I really work on the hip up to the handle and shoulders open to the boat and just forget about really trying to rotating my hips Being one of the "I want to run six at 15 off at 34"  guys I like to understand the basics that I need to get right. Hips more facing the direction I want to go seems to make sense.

That was pretty scary, and I dont even know how to read Russian!!!

I thought the iron bru would give me away. I have spent time in Scotland and also know a bunch of blokes in the Glassgow area. Also I am a transplant from South of Hardrian's wall many decades ago. I have been in the USA for so long I don't use word's like bloke any more. It was the power lines in the background and the greeness of the surrounding area that made me think it was on the East side of the pond. What is the length of the ski season were you are at?

I also wonder about how many times a particular person has been through the course in their skiing career bears on the technique. I unfortunately have only been skiing a course for about 3 seasons seriously. I won't admit it but I am probably to old to come up with any great athletic talent to overcome my lack of time on the water. Hence I watch people ski and try to figure out what they do that seems to work for me versus things that don't. There has to be a point at which a wealth of experience can enable somebody to overcome things that would stop we begineers in our tracks. There is also the god given talent factor in there but there's not much I can do about that. I was really suprised to hear Will Asher in one of his interviews say that he only did about 3 sets a day for training. With this in mind I was wondering about how many passes he had actually run since starting skiing. I seem to remember from talking to him at the Denver boat show a couple of times that he has been skiing most of his life. Might be interesting to get some idea of how many passes people estimate they have skied to get to the level they are at. BTW Horton that spray looks like there's a 43 in there somewhere!!! Love the picture.

Down in Pueblo at Lake Colorado (Tommy Phillips lake).

I think that is a mud racer rather than a boat. Still amazing to see how fast things go bad when speed is involved!!!

One major thing I have seen from video's of myself is that what I am doing, doesn't always seem to match what I think I am doing. This for me is great feedback. As nearly everyone else who ski's a course is better at it than me, watching other people ski lets me know what I should be doing and were I should be doing it. I do agree with Drago that feeling what needs to be done and getting it right is great. It is really nice to have that pass on video so you can see why it felt great and compare it to the passes that didn't work. BTW I really like the comments above from everyone of what to look at when watching the pro's ski. Some things seem to apply to what I do and somethings seem to be odd. For instance April is a great skier and really knows how to get through the course and make it look so easy. This being said if I were to have my stance on the ski be as far back as she appears to be on her glide after the pull out I would be messed up for the rest of the course. I therefore put that particular trait down to what works for her may not apply to how I have to do things. As always it is great to watch any of the Pro's becuase they make it look so darn easy!!!!!! Seems most sports are that way though. Â

Marco, Just followed this thread and saw your here in Colo. I am over in Colo Springs and am impressed with your lake. Hope the surgury heals well and you have a great ski season next year. We too have,  last Saturday called it quits till April of next year now. Hurry up summer!!!

I thought I saw the source of iron_bru in the vid's.Â

Cam, Were are you sking at in the videos?

Thanks 6 Ball, I was not really looking forward to OTF's trying to get line load after the turn on the hand that stay's with the handle in the turn. I think I see that you are trying to get CAM to get more up on the front of the ski as he approaches the wake. Also Horton suggested closing his hips a little and standing up going to 2/4. Is the intent here also to get more forward foot pressure on the ski from his offside turn? As this is out of his offside turn does closing the hips help keep the tip down? Just wondering as I find myself trying to get my hips as open as I possibly can when coming out of any turn and back up to the handle. Is there a point on the offside turn were to open puts you on the back of the ski just because of the dynamics coming out of the offside turn? I think I can see how this may be a possibility. Sorry for hijacking this thread CAM, your skiing looks good to me with a lot of patience going out to the bouys. I wish I could get my sking to look that controlled.

Another duffer here. I have been told that going throughthe gates that I should concentrate on left hand handle load and front foot pressure. (Left foot forward for me) to get me more outbound for the 1 ball. From there on after the turn I have been working on coming back to the handle and not loading the line until the second hand is on the handle. I am also trying to be open to the boat and thus taking more tension on the right hand when going to 2, 4 and 6 and more tension on the left hand when going to 3 and 5. This appears to be counter to what is being advised above. Am I also wrong/confused?

OK, finally got a chance to get a few sets in with the bindings back at stock. The ski is a lot more predictable and my body position is more balanced. The ski feels like it goes across course quicker. Final set of the sason was Nov 6th and felt pretty good. Gives me some hope that next season I can start from a more correct sking stance on this ski. Hurry up Spring!!! Thank-you for all the replies and everyone have a happy off-season.

Just got back to the site. I will email my cousin and se what he knows about them.

I hope to get out and ski this weekend but I noticed that Than in another thread made an interesting comment: "I would be cautious about moving the bindings forward. I do not find that this move actually gets the skier closer to the right stance -- in fact often the opposite. The bindings far forward makes it feel very comfortable to rock back and put all the weight on the rear foot -- exactly what you DON'T want to do. And feels like you'll sink the tip if you pressure the front foot, which is exactly what you DO want to do."  From how my skiing seems to have gone backwards I tend to agree with this.

It looks like this is a UK only product from the web site. I have a cousin that surfs in England near were some of the shops are located. If you want I can ask what his opinion is of them for surfing. The Atlantic and the English channel get pretty cold to. Let me know.

Thanks for all the replies. I am going to set it back to the original neutral binding position and work on my form. I have set up the fin to the recomendations on the HO site with the slight changes given on the   jagersport.com/FM_FinChart. Hopefully all of the comments will help anybody else who may be in the same situation as I am. I will update as applicable. Thanks again for the info and great site!!!

In my instance I have changed from a Monza to an A1. I did 4 sets with a lot of the new ski on the tail syndrone and 32mph versus 34mph. In these I had only a few good turns and some "wow" what a great angle off the on side bouy turns. I think these were due to me correctly letting the ski come all the way around and sking back to the handle. The offside turns were controllable but not crisp. I did notice that at the stock settings, that when I was in what I considered to be the correct position the ski seemed to feel as though it was behind me as I turned into the gates and behind me in the turns. To counter this I appear to have gone onto the back of the ski. To counter the fact that the ski just doesn't turn when on the tail I have gradually moved the bindings as far forward until they are as far forward as they they will go. This of course has made the ski feel slow across course and hard to hold angle. The worry I have here is that I really seem to be going backwards in terms of sking the course and seem to have made a dog out of the ski. The first couple of times with the ski at stock settings I was really impressed with the on side angle and the stability across course. Now it just feels like a really slow Monza.  I am of course ready to admit that 99% of the problem is me and not the ski. I was just trying to see what anybody's advice was about moving bindings. From the posts so far I think I need to move the boots back to the stock position and get back into proper form and work from there rather than moving bindings to compensate for my poor position on the ski. Sorry for the long post but there isn't alot of ski time left here in Colorado and I would like to get a handle on this before stopping for the season. Â

Just wondering what peoples opinion is about moving the bindings more towards the front of the ski than the suggested numbers? It seems to be a solution suggested for some of us just trying 15 off at 34 and having issues staying on the front of the ski on the off side turn. Is this what we should be doing or would working the fin be more benefical to getting us to be in the right position on the ski? Thanks for any opinions. I did a search and didn't find anything quite addressing this particular issue.