Razorskier1

If only I lived in Orlando . . .

@Lieutenant Dan - I grew up open water skiing and my dad told me the goal was to see how close I could get my shoulder to the water. Obviously that isn't constructive in the slalom course - tons of load, not as much speed (inefficient). It is worth understanding that as a starting point, although not necessary. What I am doing it making a conscious effort to keep my head and shoulder height, or distance off the water, as close to constant as possible through all aspects of the course. So when I go out for my gate, I change the direction of the ski, but don't "load the line" and put my left shoulder down. Instead, I keep my head and shoulders high, and let the ski direction and the boat do the work. Similarly, when I turn in for the gate, I don't drop and load my right shoulder. I keep my head up and my shoulders level and change direction, again, letting the ski direction and the boat pull do the work of acceleration. By reducing my input against the line, I believe (and people who ski with me would agree) that I can be more efficient at generating speed, maintaining handle control, decelerating and turning. Everything is faster and better. Not to be too long-winded, but a couple anecdotes. One, @Chet told me the first time I skied with him. "Why are you trying so hard to make your ski go after the turn? You can't make your ski go, only the boat can make your ski go. Stay on top of your ski, and use the power of the boat." Simple, true, and still required a lot of work for me to break my old habit of turning, loading, and going. I am far quicker ball to ball doing it Chet's way than my old way. Second - watch video of the top skiers. While they may "load the line" at the maximum resistance point across the course, look at how far off the water their head and shoulders are, AND look at how little that height changes from lean, to glide, to pre-turn, to turn, to lean again. They are generating load -- the right load at the right place. But they are not "dropping the hammer" with their upper body/head and shoulders. So - what I mean is that the more I work at maintaining a more consistent and upright/off the water head and shoulder position, the easier my passes become.

I think we all need to write @twhisper a check! He's giving away secrets for free! Either that or go ski with him and get some direct coaching - that sounds fun too!

@Horton - I let the boat and the line build the load and stay up off the water as much as possible. As I approach the first wake/CL, I do what @twhisper is saying - I'm already rising up and reducing load. Took me a while (started focusing on this last fall), but if I just tell myself as I approach the wakes to start coming up, life is real darned good. I just keep the handle and let the boat pull me wide.

Great pics! @Roger -- love your color scheme! On lettering I have the silver MC lettering, so I had my dealer do silver bubble letters and put them on the red color rather than right up under the rub rail. Will try to take a picture. I think they look great, and they match the MC lettering pretty well.

injury accidents in our sport cover the spectum. What was odd about this is that I think of injuries occurring from being stupid - i.e., trying to get one more ball at our shortest lines. In order to avoid injury, I've learned to let go of the handle more when things look bad. This was an injury going from 4 to 5 in a perfectly easy, perfectly ordinary 28 off pass. Just goes to show you that weird shit can happen out there and it can cause serious injury. I was driving the boat when @6balls did this. Weird as hell.

@twhisper -- terrific thoughts! Too often we think of the "edge change" as an "event" between pulling and turning. It is a much longer process. I like to think that my "edge change" starts when I hook up to the handle and ends when I reach.

very cool!

it is absolutely crazy that the cutoff is 4.5 at 41. Holy crap! A guy has to get a piece of 5 ball at the last complete line length anyone has ever run just to qualify!

If only I had summer off!

Loading is a weird concept. Two points. First, load can only come from the boat, and changes in load will come from the difference between your direction and the path of the handle. So . . . The idea of loading 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1, which i have also heard from Chet, is a function of the handle path. For example, if I ski a constant direction across course, this load pattern will be the result of the boat moving away from me, and the path of the handle. I can create that load pattern by merely maintaining my direction. For Nate to generate that much load at CL suggests that he is (a) creating more angle than others, and (b) is strong enough to hold that angle through the peak of the load at CL.

Making it look easy (which Nate does) requires working hard. Like the comment above about angle but staying up off the water. I've focused on that hard for over a year. I think of it as moving my upper body forward to the handle at completion rather than away from the boat.

I need you all to give me all your money so I can buy this place.

@eddie_roberts_jr is the best!

I think we can agree Nate is incredible, and in his career incredibly consistent. More 41s than everyone else combined. That is not to degrade the skills of the rest of the field - these guys are all incredible. Can he be beat on any given Sunday? Sure. Is he the best skier out there in the men's field right now. Yes.

Nice @ToddL! I think you are right about the great pros. Before CL they are adding load to the line. After CL they are letting the boat pull them to width while keeping two hands on. Doing so allows the boat to pull them out to full width (aka the end of the line) in control, on top of the ski, and ready for the next turn.

@ScottScott - Marcus is right. But keep in mind that if the handle is being pulled away from your body after the second wake, it isn't that you aren't "controlling the handle", but instead that you have too much pressure pulling away from the handle path, causing separation. If your ski path is the handle path, it requires much less pressure than you think to maintain speed, keep the line tight, and get plenty wide. So if you find yourself separated, try just riding and letting the boat pull you along the handle path after CL.

Point is that two hands on (handle control) is critical, but can't be achieved unless you do other things right first. I believe poor handle control is most often poor load management. Superman can't keep the handle low and tight after CL if he's loading the line too much.

@Wish - given my particular physique I find I am doing almost nothing after center line other than riding the handle path.

You do need both hands as long as possible, you just can't do it with too much load. As Chet used to say to me, two hands on the handle, outside the buoyline, on top of your ski. What I am suggesting is that you can't do this if you are too fast or too loaded. My sets this morning I barely released the handle at all - I approached the ball with two hands on, moved the handle forward, released, turned, and was back in no time.

I skied a bunch of 32s today and played with the concept of handle control. My conclusion is that handle control is a result, not an action. For example, if you are loading the line after the centerline, the boat will separate you from your handle. However, if you load the line before centerline, then rise up and ride the line out (let the boat pull you, rather than you pulling on the boat), you will find it is quite easy to control the handle. This, of course, then leads to all sorts of other good things like staying on top of your ski, controlling your speed, eliminating slack line, etc. So, if you want to control your handle, control your load. My slalom idea of the day.

@Luzz - trying to catch you! Just a lot less hair on top!

Sorry about the double image - this site confuses me.

Not Will Asher quality yet, but getting there.

That was 41. He posted it elsewhere and said "if you run 41, you have to go to 43" or something like that. Nice to see him ripping again -- back in the mix!