bishop8950

Lakeside Ranch, NorCal

Great to see Joel back in action. Nick Adams looked smooth. Tgas deserved that last 39 in the H2H, so close. Fun final!

Thanks boys! Really good stuff. Hearing you carry on the dialog on ski tuning evolved my thinking. Cheers!

Nice @ColeGiacopuzzi Agreed. I often coach “if the start and one ball isn’t awesome, don’t worry about the rest of the pass”. And as I start to go up the rope every spring, it’s the gate that needs tuned up to run the next pass. Gate only. Where I see people getting stuck at 35 is not focusing enough on how we swing side to side. Generally in a hurry to finish too soon, which kills you after 32.

We have some excellent officials and drivers, we have some that try hard but need experience and I hope a rare few that deliberately allow the wrong things to happen. My concern is there are not enough qualified officials as it relates to boat path. Not related to this specific event, but in general. I have the end course video available live for anyone that wants to watch it when I am the Chief driver. Frequently I have a hard time finding some one qualified to monitor boat path, sometimes including the Chief Judge. They just don’t know a little movement from a lot. Certainly there are a lot of boat judges that would struggle to know if the driver is moving too much. It’s easy to say “common, it’s not that hard” as we sit behind key boards, but I know a lot of good people that just don’t know. So maybe the answer is training. Make boat path a bigger part of Judges clinics, not just drivers clinics for a start? Yes, we should have a means to follow up, downgrade, sanction etc. It will help for the larger community to k ow it won’t be tolerated. But that’s not enough. We need more people that know the difference on site that are willing to manage it live.

This is the Pond

@keithh2oskier ya, this will definitely impact the Pond. For those that don’t know, the outflow from Anderson feeds the downstream ski site known as “The Pond”. While there are a lot of details, engineering and politics that will determine exactly what happens, it’s hard for me to see how the Pond keeps water while they rebuild Anderson dam. And, I am no civil engineer but don’t see how that is less than a 5 year project. It will be sad for our club, but this project is really important to all in the area.

If I go anywhere to take a practice ride behind someone’s current model boat (or old boat) I pay a lot more then the gas I burned. it needs to cover depreciation. Why not do it in tournaments as well? I chose to use my personal/nonPromo boat in two tournaments last year. I was supporting the LOC and pulling a bunch of friends. But the reason was for the first time we could not get a promo boat on site. I expect more of this in the future if we don’t make a change. Many of us agree: If the boat companies don’t see any return on sponsoring a promo program, we should not expect the promo owners to subsidize, it’s not sustainable. I don’t know what other options we have than covering it as skiers.

I love all the stuff Marcus puts out, and was really pulled into this one. I have always been a fan of Wade and got into waterskiing when he and Andy were in the heat of battle. I started watching this piece and because it’s an hour I figured I would watch a few minutes to check it out, but I couldn’t put it down. Interesting perspectives, great history, catching up with a legend in raw form, great stuff. Thank you @MarcusBrown and Wade.

I use a swim cap. Hair stays dry and warm and it covers my forehead @rico when you drop, and right before you settle Down into the water, turn your ski a bit to one side or the other and the spray will not hit you in the neck or back of your head.

Fun thread. A few, not necessarily any worse than those above: Berkeley Aquatic Park - any step on that shoreline is taking life into your own hands Metcalf Pond San Jose - fall at the far end you have a long swim followed by overcoming a huge wall of cat tails before you can find the path back to the dock Camelot Indiana - as collegiate skiers we shoved flip flops in our life vests so we could walk back all the way around the lake.

Awesome! Ski West?

I love the sport as a skier, what it does for my mental and physical fitness and pure joy and entertainment. That is enough. But the best part is the people, atmosphere and culture. We are the lucky ones. Some people around me find this in other sports or activities, but for me it doesn’t compare. And it does happen on all budgets. Yesterday at our semi public local site, we had skiers roll up in a Ferrari 488 down to vehicles worth less than $10k, and everything in between. On the dock it doesn’t mater what you do or what you drove, we all love to ski.

It is of course a reaonable question, and many people are asking it, but it’s too soon. I will wait patiently for the family and the company to confirm the path forward. I for one expect the company to carry on, because everyone involved knows that is what Dave would want.

I will be selling a 2016 soon and will send you a direct message

I will miss seeing him at tournaments cheering on skiers of all levels, I will miss long conversations about ski design ideas, I will miss Dawn begging us to “stop talking about waterskiing”, but I still look forward to riding his skis. So I took a set today in 45 degree air and water. #skifordave

So sad. I will miss his friendship and will always appreciate everything he has done for me and our sport. He will be missed deeply. My thoughts are with Dawn and the family though this extremely difficult time.

Of course many things impact how you ski other places. Could be driving. Could be the boat. Could be the course dimensions. Could be depth or water temp. Could be the skiers head. Other than skiers head, I would think most typically its boat and driver differences. But rather than get bummed out, have fun figuring it out and overcoming it.

Van Hagar rocks! Well, at least 5150

Agree, no set up eliminates injury. It’s about likelihood and risk There are different types of skiers with different skier levels and fall tendencies. This will impact their injury statistics. There are different types of crashes where the skier may be fine in any set up or better off in a particular set up. I think we all need to figure out what is best for us. Jamie B told me he was convinced he would not hurt his ankles in Fogmans. He based this on how he skied and the type of falls he took. I trust his view in this to this day. But I broke my front ankle twice in Fogmans and am convinced I would have been better off in double rubber or reflex. I will never ski in a double hardshell single plate or fixed plate again. The most common fall I take is stuffing the tip in my off side turn which really loads up your ankles. If the heals can’t lift independently your chance of ankle injury is higher IMO. I have since taken this fall in Reflex and it released perfectly, my Fogmans would not have. This said in the tumble behind the boat falls the Fogmans release great and might be more safe than my Reflex/Runber set up but I have those falls once So rarely I have chosen a different set up.

Nice. Love the Bells Beer! Latest I ever skied in MI was early Nov and earliest must have been late March. Definitely never Jan!

I skied New Years Eve and New Years Day. 60 air and 49 water. Confident to say it looked much better than the pic above

San Jose CA, water 49 and air low 50s. Skied yesterday and it wasn’t bad at all.

@horton thanks for all your effort and moderation.

@RichardDoane please keep the pics coming. Also, I hope you take it for a ski at Broho when you get her done. Need pics of that as well!