bishop8950

I believe @Horton wrote a sandbagger rule so that he can adjust anyone’s score anytime. But the more scotch you feed him, the less likely he is to do it.

@rico post the ProAm digger, that was huge

Everyone skis 2x on Saturday to qualify for 1 of 2 Finals on Sunday. Final 1 is a 16 person knock out bracket where speed is irrelevant and we compete on rope length and buoy count. This year looks fun and competitive, as always. Seeding for the 16 person Bracket: - Skiers with the 8 highest scores from prelims will take seeds 1 through 8 - Skiers with the highest combined scores from rounds 1 and 2 (but not one of the 8 highest scores) will take seeds 9 through 16 Final 2 is for the rest of the skiers that are not in Final 1. They will all ski one more round and whoever skis the highest over their average wins. More important than all the skiing, is all the social fun stuff before, during and after the event. I am looking forward to it!

Scott, first off, very cool he is skiing that well at 11. Your 11yr old would kick my 11yr olds butt. I wish they could ski together. Second, I am envious of that lake! I remember you taking about building it when we were in college. Let’s stay with super fundamentals. I like what Bruce said about getting over his front foot and avoid the trap of leaning back. Invest in this now. I also think it’s time to get him really connected to the boat. Elbows down to the vest rather than separated. I coach it as getting your abs and elbows connected so you feel the boat pulling from much lower than your shoulders. Get into this position right after you get up and keep it all the time. Build the habit at all times on the water. This will make it much easier to get his ski moving out through the edge change. Enjoy this time with Andrew!

@toddL Big Dawgs ride Goodes because they are the best ski for them, not because its a target market. Does the fact that Goode dominate the Big Dawg (I think 25/30 at the finals) help Dave? For sure. What is the largest market for high end skis? Guys over 35yrs old who go up the rope. My point is intentional marketing and skier choice are unrelated. These guys test skis, across different brands, and want the one that will get them the most buoys period.

@ToddL No. There are very few "sponsored" Goode skis out there. Just about everyone at a Big Dawg chose their ski and paid for it. And, if any of those guys thought they could run one more buoy on a different ski, they would in a split second.

I ran the course first time at 21yrs old. Ran 38 @34mph first time in a tournament at 35yrs old. Ran 38@36mph in a tournament at 38yrs old Greg Badal is the craziest example I know of, starting late to 41. I dont have the age/performances down exactly, but he started skiing the course in his 30s, and ran 39 within ~5-7yrs.

You see Goode skis on top of so many podiums because they ski very well. I don’t think any amount of marketing would convince people to pay top dollar for a Goode if they did not believe it was the best choice for them. They work. Regardless of your skiing level you need to try before you buy. Only you can tell if a ski feels good to you and your skiing style. So if you have a buddy with the right size ski and who will let you try it, take it for a ride. Or, engage the manufacturers that have demo programs and try skis that way. While this forum and feedback from others will be helpful, it will never be enough to select a ski online. So take as many as you can for a ride and enjoy!

Given (according to @rico ) the next morning you took 6 trips to the bathroom either A you have a problem or B you were scared shitless to ski against me in the H2H. Or C both

I have grown to appreciate boats with strong pulls. I also do get to ski the new Nautique boat quite a bit, and like it. When the puck was wrong it was terrible. With that fixed And at this point I would say I prefer it. That said, I feel like I can PB behind any of the current tournament boats.

I have them on my ski and get work perfectly

Jeff is the first skier ever to win the BD Final three times. He is a machine and great guy. I could be mistaken but I think he ran 39 every round, so 6 times...if you count the last one. Congrats again Jeff!

@Than_Bogan I would not dare to challenge your nerd skills when it comes to this sort of thing. But the way I was looking at this: ESP: 75 rounds, with 5 over 72 FRA: 234 rounds, with 15 over 72 USA: 775 rounds, with 13 over 72 So per round, this says these skiers are ~4x more likely to ski 72 or higher in Spain or France than in the USA (without taking into account boats, drivers, sites, events, etc).

Interesting. What if you normalize the number of scores to a fixed number of events? In other worlds the gray bar is the same for all countries and the score bars adjust proportionately.

Looking forward to this already. It’s been so much fun every year.

I think the crew on the practice lake at Okee did a great job. Even with the weather challenges and high demand, they pulled a ton of rides.

Thanks for sharing and glad no one got hurt. That’s scary for sure. If you do any boat safety training that is the number one rule. Turn the motor off when you get out of the seat. If you violate this rule in training it results in an instant fail. I now do this all the time, every time. Any thing else seems wrong. I coach quite a bit and even when driving. Ever time I get up to talk to the skier I shut the boat off. Felt like overkill at first but now it’s normal.

If @Horton pulled @ColeGiacopuzzi into 41, he would have run it behind a good driver :-)

As said above, Experienced skiers know you have to be there early to make sure you don’t miss your ride. Several things impact the schedule perhaps none more than the weather. For example, If you have really strong winds things will speed up a lot. How can the host site predict this accurately? The shame in this case and others is when someone affiliated with the event provides an estimated time and the skier doesn’t understand that this can change, and is then taken at full value. Party line should be “we don’t know when you will ski, here is the running order, monitor it one way or another to know when you are up”. Perhaps Online scoring, a buddy on site, yourself on site, etc. Same stuff happens on award presentation and people miss that too. For awards, I would think the host site can say either “awards immediately filling the conclusion of the event” or “at some posted time”. If it’s a staffing issue, perhaps the boat judge can give the awards immediately following the event. Why not, they just worked the whole event. If the boat judge can’t, maybe the tower judges. Let scoring confirm placement hand hand out the hardware.

Overall, the feedback on the expanded format is positive. We kinda created a monster, but I would say it was a success. Since I qualified 18 it helped me out! Furthermore the round of 24 matchups were competitive and fun to watch. I am glad we did it Greg and team put on killer events. CA is a long way for a lot of you but if you get a chance check it out.

@Horton did you get to bring it home?

@Horton when does yours arrive? I can’t wait to ski it. I have always felt the ProStar would be better (already great) with a bit more power.

What @ScottScott said. I keep track of both. I only really value the practice PB if it’s a tournament format set. When someone asks me “what is your PB?” I always think/say my tournament PB.

Look great. Love the idea of better than instant trees! I want to ski there my next trip back home to MI!

I think there was a pole on this in the past. 15min to “The Pond” and 75min to the Private Lake