Splasheye

Steady on Jody - read my post again.... "Personally I am strongly on the "benefit of the doubt" side of the fence. If it's a clear miss call it. Otherwise give it. If its so close you think you need multiple reviews or you can't see the buoy at all, give it." Don't need SplashEye to do that - if it makes your life easier (like those nice ski lockers in the side of the SN200) and you want to pay for it then great!

Okay I have a dog in this fight. SplashEye gives I believe the best technological way of dealing with the problem. Make the review automatic and easy. Personally I am strongly on the "benefit of the doubt" side of the fence. If it's a clear miss call it. Otherwise give it. If its so close you think you need multiple reviews or you can't see the buoy at all, give it. With that said I've spent an enormous amount of time in judges towers watching judges call gates over the last 10 years. In that time I can count the number of times gates were pulled after a review (as opposed to a blatant miss) on two hands. If I were to count the number of times the tower called zero gates (not even asking for a review) then watched the automatic review and changed their call to good it would be at least 5 times that. So don't throw ALL of the baby out with the bathwater.

Nothing in the rules suggests that the boat should go through the 55s at either end. The closest the rules go to covering this is in 14.15 "It shall be considered no effect {the deviation} if the deviation happened in a part of the pass where the skier was not in the process of attempting to round a buoy."

@AB The SplashEyeDrive product is just the software, the USB capture device and the set of targets. You use your own laptop. As you only have one set of targets and one usb capture device you can have the software installed on as many laptops as you want!

@John Brooks Yes it could be shared between a couple of sites. Ideally each site gets its end course camera setup well and then the laptop and software just moves between the sites

Thanks @Horton - but don't say I didn't warn you SplashEyeDrive is a tool to help drivers and skiers by automatically monitoring EVERY pass in a tournament or practice. AS @LeonL says asking a driver to submit a single pass each year does nothing. Reviewing end course video from a tournament after the event is brain-numbing, rarely done and very hard to implement any change from. SplashEyeDrive will give you objective statistics by Driver, by Boat, by Skier, by Competition. In realtime. Here's a video of it in operation Immediately after the pass the information is sent to the cloud where it is available to registered users. For an example logon to www.splasheye.com on your phone. Email: demo@splasheye.com Password: Demo You will see the events you are registered for. Click SplashEyeDrive Demo. You will see the passes recorded for the event by skier, speed and rope. Click the first one. You'll see the boat pass through the course (Green line centre. Red lines 20cm tolerances each side. Blue lines position of each buoy SplashEyeDrive works fully automatically when tied in with Gate Cameras. The system detects the boat going through the gates and triggers the end course monitoring and also records and replays the start gate. It is currently manual in standalone mode meaning an operator has to trigger it as the boat goes through the gates but we're working on that.

@OB In fairness to @horton I don't like to actively plug it here until I can afford to pay him some advertising fees! info@splasheye.com will get you information

@ShaneH working on AutoStart in SplashEyeDrive literally as we speak. Not easy but confident it can be done for next season

@jody_seal they don't "have to" they can Do your free pass before you pull a skier. Glance at your phone. Realize your consistently 4 inches right. Correct it. Move on. At the end of the day the driver gets impartial feedback they can use to improve their driving. What skier doesn't want a driver to do that?

Now fully automatic when used with SplashEye Gates Results straight to the drivers smartphone so ideal as a training tool New Website will be live for Nationals

I had the great privilege to spend many seasons driving beside the late Ray Stokes. Absolute legend. As others have said the key for me is listening to someone describe exactly the same technical point to ten different skiers in ten different ways - each way completely connecting with that skier Its a gift

Found this lying around - gives a realtime view of the playback data

For those interested the GPS unit was the SPI Pro X from GPS Sports http://gpsports.com/gpsnew/spiprox.php

A few years ago we put a lot of time and money into a high end version of shadowbox (cost about 5000 bucks for the GPS unit if memory serves me) Produced some amazing data but the limitations of time, limited market and the basic inaccuracy of GPS to map it accurately to the course meant we stopped before it got too far. Only did jump at the time but the same principles apply to slalom. For the nerds out there some links below to the graphs produced and also a 3D animation based directly on the data Data is: Map of skier path on a virtual course Speed Acceleration Rate of acceleration A made up 'Power Factor' based on angle, acceleration and location relative to the boat http://www.splasheyedrive.com/uploads/iEyeData.jpg Regards Donal info@splasheye.com

@jwroblew No need - The SplashEye Automatic EndCourse monitor will have a wireless digital readout for the driver telling them exactly where they were at each boy. Watch out for news in August....

What helped a lot of us was switching it around. Make practice more like tournaments. Dedicate a night or nights of skiing with your friends where you have to get a score off the dock. Continue your normal set afterwards but its that score that counts. Bragging rights to the winner. Amazing how it adds enough pressure that soon a tournament feels like just another set with your buddies.

Do it once, do it right. Get a decent CCTV camera - $79 http://www.cctvgadgets.com/Full_Body_COLOR_Cameras-Xavee_B540D_1_3_SONY_CCD_540TVL.html You need a big lens to get the required zoom - $79 http://www.cctvgadgets.com/1_3_VARIFOCAL_AUTO_IRIS-5_120mm_DC_Auto_Iris_CCTV_Lens.html Stick it in a good housing - $59 http://www.cctvgadgets.com/MOUNTS_AND_BRACKETS-New_Design_Housing_Side_Opening_Cover_with_Bracket.html And never touch it again! Not a salesrep for cctvgadgets but have used their gear and it does what it says on the tin

As a jumper I know about the two ways to bend your knees. Good way - knee bends in conjunction with ankle - Centre of mass moves forward or at least stays central - you are in a strong position to get lift Bad way - lower leg doesn't move - you just sit back - at best you crush at worse..... It is hard to get good knee and ankle bend but just because its hard doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

But if you do all four (keep your hips up after you bend your knees) all is good!!

Is it just me or is all this just a rewriting of what I was taught 20 years ago when I started skiing. Arms Straight Shoulders Back Knees Bent Hips Up The skill of a good coach is saying these simple things in a different way to each skier to make them get it