ctsmith

@Horton, okay, I'll agree with you, I'm not short and fat :)

The boat may resemble me, short and fat.

Seal and Hunter got me in this mess, way too late in life. Wish I'd have hooked up with them 20 years ago. Jennifer and Sean are awesome, but that Chad dude is kinda weird.

The yellow makes for a good looking boat, no doubt. mwetskier, the cabin is on pilings and on an island. Its a large private lake (not a "ski" lake).

My girls call it the Bumblebee. Thats too sissy. I call it the Yellow Jacket!

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I can hear dueling banjos in the background.......

The only blemish on the boat is a skid mark on the gunwale, where the freaky looking dude is sitting.......

2004 Correct Craft Ski Nautique 196 LOW HOURS - approximately 300 Excellent condition $23900 Will add ZO for $4000 http://www.ski-it-again.com/php/skiitagain.php?topic=Search&category=Comp_Boat&postid=24423

Waternut, you might be surprised. The benefit is from continuous use of your hands, with weights, above your heart (not walking). Dr Schwartz set on a quest to find the most in shape athlete from a cardio standpoint (he knew how to test) and then to design exercises to mimic. He found that the most cardio in shape athletes were cross country snow skiers and the reason being the continuous use of their hands above the heart. Interesting stuff. You'd be surprised at the number of long distance runners, swimmers, and bikers that swear by it. If you like to read, pick up Dr. Schwartz's book. Try this, it will only take a few minutes. Walk on a treadmill at a brisk pace for several minutes with a HRM. Settle in on a heart rate. Then pick up light hand weights and start doing shoulder presses as you walk. Watch what happens to your heart rate.

I know that the guys who work out a lot will get a good laugh out of this but heavy hands walking works amazingly well for stamina and cardio. My routine consists of 32 minutes per day, five days per week on a treadmill at 60 - 75% of MHR doing various exercises with hand weights (have built up to 5 lb weights now). I am still heavy for my height (5'8" 185 lbs) but it has allowed me to get in many more passes even at the slower speeds that I ski. At 40 years old, I am in as good cardio condition as I have ever been, and there was a day that I was at 150 lbs and could crank 50+ pull ups consecutively (the good ole college days). If interested shoot me a PM and I'll let you know more about my routine. Its all I do, nothing else. I went from 205 in March to 185 now with heavy hands and a proper diet (tried Insanity and all that crap but it does me more harm than good). Plan to drop to 165. What I most like about heavy hands walking is its effectiveness, convenience, and the fact that it doesn't drain you, I can ski immediately after I'm done. I don't dread it. It is something that I can maintain for the rest of my life. Heck, I get out of bed and go straight to the treadmill, and I've gone for 15 minutes before I even wake up:)

Wish, did you ever do a comparison between the CoX SL and the S2? Researching it the other day I saw a post where you mentioned it but I never found the actual comparison.

When you have your own private lake, great people like me show up.

From a 15 off 30 mph skier, its a process. We can't go out there and get in the stacked position as in the picture of Terry. My front leg always wants to go straight. The more I focus on it (front leg), the straighter it goes (can't explain it, but its the case). The more I focus on not bending my back leg so much (straight), the less I straighten my front leg and the better position I am in. The objective is not a straight back leg and though I feel as if I am straightening it, video reveals it is nowhere close to straight. It is however creating a more balanced stance. I've only been focusing on this for a couple of weeks now, but it has helped tremendously.

I am tight everywhere, was born that way, especially the hips. I know that I need to dedicate time to stretching. Point well taken. Did some hip stretches late Friday night and I'm already feeling a little soreness Saturday morning. I will continue and it won't surprise me at all if helps on the water. I doubt if you'll find many people more inflexible as me. Can't hurt, thats for sure.

Joe, I realized on my first two passes my shoulders were closed. On the third pass I told my youngest daughter to wave at me until I was outside the whitewater. If you listen you can here her saying "that was a good one", meaning I was watching her wave. Too cool. Check out the 1:21 mark approaching the whitewater on the pull to 5. I am still looking straight down course, and it made a difference. Notice how late I was out of 4. I knew I had to get a good pull and I focused on the boat. It worked. Why can't I do that on every pull? Time on the water....

If its cloudy I'll be there. If the sun is shining (doubtful), we'll have family time at the big lake. Either way is a win/win!

You better go with a 4x6 and high speed duct tape. I'll snap the 2x4 like a twig.LOL

@gregy said: True that! When I'm fortunate enough to ski with Albritton he ask forgiveness for sounding like a broken record but he pounds me with stacked position after each pass.

Crap! I kept telling myself there is no way to slice through the wake at the slower speeds. Wrong!

I am so confused :)

Thanks for your advice Todd. I'll soak it in over the next couple of days and hopefully be able to try it on the water before the end of the weekend. Intentions were to get in a lot of skiing over the extended weekend but the monsoon is preventing it. We've had 5" of rain in 24 hour period and no signs of slowing down in the next two days. I'm not complaining. The lake I ski on was lowered 8' last summer for maintenance and we've only had enough rain since then to raise it 2' (down 6' now). Its a natural watershed and usually comes up twice the amount of rain so I'm hoping we'll gain 2' this weekend. I am feeling a rhythm for the first time and not feeling rushed. It seems like the effect is exponential because now I am able (have time) to focus on whatever it is I'm working on the entire pass. When rhythm is not there and everything is rushed it is hard to focus. Focus and scramble mode go together like fire and rain. I am hoping its about to start clicking now. Would love to see 34 mph by the end of the year, but I've got to get more sets in for that to happen.

Here's a few passes on 7/2/13. Better, worse, the same? https://vimeo.com/69669252

I figured out the crux of my problem. I've only skied two sets in 10 days. Aint going to improve much at that rate. I was able to get a set in Tuesday afternoon before the July 4th monsoon moved in down south (100% chance of rain Wed/Thur/Fri with a few inches already having hit the ground before lunch on Wed). The good news is that I felt much improvement. I skied till dark and have had a busy day at work so I haven't been able to check the video to see if the improvement was perceived or real.

I went through a stage of slack in the line. My problem was what Todd said, skiing down course after the second wake, i.e. not on edge, no angle, getting ahead of the boat.