BCM

My skis have been exposed to some intense heat (i.e. Bako, FL, Imperial Valley, etc...) never any issues (always in a case, I mean ALWAYS). I tend to keep my skis a long time, I have had my current ski about 5 years, 5 years on my previous ski, no heat issues. But, I did once leave a pair of flip-flops stacked on top of each other behind the drivers seat of a ski boat on a house boat trip (tops together, soles out). Ambient temp hit about 110*f that week, the flip flop on top shrunk about 1/4 inch in width/length, the entire way around, except the sole, the sole became hard. My ski was behind the sandals, no problems with my ski. But the sun wrecked those sandals...

I have been using the suck scale for going on a decade. But the scale we use is a 0 to 1 scale. 0=you skied well, 1= you sucked, no fractions or decimals (this isn't figure skating, this is sucking). Comments from the boat may include "its getting hard to breath up here" (which is in reference to you sucking as bad as the "Mega Maid" during operation "VacuSuck" in Space Balls).

When I lived around there I always saw it spelled Fres-YES... The site in Lemoore is a good one. There area a few other sites around the area. Luckily with all the farm fields they are easy to find on Google Earth, then a little internet searching can find you a contact. Good luck.

@MattP‌ - I agree with @eleeski‌, go to Bako... You'll pass your final and do fine. You can always re-take the final... Trust me, I did those sorts of things during my undergrad and 6 years later I am preparing the final draft of my PhD dissertation... I learned many valuable lessons in Bako when I should have been studying...

I would greatly appreciate any help you may be able to provide. I just landed a great job in SW WA (Longview/Vancouver area) and will be moving from SW VA to SW WA in early July (leaving VA around the 4th). My brother and I will be driving my pickup, pulling a trailer for the move. In order to persuade my brother to fly cross country, then drive cross country then fly 1000 miles home I have mentioned to him that I will try to arrange some ski rides along the way. We are both M2 -28/32 skiers, he is a firefighter and I am finishing a PhD in forestry. If you may be able to assist us with ski rides or a place to set up a tent/unroll a sleeping bag I would greatly appreciate it. We are more than willing to pay for ski rides/lodging with beer, gas, cash, manual labor etc... Below is our basic route: Going East to West... VA/TN - it looks like we will be meeting in AR...but that may change AR - I have covered OK - OKC/Tulsa areas KS - We will be traveling I55 to I70 toward Denver CO - Denver/Steamboat/Grand Junction (we will l likely stay with friends in Steamboat then head to UT) UT - SLC/Provo/Ogden ID - Boise/Caldwell (I will likely stay with friends in the Nampa area) OR - I-84 from Ontario to Portland (I may swing toward Bend) WA - I think I have covered... I will be ending the journey in the Vancouver/Longview area... I am also looking for a short term (3ish month) rental in the greater Vancouver/Longview/Clark County, WA area (basically between Vancouver and Winlock) while we look for a house. Nothing special, apartment, in-law quarters, etc. would be great, please PM me if you may be able to help out... I am planning on making my way out to some of the tournaments in SW WA come July and August. If you think you could lend a hand we can exchange emails via PM and go from there. Thank you!! Brian

@Craig‌ - I always had a similar thought. Even a pair of $500 digital calipers has an accuracy rating of +/- 0.001 (in science we call this measurement error)(see link below). At this point is that "feeling" of 0.001 (or 0.002 if you consider the entire range of the possible error in the equipment) a placebo effect? Similar to what @ral described with the bent fin. It would be pretty easy to test the placebo effect. Take a set, then have your buddy randomly adjust (within reason) or not adjust your fin without telling you what they did, take a few passes and try to describe the difference. If you make the changes, your head is now involved in the change... If you are using calipers with a level of accuracy greater than 0.001, could you provide info on them? Most of what I have found is in the +/-0.001 range. http://www.grainger.com/product/MITUTOYO-Absolute-Digital-Caliper-6NRA0?functionCode=P2IDP2PCP

@jjackkrash‌ - I include lots of cardio because I have had favorable results when I balance strength training with endurance training. I don't think it is for everyone. Besides skiing I am an avid mountain biker and snow skier and I enjoy trail running. I get lots of cardio because I enjoy it, not because I am suffering through it. I have found that I have better 5th and 6th passes when I have been doing more endurance training. But that's me, others will have different results... I also really don't like gyms, I workout 1hr 3days/wk with a basic weight set in my basement (awesome investment, maybe $150 on CL...). I would rather be out on the trail with friends on my bike than in a gym with a bunch of sweaty old dudes...

@ToddL‌ and @XR6Hurricane‌ - it is possible to be weighting the front foot while "leaning" back, take a look at DH snow skiers, their CG is often behind their boots, but they are driving the front of their skis. I am not saying that is the best way to ski, but it is possible. Clarification - I didn't really intend to comment, interesting topic, but I don't have much to add, but I knocked something onto my keyboard while reaching for my coffee cup and it apparently pressed enter, leaving a comment. All I can do is edit it, is there a delete button? No coffee was lost during this accident...

I like the method by @chris_logan‌ a good ratchet strap has a pretty high working load (3000lb +), much higher than a roof rack, and your gear is protected. And you can buy them for $10-$15 a piece... @BraceMaker‌ - it was a few years ago, I can't remember if their rack opened up or ripped off the roof, but I have seen a few racks removed from the roof of a car when the car was driven into a garage with a bike on the rack... Total a $5k+ road bike, total your rack and a few thousand in damage to the car... I have witnessed snow skis falling to the road from an improperly latched rack, mountain bikes falling off the roofs of cars and bikes being driven into the garage. Long story short, for me it goes in a box on the roof, inside the car or in the bed of my pickup.

A friend of mine had their jumpers in their snow ski racks when the wind caught them on the interstate, it ripped the rack off the roof and the jumper was broken in half by a tractor trailer behind them, luckily the ski didn't go into anyone's car window and/or cause a crash. After seeing the tire tracks on their broken jumper, wrecked rack and dented roof, I would recommend NOT putting jumpers in a roof rack. Unless you remove your bindings there likely won't be enough room to run them upside down and those tips are going to build a lot of pressure at 70mph+. I can fit my 86" jumpers in a Honda Accord along with my slalom ski... the skis are on the drivers arm rest, but its much safer and cheaper than the roof rack. Tips in the trunk of the accord, its been a while, but I even got them in, inside my 3-event bag... I just hauled some 8 foot trim back from the lumber yard in the accord, not a problem...

@hogexpress‌ I have used some smaller tractors and they work great. Just make sure you have enough front end weight, I have had the front wheels pop up higher than I liked.

RedBull has done great things for exposure in the Mountain Bike world. Most notably for the average Joe with the RedBull Signature Series on NBC, but also with very good webcasts from large events including the World Cup and World Championships redbull.com/us/en/bike/stories/1331608896874/mtb-world-championships-live-streams-2013 (Keep in mind that the announcers are common personalities in the sport and were used for webcasts prior to RedBull coming along). I'm all for it.

@jimbrake - The first line tells it all, "have one or two kids that actually ski outside the collegiate scene". Personally, I believe that this would be a great starting point if we wanted to grow the sport, not the end, but a start. They already understand ski sites, slalom courses, scoring, etc. In my mind in terms of growing the sport, collegiate skiers are low hanging fruit. @MattP - I think the money issues is part of the non-AWSA skiing during college, but within a year or two after that changes drastically. Within about 3 years of graduation I had a couple friends who had dropped $15k on boats and others who had joined private sites, but none of them were interested in tournaments, which leads to your number 2, AWSA tournaments are not fun. I am old enough to not want a wild collegiate tournament experience anymore, but the comradery would be nice. Things like announcers would help. My wife enjoyed attending collegiate tournaments as a non-skier, but I drug her to one AWSA tournament and she told me that I can go to the rest alone. I have often wondered if some sort of team setup (similar to collegiate) but based upon your home ski site, county, etc would help get people more interested in the other skiers. Awhile back some friends were discussing hosting a collegiate alumni tournament, you choose the school you went to, root for, etc. and you compete on a team for that school with team rankings worked out the same way as collegiate. I think it would add the fun factor back into. The Bakersfield crowd was doing a great job with the "Ski League" (I can't remember the exact name, its been a few years) with a "never run" style tournament. It was a great tournament with a very fun and festive atmosphere. In short, I graduated 5 years ago, I am still in a graduate program. I don't think cost is as big of an issue as people think for recent graduates. I am on a tight fellowship and could swing it if there were ski sites closer to where I am (3hrs to nearest site... I made a career sacrifice). From my experience many can swing it financially, but choose not to. I would like to know why. We can make all kinds of excuses for them and why their generation, financial status or desire not to do anything hard keeps them from skiing. Or, we could find out from them. My concern is that the reasons that they don't stick around have as much to do with the structure of the current tournament scene and thus "us" as it does them. I could go on about this one for days as I have spent many long days in the boat discussing this issues with 70+ yo skiers and college freshman all over the country...

I have often wondered why we don't ask more questions about where all the collegiate skiers go. If we assume 100 skiers per region per year (based upon what I saw a few years ago in the WR) that would give us roughly 100 new college grads each year. Of the folks I skied with I can think of about 30 who ski a few times a year now and only a handful who ski tournaments today. I have lost track of many more... I think that before we begin to hypothesis about why we are not attracting new skiers we should look into why we are loosing skiers who were hooked for 4 years and then left. Some of it is cost, some of it is geographic, but many remain in areas with lots of skiers but stop skiing. Many of them have the skill and resources, but choose not to. If we truly want to understand why we can't build our numbers, I think this is a good group to investigate. By investigate I mean ask them, not sit in our rocking chairs waving our fists yelling "damn kids". I heard a rumor awhile back that USAWS or mabye NCWSA (I can't remember who was actually behind the idea, it was a year or so ago that I heard it...) was going to try to survey alumni about their skiing post graduation. Schools have alumni lists, to me it sounds like a logical starting point if we want to solve the problem...

@Horton - Daily/weekly was an exaggeration. I have had a few skis that were VERY sensitive to fin settings and things like changes in water temp required a fin change to keep the feel of the ski, while other skis have felt more consistent through these changes in temp, lake, etc without a fin change. I like the skis that are less sensitive to fin settings.

I like flat black, flat black graphics (maybe similar idea as the old A1), no fuss, just black...maybe a Johnny Cash edition??? OR legitimate wood veneer like @Brewski did - that thing looks amazing... I would rock a birdseyed maple veneer on a ski, maybe jumpers with a redwood veneer... In terms of fin settings, I like to set it and forget it... I would love a ski that performed well without the need to mess with the fin on a daily/weekly basis. Maybe the range that @SkiJay has mentioned would allow me to select a known setting (besides baseline suggestions) and go, rather than starting at baseline and spending a few weeks getting to the numbers everyone else is running.

Open/public water I will trick with a pull over vest for a little added safety and to keep the local law enforcement happy. Also, the water depth of the public lake I frequent ranges from 75 to 350ft... If you go under, you won't be found for a long time. Private lake I will usually trick without a vest, I will wear a rash guard or wetsuit top if it isn't super hot. I can complete my entire trick run with a vest on, however I miss handle passes more often. I could probably adapt as the difference isn't that big...

@gsm_peter It comes out to about 15hrs a week, but there is no driving to/from a gym. A 60 minute weight workout takes me about 62 minutes when you include walking from the kitchen to the basement and then back to the kitchen. 50 miles of running is about 7hrs and 100 miles on the bike is about 5 hrs. I do get at least 1/3 of the cycling in during my commute. I'm a 28yo PhD candidate with a wife who works a lot, we have no kids and the family lives 3000 miles away. I basically wake up, workout, go do my science thing, go to bed. Many of my weekend social activities involve cycling or running as well. @oldjeep - the home gym is pretty nice, but there are a few limitations, my basement ceiling is only 7ft, not ideal for many things, but it saves time and money.

My plan is as follows. Allows me to keep mass down and aerobic capacity up (i.e. I don't suck all the oxygen out of the county after a few passes) My winter plan has 3 main components: Run: 34-50 miles per week - I also run 1/2 marathons so you could probably cut back, 20 miles a week is a pretty solid number for most people. Cycle: 100+ miles per week (including commuting, mountain biking, road biking and indoor trainer, no spin classes for me though) Weights: 3 Days per week, 60+ minutes per day I focus on core and upper body with the weights I prefer deadlifts, traditional and straight leg, squats, lunges, bent rows, etc. Really a standard gym weight workout with the addition of dead lifts. Lots of shoulder raises and LOTS OF CORE work. No gym required either, I do it all in my basement with about $200 of equipment I found on craigslist. Caution on the deadlifts - if you do not have good form, you WILL get hurt. I have found keeping my weight down and aerobic capacity up is as or more important than strength. If every workout is the same, you will not get far, workouts need to be of varying intensity and length to get the greatest benefits, but every workout has a purpose, some strength, some endurance, some recovery...Don't skimp on recovery, its as important as anything else. This is coming from my experience as a runner, cyclist and water skier; as well as the writings of Jack Daniels (running coach, not distiller, though I am a fan of the distiller as well).

Put me on the waiting list... ... to buy a used one in 2034, by that time I might be able to afford the 2014

I am also hooked on snow skiing, alpine when conditions are less than ideal and tele when were headed into the back country or when conditions are real nice. I am also hooked on mountain biking, primarily downhill. High speed, big turns, big risks, big crashes... I'm also hooked on trick and jump... Keep in mind I may not be a "shortline" skier occasionally getting into 36/-35... BUT I have had to take a few years off skiing, only getting a few sets a season and I have found snow skiing, mountain biking and running plus a healthy dose of BOS has helped fill the void, but not completely.

Slalom - ankles, I've lost 10* or so of movement in my front ankle, my back is often sore, but for me it is a conditioning issue not an injury Trick - dislocated a rib a few years ago, trick falls are the worst, headaches are common Jump - all of the above plus pocket book and marriage... I strained a hamstring about 5 years ago and things still aren't right with the entire leg... The wife is not a fan of the jumping although I am a much safer jumper today than when we met in college, since we met I learned that you can pass... When it came to jumping in college I was a special kind of stupid.

Waterskier - When I was a kid and my parents would take us out to the lake after baseball/soccer/football practice and we would go up toward the river and ski until the sheriff told us it was too dark. Also, while in highschool the mornings I was fortunate enough to wake up on the houseboat and get a quick ski ride across the lake on my way to school. Tournament/3-event skier - Second collegiate tournament. Bakersfield, it was about 8000 degrees that weekend and the water was hot enough to cook pasta. I was happy to turn a few at 34mph 15off and land my first jump. I was given some advice by a few guys I didn't know, later watched them run 35 and jump 150+... I was hooked, it also gave me a reason to stay in school... believe it or not I credit my degree to collegiate waterskiing... Getting dropped off at class with your ski while wearing wet shorts... It was a blast...

@cragginshred - I'm RFF and like to keep it low and aimed down 2-4-6. It allows you to enter the gates in a better position without requiring as much handle or body movement. This season I switched back from a one handed gate to two handed with the handle low and forward and it greatly improved my skiing within the first set. Your gate can have a great impact on your entire pass.

I came across this little video ( of a tanker on the Rim fire, rather impressive, I believe its a DC10, but could be wrong. There are a few other cockpit videos from MAFFS6 on youtube that show the extent of the fire as well as what the pilot sees while making the drops. @usaski1 - here is a list from Cal Fire, I would add my ski into the mix http://thepinetree.net/images/announce/evacpdf.jpg