VICTOIRE A L'ARRACHE DE SACHA CHAMPION DE FRANCE OPEN
QUELLE BOITE IL EN RIGOLE QUAND MEME CHAMBRE PAR TOUS SES POTES;
9 yr old Amber Hajdukovich water skis behind a dog team.
Compared to top of the line skis that cost 3 times as much, the V is stable and predictable. Compared to other skis in the same price range, the V is remarkably high performance. The V does a great job filling the gap between ultra high end skis and lower level skis. With a MSRP of only $349 (blank), I think the V is the best ski for the money that I have ever ridden.
NEWBERRY SPRINGS • In a barren corner of the High Desert, near the end of a lonely desert dirt road, a water sports oasis is home to the nation’s leading water skiing trainer.
Dr. Jack “Doc” Horton first built Horton Lakes in the late 1960s because when he first moved to California to begin a career in medicine in the mid-’60s, he thought we was moving to a water skiing heaven.
“Instead I learned it was the armpit of water skiing,” said Horton.
Now, Newberry Springs, just east of Barstow, hosts 11 other water sport specific man-made lakes that use Horton’s design.
Nearly 40 years later Horton can’t remember the exact reason why he selected Newberry Springs, but knows he looked through most of Southern California. He does know land cost played a big role. Through the years he learned certain parts of Newberry Springs also have a thicker base of clay, which limits leaking.
As his medical practice grew he saved his money to begin building what he considered the perfect conditions for water skiing.
In the 1970s he began using the lake as a water ski school, one of many ways he hoped to recoup the costs of building the lakes. During that time the school began heading straight to the top. It became the leading water ski school, which attracted movie stars, Olympians and champions from Australia, Mexico and Britain.
The school became home to several national and world champions and world record holders. It also became the foundation of three generations of skiers. His son and now daughter-in-law met as students at the camp, and now three of his grandchildren are competing in this weekend’s national championships in Wilmington, Ill.
Horton himself earned six national championships and set three different world records for his own skiing.
“I once had an Olympic gold medalist wrestler sign up for a week,” Horton said. “I asked him why he wanted to learn to water ski. He said after four years of training he wanted to relax and try (an easy) sport.”
So Horton ran him through a day’s worth of lessons.
“At the end of the day I asked him how he felt. He said it’s the hardest he’s ever worked.”
Horton now only works with just a few select skiers, and rents out his second lake. But the secret remains the same to building champions.
“You have to start young and spend a lot of time on the little things. You have to be motivated and ready to spend a lot of money.”
Enrique Iglesias is planning to water-ski in the buff to celebrate Spain winning the World Cup.
One of the best videos in the history of water skiing
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. --
A 54-year-old Wisconsin man and his 18-year-old daughter have quite a story to tell after they walked away from a plane crash in a remote part of Rocky Mountain National Park and spent more than 18 hours, enduring a cold, stormy night waiting to be rescued.
Jim Michaels and Tonie Michaels crashed their single-engine American Champion aircraft at about noon Thursday in Forest Canyon, according to Rocky Mountain National Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson.
The victims suffered minor injuries but weren't rescued until 6 a.m. Friday, Patterson said.
The father and daughter told rangers they built a shelter from plane debris and trees to wait out a passing storm. They also built two signal fires, and when they saw a search plane overhead on Thursday night, they added airplane fuel and threw a plane tire onto one of the fires to create black smoke.
Rangers at Rocky Mountain National Park were first notified of the crash when the Civil Air Patrol called and said they had received an emergency locator transmitter signal at 12:30 p.m. and another one at 4:24 p.m., from possibly a downed plane near Milner Pass, located on the Continental Divide.
Michaels, a dentist, is an experienced pilot who has been flying since age 16, Patterson said. His daughter, Tonie, is also a pilot and had just gotten her license.
They left Oconomowoc, Wis., Wednesday and stayed in Greeley that night. Their flight plan called for them to continue to Aspen, Telluride, Leadville and back to Oconomowoc.
Their plane was manufactured in 2009, and owned by Michaels Air Service LLC of Oconomowoc. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the cause of the crash.
UPDATE: below is a spy photo of the faulty equipment
http://www.wisn.com/news/24198970/detail.html
The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation's Technical Committee has ratified U.S. water ski athlete Chris Parrish's pending men's world slalom record of 2 buoys at 43 feet off set on June 13 at the Ski Ranch June Tour 2 in Covington, La. The record surpasses the old world record of 1-1/2 buoys at 43 feet off that Parrish set in 2005.
COVINGTON, LA – Chris Parrish set a pending Men’s Slalom World Record of 2 buoys @ 43’off (9.75m) in the first round of the Sunday, June 13, 2010 Ski Ranch tournament. This scores beats his previous record of 1-1/2 buoys @ 43’off (9.75m) that he originally set on August 28, 2005.
“Wow, unbelievable!” said an excited Chris Parrish. “I can’t believe it! I am stunned.” After gaining composure from the moment, he said, “The Ski Nautique 200, with its great pull and small flat wake, let my GOODE 9900SL take me to a new Personal Best and the World Record! Chad (Chad Scott, boat driver) was dialed in and in a zone! I still can’t believe it!”
When asked about the new GOODE BubbleBuoys that were being used at the tournament, Chris said, “It is such a comfort to know that if you hit a BubbleBuoy you have less of a chance of having an injury.”
“Chris has been knocking on the door ever since he switched to GOODE Skis,” said Dave Goode, President/Founder of GOODE Ski Technologies. “The weekend after he joined Team GOODE in September 2009, he tied his previous World Record twice in back to back days. And, just yesterday he tied his previous record twice, again, in the same day! His 39-1/2’ offs look like 32’ offs and his 41’ offs look like 35’ offs!” Goode continues. “This was the first World Record that I got to personally witness. In the mid 1990’s, I was not present to see Jeff Rodgers or Kristi Overton-Johnson set their World Records on GOODE 9100’s. I did, however, get to see Karina Nowlan on her GOODE 9800SL and Regina Jaquess on her GOODE 9900SL, each tie Kristi’s record. I then got to see Chris on his GOODE 9900SL tie his own record four times.”
“Chris is such an impressive skier,” continues Goode. “With his 6’5” height, superb technique, timing, physical strength and mental toughness, Chris is able to mechanically add length to the rope. For his weight, he skis very light on the line, which allows him to keep his ski moving side to side and not load the boat. His pure Carbon Fiber GOODE 9900SL provided him great cross course speed and precise turns. Add the driving talent of world-class driver Chad Scott along with Claire and David DiPol’s fabulous site, Covington Ski Ranch, and what do you get?…… A New Men’s Slalom World Record! This is a day that Dawn and I will always remember!” concludes Goode.
GOODE Carbon Fiber Skis are built in Ogden, UT.
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Come to California and ski with Terry this spring!
http://ballofspray.com/images/stories/2_onsides-resized-600.jpgWe naturally have an "on-side", and an "off-side" turn in slalom. What manyhttp://www.ballofspray.com/images/sunset.png skiers try to do is to overcompensate on the off-side by trying to turn, and rotate the whole body to get the ski to rotate around. This just makes the off-side worse. Why do we have an "on-side" and an "off-side" turn? It's the stance... On our on-side turns our hips are naturally opened up, making it easier to keep the shoulders level, and get the lower body weight moving over the inside of the arc. The off-side is more difficult because our hips are closed up.
To improve this situation, what can we do? Well, think of a snow skier. They have two even, or on-side turns. By being able to move the feet individually of each other a snow skier can open equally well on both sides. Approaching a left turn, the outside foot will drop back a bit making the skier essentially a left foot forward skier. On the other side the left foot will fall behind the right foot a bit making them a right foot forward skier.
A slalom waterskier isn't allowed to make quite as much change in stance, but we can improve our off-sides by making them more like our on-sides. As you approach your off-side turn try to mimmick that snow skier movement as much as possible. If you could you would drop that outside leg back. Well we can't move our feet, but we can move our hips. Try taking that outside hip back as much as possible. If you're a right foot forward skier approaching the 1 3 5 buoy side twist your hips to the right. Bring the right side of the hips back, and the left side of your hips forward. You're trying to open up your hips so your left hip is now more over your front foot, and your right hip is brought back more to the middle of the ski. A left foot forward skier will do this on the other side of the course, on the 2 4 6 side. Bring the right side of the hips forward over that left foot, and allow the left side of the hips to trail, staying over the middle of the ski.
Ski with Terry to develop your two on-sides!
By opening up the hips as much as possible into and through our off-side turns we can make the ski turn equally well on both sides of the course.
Come to California and ski with Terry this spring!
One of the hardest things to do while slaloming is to not overdo the pulls. You always feel like you're running just a bit behind, and pulling harder is going to get you earlier to the next turn. Problem is, it's easy to get the angle at first, but much tougher to maintain that angle long enough to be beneficial.
Remember that with the new Zero Off boats the harder you pull against them the more gas they give you in return. What happens is you get to a point that you can no longer increase or even maintain that kind of load, and then you lose everything you had just built up including your outward direction into the next turn. It's more important to have good direction from the second wake out to the buoy than it is to have lots of speed and angle from the buoy to the first wake.
One thing you need to experiment with is how light you can cut, and still get to the next turn in good position. Instead of coming out of the turns and immediately pulling as hard as you can, try this... think about completing the turn, and getting your best possible body position right away. Once the ski has turned and is pointing towards the wake, and you have your handle close to your hips just see if you can maintain that all the way from the finish of the turn right through the second wake. Don't try to pull any harder than what you have from the finish of the turn, and don't let your body change positions.
What you'll find is that by skiing lighter you'll be able to maintain better body position, and you'll be skiing earlier in the course. Proper body position is much more effective than a hard pull.
Written by Terry Winter
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I often get asked about how I start the season. Pre-season skiing is tough, especially if you're skiing in a colder climate. Muscles are cold and stiff, and not as strong as they were in the summer. Cold hands and feet make it tough to get a good feel for the handle, and what the ski is doing underneath you. Also, the ski rides differently in the colder water, riding higher and giving a sense of less stability and more speed.
What I like to do when I start is make it as easy as possible to get back in a good rhythm, and give my body a chance to get used the strains and hard pulls again. I typically start off at a slower speed. I'll drop it down to 34mph for a while, and go through the line lengths. This gives me more of a sense of how it usually feels when I ski, whipping up wider on the boat and making some harder turns. If I go back to my top speed too soon I usually can't run too many line lengths, and it takes longer to get a good sense of skiing well.
When I do feel comfortable again at the slower speed I'll go back up to my top speed, and stay at the easier line lengths for a while until I feel that I can run each one very well. I'll run a lot of 32 off's until I feel that I'm really dialed, and have some of my strength back. Then I'll go shorter, and try to dial in the next pass. The point is if you're first pass is sketchy or tough the next one is going to be worse. Give yourself some time to feel like you're really used to your ski again, and your body position is back on point.
Give yourself plenty of time to work back into skiing. I might ski slower for a couple of weeks, and then go faster and stay at the longer line lengths for another couple of weeks. The more time you can spend getting your ski and body position dialed at the easier passes the faster you're going to progress through the tougher passes.
Come to California and ski with Terry this spring!
Spring is a great time for a water ski vacation in California, by April the air and water are warming up here. Skiers from colder climates get a start in more favorable early season conditions then semi frozen lakes, here water ski lessons taken in the spring give you techniques to work on all season.
Written by Terry Winter
