28-32mph skiing with videos (need some guidance)

[Waternut]

My 28 and 30mph passes are starting to get a little more consistent since another skier started telling me to pull through the second wake instead of letting up in the middle. Once I hit 32mph, I just drift down the course no matter what I do and have never made it past 3 ball. Usually the first time I try 32mph, I can't get any angle behind the boat so I'm guessing something is wrong with the turn or preturn.

 

I know my form isn't perfect and it looks to me like my butt drops way back but the majority of the time I feel like I can't stand up or lean any further away from the boat without going over the front.

 

28mph

 

30mph (1st time)

 

30mph (2nd time)

 

32mph (utterly pathetic lol)

 

[colo_skier]

Nobody has posted yet and I am not a teacher but here's what I see. I think you need to get up further on the boat and wider than the buoy line prior to going into the gates. Also it appears you are skiing at the 1 ball rather than at a point prior to it and then trying to come back to the buoy. I think if you try this the rest of the course will be easier since you will be starting wider rather than narrow. Welcome to the addiction!! BTW Your 2nd 30 and the 32 mph looked like your best 1 ball runs. You may want to move your bindings up also as you are on the back of the ski. Hopefully others will chime in that have better comments than me.

[Marco]

Check out your weight distribution on the ski. Your hips are back, so your weight is back. The front half of your ski is out of the water. You need to get your body in alignment for the ski to perform properly. Think of a tug of war position. To be strong, your body needs to be aligned with the direction of the opposite force, in this case, the rope. Lean away with the upper body, hands down low close to your center of mass, and slight knee bend, ski out front. Body position is key. When you can leverage well, the other things start to fall in place.

[Waternut]

Part of my problem with my gate at slower speeds is my ski size. It's a 66" ski designed for 32mph+ and I'm on the upper weight limit skiing at 28-30mph so if I come ripping through the gate and get wide, I'll start to sink by the time I get to the buoy. I should have a better suited ski this weekend but I'll keep those gate tips in mind for sure. I'm trying to teach myself not to ski at the buoys so much and it's tough.

 

So you think moving the boots forward a little will help line my body up a little better?

[gregy]

If you haven't read the link here by @than_bogan "Leverage Position: A massive treatise for 15 offers". You should read it. When you can learn to get in the stacked / leveraged position - hips over feet shoulder over hips lined up- you will loose the felling of getting pull over the front. The youtube video below explains it with some diagrams.

 

[colo_skier]

@jfw432 If you are sinking it is probably because you are not going outbound anymore since you have no angle through the gates and are starting to go down course. I always think to try to get as wide past the right hand entrance gate as I can rather then getting to the one ball. Left arm pressure on the handle helps as does standing tall. Remember to always try to be going East West at all times. I also am battling the 15 off consistency thing and I find that as people have said on here before concentrate on your position behind the boat. Everything happens there not at the turns. The stacked position that everyone talks about here is the key. Good luck and have fun.

[akale15]

like @colo_skier mentioned it looks like you are skiing at 1 ball rather than making an edge change before it. when you are cutting for the gates look at the right hand gate ball and make your edge change a lot earlier to 1 ball. A good gate and 1 ball will set you up for a good run down the course.

[Klundell]

I would focus on points 1 and 2 of the video posted by @gregy. Think about standing very tall on the ski when entering the course. Right now you are very back foot heavy because you are trying to resist that feeling of "going out the front." However if you get your hips over the ski when you are just skiing straight down the course and move them in the direction you want the ski to go you will get more ski in the water and therefore get it to accelerate and turn better.

[lb]

I was stuck here for a while and now that I have moved on a bit all the advice you have gotten is very good but I couldn't apply it at your level and speed.

The big thing is stop looking at the ball and the other thing that helped me on a course with novice buoys skiing 32mph or below, start your turn when you get to the width of the novice buoy no matter what. although it may not work at first it will get you more angle and in a rhythm to complete these passes and apply all the great advice and move to shorter lines.

(Once I got the feeling of casting the ski out it amazed me how much less work there is as opposed to hook turning and going to attack the next ball )