The Shorter The Line The Longer The Turn Should Be

[ozski]

Very interested to hear what some of the 'advanced crowd" think about this particular observation.

[ozski]

The image of TW is a perfect illustration (the start) of a long turn - inside edge but outbound, plenty of space in front of the ball. Shoulders and head level, not dropped inside heading narrow.

 

 

[SkiJay]

I say partially because when the rope gets really short like -41 and -43, we start to see the edge change getting later off the second wake; possibly due to the ever-narrowing work zone behind the boat.

[Horton]

I guess I misunderstood the question. In my mind all shortline skiers should switch edges close to the center line. once you switch edges you are essentially at the beginning of your turn. The skill that I think many of us struggle with as the rope get shorter is elongated in the end of the turn.

[skiep]

I'm thinking apex back in. To me going out to the ball (apex) isn't the turn. With this in mind from apex in, yes turn should be longer as the line shortens.

[swaterkd]

I look at it like this and if you watch a vid of Nate smith you can really see it. The shorter the line is the longer you have to wait till you pull (because you have to wait for a tight rope) and the sooner you get off. So if you look at the opposite you would see the shorter the rope is the shorter you pull. So yes the turn is longer. At least in the about of time.

[mwetskier]

@ Horton -the suyderhoud west coast video proved what you say to be true with slow motion video matched against a digital stop watch. for marcus brown and terry winter as the rope got shorter the time from ball to wake shortened dramatically and the time from wake to ball increased to match. suyderhoud proposes that this is part of the cause for slalom getting harder as the rope gets shorter.

[Horton]

@mwetskier if THAT video proves I am right then I a wrong :neutral_face:

[6balls]

Width and space created after the wake. The best are able to change edge early and ride it outbound on the inside edge keeping tall, shoulders level...all the good stuff. We relative hacks (me for sure), change edge early, start heading up course, let our top heavy mass get inside the ski. Do that too soon and I'm really screwed.

 

The compensation for a hacker like myself (realizing I'm a better hacker than some other skiers who wish they could get here) is to stay on a lighter out-bound edge for longer and then resort to our same crap up-course, inside of the ski mass after an edge change initiated at a wider point. Only gets me so far which is why the really good skiers are better than me (among other things).

 

Giving hell with angle to the wake is not hard for me, riding outbound while properly managing the energy to width on the inside edge sure is difficult. Hoping to again be a work in progress this spring...

[mwetskier]

@Horton -i dont get it. at least one of the later chapters of the west coast video show extreme slow motion footage with a in set stop watch to demonstrate that at shorter ropes the skiers spent less time going from ball to wake than they did from wake to ball. the shorter the rope the bigger the disparity. longer ropes it was more even on each side. thats not any ones opinion thats just raw data so its not wrong or right just data. i think it supports what you wrote but i could wrong since in this sport i could be wrong about any thing.

[Horton]

@mwetskier yes that is true. I just want to discourage you from watching the rest of that video

[alex38]

I vote, but with a question; I can describe (without proper coaching or video) 2 types of turns i get at 28/32 off. 1 type of turn seems to end at the ball, leaving me plenty of time to pull like crazy into the wake and be early for next ball. The other is newer and seems to end more at the wake, it FEELS like the same start of turn but has a prolonged finish that draws what seems like all the way back to the wake.

Which one should I be focusing on most?