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TravisNW

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Personal Information

  • Preferred boat
    Nautique 196
  • Home Ski Site
    Ski View estates.
  • Real Name
    Travis Feldheger
  • Ski
    66 HO Pro; 43 Goodman trick; 91 Goodman jumpe
  • State
    WA
  • Tournament PB
    4@39, 4700, 173
  • USAWS Member # or other IWWF Federation #
    700006708

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  1. Not sure how well preventative training will work at protecting bone or cartilage from injury. That said a decent exercise routine can go a long way at helping survive falls and specific exercises can be even better so go for it and let us know what you find out! Definitely protection with a vest is most helpful. I banged the wakes during a tournament last year and busted up some cartilage right where my eagle vest did not have padding. It took a few weeks to be skiing again but it’s been 10 months and there is still crepitus. Now for training I mostly wear my HO vest that’s heavier but better padded. As for serratus anterior exercises I would say straight arm pull downs from both planes, straight down in front and laterally to the sides with cable or bands. Side planks would be good. Unilateral waiter walks and overhead carry’s and then definitely some rotational mobility work to keep you limber after all that strength work.
  2. To start things off here’s my approach this year. I started skiing in March. I hadn’t skied much since October so i knew it would be months to be actually conditioned. Objective one get in shape. I skied one set weekly for 3 weeks. Then I started skiing every 3 days for another 3 weeks Then I started skiing two sets every other time. Now I try for 4-8 sets/ week. Objectives in that time are get in shape and dial in what I know. In this time I ski many sets at 34mph (i am mens 3) usually the first set of the week I ski 36. Until I run my hardest runnable pass 10 times I did not try the one I want to learn this season. For days I ski two sets I usually go out set two at a shorter line length. I ski back to back passes often but not during sets when I want to reach max score. I won’t miss a pass more than twice before reverting to easier pass. I always plan my passes for the set before skiing the set. I generally make the plan with the goal to run all the passes. I rarely ski more than 6 passes. Sometimes I ski 4 on second sets and occasionally ski 8. Sometimes after falling at an easy pass I start from where I fall to purposely ski it again with rollers in the course. I don’t shy away from bad conditions. After about 40 sets I feel 80% conditioned. My athleticism and former knowledge have me within reach of my best scores but I still am not there. I have a theory for what I need to do to solve the pass I am working on and this theory has been developed from this seasons training model. The most important thing is to recover from sets or groups of sets because injuries are the biggest threat.
  3. How do you arrange practice sets? Examples: Always run down the line. Always try to get high score. Run hardest runnable pass often. Run pass before hardest pass often. Spin passes. Skis different speeds to learn passes. Skis faster speeds to make normal speeds seem slower. Run back to backs. Go out at different lengths. Organize set strategy Based on time of week or time of season. Ski the day before tournament or take it off. Etc.
  4. I see a lot of 12” handle use. Additionally it’s often observed skiers hold hands closer yet biasing the grip to handle center with the palm down hand. It’s a leverage and energy transfer move that places the arm and shoulder on direct path with rope and pilon. That said the question is whether the 12” handle is actually better or the product of culture. Standing dry land with the 13” handle seems to be more complimentary to better posture through thoracic vertebrae and also enables more tied in shoulder blades. That said if you don’t get into that position the wider handle might be counter productive as your arms won’t be as close in to your body. A lot of skiers default to the rounded upper back protracted shoulder position (shoulders forwards/ to front of capsule) because it works really good. There’s a lot of stability at end range, consequently it’s extra stressful to the body. Mostly the position is a result of unawareness and often it’s not a negative for buoy count. It works to create good energy transfer but it’s hard on the spine and shoulders long term (Think Marcus, Jamie, and Wade). I use a 12”. I used the 13” as a jr skier. I changed because I noticed more people used 12”. I stuck with 12” through my 20’s because it was something I didn’t feel like messing with and I didn’t have the income to buy multiple handles for the sake of testing.
  5. I spin for a variety of reasons. It can be fun. Spin for conditioning in early season. Spin to ski tougher conditions if an upcoming tournament is at a rough site. Spin harder runnable passes mid season in lieu of attempting hardest passes to have more 6 buoy passes. That said I am a firm believer that 60 seconds or more is best for technique and optimal recovery. Sometimes tournaments don’t allot this therefore specialized training sets with x second breaks (depending on event rules) is intelligent set design.
  6. I see a lot of posts throwing officials under the bus here and saying let’s just require them to get the training. Honestly our sport is so small everyone who participates in tournaments should should be an official of some sort. The last thing we need is another reason to not become an official, that whole process is confusing and time consuming already as it is.
  7. A 66 or 67” omni would be a good ski. Some lace up bindings would be great. You can do double boot or a rear toe piece. A 69” ski is way to big. Skis like the Omni have the surface are of a ski about 2” longer.
  8. The Western region is to big! It covers more area than any other region. Dividing it would help. That said maybe requiring a state championship to advance to Nationals makes more sense. It could really bring skiers from each state together to put on a larger than normal tournament and travel times would be far less excessive. I skipped regionals due to the 18 hour drive. The west holds regionals at this site more than any other site due to a routine shortage of bids and the willingness and generosity of Laku to step up. In recent history Laku has held regionals more than any other club in the west and for that I am grateful and applaud them, But the fact is when regionals are held in Colorado the turnout is lower.
  9. Some brief armchair advice. From the first picture looks like your body is leading the ski headed to the wakes, it is likely you need to put more effort into the turn’s finish In order for you to be in a stacked position at the hook up. Next observation is that in each photo your body position is vastly different. Finish the turn with the right position and be strong right away to get good acceleration and then don’t move. Keep your body movement to a minimum and hold the handle close. That’s it, good luck!
  10. It could be teres major or minor, Supraspinatus infraspinatus or lats. do some kinda trigger point therapy with a lacrosse ball to pinpoint it and you might be able to identify it from there.
  11. We had a set of Wally balls a few years back. Maybe it’s the colder water of the NW, maybe they’ve changed since then but we really were not happy with them. The material is really thick and therefore hard. I used them for gate balls just to use some of them but I’ll swap out polyform buoys every year no problem for the softer feel. Yes we had them barely inflated.
  12. Cutting it will effect the stiffness of the boot. Long ago boots had more plastic in that area and the boot was stiffer. People would cut it in different ways to create a flex of their liking. Trimming it will effect stiffness of boot. First just be aware, the less often it bends the less it will be a problem. The heat gun idea might be worth trying but be careful, it would be easy to over heat and mess up.
  13. @mcskier41 sorry for delayed response! Yes I skied the VTX. Personally I prefer the Alpha to the VTX and Pro. The VTX is a tail sliding ski, I liked it at but tended to blow the tail and got higher scores on the A3 ( I skied on the A3 for 4 years, I just kept going back to it). The Pro I tend to overturn although it does edge change nicely and I used it for part of the season because of this. For me the Alpha is the smoothest and most consistent turning ski, it’s very fast and fun. I can ski my smoothest passes on it but it also works in scramble mode. That said HO has 3 top end skis (Alpha, Pro, Omega) depending skier style different people will find a favorite. I haven’t skied the Omega yet. All the skis are great quality obviously and HO’s R&D budget has allowed them and their skiers to craft an array of top skis. All three of these skis were used in pro tournaments throughout the year.
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