Fam-man

@03RLXi Looks like a beautiful site to ski. What's the boat speed? How do you typically do when in the course? Your stance looks squatted, back foot heavy. A suggestion would be to listen to one of the Spraymakers Podcast gates episode. 1)When you're first on the ski stand up straighter and try to move more weight onto your front foot. 2)Put more energy into your move out for the gate so you actually glide faster than the boat and keep moving up. That feels like a left and forward lean 3)Turn in when your speed matches the boat. This is a lean right and forward. 4)Hold stance and angle through wakes and repeat. Do all this while keeping amore upright stance and more weight on your front foot. I mentioned the Spraymakers podcast because they explain the phases and feelings much better. Have you ever tried free-skiing at 28off? You may find improved ability to maintain a more aligned stance if not dealing with the wake bump.

I felt it was a decent source to access a coach and get a "tip" that would provide a performance gain. Sometimes that was a good refocusing when I was off-track or in a slump. I also like to re-watch video at the start of a season as a reminder. The downside being the coach wouldn't see the whole picture like a multiple video program (Flow Point or TWTW) or an in-person clinic so they wouldn't have the opportunity to see a skiers trends, style or consistent deficiencies.

@Horton I consider 22off at 32mph my tournament opener for a few reasons. To have 3 good full passes before 32 off 34mph which I rarely fully complete. Answering in the context of the hardest pass being the one I complete <50% of the time. Being in Alberta Canada the season starts late and ends early so there's only 4-6 weeks where I'm skiing my best. I also do not ski tournaments so only attempt that opener a couple times per year when practicing. Generally ski a lot of 28 off and increase the speed in non-tournament increments. 32mph, 33mph, 33.5mph, 34mph because I enjoy that line length and shorter

To the original question, I find my "opener" to be vastly different than my hardest pass so I do not spend much time there. Many sets I actually skip the opener and quickly get to my second hardest pass where I focus on technique. When working on my hardest pass I will always try to ski 6 turns even if it means going inside a ball to keep rhythm and momentum going. Some of the folks I ski with have only seen 2 ball on their hardest pass and I think that may be due to not understanding the rhythm and boat timing. Full disclosure, I do not ski tournaments and I consider my opener to be 22 off at 32mph, my hardest pass to be 32 off at 34mph.

Kudos to @Horton and everyone that contributes. This site has been a great source of information and entertainment and the access to knowledge for a little known sport is unparalleled. I've spent many hours reading about technique and theory especially when someone would post a picture or video and ask for feedback from the knowledgeable folks on this forum. I'm hoping that continues and even increases in the future.

Install and retrieve 3 portable slalom courses throughout the season, 2 insta slalom and 1 ez slalom. 1 course we pull off shore, the others we deploy from a boat. The insta slalom we typically tie the risers short (shallow weedy lakes) and deploy the main line and boat guides. Once that’s straight we tension, add the rest of the arms, tension again and untie the risers. *critical to have good boat control and not cross the mainline if using this technique. The ez slalom we deploy from a boat. My order of preference for boat deployment is pontoon followed by ski boat and lastly a tin fishing boat. Room to work and boat control are factors when deploying. Have deployed from the ski boat with the family when the kids were young, everyone had a job and had to work together. Wife drove, kids connected balls and passed arms. Important to have the arms well marked so it’s clear the order things should go in. Turn ball and associated arms, extend and make sure click in, middle section, extend and click in, boat guide in mainline diamond, connect to middle section and extend, ensure clicked in. As spooling to next arm get the boat lined up early (if you’ve drifted) and pull on mainline to “place” the previous arm as much as possible. deploying from a boat is quicker, our courses get gross with lake negotiation so we don’t want to put them in the boat resulting in the shore deployment.

With my kids there was a lot of fear being alone in the lake when everyone else was on the boat. Kids stuff like lake monsters, nibbling fish, touching weeds, the boat not coming back etc. We used a kneeboard with a handle hook and would start them at the swim board belly surfing and feed the rope out, then pull them back to the boat when done. They were small so idle speed was enough for belly surfing. They then graduated to the boom where someone would float beside them in the lake when starting or if comfortable with starting would be ready to jump into the lake if the kid fell. As competence grew we would do pairs skiing where an adult and kid would ski together (on separate skis) which has carried over to siblings skiing together because skiing together is more fun then skiing alone.

@kc what do you mean by season PB, is that still below your all time PB but a large improvement on bouys for this year? What level to you ski at? Thanks

Review notes and video, free ski to reset on key movements and remind myself this is all for fun.

@chaloux I also have an EZ slalom course, however I use it in a lake. I have found 2 things that may be causing the alignment issues you describe 1) Inner PVC flotation. The supplied flotation for my course is foam pipe insulation. With time this becomes waterlogged allowing the pvc arm to have a vertical bow. The bow causes uneven weighting of the bouy to pvc connectors (risers) which makes the alignment appear significantly off although the mainline is straight. For an interim solution can add empty plastic bottles to the middle of the pvc arm to straighten it vertically. For a long term solution I used 1m of 3/4" irrigation line plugged at each end to replace the foam. 2) Uneven riser length. My course has a rubber bungee in the riser at the bouy attachment. If this has lost elasticity and no longer recoils the bouy will be on a slack line and appear out of alignment

@bananaron what @vtmecheng said above. The boa is a tightening system radar uses on bindings and gloves. It’s a thin lacing that goes to a ratchet dial for tightening. The “standard” style is a typical lace with a toggle style keeper.

I have switched from a Vector rear boot to a HO adjustable RTP and now to a BOA HRTP. The transition from Vector boot to RTP only took a few sets. I would jam my rear foot into the RTP until my toes touched the front boot and then would tighten up the laces really snug. As a result the RTP was high on my foot, close to the ankle, giving a secure feel. I would do this on the swim platform and so still get up with 2 feet in. I was happy with that setup and only made a change due to collateral damage to the RTP. I'm pretty happy with the BOA HRTP as it provides more lateral support for my heel. I do find it tightens too much across my toes which gets uncomfortable and allows more heel lift then either of my previous setups. I still get up with both feet in. A ski partner has the standard HRTP, gets up with 1 foot and slips his back in. He is quite happy with the setup.

Call it whatever you want, hips behind feet and shoulders is my biggest hold back. I think it’s because a slalom ski “athletic stance” is different than most other sports. The pull for the boat likely factors in but a “good knee bend” for other sports is detrimental to skiing. Other sports you can have your hips back and still be on the balls of your toes and balanced. In skiing that’s possible, but weak due to the load applied by the boat. So being “athletic” in slalom skiing is trying to learn a new stance. Been chipping away at it, but no big breakthroughs.

Was in between skis last year so borrowed my father in laws session. Was interesting as I ski a senate and found performance commonalities between the two where as other brands felt foreign. Was fun to run the course at low speed, but definitely found the performance threshold at 30+ mph. Seemed like there was no longer enough ski in the water to reliably turn. At 26 and 28 mph seemed to pull out and wait ffffoooorrreever on the gates, amazing what difference a few mph makes. Definitely fun to switch it up.

@Ski_Dad I'm a size 10 that is wide across the ball of my foot and narrow at the heel. End of last season I got a std HRT with boa tightner and found it tight across the ball of my foot. I need to work the foot in and when I tighten the boa it seems to tighten at the ball of my foot first. Thinking it will break in with more use, Canadian so I only got a few sets in. @coach3 I went from double boot vapor and vector set up, to an adjustable toe plate to a HRT. For each set-up I would get up with 2 feet in. Felt I get more weight forward with the toe plate and HRT which was the goal of the change. I like the heel stability with the HRT