Jimbo

Hey all, Our family just finished U17 worlds here in Chile and Horton suggested I post a quick trip summary. Short story - an amazing experience for our son competing at the world level at a great venue in a very welcoming country. Our son qualified as an independent via the October IWWF ranking list in jump (top 15 skiers qualify). He was also given 2 wildcards by USA Waterski and the IAC (international affairs committee), so he skied all 3 events. While he wasn’t a member of Team USA for team scoring purposes, he was Team USA all the way. We arrived in Chile about 4 days before the official tournament start. USAWS was able to secure 2 blocks of unofficial practice time at the site, so all the skiers were able to practice their events twice before official familiarization on Wednesday. By semis, all the skiers had 3 days of practice which was outstanding. The tournament itself was extremely well run. Miranda ski school is a great site and the tournament ran like clockwork. The competition at the world level was incredible. The smallest mistakes made the difference between making the finals or not - and it’s certainly stressful but it brings out some great performances. Even more impressive than the competition however was the camaraderie, not just between the USA team members but between all of the teams. I think all of the skiers made friends from around the world and all of the teams worked together to support other teams through injuries and adversity. Chile was amazing as well. The Chilean people were very welcoming and Santiago is a beautiful city. All in all a great experience.

I see a few sites using iPads for trick video recording and submission for judging. Are the videos air-dropped to a local Mac for scoring, or are folks using a mesh network to send the video via wi-fi? Just curious how to implement. Running SD cards is painful.

@buechsr Depending on the size of your kiddo I have a used Cookie G3 helmet that I just haven't got around to putting on SIA. Its a yellow medium. Shoot me a PM if interested.

@lpskier and @Clydesdale have it - at least for the teen competitor. My son, who has the competence @Luzz found to be important (national level skier) and identifies with the competence he has in the sport is increasingly driven by the author's point #10, Social programs - he continues to ski because he has friends who ski. If he didn't have several skiing friends who attend tournaments, I believe he would not want to ski. While he practices to achieve the competence, I believe he finds his identity in the sport from the social relationships *and* the competence. At most tournaments we see our son for 5 minutes at each event and then he is gone. On the golf cart with his friends, riding bikes with his friends or whatever else catches his eye. Teens are driven by their social relationships - so making skiing social is extremely important to prevent the "tumble," at least in my opinion. Camps, social events all are an important part of retention for teen athletes. Heck, even inviting his non-competitor friends to ski or wakeboard or surf with us helps prevent burnout and loss from the sport, but I have no idea how to do this on a wider level. Make some rec pulls at smaller tournaments for a chance to wakeboard or ski on two skis? Something to bring out the non-competitive friends and keep teens social, perhaps? I truly believe we need to find a way to draw more teens to tournaments to make them as social as they are competitive. As my wife often says - we can't keep thinking that what worked when we were kids 30-50 years ago is going to work today. The days of "because I said so..." are long past.

Does the additional Rover come with another Android phone as well? Can't quite tell from the website. Asking as our lake is purchasing and would love to have the system in my boat all the time.

There may still be a course on Lake Medina west of SA. Mike Crandall from Wally's Watersports used to maintain a course, but I havent been in several years. Worth a phone call. He instructs 3 event, so if he doesnt have one anymore he may know where to find one. https://wallyswatersports.com/

Yep found it with your direction. Thanks! @disland The proposal to lengthen the jump surface and reduce the angle for Open Men was further discussed. It was felt that it was not practical to have a different surface length for different divisions in that it would create too much of a problem in ramp change between divisions. The council decided to accept the proposal in the following form. The specification for surface length will be changed from 6.4m-6.8m to 6.4m-7.1m. This will allow existing ramps to remain in tolerance with no change. The Open Men angle ratio will change from 0.271+/- .003 to 0.266+/-.005. In Rule 13.02 b) the recommended setting will change from 6.75m-6.8m to 6.75m-7.10m. In Rule 13.02 h) a 7.10 length marking will be added if the jump is capable of extending the length beyond 6.8 and still keep other required parameters, e.g. length under water of 50 cm.

I've seen some tidbits lately about possible changes to jump ramps, but I can't seem to find anything specific in the AWSA rules or with google. Did I miss a memo somewhere? Or is this speculation at this point? Thanks!

We were at Kirtand for 3 years - the skiing was pretty much limited to Elephant Butte. Its all open water and about a 2 hour drive, but we made the best of it and went often in the summer. I never saw a course there, but plenty of folks to ski with! Lots of opportunity to snow ski...even right on the top of Sandia Peak off of the tram.

@skiinxs - I have a horse in the race and I agree with you. I've got a 12 year old currently in B2. In fact, I am in favor of the U14,U16,U18, U21 Jeff described (or something close). I think this is important for the sport. A lot of posts and discussion about how to keep kids in the sport, and I think that making the 14-18 year old age range more competitive is very important to that goal. The size and maturity difference between a 14 and an 18 year old is huge. If you want kids to stick with the sport, they need to feel competitive and not become disillusioned. Perhaps that is not how it was when we were kids, but every sport changes with the times. 2 years is a reasonable spread in age divisions. I suspect AWSA has numbers, but I wonder how many small 13-14 year olds give up when they get to B3 and are faced with competing against a 6 foot 200 lb high school senior?

Interesting thread - my wife and I are already contemplating building a house on our local "ski ditch" next year, so while we're doing it...I'll run 220 to the boat house. I'm sure it will happen sooner or later. If I win the lottery I'll cover the boat house in Tesla solar roofing :)

Oh man. Sorry to see this! That's a bad one but the surgery result looks great. If your surgeon is ok with it, get yourself a knee scooter. It will help save your sanity once the initial pain is over. Waaaay better than crutches. I broke my tibia about 10 years ago and the scooter was extremely helpful. Particularly the basket on the front to carry things (don't judge me :)

@Broussard - going out tomorrow to hook up the switch. Thanks for the good info.

Do any of you Prostar types know where the plug for the ZO to Jump Switch Harness adapter resides in the Prostar? Under the dash? Engine compartment? Thanks!

Glad your pup is OK! I gave up on my dogs in the boat after my latest pup decided he would jump over the gunnel and scared himself to the point he wouldn't get out of the cockpit. Definitely no room for a 75 lb doberman and my feet in the same space under the dash.

Thanks Horton...your time and pain probably just saved me a ton of cash.

I watch a bit of motocross on TV and have seen some of the action cameras have a "hangtime" display overlay. Has anyone used one of the newer cameras while jumping to gauge distance? Is there a software package that does that? Just curious. Seems like it would be useful when training.

My two cents as a Dad of a first time nationals skier. Location was fantastic. You can't get much more central than Maize - 180 miles from the geographic center of the United States. I played with google maps and it seems drive-able from just about anywhere. 900 miles for us, but doable in a day. The development is gorgeous - loved the sandy beaches in front of the houses and the ease with which you could walk from parking to each of the lakes. We actually stayed in downtown Wichita, and the drive was maybe 20 minutes to the site. Plenty of great inexpensive restaurants and lodging very close by. The people were great. My B2 skier was completely jacked after Nationals, even though he wasn't even close to a podium. This was his first nationals (and he qualified a week before), but I can't say enough about how supportive the entire community is to our young skiers. As @Horton said - only negative I saw was lack of on-site food. A food truck court in the parking lot would have done very well.

One more plug for the Radar TRA, since it is closeout season...my guy started slalom last September on a closeout 63" TRA with primes that I think cost ~250 bucks. He was about 70 lbs at the time. His first tourney was 19 long line and since then he's used the same ski to go 30 -15. He'll need something else in the next year, but we have definitely gotten our money out of that little TRA.

Not sure its actually the case here, nor can I claim to be any kind of expert, but as I read your story I immediately thought about the Yips in baseball: when a catcher can suddenly no longer do the most mundane task of throwing the ball back to the pitcher. I guess the newer terminology is "misplaced focus," but it sure sounds like the slalom equivalent of the yips. Lots of thoughts out there how to fix it but a lot of the thought seems to be that the underlying cause is focusing on the simple task in too much detail to the point that failure becomes inevitable. Some of the approaches are relaxation\letting the mind drift and so forth. Might be worth a google and a read on a few sites on yips to see if it fits your situation and if any of the approaches might help.

@Chef23 - absolutely. We started working with a jump coach a few months ago, but quickly realized that to progress he needed more reps on a well maintained, consistent course (both slalom and jump) - so we're moving our skiing to a private lake with well maintained jump and slalom courses.

@Broussard - great diagram. Thank you. I definitely appreciate the wealth of knowledge here on BOS, especially as a relative beginner to 3 event driving.

We will have guides at our new place, so your explanation is perfect. Thank you!

So my 12 year old son is a beginner B2 3 event skier. I have really only ever been a rec skier, but I have been pulling him for jump on our public lake (which actually has a ramp). We are moving his training to a private lake setting and I need to get serious about jump paths. He attended Bennetts this summer and we were told his current jump parameters are RTB-C, "in-course narrow," but honestly I have no idea what that means for the boat path. I understand the ZO settings. I have looked far and wide for information about various jump paths for the boat, but I haven't found much. Does anyone have a resource to help me understand the various paths, or widths from the ramp? Collegiate split, in-course, in-course narrow vs wide, etc?

Awesome. Thank you both. Works like a charm.