jgills88

Fully leaded gasoline actually

To be a little clearer, if you could only work on one pass on any given set, would you rather work on trying to make your opener as perfect as possible, or would you rather work your way up to your PB and take as many attempts at it as you can?

@aupatking by ski, I meant the slalom ski itself. In your opinion, would the difference between an HO, or a Radar (with all other settings equal) be more significant than moving your bindings on the same ski? Or adjusting your fin? I've heard some very good skiers claim that bindings matter above everything else, so I was curious what other people thought

This is something that feels incredible to me. For the first time in my life, I was able to go to a few Pro Events this year, and seeing jumpers go all out and *maybe* hit 230 in person made me realize just how crazy 250 is. In slalom we see attempts at 43off fairly regularly, and many trick skiers edge near the 12k mark at most events, but getting an extra 20-25ft in jump is crazy. Someone will break the record eventually, but I'm curious to see what it will take and how long

Many people talk about doing different things to set up their ski. If you could only change one thing with your equipment, what would be the best "bang for your buck" in your opinion?

I've seen a jump with a little barrier created by pvc pipes and this plastic mesh: https://www.amazon.com/OLDMACDONALD-Guardian-Warning-Barrier-100-Feet/dp/B07MMY52RJ/ref=asc_df_B07MMY52RJ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416949847877&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2124697657511094650&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9012393&hvtargid=pla-871390734641&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=94694114075&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416949847877&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2124697657511094650&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9012393&hvtargid=pla-871390734641 They welded two small pipes to the bottom of the jump, and let the poles sit in there when not in use. When you go to turn on the ramp, roll up the mesh and pipes and toss it in the boat until you're done. Works really well, never seen a Goose on the ramp in the years since they added it

Just wanted to provide some insight on these points from I've seen from a collegiate perspective and as a high school coach (recently "retired" from the MW Board, have become active in the SAC, and have talked to ~30 teams throughout the country about how they run things, and coached HS Lacrosse for 4 years). On the point of skiers/athletes deciding not to pursue their chosen sport in college, a lot of it stems from three major factors: #1-- Burnout and change in scenery. From what ive seen, especially as a varsity sport coach, many kids finish their senior year and are just ready to stop playing their sport. Its not unusual to want a change in your life after doing something for so long. Some of the best lacrosse players i grew up with played from 6yo through senior year of high school, they just had their fill of the sport and moved on after graduating. #2 -- Kids like to form their identities during their freshman/sophomore years of college, and often times that means they try new things and drop what they've done in the past. If kids only associate skiing with "boring" AWSA tournaments with their parents, of course they're gonna want to do something different. The trick solving this would be to find a way to create a more team oriented environment for younger skiers. (Show Ski teams thrive on having groups of 5-12yo and 13-17yos being in the same acts and associating skiing with each other rather than with their parents) #3 -- There's also a number of people who go into freshman year wanting to (rightly) focus on school for a bit, and by the time they're comfortable adjusting the season is already over or they've made friends elsewhere and don't want to miss any events with them. As far as ski hierarchy goes, from what ive seen in the Midwest teams follow a few different approaches depending on their ski situations: 1) "Fun" teams with limited practice time -- A few teams I know follow a fairly strict whoever gets to the lake first, skis first. This is pretty great for ego-less skiing and getting more people in the water, however many of these teams typically don't compete as well. 2) "Comeptitive" teams with limited practice time -- typically are trying to win tournaments and qualify for nationals. This situation will have more hierarchy, and A team skiers will get priority, and if there's time, B team will ski too! Typically B team will still ski, but their sets might be shorter during the season. -- This is how my first year went, I took 10 maybe 15 sets (including tournaments) from August-October. I loved it, but didn't actually ski much. I can absolutely see how an experienced skier who's on B Team might not see the value in being on a team with this situation 3) Competitive team with unlimited practice -- usually a pretty rare setup, but this is where B Team skiers thrive. A team skiers still get priority, but the lack of urgency in lake time means that skiers are free to come and go as they can, which means new skiers get many more opportunities to ski and are invited out more because teams usually need to ski in groups of three. These B team skiers tend to ski more, ski better, and build up stronger relationships with their teammates as the practice environment is much less structured. Typically in all cases though, whoever shows up first will get on the water first, if someone shows up late, they're getting the last set of A team skiers, and if they show up when B-Teamers are skiing, they're likely getting pushed to the very end of the order

There is a bunch of interesting stuff here, the thing that I think is the most promising as a new tool for collegiate teams is the portal to connect high school skiers (although there are some risks there that will definitely need oversight). To date, I haven't seen any solid, consistent ways to have skiers be able to communicate with teams en masse, and teams with potential recruits. From what ive seen, it's generally just M/W1 skiers talking to B/G5 skiers at tournaments about potential to join their schools teams. This tends to lead to top-heavy recruiting for teams that are already solid, and teams who are trying to establish themselves build almost entirely based off of whoever walks past their booth at a campus organization fair in the fall. If there were enough junior skier saturation in this program, with active participation from most collegiate teams, and active, focused support for team creation, we could see a very different collegiate landscape in a few years as juniors see more schools to ski at than just the 20 who make nationals every year.

That's very fair, especially in a smaller region like the SCR. If you were a Midwest team, there would be enough old/established teams around that everyone has an old old pair of jumpers taking up room in the trailer that can be passed around with no issue. Back to the smaller bindings w/ soap, and socks suggestion then. Depending on your budget and saving plan, you could also consider eventually getting a brand new pair of Flyman skis for a little over $1300 with tax

If you have the choice, grab some Medium bindings. You can use soap for the big feet, I'm size 13 and pop into mediums no issue with soap. Have people with small feet wear socks (you'd be surprised just how much extra space a pair of socks takes up). You could also look into using elastic ties over the bindings when using them. Typically, they're used for very good jumpers to help stay in their bindings, but I imagine they'd have the same effect for someone plopping. Which team are you with?/What region do yall ski for? Depending on where you are, you might be able to borrow a pair of jumpers from another team at the tournament, that's what my team did a few times when we were in the same situation

Depending on how far you'd want to drive, you could get an out of state permit for Okeeheelee, according to the parks website you can drop an out of state boat for just over $200 for the year. Of course you'd have to budget out lodging and towing costs. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://discover.pbcgov.org/parks/PDF/Amenities/OkeeSkiPermit.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjSo-Om7cuAAxWMsoQIHUnlAzsQFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3_UGv2pLT4JaQHS3fhQ8of Ski School wise, maybe check out Swerve Watersports in Tennessee. Mike Bullock is a great coach and offers reasonable prices throughout the year. You'd have to double check availability though, he likes to go snow skiing in the winter! You could also invest in a good dry suit and ski at home rather than go anywhere else.

Just saw on Waterski Nation's instagram that this happened this weekend. I have zero knowledge of cable slalom, but thought this was cool. Anyone more in the know have more context for what this means for the sport? - Has Levy competed behind boats? - How does cable ski compare to traditional 3-Event? - Any guesses at how well top boat slalomers would do on a cable?

How is your dock setup? You could hook your feet around his shoulders, gently lower him towards the water and "dock start" from there. I've worked with a number of little kids on my show team who like the act of skiing, but don't want to get in the water. This works out pretty well and broke most of them from any fears within a week or two

Can you expand on what your 4th event is? The college joke is slalom/trick/jump/drink, but if there's another kind of skiing that we could bring attention to, I'm all for it

For 2 jumps, safety might be an issue if skiers feel like they cannot pass because they'd only have one more attempt at the ramp. If we really want to try and cut down on jump time, maybe compromise and say skiers get 2 trips over the ramp, and up to 3 attempts.