PHXBuff

Hey everybody. Sorry for the delay in getting back here. We've had company in town the last couple of weeks and I haven't had the chance to post. First, thanks to everyone here who took the time to reply. Really appreciate the ideas and thoughtful suggestions. Second, I wanted to report what's transpired since I left the original post a couple of weeks ago. As it turns out, I have a buddy downlake who happens to have spent time show/performance skiing and has a 7-year old daughter who's already slaloming. He happened by one night as we were sitting on the dock and offered to help. The next day, we took his boat out and he gave me a couple important pointers. First, look at the horizon or back of the boat, not at the ski. Second, hold and keep the rope low to my feet and lastly, make sure my weight was evenly balanced between the front and back of the ski. On my first attempt, fail. Second time, got up. Third time, fail. I was ready to stop after the third fail because, as someone mentioned here, I felt strongly that my core issue was being "in my head" and thought if i failed again, I'd be done. He insisted that I end on a high note, so I tried a fourth time but I adjusted my grip which is normally both palms down to left down, right up. In addition, he shared one other trick which was to tilt my ski slightly to the right. Once I was ready to go, he'd also slightly steer the boat to the right, presumably using the wake somehow to help my exit out of the water. And Bingo. I've been three times since and have successfully got out on the first time, each time. I think it's premature to say I've figured this out because I'm essentially re-learning my exit from the water. Historically, I'd say I've been very compact and come out as a "ball", then stand up once the ski planed. This new way feels much more like the ski and my lower body is coming out first and my upper body just follows. Very strange, but new so something I feel I need to perfect before I can say I've got this behind me. I'll be doing more skiing through the month and will let you know how I do if y'all would like. This has been the strangest thing and, should I return to poor form, won't hesitate to incorporate any and/or all of the other suggestions regarding change of equipment, suit, etc. offered up here. Really can't thank y'all enough for your feedback. Hopefully I'm back on track again and can spend another good month or so getting some good skiing in before I hang it up the end of September.

I've been slalom skiing for 30 years and it's as natural and second nature to me as walking. For the second time in two years, however, I've suddenly "forgotten" how to slalom start and cannot get out of the water to save my soul. Two years ago, I took a nasty fall on a new slalom ski in open water. Afterward, I took a couple week break before skiing again. When I next tried, I was unable to slalom start, the handle flying out of my hands on every attempt. Over a two month period, I tried again and again, each time with the same discouraging end result. During that period, we invested in a new, "grippier" rope handle and Radar gloves in attempt to address the possible problem with equipment upgrades. These efforts didn't work either. Then one day, out of the blue, I made yet another attempt and popped right out and have been fine ever since. Until a week ago. My skiing this summer has once again been without issue. I've skied anywhere from one to five times a week all summer, usually a couple of pulls at a time, with absolutely no trouble. I skied twice again last Thursday, then twice again Friday, getting out of the water easily on each of the four attempts spread over the two day period. On Saturday morning, it was as if it was two years ago all over again. Three separate attempts to get out, not one success. Two more attempts on Sunday failed. At this point, my forearms started to ache, so I elected to sit out for a few days to let them rest. I tried three times again Tuesday and four times this afternoon, all with the same discouraging result. I have no idea what the issue is or how to address it and thought I'd post here to see if anyone else had (and conquered) a similar problem or has any suggestions as to how I can re-approach a slalom start in hopes of something kicking in and getting me out of the water again. I sit here looking at a glassy smooth lake here in suburban Minneapolis and this is killing me. If anyone has any advise of any kind, it would be much appreciated.