smokevw

@jpattigr that is Sproat Lake. I live in Victoria, BC. I think Shawnigan Lake has a ski school. I know Sproat Lake has a ski club but I need to get around to finding out more details on them. I saw they had a course setup there and I know they used to do a lot of competitions when we were younger but more around wake boarding but then I haven't seen much lately. Due to covid I didn't just want to rock up on the dock and start looking around for people to chat to. I'm sure I can even possibly post up on here and try to find someone to go skiing with up at Shawnigan as it is only 45 minutes from Victoria. I keep my boat at Sproat, but plan to try to do Shawnigan for May/June next year then Sproat July to Sept. Update: I reached out to the Sproat Lake Watersports Association and Victoria Aqua Ski Club (Shawnigan Lake)

Well after a great weekend and getting out Friday right when we got to the lake along with another 3 times in a day on Saturday I have to say I think watching those drills defiantly helped. I found a major change trying to focus on keeping my weight more even vs putting a lot of my pressure into the back leg. I also noticed a huge difference trying to keep the rope down at my hips arms tucked into my sides. I think also doing the smaller turns as shown in the video from Jerry helped. Though in that video they show focus on leaving your arms out and straight and just trying to stay on edge through the turns. I think for sure 15' off the wake is quite large to try to cross on edge I tried a few times and found I was somewhat bouncing through it trying to control with bending my knees more. I think next time I will try that drill at 28' off as listed in that video. All in all I do enjoy knowing what I should do and trying to go out each time trying to focus on something to improve on. It is the same way I focus on learning new tricks on kitesurfing, watch, learn, think and try to execute over and over until you get it :) Best part of the weekend was that that it was not very good weather with 0 boats on the lake so I got the most glass flat water to ever ski on in my life up there :smile:

@"Keith Menard" "if you can carve that wake as it appears high and hard, but even if it is, you still need to hit it with more angle. Look up 'pull out drills' and try that for a bit. If you ARE going to cross the wake...stop pulling once you cross it...the reason you are getting slack is because you are pulling all the way to your turn." So I watched all the Gordon Rathbun videos and loving the intro music ;) When you say stop pulling once you cross it, it seems like at 1:21 he actually stops pulling just prior to crossing it. Just before crossing he seems to slightly come up (he says that crossing body position is in drill 6) and you can see he stays more in position there, but for me not going to go all out initially I take it stopping that pull just before the wake will help? @Jerry44 great video, I look forward to trying this out it seems like my boats wake will be a lot less at 28. I actually ran at 28 off the other day and it felt way different but the wake was also way smaller. I think first I need to focus on body position and keeping my weight more balanced through those various drills. With the weight is it supposed to be balanced through the entire turns? IE always balanced not putting more weight on the back leg? Second questions is what boat speed and length to do these drills on? Should I be slowing down to 28 for these drills at 15' off and then once I feel like I have the drills try to keep the rope taught like in the video from Jerry and drop to 28' since the wake will be drastically smaller off the V-drive (2001 VLX Malibu)? Thanks guys tomorrow I will be riding rain or shine as it is the last weekend for the boat at the lake ;). Hopefully not rain as it will be harder to convince my friend to drive haha

BAM @MISkier you nailed it :) Tab brings it back. Back to my larger posting now. Thanks

@Than_Bogan Do you really get it to work after the refresh? I get the same issue, or do you wait for auto save then come into your drafts and find it? I thought of that, not sure how long you have to let it wait.

Ok Ill try my other phone (Android) and ill just email it what I want to post and give it a try. Hopefully someone is able to fix that bug. Font size change didnt get me much more.

@Chris Rossi I had a quite in depth response written up with a few questions but after losing it because I cant type more than a few lines on this site for some reason I gave up for a bit. Ill try on my phone later maybe that will work. Gordon Rathbun drills. I did go through all these last night and I think they make sense. Throwing SprayMakers onto spotify now, are there and I will look for some starter items or items that seem they would be of benefit.

Happens on Safari and Mac OS 10.15.4 as well.

These buttons at the bottom disappear as I add new lines and expand this text box. There seems to be no scroll.

Well I just lost about 15 minutes of writing. I have to say this website seems to have some issues.

@"Keith Menard" " It is really hard to tell from the video if you can carve that wake as it appears high and hard, but even if it is, you still need to hit it with more angle. Look up 'pull out drills' and try that for a bit. If you ARE going to cross the wake...stop pulling once you cross it...the reason you are getting slack is because you are pulling all the way to your turn." Yes I feel like now that it is at 15' off it seems better to cross at that point in the wake, I tried 28' by accident and that was very little wake but felt WAY different to ride. I looked up the pull out drills. When you talk about stop pulling once I cross it looks like you actually stop pulling just before crossing. See 1:21 here. I do think my form is off though. I have tried to do as they say here, and keep more pressure on my front foot. I think the drills listed here should help Gordon Rathbun playlist of drills but I do feel like when I am out there I will try to keep all these points, I think starting like the video above to keep the line taught as I go across the wake in smaller carves should help BUT I also need to pretty much have what I see in here as The pull out, the pulling, the coast and the lean all sorted out along with my body position to actually make that work ;) Next question, given I am on a V-drive would it be better to come in closer to the boat by taking off more rope and can I practice doing this at a slower speed 27-28 mph until I get it working then go up to 30-31? Thanks for your help, I will be hitting it up tomorrow even though its calling for rain, though convincing someone to drive in the rain may be more of a challenge ;)

Side note why can you not type long posts in the post section but only in the comments? It cuts off the buttons for me on Chrome on Mac?

So I started to get back into Slalom this year and LOVING IT (I only ever did it a few times as a kid). Since the start of summer I have gone about 15 times and the other weekend picked up a new Radar Senate Alloy. I am loving the new ski even though I have only been out on it 3 times. My biggest question is about form, technique and how to cross the wake. I have realized watching this video that I need to do a few things listed below. What I am really looking for are some tutorial videos/instructions online that I can follow. I have found a few on youtube but they seem to be spread out and other than knowing I want to have my knees in front of hips, and hips in front of shoulders and be leaned back I have not found a lot more resources. Here is a video of me... open to all criticism and hopefully thoughtful comments on what to work on. https://photos.app.goo.gl/D2Zw7zKXmQKUn85N9 Skiing behind a 2001 Malibu VLX, in this video it was loaded with a few extra people that would not normally be there (maybe 700 lbs) I have been going at 30-31mph and last week (this was rope at 70 feet) I took off 15 feet to see if it would be easier to cross the wake mid turn. (that is not shown here). Though I did find the wake less it seemed different to ski though I kept it at 15' off and it seemed to be less wake to deal with trying to cross. I do think the following: I may be leaning to far back (I can fell my back quad really burn) and looking at more videos they say I should have more weight on the front foot and be balanced, is that for the whole turn as well? I need to make smaller carves so that there is not as much slack in the line and wait to coast to catchup to the boat speed I need to figure out my upper body position on how to use it to go back and forth for carving I need to figure out how to cross the wake I need to know if its easier to do all this at a slower speed 28 mph etc Thank you all for any input and I will be up at the lake for my last main weekend this weekend so looking for tips to get better :)

I'm not sure why but I can not post more than a few sentences here before the buttons are cut off to save. Using Chrome and Mac OS. I have had to put it in as a comment below for my actual content for the post

ISO a 67 or 69 Radar Senate, located in BC but will pay for shipping. Ideally with bindings for a size 10.5/11. Thanks

Hi, I am getting back into water skiing and looking to pickup a used 67 or 69 Radar Senate Alloy or Graphite, preferably 2017 or newer with Vector boot on the front and HRT on the rear but I am interested in whatever. Even if its the bare ski I can probably find some boots. I am 6'2, 185lbs and size 10.5/11 feet. I am located in Canada so a purchase in Canada would be great but I can also pickup in Blaine WA. Thank you, Aaron