HO 410

If the trip too is tough, but the rest of the day is fine, a good place to start is look at ways to defuse the tension of anticipation. Singing out loud, word games, riddles, mental math, planning for a school project, maybe even talking about skiing if it doesn't feed that loop of anxiety.

I second, Third, and Fourth #eddie_roberts_jr Think about holding a squat. Think about relaxing your legs. Choose some thought prevents you from standing up until your skis are all the way on top of the water. Standing up too early, and/or trying to get up with your legs straight, makes the whole thing much harder than it needs to be. You could also try holding the handle with one palm up and one palm down: just like you would hold a baseball bat. It might be placebo, but I fell my grip is a bit stronger this way. Lastly, if you are at a site where you have not been using a coastguard approved vest, try a coastguard approved vest. It's what you tried to do with the float but won't require spend the engergy to balance on the float while you're trying to keep yourself balanced in the water. (I've had friends out to the ski lake that couldn't get up until we swapped out a pullover vest for a CGA vest)

However you go about getting up, be patient.

I'd hold off on making a ski decision until you go to April's and it's easy to demo skis and get good feedback. When you're at April's is when you could look into putting a fully adjustable fin box on your Triumph. You would not be using it to tinker when you get home, but so that you can get the ski more balanced while you're there.

I'd go with the Kodaks, because they are dirt stinking cheap compared to the GoPro.

Keep those arms straight. Do not pull that handle into your body.

I don't think there is a codified set of "grassroots" rules, they are just class f (fun) sanctioned tournaments. Class F tournaments have a great deal of flexibility in organization, format, and rule; because scores don't count for national rankings, skiers' attitudes usually relax. You'll need to call or email the tournament organizer to find out what their specific rule changes are. In terms of beginner and family friendly, you could probably expect something like a mulligan if you don't make your opener.

Completely agree with Than, you shouldn't be crashing after the second wake. Dial it back a bit and get to know the ski.

If you won't spend more than $200, try http://radarskistore.com/products/category/Slalom+Skis/1399.0.1.1.1008721.54086.0.0.0 The CDX and Truth aren't exactly known for being beginner friendly skis.

You cannot get leveraged/stacked once you start pulling against the boat. You cannot get leveraged/stacked if the boat never stops pulling against you. At a professionally coached clinic, you'll want to talk about a lot of things, but the pro will probably talk about gates all day long. I was at the Oklahoma State Championships a few weeks back, and I joked all day long with every skier, "Musta been the gate." It's true to a degree, there are six turns and that one gate shot controls the entire thing. All the way at the beginning of the pass, if you don't get free of the boat long enough to get leveraged, it's going to be very difficult to find the time to get leveraged later down the lake. I'm not sure that's a tip but it is something to chew on.

The ammount of tension you but on the bungee lace at the ankle dictates how easy or difficult it is for the cuff of the boot to open up and let your foot out. If that cinch is slipping, you could just tie a knot.

You need to progressively loosen the bungee, and see what changes. Keep going looser and looser until it doesn't ski right. I've made this suggestion to everyone that has bindings with a top bungee lace. Almost all discovered that they had been 1) overtightening and 2) were not getting much out of it than the feeling of a tight boot. As with all binding advice, your milage may vary.

Skiers should not have to witness the horrors of their photographs taken with are two hands on the handle?

Footloose42, We're dealing with cans and mights is both situations. There are skiers that punch though the hande and just get a hefty bruise. Not every skiers breaks an ankle when their bindings should have release but didn't. Not every skier that crashes into the wakes breaks a rib. The plastic these guards are made of is more flexible than I would expect in high energy situations. I have tried to punch through and rip out on the dock. Counldn't do it with 41 Tails on, could with a barehand and fingers straight. It doesn't feel great but neither does crahing OTF. I thought the EVA rubber in the Animals was pretty inflexible until I crashed and ejected from the boots. Again, it doesn't feel great but I've never describe crashing as a pleasent experience.

Action/Reaction. If you make the panel more flexible, to make it a little bit easier for your hand to get out, you also make it easier for your hand to get past the panel. Taken to an extreme, a panel that should be deflecting your punching fist could guide your hand through. Obviosly, everyone can and should make his or her own decision. I think the possible pitfalls of an Arm Guard are fairly minimal compared to what I am confident it can protect from.

Rs-1, Strada, Fluid Motion E-Series, O'brien Prodigy and Elites (when they hit the market) can be tested dry. Put them on and just pull up and forward, this will give you a pretty good picture of what it's going to take to come free of the shell.

The boot could be a little big. But even if it is, he's making some kind of up and forward movenent. The old bindings masked this by pushing his feet down onto the ski.

They're down to $19 if you can make use of a small.

I can see the merit of ghosting a post that is receiving consistant negative feedback. The post feedback is a new feature and I would expect that when people settle into that feature, only a minority will rate every post.

Just a quick note on paying per set: I'm 26, and the only reason I'm able to ski on a fairly regular basis is because of clubs and club owned boats. I don't know what it would cost for you to ski with the people that have access to a slalom course, but whatever they charge it would take quite some time for it to equal the annual cost of ownership for a boat. And when your paying per set, if your life situation changes, you don't have to worry about selling the boat, all you have to do is stop going.

The tournament experience, even at a class-c level, would be much poorer if guys like Andy, Rossi and Marcus were not empowered to do what they do: chasing 3@-43, advancing equipment, advancing technique, helping other skiers to improve, and just sharing the support they love. That's at least what a read into that tweet from Marcus. It shows concern that, if forced between choosing one over the other, a sponser might choose the Bigdawg event over an Open/Pro event. It's the concern for loosing opportunity.

The local dealer is probably getting mixed up by the boots that use the feather-frame plates.

twcues at gci dot net There isn't really a website for the original arm-guard. As far as I know there isn't much scale to his production, so everything is still pretty much a customized job. Just send an email with a subject like 'arm-guard information' The new design is segmented to make it easier to roll up the handle. According to Thomas, that segment turned out to improve the function in trends of deflecting hands away from the opening. http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/Generation3-5.jpg

Have you given much thought to bringing in a Radar Senate C? Generally, it's going to be cheaper than an Elite. It is constantly well reviewed and has a performance ceiling well higher than its "intermediate" category would suggest. It also has a large sweet-spot (read, compliant to mistakes) Take a straw poll, if you have friends that would be interested in a Senate C, it's almost a no lose situation.

I've seen skiers rivet the cuff on their Reflex shells so that the only flex is from the plastic deforming. The Connelly Stealth boots have and optional tongue stiffener that would probably be more simple to retrofit than the Full Tilt tongues. Another approach would be to attach something rigid to the lower shell and attach it to the cuff. You can see the concept in the fork shaped piece running up the back of the Nordica Firearrow boots. http://skieuropenow.typepad.com/.a/6a010535c6c5e4970c015436cdd18d970c-800wi