CsSkis

Caldwell at Trophy Lakes on Friday, Nov. 17th

Big Question - What is going to happen to the incredible collection of classic slalom waterskis??? I hope they have found a good home for all of them in the same place.

@Drago Ignoring the humorous allusions, but what is that thing???

Can someone refer me to the video link (and time stamp) for Adam's runs?

Bump

Full pass at 39! Just for the record, what was your previous PB at a tournament?

This is indeed a huge loss for Seattle and waterskiing. Many prayers for his family. My best Paul story was the day I was looking at some skis when a guy came into the shop and tried to barter, and not in a friendly way, with Paul over the price of a used ski. Paul just kept raising the price until the guy gave up. He then tried to buy it at the original price and Paul just said no. When the guy left the shop, I couldn't help but break out laughing.

Horton - all of the above. Great video!

Well deserved, well earned! Congratulations!

I think it is hilarious that no one has commented on the beard.

Try again. Caldwell was on vacation in Maine. Not sure if he is back yet.

@Horton I don't think I have ever seen a video of you being that (consistently, ball to ball) smooth at 38. Amazing skiing.

@Horton OK, I'll second what @Than_Bogan asked. Are you just yanking our chain?

Spectators watched in amazement at the recent Trophy Lakes tournament as Adam Caldwell ran 1/2 at 43 and 5.5 at 41 in rounds 1 and 2 respectively. In addition, Caldwell was heard to say "My forearms were smoked from finalizing design with Cord the entire previous week. I must have easily skied over 200 passes over the previous 10 days, 90% of which were at 38 and shorter at 36 and 34mph." and "The first 41 all three buckles opened up on the back of 3 ball" Eyebrows were raised and the subject of suspicious "performance enhancers" was raised. But, now the truth can be revealed! (Thanks to @Horton or @MattP for source picture.)

@adamhcaldwell , as @Wish said, this pass looked pretty smooth. Basically, every one of the passes you have posted look pretty good! The c75 seems to be very forgiving of positioning on the ski.

I might also comment that those wakes look pretty big at that speed. I can imagine that is one reason she is backing off prior to the wakes. "Kudos" to her for even trying!

@Alberto Soares - Yep! And, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is @adamhcaldwell and @AdamCord.

@DangerBoy: Nicely said. I concur.

@bracemaker - Apples versus Oranges - You just introduced 4 shear planes when you created a 1" square tube (assuming the end condition retains the 1" square under load). The assumption with the 4" sheet of cardboard is that it is 2-dimensional with only 1 "shear" plane. So, thickness, by itself, doesn't increase the torsional stiffness. For example, if you could separate 2 sheets of 2" wide cardboard with an air gap (of any thickness), they would have the equivalent overall torsional stiffness as the 4" wide strip. But, after saying all of that, I agree with the point you were trying to make! The best case, from a torsional stiffness standpoint, it to use your 4" strip of cardboard to make it into a tube. That's why airplanes went to monocoque structures. Ok, so when do we start riding tubular skis?

As both @adamhcaldwell and @eleeski said, forget Kevlar. @adamcord built some O'Brien Elites out of Kevlar (red and blue ones!). They looked really amazing in the sunlight, but were a real pain to put in inserts and to clean up around the fin slot. (As @eleeski said, the Kevlar fibers are very hard to drill, trim or sand cleanly. They just end up getting real "fuzzy".) These particular skis turned out fairly soft, as Adam was just trying out the material and didn't worry too much about flex. The one that Adam gave me skied well in rough water as it seemed to absorb vibration better than Carbon. (Of course, I didn't have a direct comparison to work with, so it just could have been all in my mind.) I passed the ski along to someone else after I was done "playing" with it and the individual that has it now is still enjoying the ride. (The individual had radical spine surgery a few years back - he had to travel to a specialist in Europe to get it - and appreciates the softness of the ski.) So, in this particular case, the ski turned out very durable.

@adamhcaldwell The baseball analogy with the energy imparted versus vector connection was great! Thanks.

I agree with both Adams regarding the effect that double boots have on ski setup. Caldwell set me up on a c65 about a month ago. I was using my typical double (rigid) boot setup. No matter what I tried with regard to body position, and no matter what Caldwell tried with regard to ski setup, I could never get over the tip of the ski consistently. I always felt like I was on the back of the ski. After much thought, and after the re-reading of comments made by the Adam's regarding boot angle and stiffness, I realized that (a) my boots are too vertical with respect to forward ankle flex, and (b) the rear boot was driving the tip up, just as Caldwell said. I intend to revise my boots over the winter, to correct this situation, and try the c65 again in the spring.

Two comments: (A) @adamhcaldwell has made huge advances in his skiing since 2009. (B) @adamhcaldwell made my mouth drop open and say various expletives regarding his skiing in the 2017 video, above. If he gets much lower to the water in his turn he will need a snorkel.

@adamcaldwell and @adamcord, thanks for letting me be someone that was able to participate and yet not ski 2 - 3 sets a day. For me, the presentations and visualizations that were included as part of the classroom work were even more powerful a learning tool than being coached out on the water. Great job!

@Wish, nicely written and nicely skied. Congratulations!