jimbrake

I have a 12-inch-wide (straight) by 1.030-inch diameter S-Lines handle for sale on SIA for a good price. Two sets on it. Perfect condition. Please buy.

Wheatland

There is a ski-with-Joel day this week at California Ski Ranch/Redwood Shores. I was thinking of showing up with my Rossi 150 race boots and walk onto the dock with them on to see if Joel would notice and give me a thumbs up.

John - so true. First things first. Before we worry about vision in the turn, we have to have that outbound connection to swing up on the boat and not take a straight, disconnected line into the turn. Thanks for adding that.

I know you want a fin setting solution, but also consider your vision - whether you look across course, out in front of the boat at the next buoy, or down the buoy line, keeping your vision up and long distance generally always helps you to carve a smoother finish back under the rope. I still don't have this fully ingrained, but work on it every set and it clearly helps (me). If you're focused on the buoy you're coming into or looking at the water where you think you want to finish your turn, then that usually results in a less-than-ideal finish.

mine

Had my right (rear slalom leg) replaced February 7, 2018, when I was 59. Tried to get it done a few years earlier, but doc said "No, you're too young. Come back when you can't go up and down stairs". That was never going to happen, but when I went back to him in 2018, with that knee bone on bone, he agreed it was time, but he still thought I was on the "young" side. First 2 weeks post surgery were rough, next 2 weeks I could tell that it going to be OK. At the 4 week mark I was like "OK, this is going to be good". At 6 1/2 weeks I went surfing because I had a trip already planned. Three waves in the first day and I remembered "Oh yeah, my knee. It's fine". Started water skiing in late April (around week 10 or 11). Didn't try to get back on snow (which was the main reason I had it done) that spring and just waited 'til the next winter. It has been great ever since, especially on snow. Only minor complaint is that I think the procedure made my right leg 1/2 inch or more longer, which affects the hip alignment, which affects the low back, but that has been manageable. All other knee and leg alignment came out good.

@DragoWas so cool to watch the GS and slalom on a hill that I ski every week of the season and have since the mid-'70s. Dog Leg is no joke. I would like to hear what the competitors thought of it. The GS course set of both runs was a bit mean with those delays into blind turns on the steepest parts of that hill that ultimately got several of the guys (unfortunately including River Radamus), but they all got to inspect and some didn't seem too troubled. I think that may be due in part to the "luck" involved in picking when to make your move coming out of the delay at those speeds. "OK now! Oh shit!" Masters train up top on way easier, but very rolling terrain. I've been screwing up the timing on diving into the gates on the last pitch since....the mid-'70s.

We are having an AWESOME winter in NorCal. Awesome. You want water in the west, you better pray, hope, dance for an awesome winter every GD year.

@twhisper - I know you're strong. I saw you do an impressive thing last summer at regionals - you fell at 39 (were understandably not pleased), the boat came back to get you because there was going to be a runoff, and you grabbed the side of the boat and muscled up with your ski on. I looked at the guy next to me on shore and we both said "holy shit". That was gymnast strength. Combined with the fluid skills of Jason P and that makes you a world class skier.

@Horton - maybe somewhat misguided, but not all. "20 years ago" we were in the throes of "West Coast" slalom and a lot of that was about moving your mass with or ahead of your feet - trying to facilitate efficient acceleration. What are we talking about today, still? That (plus other). Efficient stance, keeping the COM moving, effective acceleration. Alpine skiing, especially slalom and GS, is in large part about moving down the hill effectively. That is where the sports have some similarities and a lot of people tried to make those comparisons. The propelling forces, however, are hugely different for each. One, a boat and the swing it will give you, and the other gravity and the down-the-hill (fall line) speed it will give you. I agree with @drago when he wrote: "There's a reason alpine skiers pick up waterskiing fairly quickly, and also reasons they sometimes don't progress as far as they could." I resemble the second part of that statement. If you do both, you will naturally spend some time (mostly on chairlifts) thinking about the similarities. Can't be helped. If you don't do both, then don't twist your brain trying to apply what you know from one to what you are trying to learn with the other. Get good coaching specific to each.

@rogerw - I think a lot of people that started their skiing young enough, and especially if they skied on a college team, has a story like that. I certainly do. If you skied tournaments in the '70s and '80s like I did, then there's a good chance you would have more than a few stories to tell and some that didn't even involve alcohol, but other mindbenders.

During the pandemic, working from home I got myself into a one-very-nice-IPA-per-evening habit. I even have three buddies with whom we started a beer text thread sending each other pics of our ever-changing line up with lots of thumbs-ups and discussion. Then, after that beer, sometimes a glass of wine with dinner. Not that you have to live here to get good wine and beer, but in Northern California I am seriously surrounded by really, really good stuff. I'm 64 and realize that that's pretty dang stupid if, like I do, you want to remain as active and athletic as possible for as long as possible. It was, however, very nice mentally after the day's work, ski rides, workouts, whatever to sit outside with my dog (literally the best part) and have a nice craft IPA, DIPA, TIPA and relax a bit and chat with my bros. But...it was starting to take a toll. So, ditch the beer and wine, but lose that nice mental break. Last week I had a catheter ablation procedure to treat atrial fibrillation. Not a full-on surgery, but a big, invasive deal nonetheless that I'm just now recovering from. A-fib was starting to get a little too often and too prolonged and getting in the way of activities. Alcohol certainly could have very well been a factor. Didn't have a beer for a long time after the procedure - like 3 or 4 days! It's time to look in the mirror and get my S squared away. A non-alcoholic beer sounds like a good idea.

"Ouef" means egg. "Chapeau" means hat. It's like those french have a different word for everything.

Inconsistency in LFF gate turn-in timing to get into a good stacked position over (like @Than_Bogan said - moving with) my feet to get that first good swing to one. That, and skiing in too squatty of a position instead of consistently being tall, long in the body, stacked.

Ski. Year 'round. Did you have a question, Sean?

Well, close - mine was my rear knee. Surgery on 2/7/18, skiing by May that year. No pain.

@ski6jones - hahahaha - I had to look up the term then realized I had heard it before.

Hollister is also famous for offset of various linear features (sidewalks, roads, fences, street lines) from seismic creep on the Calaveras Fault (a major fault that splays off the San Andreas south of Hollister). Thought that was what the link was going to show.

Been on an NRG R2 for about 2 weeks. Love it.

I just spent a week on the Neo and now am giving the NRG R2 a go. I liked the Neo pretty well (definitely settled on stock after a few moves), but my initial impression after two rides on the NRG is (for me) NRG all the way. Also, purely stock as a starting point, but not feeling the need to do much, if anything, to it.

and @Nason

@swbca - sorry for the delayed reply. Wasn't blowing you off, was out of town and relatively disconnected. Like my slalom. Get it? Disconnected? Anyway... Well, in all my years of extreme, advanced, super awesome, really really short line slalom experience (actually it has been "advanced mediocre, mid-length slalom experience") I haven't felt a correlation to weight as much as youth and strength. My senior year of high school when I started in the slalom course I weighed about 185. My first year of college I weighed 192. Right now at a few days short of 64 I weigh 190. My lightest has been 178 and my heaviest has been 200. So, no good weight swings to judge by. I've never been a heavy lifter, but I was athletic, always doing several sports and training, and was generally always in "attack/charge" mode much to my skiing's detriment. Now I'm old athletic, old strong, old flexible, and try to "attack/charge" a little smarter and more measured. Bottom line is I'm way weaker, but hanging in there. THAT is the main reason for my decline in scores, but I still enjoy the effort.

Free-skied until I was 18 then went to Mike Suyderhoud's in 1976. Went from couldn't run anything to running 34 mph long line the first week, then slow progression to best of 5 @ 35 off @ 36 mph in my early 30s and running it a couple times in practice. Then, many Mens 3 and 4 years running a few at 38 at 34 mph, but started running 38 in practice in my early 40s. Then...ZO hit. Since 2008 I have run 35 @34 probably less than ten times. Have been working HARD to learn to ski with ZO all these years and my skiing is improving, but buoy count is not. My only goal is to run 35 again before I have to slow down to 32 mph. Now snow skiing is a different deal for me - about to turn 64 and have been training with a Masters group at Palisades (formerly Squaw Valley) the past two seasons after a knee-pain-imposed racing hiatus since around 2010. I feel like I'm in my 30s on my snow skis - on-piste, off-piste, in slalom, in GS, in Super G, in bumps, in crud. All due mainly to a new knee in 2018 and just being better at working with gravity than a boat. Regardless of sport, my attitude is to "be like a kid", keep learning, from anyone that can help, keep pounding away, enjoy the fight.

@Horton - you going to come to Bell Acqua? You'd be more than welcome.