Ntq206

No. I started skiing at the age of 38, and the body position fundamentals are still very difficult and I've learned it is required for any ski or boat I've ridden (old and new) . That's a component that just as difficult as ever and maybe even more so today with bigger boats IMHO. The rest I believe is relative.

Haha yeah - @BruceEmery -does this psychiatrist you speak of ski too?? Haha I guess I'm whining. Sorry. Venting felt better though!

Wow is this a tough sport to maintain improvement momentum...at least it is for me. This season I started out ridiculously well - I've been focusing on getting stacked with hips up - and it was all coming together quickly....I was thinking' man, I got this!!!!! Hips up nice, crazy acceleration..... Then seemingly out of nowhere I just seemed to suddenly regress for a few rides until I ultimately ended up taking a nasty OTF that bruised me up pretty bad. Skiing this morning felt like 3 steps back.... So frustrating.!!! Frustrating that I now need to claw back to where I already was earlier...... Mental advice? Does this happen to everyone in this crazy sport or is it just me? I'm not in the course, just 15 off 34 MPH trying to get my form correct.

The two 196's I've skied with - one has a tower and another did not. Absolutely no difference whatsoever in the wake to me - each one we've had loaded almost every imaginable way. I've commented to friends that it seems a 196 can't make a bad slalom wake no matter what we do. I just can't get my head around a tower causing such a significant issue here.

@Jody seal - you piqued my interest with the 206 prop change. You mentioned it helped the rooster - was this at all line lengths? Did it just move it or lessen / soften it. My 206 has a pretty hard rooster kick. Interested to hear what it did.

There boat has an awesome wake at -15. Skied one many many times and its still probably my favourite boat to ski behind of all the boats I've tried. Flat wake and strong pull on that boat. What are you comparing it to?

Wow - that's rough - you can hear it slapping the ski hard all the way. Wicked recovery at 0:20 - yikes...

I have the Wiley's baggie drysuit. I love it. It's so super light and doesn't feel restricting at all. I can wear my nice warm fleece underneath very easily.

What a catch 22 this is for me..... So for the past couple of months I've been working pretty much exclusively on getting into that strong leveraged position behind the boat. I've made huge progress - but last week I GOT IT! Well, ok, just for 2 passes free-skiing, but I absolutely knew I had it right. The acceleration was ridiculous and there was a total epiphany. That was after running behind.... let's call it Boat "A" for about a week straight. (calling it boat A to avoid brand-wake-wars). I really felt like I was making HUGE strides in my skiing that week. It was totally coming together. The very next morning, I'm back to usual boat "B". -15 wake is quite a bit rougher and tougher. Mentally, for whatever reason, I just couldn't completely trust that fully leveraged position and I immediately regressed. Just when I think I'd broke through the barrier..... grrrrr. Felt like I took two steps back again. And so is my current paradox - I know now I can do that strong leveraged position and exactly what it feels like, but because of a tougher wake, my brain holds back on me. I know, I know - with a strong position, the wake isn't an issue. (I guess I only partly subscribe to that thinking otherwise everyone would be just as happy to ski behind a big WakeSetter.) I'm sure I'm not the only one who been there.... just incredibly frustrating - and maybe I'll just find out that this is all part of the painfully slow learning curve. Anyone been here?

In my own experience, there is one super critical requirement that must be met before I can get stacked properly - and that's the very first pull out- I absolutely MUST be wide on the boat. This gives me the time to make the turn properly to "fall into" the tightening line in the right posture and get into a stacked position long before the wakes with elbows to the vest. If I don't get wide right off the very start, I will start narrow, which leads to no acceleration time to the wake, which leads to a rushed turn, which leads to inefficient time to let the ski finish the turn, which leads to "pulling" into a tight line, which then leads to my hips 10 cars back. Total domino effect for me. I am not an elite skier so I don't have the athletic ability like Regina or Nate to rush a turn and brute force recover my stack before the wake. Just this morning actually I had this happen and I was struggling with getting proper stack. It wasn't until I took my second set that I got wide - and boom- it all fell into place again. I'm just a 15 off'er myself, so take it for what it's worth, but I'm just passing along

2011 Radar Strada 67" HO Venom Bindings Masterline Curves Gloves Proline ML

Man, this sport can be so damned frustrating. I had my best set of my life followed by a set that looked like I went back to a year ago. Went from a total high to being so disappointed. Than, your treatise is excellent and sound advice - I just have to stop over-thinking it now when I'm on the water. If I think too much, I start to feel robotic.

We are the inelligibles.......

What?? We Canadians aren't eligible?

Ok - how about this.... If a DD ski boat is 100% out of the question, then I'd personally go for the Nautique Sport 200. I've skied behind a lot of different boats, and of all the Victom-drives its the best at longline especially.

I make LOTS of mistakes and my Strada has only dumped me once. I'd say it's pretty darned forgiving if you ask me.

I'm on a Strada and don't know what it is or why - but it gets out of the hole super smooth - straight as an arrow. Some skis I've been on like to wander a bit out of the hole - for whatever reason - it just tracks out like it's on a buttery smooth train tracks out of the water.

@SkiJay - thanks for your comments and thoughts. You also hit on another point - which is his smooth 30MPH-wake crossing. That to me is some great timing on the release from the pull also. For me, the thing that I've been keying off is finding that efficient acceleration - I know I end up pulling too long, but that's because I feel like I have to because my acceleration is much more gradual. The 'arm accelerator' is a key that I've never even tried in this lock so to speak. I understand that while I might not achieve that level of efficiency for quite some time - it's something I want to keep visualizing as at least what it should look like. I'm thinking that as long as I can keep the speed moving through the turn, I can maybe also reduce my propensity to start my pull too early and be in a decent position to 'hit the accelerator'. As I read back on what I just wrote, it's amusingly apparent to me that my "actual skiing" level isn't even on the same planet as my brain that is thinking this technique stuff through.....

My own .02 is that I believe that large wakes slows progress. You're absolutely going to have dinner plate eyes the first time back behind the WS. Personally i find that unless you have a kamikaze approach to skiing, I find with big wakes I instinctively become a bit more hesitant to get aggressive enough to actually get down into that strong position when seeing the mountain I'm going to have to climb over. Maybe that's just jus me though. At 28 MPH 15 off it's going to be a real challenge - no doubt about that. Tough one when it's the family pride and joy. There's only one way to find out for yourself and seeits workable for you......

@Rich I love the way you stated that Rich. I got thinking about this a bit today and started wondering about the mechanics of why this would act as the accelerator on the ski - could it be that the outside arm pressure will intrinsically create more pressure on the front foot? Conversely, I would tend to think that if the pressure was applied to the 'inside' arm, this would have an effect of shifting weight to the tail of the ski. Don't know - just thinking out loud. Lately my single focus skiing has been just a conscious effort to keep my arms dead straight. I'm anxious to try feeling pressure on the outside arm this weekend.

Great insights! @Rich - thank you for the detailed breakdown - I found it very useful to identify things that I couldn't necessarily just 'see' without having skied at that level. I think the other important nugget here that I'd kind of suspected all along is that just as @Jim Neely said, if I could ski 15 off this way, I could ski shortline. It's a tradeoff between what 15 off 'can' look like and what 15 off 'could' look like. It can be a bit misleading watching this initially that you can change edge so early - well you can, as long as you've taken off like a missile out of the bouy! Not quite there yet! Thanks guys! I just love this sport - and I've only just begun.

Recently in my ambition towards getting my skiing in shape enough to run 15 off, I have been carefully studying a lot of videos. Comparing videos of folks at the 15 off level and shortliners into 38 off always felt like comparing apples to oranges to some extent. A while back though I saw a video of Seth Stisher running 15off 30MPH - and the thing that sets his 15 off run apart from just about any 15 off level skier I have ever seen is the super efficient and quick acceleration from the ball to the centerline. Seth clearly falls into the pull nicely, but the acceleration gained from there just seems to be insane. He's already changing his edge at the centerline at 15 off! Most folks running 15 off aren't edge changing until much later - but he's generated so much cross course speed it seems he can afford the early edge change leading to a nice patient turn. It looks so absolutely effortless once he falls back into his pull - it 'looks' like he's hardly taking any load at all but just is so efficient in acceleration. My initial thought is that he is able to carry a ton of speed through the turn back towards the wake. So what do you think makes his acceleration so efficient and effortless looking? Or am I out to lunch in my assessment?

Go to your local auto parts dealer and ask for a core for a 1977 Ford LTD or Torino. Should be around $55 or so.

Out of the hundreds of boats I see around locally, (many DD's) a very small handful are used for slalom skiing and an even smaller handful is used for course skiing. I see folks skiing behind anything they can afford. Just the reality of a niche market.

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