Dutch

Praying that God will do a miraculous work for your good and for His glory!

Lakeview Village north of Denver, Co

@DavidMiller... I admire your integrity and and commitment to treat everyone, even your competition with such a high level of respect. I can say that you were a class act long before the events last night and despite a tuff set of circumstances you still are a class act! You are an excellent example to all waterskiers young and old. Do what's right even when it's hard.

"My goal is to NOT load the line. Think of it like sailing. If the sail is pulled too tight, the boat flips without generating speed. With the sail at the correct angle, you generate speed without flipping the boat. Finding the angle that works for you is key." I really like the sailing analogy. Makes a lot of sense and often that's what it feels like on my end of things. I am going to focus on less load and pointing to a spot 20' or so in front of the ball. I hope that it will be "boring" and less frantic as @Horton spoke of in his initial post.

@Razorskier1....I'm curious how tall you are and your weight. I get the feeling you are a big guy, as am I. I am a lean and strong 205lb and 6'-3"". I have been told I pull quite hard and probably load too much. At 38 off I really struggle with the proper angle and maintaining width as you stated. I feel when I try for "proper" angle(usually less angle) then I don't get enough width and if I try for too much angle I kill all my speed which makes it almost impossible to hang on and get this 205lb frame going. I would like to hear more about Chet's thoughts about staying on top of the ski. That concept is one I haven't heard too much about but sounds interesting to me.

I know the Polycutt's, Doug Moss, and Dee Johnson and I agree that you had some of the nicest, most helpful and knowledgeable people on your "team" when you needed it most. The thing is they would likely be just as helpful to someone in the "waterskiing fraternity" that they hardly new, as they were to the one and only E. Lee.

@skier2788 I'll let you know if I pull the trigger

@skier2788 thank you. I may look into this option for a '03 196

What does the final price tag come out to for the parts and such if you do the install yourself?

@wish, where in Fl?

I know what you mean. I skied 6 days in so-cal last week. Water 64, air 80. Today back home in Denver water frozen, air 30, snowing 3"-6".

@E_T, I understand that there aren't that many women that can compete at this level, but there are some . From the USA Waterski rankings there are approximatly 10-12 women that could be competitve in the preliminary rounds and at least 3 that have scores that might compete in the head to head rounds. It's not so much about how many, but just the co-ed competition.

Why couldn't you have the current Big Dawg format with the inclusion of women? Any woman any age. Even a pro. Drop the "35 and over who have not placed in the top 10 in the open of a pro slalom tournament in the past three years"( only for females). At first thought I think it sounds good and would be a great event to spectate. Imagine the likes of Regina, April and other women going head to head with the current Big Dawgs. The women ski at the same speed and several can run mid way trough th 41-off pass, which would be competitive at any Big Dawg tournament. What do you think?

The wing on the EP GX3 was called a venturi tube. The other gimmick was the Mastercraft ski that had a radius built into one side or the other depending on right or left foot forward. Does anyone else think that sounds a bit like the "twist"?

I have rerally enjoyed reading and thinking about all the different thoughts on this subject. I have to say that I am in agreement with @OB as far as a "wide, but slow, methodical, easy turn in for the gates with a later aggressivness...". I tried this yesterday and got 3.5 and felt like I was "in control". What @scothhipman said about the geometry I totaly see and agree with, so my thought is that the tecnique that most people, men and women, use to set up the 38-off pass is what is really important in order to run the pass consitently or even at all. It is hard to tell how April"s start is different from one pass to the next, but I can see that what she is doing works very well and her one ball is very clean and strong. I would say that her timing, which is what we're talking about, is nearly perfect.

Does anyone have a comment on the gate at 38 and how it might be different then the 35 gate. My 38 gate seems to be puttting me into one to shallow and then I'm not making a good turn at 1. None of this is occurig at 35. I feel like when I get a good start at 38 I can run this pass, but the good starts are few and far between.