Damn, my hips are so closed!

Looks good, Joel.  Here's what I see...  I think you are not giving yourself a chance to ski more open, all the way back to the start.  Your pullout is tentative and narrow and you basically stay that narrow for the whole pass.  That narrowness sort of forces you to close off as you are waiting for the ball to come and then dump everything at once into a turn.  An earlier line will give you time to change edges long before the ball, then reach, then turn.  But you've got to get this going all the way back at your pullout/gate.  Then you can work on being open.  I would run more passes at a speed where you can accomplish this and then take it to 34 to test yourself.  Don't continue the pass beyond the point where you get narrow again.  You know you can run it but the goal in practice is to run it perfect.

One more thing to keep focusing on is to get your stance a bit taller and stacked.  In both directions you are in a kind of squat that has your butt back but your upper body forward.  Obviously, you are getting it done but I think it will be a lot easier if you can find that stack.  Can you video and work on this during your free ski sessions?

Every time I try to get wider, I turn into slack on the gate so I'm really hesitant to do that, FWIW. That said, I'll keep trying that.

If you don't like what you see on video, then don't video! J/K

Truthfully, I can't video myself, I see too much wrong and can't isolate things as much as i would like to.

The video doesn't play as well on my work computer, but I'm pretty sure I see you rotating your shoulders to turn and reaching for the handle which will make it very hard to be open because it moves the hips the wrong way.

Take your time leaving the handle and skiing back to the handle, we have more time than we feel like out there. Don't load until you ski yourself back to the handle (this allows the ski to finish it's arc naturally). Also think of loading with the trailing arm, this may keep you from reaching over the top.

As you leave the handle, ski away from the handle (as opposed to reaching to the boat, the handle stays where it is and you move away), if you reach to the boat, this may cause  the shoulder tilt. Any fast movements here will shed speed rapidly.

Skiing away from the handle vs reach to the boat, sounds very similar, worlds apart on the water. 

You are making some nice progress. Eliminate the rotation and practice your patience. Looking good.

Maybe pull out a little sooner?  Also, the slack thing is a direction thing.  You want the speed from your pullout to be directed outward.  That gives you a chance for an edge change and to get up over the ski and on to the front foot.  I think, in your case, you are flat and waiting and needing the speed to bleed, then going toward the gate by loading your back foot.  By pulling outward and getting up on top of the ski and riding that speed for what seems like an eternety around and toward the gate, you'll feel ridiculously slow and will get better angle.  At least that has been my experience.  Try to remember that gate/1/2 drill you did with Seth, where he got you high on the boat for your pullout.  It made 1 ball super smooth and easy.

Deke- these are wise words and you are exactly right about the pullout. I'm on it the next time I'm on the water (tomorrow).

I've got a spot on the side of the boat that I want the rope to reach on my pullout.  I know that even if it might feel somewhat fast, if I don't get there it is going to be a wild ride.

way off topic...is your water cold?  why are you wearing a top?

i agree with most things said by deke and BD.

i also get the whole slack on the roll-in, my solution is to pullout on the negative one with better direction and more intensity.

i would also focus on the head / shoulders...compare to Seth's picture on his gate roll-in.  

my theory, you're dipping your head / shoulders into the turn which forces you to bring your outside hip around sooner than you would like (thus closing it off) in order to keep from falling to the inside.

Deke, tried a more aggressive, angular pull-out this morning and killed it the whole set! One of the best sets of the year. Thanks!

Alright!

Muey bueno!

Yep, another set ending at the yellow loop. Fully tight line this time, felt very runnable- just bit off a huge chunk of angle out of 2. I was a good boy and ran my first two passes at 32/15, focusing on technique. After that, though, I was uncaged!

Probably a good time to start spending some time at -22, trying to see how many you can run. Maybe not all the time, but spend some time there finding ways to make it cleaner and easier.

Agreed 100%. My first 22 this morning was "meh"- got around 5, ran over 6. Second pass was full- in great shape the whole way but it didn't feel smooth. I polled the boat for my last pass "15, 22, or 28?" Boat crew voted 28.

A lot of the advice that I'm reading above seems to be along the same lines as what Lucky was saying at your lesson.  Time to re-veiw that video.