My week in Ski Paradise

The Palapa

Fellow skiers, in all the years of posting on 15off I've finally hit the "big time" with some front page content!  

I’ve pretty much decided that with this post I've already hit my waterskiing zenith for the year because nothing I do on the water will compare to the pure awesomeness of being a front page contributor to site dedicated to the largest population of skiers out there.  

Seriously, I want to thank Joel for extending the invitation and giving me the opportunity to contribute more.  Hopefully I don’t blow it anytime soon and he keeps me on the roster.

So lets kick things off by showing some exclusive video of the world's greatest waterskier - no disrespect to Mapple or the other top five ISWF skiers - but no one has more first place finishes in the past 3 years than Will Asher, and talking about my recent vacation to Ski Paradise.

For the past three years in February my ski buddy Eric has gone to Gordon Rathbun’s Ski Paradise in Acapulco, Mexico and each time he comes home a raving fan of the experience.  I’ve tried to convince my wife each of those past three years to go, but life circumstances have gotten in the way (business, baby).  Upon his return in 2011 he invited 5 couples to join he and his wife in celebration of his 40th birthday at Ski Paradise.

I said to my wife, “honey - we’re going, no matter what.”  And I’m sure glad we did.

There’s a lot to say about Ski Paradise, too much to cover in one post, so let me just start with a couple of nuggets with the promise of more to come.

When you’re planning your trip to Ski Paradise, Gordon publishes his guest coaching list well in advance so if you have someone you prefer (or not) you can coordinate dates.  I think this is important and something you have to get right because, for many, this will be a trip of a lifetime and as sincere and well intentioned as any coach may be, you just might prefer one over another.

If you’ve been in this sport even for a short time, you probably have had a chance to get coaching at some point in time and know that a really good coach can enhance the fun in your skiing experience even if you don’t happen to pick up any buoys that day.  If you’re uncertain about a coach - maybe you never heard of the one scheduled for the week you have in mind - Gordon is very accessible via email and can give you insight on what might be the best match for you.

For three consecutive years now Eric has lined up his Ski Paradise trip to coincide with Will Asher and Kris LaPoint.  We were also privileged to have the editor of Waterski Magazine, Todd Ristorcelli and the Producer of the Edged in Water videos - Dasher with us.

With as many as three boats in the rotation and up 15 skiers, especially early in the week when everyone was fresh, you just kind of jumped in with whoever was available.  I guess you could choose are request a particular coach to join you in the boat, but it seemed to be more random and not so important.  I went several times without a coach.

Will’s coaching style is simple and direct.  He was a huge hit with the ladies because of his approachable demeanor and his simplicity.  I see Will as a coach someday as he was very effective in getting one skier (Dennis) to run 1 through 5 three consecutive times - curse that 6 ball! - and he’s was able to connect with me regarding my offside turn (more on this later).

Kris’s coaching style is technical and repetitive.  He’s was a huge hit with Eric (35off), Dave (39 1/2off - Big Dawg skier) and myself (15 - 22off).  Kris just seems to know everything about what the ski is doing on the water and why.  Kris takes great effort to try and say the same thing different in words to connect with you, and when he did so about “standing tall” going into my offside turn I ran 32mph for the first time this year.

So if you ever wanted to know anything about planning a trip to Ski Paradise, let me know and I’ll try to address in future posts.  I’ve got some more fun videos and pictures to share.

- Anthony