One of the best parts about our trip to Ski Paradise were the unexpected guests - Dasher and Todd Ristorcelli.

Many of you will already know Todd as he is the editor, sometimes writer, sometimes photographer and a little bit of everything else behind the scenes at Waterski Magazine.

Dasher you may be less familiar with, but he is much of the creative genius behind the famous “Edged in Water” videos.

If I had known that I was going to be writing for 15off during my trip, I probably would have made it a point to sit down individually with these two and interview them, but they were both working and I was on vacation so the thought never really crossed my mind.  Instead, we hung out at the dock, on the boat, in the water, at the bar and at dinner and just had an all-around awesome time.

Dasher (his first name is Charles, but he just goes by his last name “Dasher”) got his start by living in Aruba for over a decade in the surf, windsurf, and kiteboarding scene.  I got the impression that his interest and skills as a videographer started out as a hobby and gradually expanded into the business that it is now where he’s following around the likes of Mikhail Prokhorov (owner of the New Jersey Nets) filming his adventure vacations.

He was down at Ski Paradise filming for Gordon to do some promotional videos for Gordon’s website.  How cool is it that our group could be featured?  Many of us (including myself) were filmed skiing at 60fps from a chase boat.  You want to talk about needing to keep your focus!  One one particular set I pulled out for my negative one and the spray chine of the chase boat was hitting me in the face - too close!  I fell at 2 ball (whimper).

We kept asking when he was going to do Edged in Water 3 and if he could use the footage from our week as a chapter - and like any good artist he kept us interested without promising.

Dasher is incredible with the camera (both stills and video) and a natural teacher as he is pretty much always talking about the what and why behind the shot he’s trying to get.  You would pretty much have to be willfully ignoring him not to learn something because he just oozes information about photo technique.  I actually encouraged Dasher to approach Gordon about teaching a photography and video class as a supplement to the whole Ski Paradise experience since many of us who ski seem to have a high interest in capturing the experience.

You can check out some of Dasher’s work at dasherfilms.com.

If you haven’t purchased Edged in Water, I would encourage you to do so.  You can easily order it through h2oproshop.com or waterskivideos.com.

Todd, well...Todd is...Todd... - let me start again.

Todd is one interesting fellow, on the one hand very thoughtful and introspective, and the other he’s Will Ferrell on a waterski.  He’s also an incredible skier.

(I think) Todd was at Ski Paradise to supplement Dasher’s work with still photography and also to capture some stills of Will Asher for Waterski Magazine.  I didn’t see him conducting any interviews with Will or Kris LaPoint, but that could have been going on behind the scenes.  He was there for an abbreviated time, arriving on Monday and leaving early Friday morning.

He was pretty much hard at work most of the day, getting up early to capture the morning light, in the water taking stills as skiers rounded buoys, in a chase boat following skiers up and down the course.  Don’t get me wrong, both he and Dasher were having a lot of fun, but it’s not like they were sunbathing and napping between sets.  They were pretty much on and in the water all day.

Todd did jump in the boat to drive and coach some.  He pulled me when I ran my first 32mph for the week (while KLP was coaching).  He coached my wife and just had her do some pullout drills getting her to lead with her hip more aggressively than she ever has in the past.

Todd did approach me for some “market research”, basically just to talk about the magazine about what I liked (or didn’t) and what I wanted to see more (or less) of.  I found the dialogue very interesting and it gave me insight into the kind of issues Todd wrestles with each issue to try and please his readers.

Do you want more or less Pro’s, Joe’s, trick, surf, how-to, kneeboard, vacations, etc?  These are the kinds of questions we were tossing back and forth.  I get the sense that Todd has his own ideas about what is best, but is genuinely open to pretty much anything his readers want.

I told him that I preferred information about pro skiers over regular joe’s; I would like more of a write-up on what actually happened at a tournament (rather than just checking the “box score” to see who won); I told him when he wrote about the Chris Parrish faux paus at the Global (I think) a few years back, that created a lot of chatter our circles; I would like to see more trick; I am not interesting in kneeboarding at all; I like the how-to articles, I like the new (larger) format, etc.

Of course, there is the humorous side to Todd which tends to be situational.  His favorite time seemed to at dinner when everyone was relaxed and he was either impersonating Gabriella or poking fun at the answers to our group question, “How did you meet your significant other?”  He had us (me especially) busting a gut with laughter.

There is a possibility that Todd will be in our area this summer for a coaching session and I hope that it really comes to pass.

If you’re not a current subscriber to Waterski Magazine, I would encourage you to give them a shot at waterskimag.com.  I’ve been a subscriber for the past 6 years now and I genuinely believe the magazine is better today than what is was then - plus is pretty cheap!  If nothing else, send Todd an email and tell him what you think.