Well, it's official.  Had to pull our course out this week due to low water.  That and due to some back and hip issues this season, I had a grand total of 6 sets in the slalom course this year!  We'll need a really big winter this year to even get it back in next season.  There will still be skiing just not the course.  Let's hope it happens.

Not much to write about...

Due to various circumstances I have been skiing very little this summer.  Not all bad, mind you, I got to go to hockey camp which was absolutely fantastic.  But now, due to house guests, weather, and other commitments it is not the usual.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the water level is going down early, so we may need to pull the course out in a few weeks!

All is not lost though.  I am really enjoying the skiing that I am doing.  My schedule for the last two weeks and for the next three allows me to ski Monday and Tuesday, instead of the normal weekend.  It doesn't get any better than that on a public lake!

So how's it going?  Great!  I have been skiing at least one free ski session each day prior to running the course since there is no pressure to ski the course before the weekend tubers arrive.  Basically, all I have been doing is rhythm and position at various speeds and lines.  Then, I'm trying to take this relaxed approach into the course at 15 off, 30, 32 and 34.  When it stops feeling the way it did on the open water I stop to avoid diminishing returns.

What have I learned in my three weekends?  I have stopped thinking wide.  Yup.  I have discovered that thinking up-on-the-boat works best for me and I am able to gage this more easily when free skiing.  Up on the boat translates more to using my speed to swing more of the arc with less resistance.  It just feels more slick and efficient to me.  When I think wide I tend to rotate away from the boat and for all the effort, very little of it helps me carry out and up or to swing.  Another thing about paying attention to this is that I can immediately tell what is changing when the speed goes up or as fatigue sets in.  For instance, when going from 32 to 34, it seems more difficult to move up on the boat at first and I am unable to truly finish my turns and gain angle.  If I work harder, it seems to get worse.  But because I'm free skiing I can start all over and adjust my stance, pull out, and timing until it feels like 32.

The other thing that I have taken the time to become more aware of is that by moving up on the boat more it has become MUCH easier to get my butt forward and engage my front foot in the preturn.  I can be taller and ski farther around the turn before hookup.  It even is making trailing arm pressure work where I previously had difficulty.  This is just making life much better at the finish and into the wakes.  It is also the first thing to go out the window in the course when I'm late and narrow so I have been using it as a self-test as to whether a pass was any good or not.

Anyway, I just thought writing this stuff down would help solidify what has been working the last few weeks.

My ski season won't happen for at least another month but that doesn't mean I haven't been preparing.  As usual I played hockey this winter and, having "extra time" on my hands, was fortunate to be able to spend 2-3 hours, 6 days a week on the ice in addition to snow skiing.  I am feeling strong and best of all I have lost some weight, to the tune of 15+ pounds from my already not too overweight 165 pound frame.  Haven't been this light since high school, which was a longggg time ago.  Anyway, I'm just trying to keep some level of this fitness going until the end of this mud season when I'll attend a short hockey camp and begin waterskiing.

The real reason I wanted to write this diary entry was because I had an enlightening experience yesterday at a time when it was least expected.  Who would think that stopping at a park to walk the dog during a combination of doctor visits and shopping 2 hours from home would bring on a waterskiing inspiration when you haven't even seen the water, let alone skied, for 6 months?  Well, if your paying attention, it can come anytime!  In my case it came from a bomber swing setup in this public park, the kind that is very tall and has heavy chains with a soft seat.  With all of the talk about swing, carry out, pendulums, tension, loading etc. I just had to try this and I recommend you do too.  At first, just like everything else, I thought I knew/remembered exactly how to move my body to get maximum trajectory out of this thing.  You know, pumping legs, hooking arms and swinging the upper body forward and back.  But after getting some decent height with my gorilla-like, overdone motions, I realized that it required much less.  Actually no upper body motion and only a perfectly timed kick of the legs was all that was needed to pump and release this thing into it's highest swing.  What's the lesson in this for waterskiing?  I'm not going to try make any kind of statement about skiing being the same as this or that.  You can draw your own conclusions.  I'm just going to say that finding and feeling the energy that is already encompassed in what you are doing and then adding only to that will yield surprising results.  And learning to do this in a different medium that has similar physical properties can teach you much about all of the other similar activities and help develop an awareness.  So get get out there and pump your skateboard on the ramp, ski or snowboard in the half pipe, do figure eights with c-cuts on skates, hula hoop, or yes, even swing on a swing set.  Do anything it takes to discover how to produce the "pump" that keeps things moving and is the free ride that is "getting up on the boat." 

Joel, here's a couple more stills that go with my comment to your blog.  Notice the difference in rope angle between you and Seth.

Hopefully this will end this week long weather trend.  Not to sound too wimpy, but I don't think I'm skiing today.

Looking out my window there is snow on the peaks this morning.  I'm not ready!

Well, Saturday morning I got a short notice invite to ski with a friend at his private lake. I had intended to work on the kitchen since the forcast at the public lake was not good for wind direction.  Guess which one I did.  Anyway, it was a great day and I got to catch up with old friends,  see their progress on their lake project, and, of course, ski a couple of sets in great conditions.

Started at 30/15 and immediately bobbled at 1.  Then ran 3 full passes.  At 32/15 I was getting to 5 for several passes when I was made aware that I was skiing narrow and traced it back (where else) to gates/one ball.  Ran the next then ended.  Honestly, I have not spent any time at 32 mph this season, so I'm a little shakey on the start timing.  When it is right I run it.  What I realized Saturday was I am pulling out and turning in harder when I change speeds.  This was causing two problems for me.  First, I'm too fast at the turn in and never really get my angle set.  Second, the excess speed is causing me to edge change and reach simultaneously, rather that skiing out to the end of the rope before reaching and turning.

Second set I ran 3 passes at 30/15 then went back up to 32 mph.  In terms of buoys, I was only getting around 5.  However, my gate, one, two was much improved.  Lots more control, and able to think again about staying connected, trailing arm pressure, etc.  Things were starting to come together again. 

A repeating pattern for me is to have a great gate, one, two then over pull too soon to three (on side) in a misguided attempt to get earlier.  The result is to get later and carry too much speed the rest of the way.  I really need to stay in the moment and trust my turns to stay on same rhythm.

As a side note, I have been riding a Strada lately.  Most of my bobbles have to do with losing front foot pressure.  When I get back or push on the legs before the turn is finished on this ski it is game over and is much less tolerant than my D3.  Stay balanced and it's quite another story not to mention it is very little effort.  Lastly, this ski is much happier at 32 mph and there is much less tendency to "get back."

Headed for a week of vacation at the lake.  I'm sure I'll have lots to talk about then.

Coach

I've been skiing very little this season and I finally got a two day weekend at the lake while being treated to some good weather and water conditions.  Wind was still in the 10 mph range off and on, but that's normal.  So I basically spun laps at 30/15 for a total of six sets, with a few 30/22's thrown in just to shake things up .  In addition, we put the boat back in at sunset on Sat night for a 4 mile open water glass session.  I love it when that happens and it's a great way to get the repetitions in and build rhythm.

OK so what am I working on?  Three things together.  Connection, width, and rhythm.  They all go together so when I lose one, at least one of the other will faulter.  What's clicking?  I'm actually feeling the trailing arm pressure thing and able to correct on the fly when it's not there.  Also, my handle is a lot more level so I can only assume my shoulders are more level.  I have no idea why this is working for me now.  Lastly, when I start with good width, the speed is there for a good finish, which is putting me right back into to that connected position... repeat.  It is much easier to ski this way.  Why don't I do this all the time?

Next week I'll probably ski at least half of my passes at 30 again, then begin to take the speed up again as well as mixing in some slow 22's.  I just need more time!

Finally got to the lake Sat evening.  Too much traffic near the course so we free skied in a long river section on real smooth water.  Great for getting it all figured out again!  20 turns at a time.

Sunday AM was very windy and whitecapping so we went to check on the course.  Discovered someone had broken one of the arms and hid it in the weeds.  How clever, we never would have noticed!  Spent 3 hours fixing and aligning.  Took a boat ride to look for good water and found it.  Got in 2 long sets of open water before getting blown out again.  I am real sore right now!

Same picture, different day.  When will it end?