Years ago I wrote an article about being ten times stronger. I asked in this article, “would you ski better if you were 10 times stronger?” What do you think? Obviously you think you would and I agree but not to the level you might think. If you were 10 times stronger, you would constantly break the rope putting yourself and crew in constant danger. The danger to your crew is from the snapped rope rebounding back into the boat like a whip with the potential to take eyes out. The danger to you is broken rips, internal injuries and more. I’m not saying you don’t need to be strong to ski. I am saying you need a certain amount of strength and beyond that, your time should be spent on improving your technique! Let’s take Nate Smith for example. Nate is over six feet tall and weights just north of 155 pounds. Just looking at Nate, you would say he’s skinny with little if any muscular definition yet Nate will ski the pants off of any other skier in the world. Nate doesn’t spend his time working out. Nate spends his time and energy on the water, refining his technique. If you do things right, Nate has proven time and again that 41’ off (10.25m) can be made to look easy. If you do things wrong, it doesn’t matter how big and strong you are, you’re going down! Take your pick, do you want to look good on the dock or on the water? (Nate bends handles!)
EDGE CHANGE, WHAT EDGE CHANGE?
There has been so much talk in the past about "the edge change". When skiing a style I call "THE SWING", there is no edge change per se. What there is however is a constantly moving, never static ski that starts out on a strong edge at the buoy and continually rotates from one edge to the other as the skier moves across the course. Watch the Wim DeCree video on my website. Here you will see the transition from one edge to the other beginning to happen meters before the first wake. After the wake, Wim is on the opposite edge meaning that his ski is in the middle of its transition from one edge to another in the middle of the wakes. There is a very common misunderstanding in the water-ski world. It starts as a skier learns to ski and unless corrected, becomes a major, limiting factor thereafter. Beginning skiers tend to pull until they reach. They end up reaching in the right place but pulling way too long since reaching happens out by the buoy line. Therefore, they try getting off their pull earlier only to start reaching at the same moment. This brings them way inside the buoy. Two things were just determined; 1) the skier associates reach and edge change as the same thing at the same time and, 2) that when you reach determines how wide you ski! If you are willing to break the bondage of this common mistake, you can prepare yourself to reap the rewards of its benefits!
"Great success awaits those who build their monuments one stone at a time"
WHY THE SHAPE OF TODAY'S SKIS IS WRONG
The best skiers ski with the most ski in the water. This means the front of the ski rides deeper or lower. The attitude of their ski is much closer to parallel to the water's surface than that of the lower level competitors. This being the case, widening the forebody will cause more lift in the forebody and thus ride higher. Make the forebody too wide and you create so much support, you blow out the tail. So what is the answer? I have been testing a wide tail, narrow forebody ski for well over a year now. This design accomplishes a number of things, all positive. By widening the tail, it causes the tail to ride higher whether on edge or not, always driving the forebody into the water. In the acceleration phase, this creates more angle for two reasons. First, the tail is wider so there is more surface area. More surface area equals more efficiency accelerating out of the buoy. Secondly, because the wider tail is driving the forebody into the water, this increases the edging power of the ski and thus creates more angle. Now that the skier has more efficiency, more angle and more speed, getting rid of that speed is critical. Being the forebody is riding deeper, this happens in direct correlation to the improvement in the acceleration.
One of the drawbacks early on was the ski was too aggressive out of the buoy. The first thing I did was take the wing off. This helped tremendously. Not only did it calm down the aggressiveness, it made the ski faster! I then tried taking out tip but this did not help or feel good. My next move was to add depth. As I added depth, the ski kept getting better and better. Keep in mind, as I increase depth, I increase the fin surface area an thus the more energy I can transfer into cross course angle which again directly correlates to an increase in speed. After increasing the depth by 140/1000ths, the ski was screaming and controllable with zero problems turning! The big question at this point in time is which ski company will be the first to embrace this technological breakthrough?
By Schnitz! (the guy who brought you the wing and adjustable fin)
Jan 28th, 2016 BDS
THE TRUE COST OF A SKI SET (revised April 2012)
A new ski boat costs over $70,000.00. A 10% loan on that amount would end up costing the owner roughly $700.00 a month or $8,400.00 per year. The depreciation on this boat will run about $17,500.00 the first year (25%). The insurance on this boat costs about $800.00 per year. Storage can run $1,500.00 per year. Add to this oil changes $275.00, cleaning materials $110.00, maintenance $1,100.00, ropes and handles $275.00, permits and registrations $220.00, additional auto insurance $220.00 (you cannot pull a boat with a high gas mileage economy car), additional auto expenses $2,640.00, AWSA membership $60.00, miscellaneous expenses $550.00 and you have $32,930.00 per year cost to ski not including gas and the cost of new skis and equipment! If some-one skis 2 sets a day (a lot of days I don't even ski), 5 days a week, March through August and an average of 4 sets a week thereafter, they will have a total of 364 sets. Add in a spouse that skis the same amount and you now have 728 total sets. Let’s use $2.00 per gallon of gas times 1.5 gallons per set ($3.00) times 728 sets and we get $2,184.00. Now let’s divide the cost of owning the boat for the year ($32,930.00) by the 728 sets and you have $45.23 per set. Add the fuel costs to this and you get $48.23 per set. THIS IS THE COST! If we take a look at the folks up north who ski 4-6 months per year, this figure doubles or triples! So the next time you head for the lake with your ski buddy’s boat, keep these figures in mind. Handing your host $5.00 or $10.00 for a ski set is an insult!
CHRIS PARRISH SMOKIN 41' OFF (10.25m)
Men's slalom world record-holder Nate Smith makes 41 off look too easy!
"FALLING IS NOT OK" Click on the photo above for the story about brain damage and water-skiing!
"BACKSIDING THE BUOY" - Hip on the water, shoulders level, chest downcourse, eyes on the next buoy. This is a perfect example of the turn I've been talking about for years. Terry's ski is about one foot downcourse of the turn buoy while his upper body is about three to four feet upcourse! In actuality, Terry's entire body is turning before the buoy with only his ski going around it. Notice that the ski is pointing across course at the buoy, not parallel with the course. This is major!
FREDDY KRUEGER CRUSHES THE WORLD RECORD WITH MASSIVE 250' LEAP (76.2 METERS)!
Click on the photo above to watch Nate Smith run 41'off (10.25m)
