At what speed to you slalom? (and other ramblings about my technique...)

[Reese350]

My 8 year old is riding his first slalom tournament tomorrow morning. In the practice run tonight, he was able to get all of the bouys at 15 off and 27 mph. Let's see how tomorrow goes. If nothing else, he's having a lot of fun watching and learning from some of the really good riders. They are quite impressive.

[ian ashton]

Ian - you are still skiing two handed - right?

50/50 at this point. Some cuts 1 handed, some 2...

[ian ashton]

My 8 year old is riding his first slalom tournament tomorrow morning. In the practice run tonight, he was able to get all of the bouys at 15 off and 27 mph. Let's see how tomorrow goes. If nothing else, he's having a lot of fun watching and learning from some of the really good riders. They are quite impressive.

Nice, good luck!

[BensonWdby]

Ian
My recommendations. You should be at 15 off if not already there. Then get into one handed full time. It rally is more about confidence than anything, but it will definitely change the way you ski. It can be very useful in controlling slack. Two handed skiing encourages riding on your tail because it is hard to reach in to take up the slack. Then you end up pulling the hands in high - up by the chest, per your photo. With your back arm connected to the handle at the apex of the turn it forces your upper body to turn down course too soon.

Get some good slalom videos - and look into coaching. A little coaching at the beginning can save you decades of bad habits. Take it from someon trying to break 30 years of bad habits....

[Sled491]

to add to Dave, by pulling the rope high on the chest you require loads more upper body and arm strength to make a good pull. Hands low at the hips and lock the elbow and your power doubles.

Also, and I'm only quessing here but it is one of the single biggest mistakes most people make, stop riding over the wakes and then start pulling again. Make sure your on edge and pull to the second wake. After you clear the second wake you should be beginning to stand tall, reach out over your ski with your inside hand and as Deerfield said start pressing down on the balls of your front foot to push the front of your ski down to slow it down.

Reason, simple. If the boat is going 30mph and you make a good hard pull across the back of the boat you'll be going almost 50mph. In other words your going faster than the boat, hence the slack line. You need that time after the second wake to slow down, control the rope and set up for your next cut.

[BensonWdby]

I recommend the new Andy Mapple video, "Andy Mapple at Ski Paradise". You can get it at www.Barts.com. I have his first one and this one. They are both valuable tools of the trade.

[ian ashton]

I discovered a slalom course on our lake the other day, so I decided to give it a whirl just for fun last night. The water was crap, but I still wanted to see just how fast those bouys go by...

WOW! What a humbling experiance! I have to figure out the timing, as I was hitting each bouy after the first like a second too late. Definately fun, and completely more demanding than just free skiing making cuts back and fourth. I can't wait to continue learning, hopefully with some better water.

[ian ashton]

And just for fun I tried to ride the course with my wakeboard. I was able to get a few bouys, but it was tricky to try to cut through the wakes, rather than jumping them, lol.

[BensonWdby]

Runnig the course is significantly different than open water skiing. About the time you think you got it dialed in on open water - you take a shot at the course and wham. Prior to my trip to Ski Paradise I was open water skiing at 38 off at 34 mph. At SP in the course I had to back off to 15 off at 30 just to be even close to making the course, and the was intermittent at best.

[Sled491]

Runnig the course is significantly different than open water skiing. About the time you think you got it dialed in on open water - you take a shot at the course and wham. Prior to my trip to Ski Paradise I was open water skiing at 38 off at 34 mph. At SP in the course I had to back off to 15 off at 30 just to be even close to making the course, and the was intermittent at best.

true true true. I think of the course as the measuring stick. You think your doing well, ski the course, it will show you. On the other side skiing the course will make you a better free skier, and make you think about where you are and what you should be doing. The other thing I tell everyone when 1st getting into the course is that even though you only made the 1st ball keep skiing like you are makeing the balls. This will help you get into the rythem, and help you understand and establish the timing you need to make a solid 6.