Sounds like you might be pulling too long.

Thanks Bud and Killer,
I'll give your ideas a try tonight after work it the weather holds.  It is tough for me to be patient and ski relaxed in the course but I'm working on it.  I appreciate your replies!

Danny,

Basically, everything starts at the gates. That is not to say things can’t be fixed down the course. Yes, you can have a bad gate and still finish the pass smoothly, but it helps to start right.

I believe that for me, getting a good pull while wide will allow me to change edges at basically the center of the wake. If you watch the pros, you will see them mostly start coming off of their pull intensity prior to the center.

Here is something I posted last week on a different forum:


The four “T”s to say while skiing.

Tight – When you say tight, it is to remind you to keep your hips up, shoulders back and arms tight and controlled to your vest. Practice with a handle on dry land. As you do it, repeat “tight”. That one word should come to represent the whole package.

Tall – Tall means tall! Your hips are up over your bindings and you are as tall as you can be. Get tall before the gates and tall before every buoy. Get tall!

Target – Come out of the buoy and look for your target. You pull towards you target. Your ski will change edges and you will still be heading for your target on the other side of your ski.

Tempo (or timing) – Try to relax throughout the whole course. You will make driving the boat easier if you keep an even tempo. You can be light on the pulls or light on the line with a relaxed even tempo.

As you approach the course, say tight. As you approach the apex of your turn in for the gates, say tall. Then look at and ski toward your target. I might be from 15 to 30 before the next buoy. You will need to find what works best for you. As you head for your target, you start all over again with tight, and then approach the buoys with tall, and then out of the buoys with target. As you do all of this try to keep a relaxed tempo.

I have never been to ski school and have just recently been introduced to the forums. I am not capable of thinking very much while in the slalom course. I think a lot before I ski, then get in the course and within a few passes, I think a lot about how tired I am and how I did not do what I planned to do. So, through time I have tried to work on different things that I think might help. I have found that if I bundle things into one word, I can remember one word easer that a bunch of things. Sometimes I can remember three words, but as time goes on, I’m lucky to remember two.

After reading a lot of good post from all of you, I put together four “T”s. The first two can be practiced on land like Robert suggested. The other two are pretty much for in the course. So practice on dry land, then hit the water.



I hope this helps.

Thanks again amigos.

My ski buddies are on a similar level and say that I am much quicker to turn (sounds like to fast and not enough patience) and faster across the wake than they are (pulling to hard/long).  They also say I have a lot of "stand up" time approaching the buoy on my glide and the line is tight up to the apex then the line will sometimes lie on the water before the big hit.

I definitely have the DSS and need a longer season in Colorado!

H2O"BIG"Dog,

I think these are my main problems, early/not wide and reaching to early!  I can't wait to get back out there again.  Thanks for the extra post and explanations as this makes a lot of sense; you hit the “buoy on the head”.

Thanks, Danny