Ski Log - Waterski Ether - 9/9/2009
We had an amazing Labor Day weekend for skiing. Winds were low and the public lake was free of other moving boats for three wonderful mornings in a row. Saturday in particular was just stunning. After 2 hours of footing and skiing on glass water, a sudden and brief fog appeared on the lake. It felt otherworldly, like we were in some sort of ethereal skiing land. I actually turned on the nav lights briefly. As quickly as it appeared, it left us alone on the lake for a few more flat-water sessions.
I spent a lot of time on my new ski this weekend. For those of you who have been following along with my ski log in the forums, it's been a tough transition for me with this ski. The new ski is faster, livelier, and feistier than my trusty F1X. It's more responsive and organic. Just cruising behind the boat on it, I can feel the water ripple under foot, as if the ski is more attuned to the water surface. As such, old habits such as tail riding, premature rope pressure, and shoulder-heavy, unbalanced turns are all exaggerated with this stick. My off-side turns have been very abrupt and sharp with this ski, and my on-side turns have been weak and wide. I used the same body movements with the F1X but that ski let me get away with them. The F1X carved the on-side turns automatically and dulled-down my off-side turns enough to pass for smooth turns. This ski does not because it is such a finely tuned, high performance ski in comparison. It takes my inputs like a fine sports car and applies them to the water. The few passes I've run on this ski have been achieved by being as smooth, balanced, and patient as possible. By Monday, I ran a full pass at 31 right off the dock (2nd full pass ever run on this ski, I believe, in many, many sets). So, I'm getting used to it. By the time I can run passes consistently on this stick, I will be a better skier. It's that simple. I assumed that by going to a more expensive, high performance ski, I'd see immediate gains and marked improvement. This is the case with most skiers, but not with me. Instead, the ski has been like a magnifying glass to my bad habits. I consider this a good thing— I will work through this and come out on the other side as a different skier. One step back, a couple steps forward. A couple of balanced, patient steps forward.
I've been spending a lot of time on the trick ski lately. This weekend I nailed a couple of surface 360s for the first time. They were shaky, but complete. At this point I can do a side slide, reverse side slide, full 180, reverse full 180, and the back-to-fronts both ways. I can do a surface 360 (reverse- haven't tried the standard direction). I can also do a 180 wrap on the easy side, have not attempted the reverse. I can ride that 180 wrap indefinitely but I can't quite steer around yet. I just kinda ride to the left. Working on that. Anyway, it's a lot of fun and helps break up the slalom sets.
Just for kicks I rode my old 2002 CDX on Saturday. This ski was absolute money for me from 2005-2007. I could not get it to do anything when I tried it this weekend. It felt like a 2X4 under foot. So, we know that ski has not changed, but the skier has. I think that's a good thing.
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