Posted by Robby Trimble on Sat, Jul 31, 2010 @ 12:27 AM
2010 has been an incredible spring and summer with more great guests and memories than we could imagine! Time has passed so quickly, that here we are it's the first of August and there are only 3 more months left in our 2010 season! We have been so busy with all of our guests there just has not been enough hours in the days to get our blog posts out! We finally did it...another awesome lesson from Terry a relevent pro skier and coach(and now neighbor) that spends everyday thinking about our sport and ways to improve his water skiing and ours! Those of you who have been here know exactly what I'm taking about...
Enjoy!
There is NO reason to wait any longer for waterski lessons, weather is hot, the water is calm and now is the time to take your skiing to the next level! Book Now! Carpe Diem!
Posted by Robby Trimble on Sat, Mar 06, 2010 @ 12:17 PM
The comeback of pure water ski design by Nick Parsons
If you've been skiing for several years and you've been hunting for an increase in buoys and overall better performance, then perhaps the next generation of skis might be something you need to invest in. Over the past decade materials for skis have changed drastically. Between the amount of carbon used and the types of cores within the skis almost all manufactures now produce top world cup stock skis. Now, to narrow it down a bit, ski shapes have drastically started to change for the better. At the moment four ski companies have really started to think out of the box and get back to actual ski shape design. There is a new phase coming in water ski design where water ski companies are designing skis with and for pro athletes. In previous years there has been a lot of ski shape copying only to make small changes and then call it their own. Ski shapes now are starting to be built with a specific style and person in mind and the shape design starts from scratch. These are the fundamental elements that make up pure ski design.
The wide ski from Goode was one of the first skis to begin to think differently and focus on helping a fluid style of waterskiing and to get back to the roots of ski design. As of now Goode ski technologies offers two very different type world cup ready skis. The 9900 SL WIDE RIDE AND 9900SL. While both skis are for high end competition each ski is for two different styles and/or purposes. The 9900 SL WIDE RIDE was designed to maintain speed through the finish of the turn for aggressive skiers while also allowing an abrupt sharp finish for short line turns. The 9900SL was designed with having a more rounded smoother arc in mind and has essentially been one of the most successful overall shapes and has been one of the highest selling skis of the past decade. If you're as into waterskiing as I am and are wanting to find that extra edge to improve your skiing then I would suggest looking into purchasing some of these new age skis.
Ski at the Ranch this season
Written by Nick Parsons
Posted by Robby Trimble on Thu, Feb 25, 2010 @ 05:19 PM
Give Yourself Two On-Side Turns
We naturally have an "on-side", and an "off-side" turn in slalom. What many skiers try to do is to overcompensate on the off-side by trying to turn, and rotate the whole body to get the ski to rotate around. This just makes the off-side worse. Why do we have an "on-side" and an "off-side" turn? It's the stance... On our on-side turns our hips are naturally opened up, making it easier to keep the shoulders level, and get the lower body weight moving over the inside of the arc. The off-side is more difficult because our hips are closed up.
To improve this situation, what can we do? Well, think of a snow skier. They have two even, or on-side turns. By being able to move the feet individually of each other a snow skier can open equally well on both sides. Approaching a left turn, the outside foot will drop back a bit making the skier essentially a left foot forward skier. On the other side the left foot will fall behind the right foot a bit making them a right foot forward skier.
A slalom waterskier isn't allowed to make quite as much change in stance, but we can improve our off-sides by making them more like our on-sides. As you approach your off-side turn try to mimmick that snow skier movement as much as possible. If you could you would drop that outside leg back. Well we can't move our feet, but we can move our hips. Try taking that outside hip back as much as possible. If you're a right foot forward skier approaching the 1 3 5 buoy side twist your hips to the right. Bring the right side of the hips back, and the left side of your hips forward. You're trying to open up your hips so your left hip is now more over your front foot, and your right hip is brought back more to the middle of the ski. A left foot forward skier will do this on the other side of the course, on the 2 4 6 side. Bring the right side of the hips forward over that left foot, and allow the left side of the hips to trail, staying over the middle of the ski.
Ski with Terry to develop your two on-sides!
By opening up the hips as much as possible into and through our off-side turns we can make the ski turn equally well on both sides of the course.
Written by Terry Winter
Posted by Robby Trimble on Thu, Jan 07, 2010 @ 09:52 PM
To move your bindings or adjust your fin?
Growing up waterskiing all I ever heard from Water Ski Schools and in Water Ski Lessons about fine-tuning your waterski was fin movements. Fin adjustments, fin adjustments, fin adjustments. It's my personal belief that the binding movement is the most underrated waterski adjustment that you can master.
Within the past 5-10 years waterski bindings have really seen advancements. These advancements include the way the bindings can be adjusted. Bindings for the most part have only been able to adjust in ΒΌ inch increments. Bindings now come straight from the factory with the ability to move down to the 1/16 or even the 1/32 of an inch. With the ability to make adjustments this small you can accomplish the same results as fin adjustments if not more and with more control and less time.
Skiing at several different lakes throughout the summer it's necessary for me to make ski adjustments in order to have my ski ready for competition. Depending on how the water feels my ski usually requires a forward or backward movement of my bindings of a 1/8 - 1/16 inch. When skiing at home and dialing in a ski my binding movements often get down to a 1/32-inch. All these movements usually occur with little or no fin adjustments. I typically start with a standard fin setting and go with my binding movement routine. If I had to give advice to a fellow waterskier looking for that extra 1-2% edge to get him a few more buoys, I'd say master your binding adjustments and spend less time with your fin.
Written by Nick Parsons
Want to ski with Nick?