Old Guy Learning To Ski

Orlando76 wrote: Sh1t, me on my 35th birthday vs 36th you’d swear it’s not the same person. My young days ended way too soon.

You’re not even close to past your youth in spite of life’s obstacles. Keep the faith and soldier on!

Sh1t, me on my 35th birthday vs 36th you’d swear it’s not the same person. My young days ended way too soon.

Another season coming. Ice is off the lakes, sunny and 60 today.

Mrs. Poorhouse is determined to get it this year.
She will have some competition from our 9 year old who is also determined to slalom this year. Should be fun!   

My buddy told me to put pressure on front foot with two feet in and “hold it there”. Works every time now.

I know she will get it! In the meantime, after some tries, I hope she just drops a ski and has fun, she definitely should not put skiing on hold just because the starts are coming with difficulty. I just started to ski this season 2 weeks ago, had shoulder surgery May 4th, and am dropping a ski to avoid the yank of a deepwater start. No shame in it, even in my case after 45 or so years of slalom skiing!

The deep V handle was a savior for my early learning days last season. It not only keeps the ski centered: I’m convinced it’s chief advantage is that it pulls the front of the ski onto plane. I’ve had to almost tear it off of the ski a few times.

I’m glad my buddies put up with me, as I turned out to be a very challenged deep water starter on the regular rope. Thankfully it’s muscle memory now and I can spend my time and energy learning how to slalom!

This may be the ticket guys.

As previously mentioned I started with a 2 foot start. I learned to put my back foot heel in my butt. For me that puts the ski at really good angle and the start just happens.

She says she can't tuck her back foot up that high (or get her knee that high into her chest). I think that is putting the ski perpendicular to the direction of travel.

Our rear binding is an open tow strap. Plus she has a lot of experience from her youth dropping a ski. Should be natural for her to move the back foot onto the ski.

One addition to the one leg out start.
Tim gave you perfect position technique already for your in the boot foot.
For your dragging leg, let it stretch out straight behind you, toes pointed out away from the boat to the rear.   As the boat starts to gain speed you can add weight to the dragging leg. This adds support and lift as you come up.
Again, as already noted you will pop right up with little resistance. With one foot in the ski it will ride in the perfect position with no help from you. This takes a lot of the fight out of coming up.   The dragging leg also gives extra lift helping you come up.
Now take your sweet time moving the dragging foot to the ski.
Set it gently on top of the rear ski at first, It can be on top of your boot, no issue.
Look at the back of the boat for reference all the time. If you look down you will twist and fall.   Look at the boat, it will keep you straight and balanced.
Once very comfortable lift your foot and slip it into the boot while looking at the boat.
Note this only works with open toe rear straps.   You can't step into a full rear boot with a heel boot..

Try to find a 90’s vintage wide body for beginners, that will speed the learning curve considerably. Practicing the slalom start on the boom and 5’ is highly recommended also.

Something like this: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F292711765885

Knee to chest, arms straight... let the boat pull you into your knee and onto your ski. Let the ski plane out, do not try to keep it vertical. Do not stand up (keep chest to knee) until you are planed out and on top of the water. Do everything slowly.

None of the lean back, straight leg, fight the boat stuff.

The 2-feet in method is far and away more difficult than the 1-foot out method can be. (Anyone who says 2-feet in is easier is doing the 1-foot method wrong). Thats where I would start. For slalom beginners, I always put them on a wide body ski to begin with until their starts are consistent.

Got out for a few hours Saturday afternoon with some friends.
Their 10 year old leaned to ski with us earlier this summer. He is hooked.
He had 3 nice long rides and wore himself out.

I had a couple runs. I was focusing on the transition from turn to crossing wake. Getting my upper body turned back toward the boat and posture right. I had a few good transitions and a few where I got yanked forward out of position. Lots of fun.

Mrs. Poorhouse unfortunately was not able to get up. Gently rolling onto the throttle each effort. She about had it then got tossed when she was coming out of the bubble. The rest of the attempts were not close.
We were discussing last night. She may try a back foot out start next time. Or we may get a deep V handle.
I don't know. She has really strong legs and is very athletic. This is frustrating the hell out of her.

Enjoying hearing about Jake's and the Mrs's progress. This has been a fun summer for me, too
My buddy (referenced earlier in this thread) has been progressing, slowly but steadily in his slalom skiing and is now getting tighter turns and quicker cuts across the wake. This year he brought a friend with him who never skied before. He was up quickly on two, is now aggressively cutting back and forth and is now working on dropping a ski (or would be if he hadnt gotten hurt his last time out...second time this summer to pull something. He's 58 so he isnt quite as resilient as a teenager would be. He really didnt do anything wrong, just pushing himself. Hate that he's gotten hurt, but like I said, dont think its anything I or he did wrong.) And me. I am a frustrated 30 year slalom course skier. Never really had access or opportunity (admittedly, that is largely on me) ever since I was a teen. (that 30 years I mentioned is since my mid 30s) If I get on a course once or twice a year, I am lucky. This year has been a better year for me. Historically, on a great day, when all the stars were aligned, I could make a pass at 15/28mph. Never got any practice time to get any better. But this year, between a few outings and some very similar tips from Nate Smith, a guy on my lake better than me, and most recently Gary (91NautghtyQ) my cuts across the wake are much more aggressive ("stacked and leaning") than ever before and I am doing 15/30 with little effort.    If only I could have those last 30 years back, I am enjoying the progress and hope to keep chipping away at it.

The other day my daughter and I were watching a $80k+ wakeboard boat doing full throttle launches upon smallish novice wakeboarders till they were worn out and fully dejected.
, we both had 'Yakety Sax" benny hll theme playing in our head...
me: 'Should we go talk to them?"
D: "naw, they'll likely be beligerent"

Yup....nice and slow to get the ladies up. My daughter weighs 120 pounds soaking wet. I use barely 1/4 throttle and she blasts out of the water on a 65" ski.

JQ

I concur, my ladies need a gentle throttle on dws. less is better