Old Guy Learning To Ski

Blamey wrote: Yeah, I know I'm not quite an old guy yet but this thread motivated me to try ski again that is why I posted in here. I was about 11 when I last skied. I had just learned to slalom and deep water start and was still using one of the combo skis we had. I could ride just fine but wasn't doing much in the way of turns.

That is Awesome!

My Aunt will be here in August. She turned 70 this year and is going to try it again. She said it's been at least 30 years since she skied.

I'm leaving Saturday for NH for a week on the lake.

Found a good deal on a Radar P6. Had it shipped there to try out for the week.
Sounds like a good beginner slalom ski. Hoping the extra size helps us get out of the water.

Mark, thanks for the tips.

I agree I need a little more than a minute of practice on two before moving on to slalom. It has been 25 years. That said I feel I wasn't that far away form getting to one ski and I think your points about looking up and taking it slow will help. I was definitely rushing to get the back leg in.

One issue I have with the skis is the bindings are really slippery. I don't feel like they are loose but they are really easy to come out of. This makes lifting a ski difficult. On the flip side it's really easy to step out of them. Maybe it just need to adjust them to be tighter.

I have a slalom ski at home that came with the boat. It is probably a little small for me, but I can make it work. Once I master dropping one ski I'll switch to it and one combo.

Blamey wrote: So yesterday got up on a pair of skis for the first time in about 25 years.

Paul, your profile says you are 36. So you last skied when you were 11?

Congrats on getting back into it, and rediscovering how much fun it really is!

Blamey wrote: leaning back

Good way to torque your back. More abs.

spiralhelix wrote: Poorhouse wrote: We've been debating about our 6 year old acting as spotter. He understands the job and has been doing great at it. We are concerned about safety but are beginning to think that he is up for the job if just the 3 of us can go out. Any thoughts on that? Personally, I'd be fine with a 6 year old being a spotter.

Jake,
The state of Wisconsin regs say only a "competent" person is needed for spotting. Check your Montana regs.

Skis just get in the way

Old? Reheheheally now...learning to barefoot at 53!

Poorhouse wrote: I think she feels like they will get her some good pointers.

I've heard far more bad advice over the years than good.

Hollywood wrote: Mrs. Poorhouse [insert any skier ever here] will be better off in the long run getting comfortable with the 1 leg start. She'll eventually see how effortless it can/should be. Don't fall into the 2 foot start trap.

What about people who ski in double boots?

Figure it this way, if you only had 1 leg which would it be?

And would you put it in the back of the ski? Hell no.

What Hollywood sez.

Poorhouse that introduction to show skiing was a pretty cool link.
We used to do 3 and 6 man pyramids on the river just for fun back in the 80's.
We were skiing 2-3 days every week and I guess we got bored of just skiing.
We learned how to do the 360 degree spin around the boat too.
There is a lot of fun to be had on the water and it can all be family oriented.

Plenty of friends can do a 2 foot dw slalom start but cannot do a hop dock. Clearly they are making it harder than it needs to be.

We learned to ski behind a 13'9" wood low profile ski boat with a 75 HP Evenrude hanging on it. The engine in those days was huge for a 13 foot boat.
To pull up a slolom skier we would have to drag a foot. Front foot in the front boot, rear leg loose and pointing out the back.
In those old high powered boats you would yell hit it, Take a deep breath and tuck your head in low behind the tip of the ski. Speed would start to build slowly while you drag.
After about 30 seconds we would pop our head up, take a quick look around as we took another deep breath and went back into the tuck. After about 100 yards of dragging you would be about half way up, my left foot is forward so my left knee is at my chest and my right foot is straight out behind me with the toes pointed. As the speed built you could use the right trailing foot as a second ski but with the leg and toes still pointed out the rear.   You add pressure to the foot helping lift your body up on plane.
This dragging a foot method was the only way possible to get up behind that old ski boat.   Once the boat got on plane it had plenty of power to ski hard behind it and we even barefooted off that old boat but man was that first 100 yards tough.
Dragging a foot gives you almost double the lift on a single ski take off and as others have stated it lets the ski come on plane naturally as the speed builds. With two feet in the bindings many people add weight to the rear foot and end up fighting the whole process.
When I bought my first Nautique a 1978 351W powered boat it was a real powerhouse compared to the old outboards we skied.
Behind this Nautique we taught my best friend to ski, this guy is an unbelievable athlete and a gym rat. At 6'3" and 195 lbs he was squatting 560 pounds at the time we were teaching him to single ski.
He would battle the boat, pressing with all that leg strength so hard he pushed a wave in front of the ski before he would pop up.   He would fight till the vacuum operated secondary in the 4 barrel carb opened, I have never heard that with anyone else unless I had 4 people trying to come up at once. He always said he could not understand how any women could ski because coming up took so much strength.   Then we taught him how to drag a foot and he started popping out like all normal skiers.

GottaSki wrote: I concur, my girl when 7 was much more alert and on-task then most adults, who usually looking around blabbing away and talking about someones new fence/shed/landscaping and trying to remember who lived where.

Or, like my 20 year old nephew, who spends most of his "spotter" time staring at his phone, FBing, Snapchatting, Instagramming, etc...

This is how it is stated in the Illinois DNR Registration and Safety Act:
"When towing a person on
water skis, aquaplane or similar device, the
towing vessel must have a capacity of at
least three persons and must be occupied by
at least two competent people. "

Competent people?!?! well there are a number of my friends that might fail to meet this criteria