Competition Skiers

Great questions, I'd like to hear a lot of answers. I started skiing at 4, slaloming at 6, but all my skiing has been recreational. The lake where we boat at now has a ski course, so my youngest and I have been skiing it the past couple of summers. We're not very good at it, but it's been a great way to better enjoy our time together. He prefers wake boarding now.

Still the flatest wake I've skied behind was a 1970 16' Chrysler Fury with an 85 Johnson. My dad still has that boat. Even though our old Nautique puts out a bigger wake it's pretty cool to ski behind.

Chuck

I also started at around age 4. I learned to start right out of deep water with my dad in the water with me. I still have the little Cypress Gardens skis that my brother and I learned on. We both later learned to kneeboard and slalom. We stopped skiing for awhile around the time the Skurfer came out. We did have a couple of those old skurfers, but stop skiing and kind of missed the wakeboard era. We never did learn to barefoot. That is my goat this summer.

I plan on teaching my daughter this summer. She is five. I'm really enjoying the thread that's going right now about teaching kids/adults. She's really geared up right now, but I'll have to see how she feels in the water this summer. No pressure here.

I was fortunate enough to grow up on Lake Powell. I started skiing when I was very little. But my parents didn't teach me. I learned from the seasonal employees who worked at the resort. It was all open water skiing at Powell. Not until I was in the military and moved to Georgia did I start competing. Lake Powell is beautiful but a small ski lake with not so much as a ripple is incredible. Only cla$$ C tournaments. Usually a really good bunch of people at tournaments. Always find a ski club affiliated with AWSA when I get moved. My daughter is also a competetor. My oldest boy turned to wake boarding in his late teens. My youngest boy does not like to compete but he can run a full pa$$ at 15 off at 34mph.

Started at 4 behind a 27 foot Sea Ray. Moved down to a 15' Boston Whaler and then a 17' Whaler before two of my friends that lived on the same Bayou got barefoot Nautiques and one got a 79 Ski Nautique like the one I bought this past summer. I trick skied and barefooted, but not competition. My friend, Jay, was a national barefoot champion for at least two years in the mid 80s and was coached by none other than Mike Seipel. I was a pretty good trick skier, but after seeing what Jay's dad put him through to compete, I had no interest in competing. He did get to practice with the tournament boats (BFNs), and it was cool to drive and ride in the boat with the extra speedos and judges jumpseats on either side of the motor box. As he was sponsored by Eagle, I got good deals on barefoot suits, too.
Those were the days!

Never skiied until I met my wife and her father taught me when I was 18. Then at 30, tried barefootin' and thought it was the single biggest adrenaline rush in the world. About killed myself self-teaching barefoot behind a '77 17' Crestliner tri-hull with a 140 In-line Merc. Read a lot of WS magazine and went out and proceeded to find out what not to do. Started on a kneeboard and needed a boat driver that knew just how far to trim the motor up, no more than a 1/4 tank of gas and the smallest observer that we could find to coax 36MPH out of that thing. It was cool. Then we got our inboard and the learning curve was dramatically cut down. At about 35, joined a nationally ranked show team with my girls and that was awesome. For seven years, the team was our life and we learned so much, not to mention did a lot a skiing. It was a pretty significant commitment though. Then we relocated down to FL and this year I want to compete at barefoot just to see how that works out.

todicus wrote: It's prbably the only new years resolution that I will actually keep.........

My new years resolution, not to log on to CCfan during work. Made it til Jan3rd

I would disagree with the high arch thing. It's completely the technique that gets you where you want to be at. You just need someone to teach you the basics. I taught 8 year olds to foot so anyone older is a snap. If you were in FL, I would be happy to work with you. If you were to pick up a video from Ron Scarpa or Lane Bowers, they are very good at working the basics to get you started on the boom. Knowing somewone that is a footer would also help in getting the basic techniques and starts down on a one-on-one basis.

What is the "slippery ski"?

Poster112 wrote: What is the "slippery ski"?

trick ski

The learning curve is so damn steep I usually toss the thing in favor of something I'm better at.

My younger brother and I learned to ski behind a mid 70's AMF slickcraft. Before we had a boat we used to sit on the beach in okoboji and watch Boys Town take out their kids and waterski behind a blue Ski Nautique. It was totally awesome to see them. I swore that someday I would own one and teach my children how to ski. I purchased my 88 2001 last fall. Come to find out the boat was owned by the same corporation ( boys town) we had seen 30 years ago. Just a different boat. My children can slalom and kneeboard already, but never behind a CC. Infact I have never been in or behind one yet, this summer is going to be awsome ...

JBear, I'm in Winter Haven. Just a few miles down the road. Just got down here two years ago from south central WI. Luvin' it.

I'll agree with you on the rush of show skiing. The WI state show ski tournament is the largest water ski tournament held in the world every year. Typically draws about 3000 skiiers before the weekend is over. When you run three four-highs for an end pyramid and line up 36-40 people on the dock and pull 'em all off with a 21' Hydrodyne that has three 150HP Evinrudes on the back end, that's impressive. Especially when you're sitting there with a young honey on your shoulders and when the rope comes tight, the tow boat is actually already doing almost 20MPH. Almost brings it to complete halt before those triple engines grunt everyone off the dock. Then you build it and come around the corner into the show course, there are typically between 7000-9000 people standing on shore just screaming at the top of their lungs. You wanna talk about an adrenaline rush!!!! Whew! You feel like Superman!!!! The transom on the triple rig we had to rebuild about every three or four years. It was 3/4" stainless gla$$ed into the rear end with the biggest freakin' clevis hooks you'd normally see on a tractor. Cool stuff.

Trip 300s? I've never seen that. Most I've ever seen is trip 225s. Lately the trips are 200s and twins 225s. backfoot could probably provide some better info from the past decade of show dynes.

Ok, ok, so that may have been an exaggeration. I thought that 300's had just come out recently and that somebody had them on a 'Dyne. An employee at my last job had a kid on the team and used to talk about the boats all the time and that may be where I got the rumor. The main point was that the only trip rigs I've seen have been 200+ motors, and I was poking fun at the 150's. I don't actually care about this.

Hmmm, this thread got me thinking. I should put a 250 hp decal kit on the pontoon engine!

I know these are salt series, but I've never seen a larger outboard. PLBC stands 5'11"