Very cool Show Ski trick

We tried this at the regional competition last weekend behind our twin engine Hydrodyne but it didn't quite make it. We did do it in practice the week before. Last night we did it behind an inboard (sorry about the brand). For those who know show skiing, most people do a trick called "Around The Boat, or ATB". It's where a skier or skiers go all the way around the boat with help from a good boat driver. We saw it done last weekend with three skiers, at one time, bacerds. But nobody at the tournament had seen this trick done;

Two/One Pyramid ATB

Steve

Steve,

Excellent!! Very impressive. Gives us something to shoot for at Lake George - we'll have Jeff Kostis drive for us. Ha Ha.

An ATB, like Joel said, even a one man one, is on my TDBID (to-do-before-I-die) list. Sort of like bacerds barefooting, which I am starting to chip away at.

M3Fan wrote: That's really cool. I see the boat does an "S" turn there- isn't the boat supposed to spin out and go the other way? I'd love to do an ATB of any sort one of these days. Any tips for driving one of these?

Joel,
There was discussion about this a couple weeks ago when somebody was looking at buying a pro's demo boat. The talk also moved to ski teams demo boats and motors. I was convinced that there is nothing wrong with buying such a boat but others said to stay far, far away because they do numerous around the boats and spinouts every show.

This trick, when done properly is nothing more than a slow speed "S" turn just like you see in the video. The driver shouldn't even have to put it in neutral. The key is that you loose most of your maneuverability as soon as you hit neutral. You should know this when you drive your own boat at low speed. You just give the skier a gentle turn to start their cut out from the wake. Then you just start your slow speed but very sharp turn right toward the skier. You'll have to have a spotter in the boat to make sure that the rope goes over your head OK because as a driver, you NEVER take your eyes of the skier at this point. As you turn inside of the skier and the rope comes over your head and the bow, just keep the turn to make sure the rope stays taught. Once the skier starts coming back behind the boat again, you need to straighten it out and feather your throttle to make sure that you don't jerk the rope out their hands. You may have to touch neutral if the skier has lost too much speed to stay on top of the water but when done properly, it isn't needed.    

Joel we can do this no problem. I've skied and driven them behind the '88.

Steve, never seen a pyramid ATB. What skis were they on? What's with the gloves?

I used to tow my brother doing this trick with my 90SN.   Took a few tries. Very fun flashy move on your lake. Everyone wants to see it again.

Hey, I've actually defended powerturns as being harmless on several occasions! I should have never used the show ski example in that old post. It's gunna be with me forever now. The main point was that they beat the hell out of their boats in general.

Anyway, This trick must be learned by my boat crew for sure.

Hey!
Why is it always the driver, the co-driver, the person on the dock, the chicks on the beach who are the most important?   How about the skiers?

Wood,
The bases are wearing their jump skis. In regards to the gloves, we all wear gloves in the hard pulling acts. And this is one hard pulling act.

Steve

Brendan,

Editing and the video were fine, don't worry about that. Neat stunt. Had to be fun to be part of it.

The bacerds thing started with this thread and stuck. The guy that started it was a short timer, don't know what came of him, but he certainly left a legacy.

bacerds thread

Larry, thanks for posting that bacerds thread. I missed it somehow and got a great laugh from it tonight! I really liked Quinner's message all bacerd in it!

I love the ATB. Gotta try it. Hmmm...whom to drive? Shall I let my son kill me, or Mrs. Dude?

We do 4-5 staggered rope cut under ATBs. I've stepped into the 4 man a few times but don't do them regularly.

NCH2OSKIER is totally right, if you look at the boat you're screwed! You'll be late and get a wall of wash from the guy in front (short) of you and go OTF. If you're lucky you might make it around but not under the long(er) man's rope and look like a pansy. Some teams do not do cut unders and it's weak IMO.

The spotter needs to actually help the rope up and over the windshield on the older more squared off windshields like our 88. I've heard of putting a section of garden hose on the rope to help it "roll" along the windshield if you're having problems snagging. Again, easy to ski the work is on the driver.

Here's a preview of the Northeast Reunion. Tim has been putting a lot of hours in his training.

I guess you should take that info out of your signature then. While you may have more talent than average, I'm sure there are younger kids that could benefit from your knowledge.