If I am so inclined...

I will not land a flip on my trick ski. I learned something very important this morning: too much body inclination on a reverse flip (left-to right edge for a lff such as myself) kills both lift and rotation. This morning, I was tricking again. After a brutally frustrating series of toe tricks, I worked on my reverse flip. I changed my approach to the wake, and I think I have figured out how to get ski all the way around. I pulled out wide, 15-20 feet outside of the wake, and statred in slowly. My goal was to load the line with as little body inclination as possible. Time after time, I have approached the wake with a gradual increase in pressure and angle, but with that increased line tension I have created a corresponding reduction in the angle between my body and the water. In other words, I am lean-locked when I start to throw the flip. No wonder I cant get quite all the way around. I did it right once this morning, and the filp basically completed itself. I stuck the landing, no butt check and skied away. the problem wa I let go of the handle out of shock one I hit the water. I had to coast along the lake watching the handle skip away.


This morning I skied with Cyrus and Abe. They both slalomed, unfortunately the water level in Coralville lake is still too low to install the course at Mid-River marina, so they only could free ski. Here are some gratutitious ski shots

Cyrus, as of 2006, a waterhawk as well:




If he gets some practice in on the course, he should improve by a few passes. FOr now, keep your chest up through the turn and increase your front ankle bend.

Here's abe, He's moving to New York next month and Then to DC in the fall for audiology school, so his ski season might be short this year



Here's Abe slaloming: 22 off/ 32MPH free skiing.



He has been into 28 off/36MPH before but he has not had much quality practice time the last couple seasons.

By the time he skied, the sun was out and the fog had lifted. The shrinkage, however was in full effect. I'm getting sick of cold water. I want some hot weather.

I rode my jumpers too. I'm still working contering with my weight on the left ski until the moment i'm ready to make my turn. I felt more comfortable gettin my right hand on the handle, but I am still on my heels at the start of the turn.

Hopefully my next post will have reports of my first time over the ramp this season and my first successful filp/ reverse sequence.

Time to go