Here is a good reason...

to leave your jump helmet on, all the time.


***taken yesterday, not an archive photo****

Ever seen anyone with hair like that crawl out of an unmodified saturn?

Which beer should the above be drinking in that photo?

Does it seem strange that flourescent-hued wetsuits were all the rage at the zenith of that hairdo's popularity?

In the search for...

answers to my problems at the one ball at 32 off, I had Leah take some shots of me around one ball for a few passes. I didn't learn much from the shots.





I did learn that i should try to get some shots right as I change edges going into the one ball. That might clue me in to why I am getting so much damn slack. I think it involves accellerating past the boat in some form or another.


Chuck's slalom form is improving. Unfortunately, I do not think my camerawork is. But it's the best I can do witha camera that was already obselete two years ago.

Notice through the boat spray and bad shadowing that he is not so hunched over.



Here's a sequence of Jeff Howard. He looks a lot like Chuck at the base.










Not much footage from Clint. He passed,






to go on a business trip, again. According to my wife, aka

Knit tidbits

,
they aren't much fun. CLint needs to convince the boss to let him do his traveling in the winter, when, frankly, the less time in Iowa the better.

Lately I have been...

critical of some of my skiing partners'(namely Chuck and Leah)
jump form on this blog. In keeping with that "cast the first stone" mantra, here is an example the your moderator's distance-killing tendencies.

This is me before the wakes on a cut to the ramp. I'm cutting on my right ski, the rope is tight, and I'm in pretty decent position. Not a Freddy or Scot position, but all in all not bad.



After the second wake, I look like crap. My left ski is out of the water, but there is, noticeably, less pressure on my right ski. In response to the decreased rope load, my legs have straightened, and I have almosdt comp[letely lost the strong position I attained before the wakes. To top it off, look at the rope. See that curve? That's slack. The PP switch has kicked off. The result: a mediocre jump



Ah ha! thanks to Leah's camerawork, I know what I have to work on.




I have to get the slack out of the slalom rope too.


If you are not photoshop-savvy, the camera doesn't lie.

Summer is the wrong...

season for business trips. Just ask Clint. He missed out on a head wind (the first wed, evening head wind in nearly a month) for some engineerig thing that I don't understand. I only engineer with duct tape (see previous post)

Chuck, you have to relax your arms into the base of the ramp!



You are fine out of the counter cut.



This is where the perfect pass switch kicks off. You are relinquising all of that hard-earned rope tension. Remember Scot Ellis' 4 rules: head up, back Straight, arms straight, skis together.

Everybody looks like a slalom god from a distance.



Pat is back! On a trick ski? He used to make fun of me for tricking. Now he wants to trick more. He says yesterday was the best he had ever tricked, thanks to the upgrade to the new connelly. His last trick ski was from the disco era. If I fallearly this weekend and he beats me, I will never hear the end of it (deservedly so)





I would like to thank the cinematographer form the old Batman TV show for those tricking shots. na na na na na na na na.....

Here's a cool photo sequence. This is Leah's first ever set over the ramp with a jump sling. Notice how on each jump she gets into a better position


jump 1, landing like a bag of shit


jump 2, not much better, and the right arm is bent


jump 3, almost there, not as much righ elbow flexion


jump 4, you've got the right one baby, uh huh! The best form Chuck, Pat or I have ever seen from her. She went to the dock after that one.

In response to ...

an earlier post from

the green boathouse

, Iowa has much to offer in the way of both newfangled technology and old fashioned scenery. For example, On iowa interstates, you can see people who have adopted NASCAR technology for personal use



Iowa's roads are full of varied terrain. Observe the first photo



It's cornfield, and the barn is behind the treeline.

Next photo:



There is no corn, only grass. And the kicker, the barn is IN FRONT OF the treeline! What do you have to say for yourself now, greenboathouse?