Quote Originally Posted by trayson View Post
  • Shoulders back
  • Knees bent
  • Sitting on my rear ankle
  • Leaned back
  • Looking up towards the sky
I too just returned to my old school Jobe competition slalom ski. I haven't skiied it in several years, but decided to pull it out last week while camping with the family and my old school TS6M on an Eastern Washington lake. I'm still sore and suffering from lakeweed ear, but it was totally worth it!

The following is my deep water start list for anyone who might benefit. This assumes a tournament tow boat or a boat of similar performance.

  1. In the water with both feet in the ski boots, facing the boats transom, aligned with boat, ski rope, and intended pull direction:

  • Crouch with both knees positioned as close as possible to your chest. If left foot forward, then place rope on the right side of the ski, and hold the rope handle in left hand and place forward (left) knee into the crook of your bent left elbow. Keep your right arm and hand outstretched to your right side as required for wave management to prevent rolling over. Opposite for right foot forward skiers. This is the "egg" position, and is the initial position for the pull-out, and is also a good position for those times when you need to be dragged in-gear idle to get the rope and boat aligned with the desired direction of pull.

  1. Upon "Hit-It":

  • Take a deep breath and hold it, as you will be briefly pulled through the water as a bow wave forms in front of your head. Allow the left arm to be pulled straight as you bring right hand in to grasp the handle. Focus entirely on keeping the forward knee as close as possible to the chest while simultaneously pushing on rear foot. The goal behind these seemingly opposing actions is to force the ski to maintain as near 90 degree angle to the rope (and likewise the waters surface) when viewed from the side, while yet keeping the skiers center-of-gravity low and behind the ski. This steep ski angle-of-attack drives the ski up to the surface and keeps it there so that soon as the water becomes hard enough (ski becomes fast enough), the ski will plane. Relaxing this action will delay or even prevent the ski from carrying your weight on the water.
  • To prevent Wiggly Ski Syndrome, angle the ski tip slightly away from vertical towards the rope (when viewed from the skiers position). Maintain this angle during the pull-out and the ski will sit firmly against the rigid rope and never wiggle again.

  1. 1/2 way to the boats prop wash:

  • You will be emerging from the bow wave of water and may be dry enough for a second breath of air.
  • Maintain focus on ski angle-of-attack by pushing on rear leg while keeping forward knee close to the chest, while keeping the ski tip firmly against the rope.

  1. Arriving at the prop wash:

  • Stand up, as the ski speed is likely high enough now that it is beginning to plane on the waters surface.
    Assume the skiing posture: Shoulders back, Butt in, Arms straight (unbend your elbows, save the strength for later in the run) knees slightly bent, and place your center-of-gravity evenly over both feet.


This is more or less where my expertise ends, Getting up. Oh, and falling down. I am pretty good at that too. Its the part in between that I struggle the most with. Which leads me to my ski skeg fin question:

My aerodynamics experience makes me think that adjusting the fin leading edge up (toward ski lower surface) should increase upward lift (or more correctly, reduce downward lift) at the rear of the ski, pushing the ski nose down toward the water's surface. Adjusting the leading edge of the fin down away from the ski's lower surface should pull the rear of the ski down, raising the nose of the ski away from the water.

Oddly enough, when playing with these fin position settings, the above expectations were not really noticeable to me. I have read that moving the skiers weight forward onto the forward leg will slow the ski, and place the curved tip into the water to aid carving the slalom turn. So I would expect then that reducing the fin angle would help skiers get the ski nose down to slow the ski. Likewise then, increasing the fin angle should pull the back of the ski down, getting the nose further away from the water sooner, and perhaps aiding the skier's acceleration out of the turn. But these concepts of mine seem completely backwards to what I am reading about regarding fin angles, such that I am wondering what scientific laws or principles I must be leaving out of my consideration. I am hoping someone can explain the dynamic forces at work that result in the desired fin affects.

Cheers,