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Well took the boat out this weekend to a local lake with a couple thats really good friends of ours. We did some tubing earlier in the day and then hit the shore to let to the dogs use the bathroom. Well I proposed the question, Do you want to try and ski? My buddy said sure let's try it.

Well I get in the water with him and get him situated with skis on and correct form for getting pulled up by my slighty under powered boat. It took two tries and he was riding around even going through turns but still inside the wake. I am not trying to toot my own horn but I did get a lot of info of here between proper technique and proper driver technique. I have been skiing on and off since I was 12 or so (12 years ago) and I have always paided attention to the my uncles and grandpa on how to drive.

So my turn comes and I have attempted to teach the wife how to drive, punch it and hope you see me come out of the water since the ole' Merc isn't as strong as she used to be and I maybe be a little heavier. We the wife half throttles it and I drag for a good 50 yards and drink 10 gallons of water. So finally we a re on the same page with punch it and watch. So I get up finally and it is liek riding a bike, once I am on plane I can swing outside the wake and goes across to the other side (still on combos). So the whole time I am in my head trying to drive the boat as in going through a corner I am out side the wake, I as a driver would slow down a tad and then give a little more once straight again. Mayb e I am being to critical but do you guys find youselfs driving the boat when you are on tow?

Now hopefully this summer I can finally slalom with the knowledge I have learned from this awesome forum. Hoepfully in a couple week I can have some feed back on how it went.

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Haha... thats funny because I did the same thing this weekend. My daughter had a friend sleeping over and they planned for us to go to the lake and have her daughter try skiing. That evening her Dad called and asked if he could come to because he wanted to help teach her. I said sure... why not? That said, if you have kids you know that other people can sometimes teach your kids easier than you can, but I'm flexible. She didn't want to try and so I asked if he wanted to go, and he was giving me the, "well, I haven't been in years and had a hard time getting up last time", but finally I nudged him enough to jump in the water. Turns out he goes in with only the one ski, gets up on the first try, and is cutting up the water like he was born on the ski. I rarely get to ski because my family members are just learning to drive. He offered to pull me and I figured if he was 50 years old, born in Florida, and skied that well, that he knew how to drive a boat... which he said he did. The lake was also pretty quiet. But once we got going, I was nervous about the areas around the lake that I knew to be shallow, so after a while he kind of headed into one of those spots so I was flapping my arms pointing for him to turn. He didn't get what I was saying, so I just dropped which got him to stop. It wasn't a big deal because I was ready to stop anyways, but your post reminded me of how silly I most have looked trying to direct him where to drive while in tow.

By the way, I've found that when towing skiers and wakeboards, especially beginners, its very important to have eye contact with them in the mirror so you can use the throttle to help them get out of the water easier. His daughter, for example, was very, very skinny and was having trouble holding the skis straight to start off. It looked like windshield wipers with them flopping back and forth. He was in the water with her helping her steady and was giving me the "go" command. After a failed attempt and her feet going out into the splits, the next attempt he said "go", and I waited a couple of seconds until her ski tips were in the right spot (constantly moving), and then hit it to get some water pressure on them... then eased off and gradually got her the rest of the way up. It really helps to see what is going on when a skier is coming out of the water.

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Well after checking out the pictures that the wife took I notice my hips are way too far back and thats why my back hurt so bad while skiing. So hopefully we can get out again soon to practice some more.

Sadly the guy I taught to get up has better form then me, maybe a weekday trip to the local river can change this.

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Don't feel too bad, and the back pain may not be entirely form-related. In many cases, you just simply use stabilizer muscles while skiing that you normally wouldn't use as extensively during normal activity which can cause some muscle pain.

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I ski a fair amount and my back gets sore too, especially at the beginning of the season. Anytime you start up a new activity you find all sorts of muscles that you havn't been using for anything else

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This should work here but this is how I looked.

I seems liek I need to lean more but I think the boat was going a tad slow.

Me


My buddy

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Well the wife and I went out yesterday and got in some time behind the boat. I got up one the first try and crossed the wake a couple of times. Then it came time to drop the ski, I can drop it well but not so great at riding. I kick it and then go to stick my foot in the toe binding and miss and panic or stick my foot in th water. The last time I rode for a little bit just stand on the back of the ski but I know that I need to put a lot more weight on the back of the ski because I kept falling out the front of the ski and bounced on the water a couple of times. So today my neck is sore and so are my sides.

Oddly enough my mom used to ski in comps when she was a kid but quit when she was in college so our whole family used to ski behind our pontoon boat. I remember seeing a picture of 5 wide on a pontoon boat my grandpa built with twin 100's on it. So I asked her some questions before I left and she kept saying to get the weight on the back leg to plant it.

I tried twice a deep water slalom but just drank water and then gave up. My skis are your average adult combos and I am a little above average, (6'4" 230lbs). So hopefully this week a buddy I went to college with is into for a Pharmacy rotation at UC's hospital will come over and we can hit our local river for some riding time.

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230lbs is a lot to get up on a deep water start with a 67" slolam ski. I had difficulty at 210lbs getting up on a 67" slalom behind a 17' 115 Merc O/B. The boat needs to have a good amount of power in order to overcome the drag you are producing. I recommend you find a nice used 69-71" slalom ski and you'll have no issues getting out of the water.

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Yeah it is a good size load to pull. I have been looking on craigslist for a deal but not sure i will find one since not too many nice lakes around. I may check out ebay too.

Since we have simliar boat I know mine is heavier but do you start with both feet in the ski or drag one to reduce the drag?

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I am picking up an older O'Brien slalom ski thats 70" long. Should help me getup instead of the 67" combos that I have.

Pictures fron the ad.

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You'll pop out of the water on that one in no time.