Deep Water Start help.

[Greg Tomamichel]

dragging the back leg is a good technique for learning but you'll want to break that habit after you learn to get up. I switched to double boots years ago and would never go back to a toe plate. I try to tell my friends that want to get up get compressed like a ball. What I mean is to get you're knees up against your vest. When you say go stay in that position till you get the the prop wash. By then you should be almost to plane. When you hit the wash stand up but stay back. You really want to get your weight to push down on the back of the ski and get the fin into the water so it bites. Usually when I see the ski bouncing it means you're too far forward and the back fin isn't sitting in the water all the way. You really want the boat to do all the work. Also I would check the fin. Make sure it's tight and also make sure someone didn't set it to high. The slightest adjustment on the fin will throw the characteristics way off. Depth and angle is very important.

+ 1 with Cusefan78 - this is how we teach new folk, and what I remind myself of every time.

 

[mandmj]

Well got to try again tonight. Maybe some progress, but not much. With my weight further back, I get a lot more spray in my face, and it does help calm the ski's side to side movements a bit. I'm definitely along for the ride longer, and getting further up, and I think i'm squatting as best as I can, but cannot tell for sure (videos were not useful). In the end though, the ski is still spitting me off to one side or the other. Tried dragging a leg, didn't help me much, too different from what I was use to w/ the foot in technique. I did stop sliding my foot in after the start, just had it in all the way. I'm starting to think the boat's hole shot is at least part of the problem (but that won't be changing, too perfect of a boat for what we normally do). I may get to try again on Monday, but pretty tired right now after probably at least nine pulls tonight. Oh, and the fin is secure, middle position. wing adjusted to neutral.

On the bright side, my oldest son (10) graduated to a new pair of junior combos, and used a real rope for the first time. Up first pull. I was thrilled w/ that.

 

[Ian-r]

You are over thinking it. Keep your back foot in the fitting so you don't have to think about it. All you need to do is get on the front foot. Stay crouched down until you feel your self start to plane and then stand. Get the driver to give you a nice smooth firm pull out. The ski will always dance a bit when you come up but don't worry about it. Keep your arms straight and low and just hang on! Then stand flat on the ski with a bit extra on the front. If you put weight on the back he ski will start to turn so stay on the front. Once you get on the slalom course, you will find that all the force is on the front and the back foot just sits there.

 

[Jeff_H]

mandmj, you've received a lot of good advice. I'll put in my two cents: 1) determine your dominant foot. 2) drag the other foot, don't put it in the rear toe piece. 3) let the boat do the "heavy lifting." 4) tuck the knee of your dominant leg (the one in the front binding) into your chest. 5) after the boat starts, you'll feel the ski transition from "plow" to "plane." 6) as the ski planes, then smoothly stand up. 7) look at the boat, not your ski. 8) lastly, that ski is likely on the small side for you. I'm 6' and 200 lbs., and I ski on a 69" HO Coefficient-X. Now, I'm 61, and made the switch last year. Prior to that I was on a 67".

 

[mandmj]

I'm going to resurrect this thread for a little closure. I took last year off trying the slalom thing. Sold off both of the skis I had (one was a bit too small, and the other was a high performance ski I'd been given and was a non starter). Ended up getting a much better set of combos on clearance, and enjoyed skiing them so much never really worried about the slalom thing. A couple of weeks ago, I got the bug again, and decided that I wanted to eliminate any chance of a too small ski, so I found a good deal on one of these:

HO Radius 3S, 68 inches of fat fiberglass and aluminum, and rated for a 270lb skier (I'm less than 185). That ought to have enough surface area. Tried it out today for the first time, and was definitely better but still having a problem getting tossed off after I was starting to come out of the water. Played w/ different foot positions, changed the forward foot, tried pressure levels on front and back foot and all this helped a little but not a lot.

I fell hard on about the 8th pull and hurt my chest, but was really close, so tried again. Leaning back even further helped, and angling the ski a bit forward helped some too (with more of the ski in the water than I had tried before) I then noticed what I think was one of my main problems. I was so focused on trying to diagnose what I was doing wrong that I was not looking up, but at the ski. Once I focused on the boat, or even the tree line, up I came. Now, I wasn't up that long before I fell, but I was definitely up.

Standing. On one ski. From a deep water start.

FINALLY!

Did it one more time to try to build a little muscle memory before exhaustion set in and again only skied briefly before falling, but finally, some progress was made. Hopefully I'll get to try again mid week but I'm thrilled to have gotten this far.

Thanks for all of the great advice above, and I hope my travails help someone else along the way.

And, if all goes well, I can maybe get a non-fat man ski before I'm 50!

 

[jimmbo]

You could ski behind an 18 hp on that thing

 

[mandmj]

Yeah, but I ain't proud. I would guesstimate that it is about 500 sq inches, so 10% less than a big daddy. Not bad for $100 in nearly new condition. Very glad it got the job done.

 

[MRS]

Try both feet in push with back foot knees against chest and you might not like this but try a double handle rope with a wide v so it clears the ski. Got lots of folks up for the first time this way gives you a little more steering options then you can go back to the single handle once you get up and are sking.

 

[firstx1017]

That's awesome! You. Got. Up.!!! I started on the Big Easy which is 550 sq. ft. I believe, went to Big Daddy, then Mid SX then Mid LX and now a womens Radar Butterknife. Never thought I'd get up on a regular ski from deep water! But I get up every time now! Hope you try again this summer and progress to a smaller ski by the end of summer!

 

[GA_Boater]

He got up last Summer making this an old thread. Even the OP brought it to a close.

Closed.