Water Ski Jumpers are nuts!!

Brady

Found this video on youtube, and it gives a nice view of literally how nuts you jumpers truly are!!!! I would love to see more crazy jump videos!!!

JJVDMZN

I thought they must have 'nuts' to do jumping

Edbrazil

Roger Ferrelli, who was a good Men2 slalomer back in the 1970's and 1980's in the East,
recently passed on. We're losing a lot of people from the Golden Era of water skiing:
pioneers, Hall of Fame honorees, and local ski buddies.

I remember Roger having no interest in jumping, and was prone to expressing his
opinions about everything. He had this famous quote about jumping:

"Only two things come out of the sky: birds**t and fools".

In my prime, I was in the latter category. Back in the days of self-taught jumping.

GAJ0004

I was at a slalom tournament and I had a couple of long time tournaments skiers ask me if I jumped. I told them no. They said you are a very smart man.. I said not really I took up barefooting instead.. Having and adrenaline junkie streak in me I can understand the appeal of jumping. I would not try it since I don't want to risk the injury.

Than_Bogan

What a timely Roger Ferelli reference! Although his tournament career ended before mine began, he was the first person who ever pulled me on Lake Cochituate -- unbelievably that was 20 years ago.

I had actually forgotten about his famous characterization of jumpers -- thanks for the reminder!

I'm having trouble thinking of any other Ferelli-isms that will still make sense after censoring them. For example, he equated putting your foot in someone else's binding with marital infidelity, but you can perhaps imagine some more colorful ways to say that.

I only knew him briefly, but had a vague impression that his life was pretty tough at times. May he rest in peace.

Chef23

Ferelli pretty much taught me to ski the course as a kid. Some of my earliest memories of skiing are my Dad driving the boat and Ferelli screaming pull at me from the boat. When I was probably 12 or so he used to pick me up at my dock at 6:30 so we could get good water before the state park opened. I had seen him around town over the past year or so when I hadn't seen him for years and we had talked about getting him out to drive and coach over the summer. I am sorry to see him gone.

Nando

The references to Roger remind me of Tony Krupa's assessment of jumping: "Jumping is dumb and the dumber you are the farther you jump." But there are few better feelings than hitting one just right. In all my years of jumping, I had very few of those... and never went very far.

Edbrazil

Oops: Roger's last name has 2 r's, as in Ferrelli. Fixed that with an ED-it on my original comment.

This is his obit:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/wickedlocal-wayland/obituary.aspx?n=roger-ferrelli&pid=171601837

usaski1

not a vid.. but taken this weekend at the Texas State. I'll see everyone at the SCR in Cypress!

Brady

MichaelGoodman

Roger pulled me through my first 32 off at a tournament in Uxbridge Ma at
Fishers Foley I was just thrilled to get through 28 and had never come close to
running 32 even in practice so when I did I was rather shocked and happy. Took
me another 20 years to get through 35 and have only done that once in practice
although hope to change that this year. Did not know Roger well but remember
he was real helpful and a funny guy.

Turtle

Guess I must be nuts! Water ski leaping is the bomb! Went over the jump a couple times last Sat. after more than 45 years off.. Is it me or did water get harder?
Saw Tony Krupa mentioned above.. I knew him back in the day!

Jean Cloutier

Jumpers are only relatively nuts....
Compared to many other extreme sports such as downhill mountain biking, motocross, Alpine Downhill racing, etc. the danger and injury level of jumping is not that bad. I have many friends who competed in those sports and I can tell you that we are not that crazy. I will be 54 next month and I have been jumping since I was 12 and I still love it.
I did have a few crashes and got injured a few times but I always get back on the ramp because the feeling of hitting a good jump is just soooo sweeeet.

Here is my latest crash in March 2014 at Scott Ellis place where I did my shoulder pretty bad but after a few months of physio, I am back jumping and love it.

Jean Cloutier

Compare jumpers to these guys...

Just google Red Bull Rampage


or alpine downhill crashes


or motocross crashes


Lets not scare kids to try jumping, it's a great sport and can be done "relatively" safe!

ForrestGump

Have only been on jump skis once since I had knee surgery in 2011. And the one time I put them on just to ride around I pulled a calf muscle getting out of them. LOL. But I'm sure thinking of jumping next year.