Hey guys, I am a collegiate water skier at Iowa State and wanted to hear your opinion on the butter knife ski that Radar makes. What do you think is that fastest way for a girl to learn how to run the course, a lot of my teammates have been using the HO Syndicate and I think that ski is almost too good for it to beneficial at their skiing ability. Also some of my teammates use Connelly jump skis, but a lot of them struggle to actually go around buoys, as in they can't really turn that well. Are there any skis that you would recommend to beginner skiers that can help them run the course quickly?
Also on another side topic, do you think it is easier to teach someone a side slide or a 360? For a 360 it's nice because there is no need to stop you just rotate around. But so many collegiate skiers are taught a side slide first, but should we really be teaching them this first if sometimes they don't get all the way to a 90 degree angle and therefore doesn't even get credit for it.
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Trying to learn a 360 without properly learning how to control the ski will likely result in the skier "hucking" themselves around and trying to use their shoulders and upper body to turn the ski. These are bad habits to get into.
First thing to learn on trick skis is a back to front. Get up backwards and turn to the front. At least that’s the way I did it circa 1970.
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Jim McCormick = Legend
Any coaching advice from 50 years ago = likely should not be repeated
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Also the butterknife would be a great choice for learning the course over a jumper, which is nice to teach someone how to get up on a single ski, but the buoy turn is hard. While you can teach someone to ski on anything, a butterknife, or any "entry level" (hate that phrase) ski will be easier.
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As far as side slide vs 360: First, one of the answers implied she was working on one ski. If she is just learning trick skis, I would say stay on two. Body position, handle passing are enough to worry about without worrying about balance. I always found one ski akin to standing on a bar of soap in the shower. When I was learning trick skis, my instructor (not a professional, just my neighbor) wanted me to learn a side slide. I found that very difficult and found it much easier to move on to 180s. 360s followed.
As far as the advice about learning 180s by getting up backwards, that reminded me of a story a friend told me. He said the way he was "instructed" to learn barefooting was to jump out of 2 skis. I think his barefooting career lasted a grand total of 15 minutes.
“Well, let me see…sun burn, stiff neck, screwed up back, assorted aches and pains….yup, my weekend was great, thanks for asking.”
I'm sure the technique and theory from some sport is still relevant from 50 years ago but I can't imagine what it is.
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As far as the actual subject of this thread. I don't remember the last time I taught somebody to ride two trick skis. The "one ski" progression I use is as follows: sideslide, back wrap, then two handed back or 360.
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Performance Ski and Surf ☆ Reflex ☆ Radar ☆ Rodics OffCourse ☆ S Lines ☆ Stokes ☆
side- side
180-180
360-360
If anyone can do more than that, great. If anyone can slalom trick and do stuff---they are your 1 in the line-up. If anyone can wakeboard it counts as slalom trick and let them throw all kinds of stuff
For slalom, on jumpers you can run really low speeds and long lines and the skis will support you---so make sure you have at least 5 guys and and least 5 girls who can get 6 balls...running jump skis if needed.
You can still practice on the slalom ski and work for it--please do...but get your points on jumpers if necessary on tourney day. You probably have some better skiers on the team who run it on slalom perhaps to shortline--that's great...they are your top skiers...but fill out your line up scoring points by getting around 6 buoys. Kinda strange but I've seen a good wakeboarder run the course as well on the wakeboard at slower speed and longer lines in college and get good points.
This is the formula for midwest teams to go to nationals...but few organize and do it this way--they just keep beating their heads against the wall on a slalom ski getting 2 buoys on tourney day and no real points...save the 2 ball or 4 ball passes for practice as you work your way to 6 and more!
As for the butterknife or syndicate--probably more depends on the skier than the ski in my opinion you should be fine on either.
Nobody wants to do a trick run on 2 skis because that's not kewl. They see the better skiers on 1 make it look easy and think they should just hop up and do that. So peer pressure comes into play. I've thought about running a tournament set on 2 skis to get 660 pts and show my teammates this will place well. But not sure this will really change anyone's mind about 2 skis.
Jumpers don't go so well. And it is a cut to the ego to use them instead of a slalom ski. I like @Kelvin's idea of two slalom skis and of the same size, but we aren't overflowing with money for the skiers interested but not dedicated to the results.
Have your skiers learn to stand on the ski, edge, jump the wakes etc. Another good drill is to take your rear foot out of the ski and try to edge the ski using only your front foot. This forces you to find the center of the ski while bending your front ankle.
Throw a couple of kids on trick skis at the same time and have them just play around. They will lean a lot about how to ride and control a trick ski and it is a lot more enjoyable than side slide -> fall.
Balance of points/team success/fun in the midwest on ski teams. Good luck and cool to have you on the forum
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Connelly ☆DBSkis ☆Denali ☆Goode ☆GiveGo ☆MasterCraft ☆ Masterline
Performance Ski and Surf ☆ Reflex ☆ Radar ☆ Rodics OffCourse ☆ S Lines ☆ Stokes ☆
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Connelly ☆DBSkis ☆Denali ☆Goode ☆GiveGo ☆MasterCraft ☆ Masterline
Performance Ski and Surf ☆ Reflex ☆ Radar ☆ Rodics OffCourse ☆ S Lines ☆ Stokes ☆
These are exactly what you're talking about full pass slow as you can go. And not expensive.