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West Coast VS. Traditional


UWSkier

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I was reading the piece on Marcus Brown and his skiing style in the newest Waterski Mag, and it got me thinking. Just how does the west coast style work? You'd think with your hips dropped like that, you'd have to have herculean back muscles to keep from breaking at the waist coming off the ball. It makes sense for getting the ski on edge and maintaining good balance to keep the body somewhat upright and the hips bent, but it seems like it's a weak posture to accept the boat's pull.

Any of you more traditional "hips forward" skiers ever tried the drop hip, counter rotating west coast style? Can you do it on an HO? I'd be interested in playing around with it, but I really wouldn't want to screw up my form (not like it's anything to be super proud of currently).

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I was reading the piece on Marcus Brown and his skiing style in the newest Waterski Mag, and it got me thinking.  Just how does the west coast style work?  You'd think with your hips dropped like that, you'd have to have herculean back muscles to keep from breaking at the waist coming off the ball.  It makes sense for getting the ski on edge and maintaining good balance to keep the body somewhat upright and the hips bent, but it seems like it's a weak posture to accept the boat's pull.

Any of you more traditional "hips forward" skiers ever tried the drop hip, counter rotating west coast style?  Can you do it on an HO?  I'd be interested in playing around with it, but I really wouldn't want to screw up my form (not like it's anything to be super proud of currently).

Good Question "can you do it on an HO" All the west coast style people are riding full radiused bevel skis, D3 and F1, and I have never seen anyone with that style riding an HO.

UW, try this sometime at your lake. Set the rope to -28 and speed to 28mph and have the boat go down the center of the course you pull out to the side and get past the bouy line and stay there. Once there change the positions you body is in from traditional to west coast style and see what gets you higher on the boat with the same amount of energy input.

Marcus is a great skier, no question. To me though, he seems to ski to hard. He puts explosive energy into his lean right off the ball after making a huge turn so that he gets to the other side so early that he almost has to go flat because he ran out of rope to continue outbound. It seems like he could go a little easier off the ball and then he wouldn't run out of rope at the next bouy.

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interesting experiment. I'll give that a shot.

I was thinking last night, I might have to take a week off of work and have my own little mini ski test. Currently, I'd like to try the Carbonworx, the System 8, and the X5. If I could demo those three in the same week on my home water, that'd be very cool. :)

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Edwin how bout expand, I need some good evidence to get past my CFO, as I was looking seriously at the system 8. Are u wsing approach or animals?

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UW,

That would be a great test. I've done the carbonworx V. HO Monza and am sticking to the CBX.

I run an approach boot on my front and love it, since then I have also talked two other skiers into these boots

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Smooth as glass:

I just purchased a system 8 and have riden it 5 days. I am working out the fine tuning and hope to have a report shortly. I am coming from a HO Burner so this ski is lightning quick compared to the Burner. I posted this on another thread, but call Wileys and talk to Darin. He has a great knowledge of the skis and can match with your ability.

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Set the rope to -28 and speed to 28mph and have the boat go down the center of the course you pull out to the side and get past the bouy line and stay there.  Once there change the positions you body is in from traditional to west coast style and see what gets you higher on the boat with the same amount of energy input.

With all due respect, S6, I'm not sure that's a definitive experiment. It seems to me that dropping the hips/changing center of gravity in West Coast occurs without that kind of load on the rope. I tried droppinp/leading with my hip the other day and my ski turned and came around faster than I ever expected. FWIW ($0.01)

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With all due respect, S6, I'm not sure that's a definitive experiment. It seems to me that dropping the hips/changing center of gravity in West Coast occurs without that kind of load on the rope. I tried droppinp/leading with my hip the other day and my ski turned and came around faster than I ever expected. FWIW ($0.01)

I agree - I started to play around with angulation in the turn this winter and found the ski to turn better & I had the ski more on edge as I came out of the turn. Only got to do it a few times out before surgery again, but plan on working on this technique come august 1st.

I also didn't really think of it as "dropping my hips (back)" this time - in the past, when I thought of dropping hips, I ended up squatting. instead, i thought more about creating angle between my upper body and lower body at the hip through the apex of the turn.

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I tried this yesterday while out on the water. If I would angulate (slide my hip to the inside of the turn, but not necessarily let it fall back) and counter with my upper body, my ski would come around really fast and I'd have really good angle; provided I was ready to accept the pull at the end of the turn. I found a few of my turns happened so quickly, I wasn't quite ready for the pull and I had to give up some angle to keep from getting pulled over the front of the ski. I'm going to mess around with this some more, but I think I like it! :)

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I tried this yesterday while out on the water.  If I would angulate (slide my hip to the inside of the turn, but not necessarily let it fall back) and counter with my upper body, my ski would come around really fast and I'd have really good angle; provided I was ready to accept the pull at the end of the turn.  I found a few of my turns happened so quickly, I wasn't quite ready for the pull and I had to give up some angle to keep from getting pulled over the front of the ski.  I'm going to mess around with this some more, but I think I like it!  :)

I think that the any different "style" is more than just what you do in the turn. Part of the west coast style is to load up hard up to the first wake and then have the time to edge change and "drop" your hips to get the ski to come around. Part of the experiment was to see if dropping your hips to the outside of the ski while under load was a stronger position then the traditional straight bodied lean. If anyone tries this they will instantly get feedback as to what position their body needs to be in for the strongest pulls behind the boat. Edwin- try it and I think you'll see that it is definitive.

If you don't/can't load up hard behind the boat to get free of the boat, you won't have the time it takes to get all the "west coast turn" things done.

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Sorry guys, saw the topic title and thought we were talking football offense. I'll leave now. :)

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Edwin how bout expand, I need some good evidence to get past my CFO, as I was looking seriously at the system 8.  Are u wsing approach or animals?

I run an Animal up front, RTP in the back. Coming from a 2002 Phantom w. CarbonFin. The Sys 8 does everything better for me - it turns easier, it generates great speed cross course, is somewhat forgiving (on the Phantom there was a fine line between getting your weight forward in the turn going OTF, this is no where as sensitive), and it seems to hold angle against the boat easier than the Phantom.

I really wanted to get the Monza, the guys at Wileys strongly suggested the Sys8 since I'm a 34mph skier. Told em I'd gladly pay the extra $$$ for the Monza but they've had better experience with 34mph skiers on the Sys8...I couldn't be happier w. the ski.

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