There are so many liitle things that can make BIG improvements very easily. Staring down the buoy As Travis mentioned is a very good point. This is a natural, but very detrimental action. Until one can achieve their own rhthym and timing it is almost impossible to not stare at the up coming buoy. I would highly suggest removing the wgt. & pressure of the buoys by shadowing the heck out of the buoys. Trying to improve your timing and develope your own rhthym while progressively turning closer and closer to the buoys.

When this becomes very E.Z. and rhythmatic, continue shadowing but, now you can begin to add in and cover #6 ball. Then when this becomes very E.Z. and rhythmatic you can also add in and cover #4 and eventually #2. When this becomes automatic you can begin to add in #5 as well, ( you'll now  be covering #2, 4, 5, and 6 and still shadowing #1 & 3..) Eventually, you will have progressively covered All 6 buoys from the back to the front!

If you try to cover the buoys from #1 to #2 and so on through all 6, You will, (Like all of us) have a great tendency to get behind and lose all of your good form and technique trying to Eeeeeeeek out those remaining  buoys. You will then at times be spending more time "Scrapping" then skiing! And this "Perfect practice" dangerously creates an injury prone "Perfect Scrapper"!

This is one way to add speed or cut rope without starting the course rushed and out of whack and then wasting time skiing straight behind the boat after you miss or worse "scrapping" your way out...     

Best of Luck to you and your progress!

skibuddy wrote:

h20dawg, great advice..you ever get to B'ham? I love to run a few sets, tip a glass and bend your ear on progression. I fell into the trap you mentioned above and am just recovering from ribs, shoulders ,back, etc...Have recently dropped back to 15 off 30/32,just to try and redevelop fundamentals that were lost trying to heal!

Ya man, Thanx!  Same to you, - if your ever in Nashville! I hope your recovery will be quick and complete!

At the beginning stages the most important thing from my perspective isn't the turn but the pull through the wakes.  At 15 off there is plenty of rope to get around the bouys but not if you don't pull strong through both wakes.  As mentioned above don't think about where the next bouy is but focus on getting good body position coming out of the bouy and hold that through the white water past the second wake.  This should project you out with enough width to get around the bouys.

Good luck and have fun.