| Yeah. Your description of the ramp looking like a wall on first
approach is right on. I did the same thing, losing my balance and
feet sliding out so that I went over the ramp horizontal to the
water, doing a helicopter and having a crackerjack landing on my
chest, feet somewhere around my ears (a new slant to bending over
backwards).
I tried three times. If I was a cat I would have six lives left.
Never did manage to land properly, hearing shouts of "DON'T LOOK
DOWN!!" which I promptly did on each occasion, scaring the living
daylights out of my obviously seriously deluded brain. Or should
I say 'diluted'?
I had to wear a strange kind of belt with a loop in it to hold my
arm down, presumably to keep the angle of leverage low and therefore
minimise the possibility of spinning.
Great fun though!!
Tally-ho,
Ray
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| Well I should add my comments here since I did a lot of jumping
over my vacation. As in any sporting event there are some
"rules-of-the-road" which should always be heeded. Jumping is no
different. The cardinal rule is: DO NOT CUT ON THE JUMP! You RIDE
on the ramp, not SKI on the ramp! The big mistake I've seen everyone
do (I'm no exception) is to do exactly what Mike (.0) described
on his first attempt...keep pulling when you hit the ramp. As he
(and everyone else) finds out the ramp does not react with the skis
like the water does, result is a horizontal launch. Think about
it...if you weren't travelling at probably 25-30 mph (at least)
when you hit the ramp, your skis would slip out from under you and
you would slam into the ramp with your head/side/whatever else.
Not a pleasant prospect at all!
The "strange kind of belt with a loop in it to hold my arm down"
that Ray (.1) described is called a jump sling and is used to keep
your boat-side elbow close to your body. One of the things you
have a tendancy to do when you go off the top of the jump is to
compensate for the slack in the rope by pulling it up to your chest.
WRONG! This throws you back and you'll never land properly. Believe
me, I'm the master! You won't believe how much difference it makes
if you really THINK about holding the handle at your hip when you
go over the jump and KEEP IT THERE! The key is to approach the
ramp with your skis FLAT, crouch down (bend the knees, not the waist),
hold the rope at your hip and ride up the ramp. You want to try
to "pop" up (straighten out your knees) about half-way up the ramp
(later on as you increase speed you'll want to start to "pop" as
soon as you hit the bottom of the ramp), but don't worry if you
don't do this the first few times. Good position on the jump will
result in good position in the air. The landing is actually very
simple. Most times you'll find that you don't even have to bounce
on your butt to absorb the shock...your knees can handle it. But
it looks impressive to bounce once and toss a big spray, then ski
away with one arm in the air...just like on ESPN, right Mike? :-)
The best way I've seen to teach someone to go over the jump is to
have them ski up the ramp from the left side bottom up to the right
side top (assuming the standard passing of the boat to the right
side of the jump). The boat should pass the ramp about 30-35 feet
from the right side and speed should be about 22-25 mph for the
first attempt. { Oh yeah, and be sure you wet the ramp. I still
have a bump on my face from kissing the skis on a landing from a
jump off a ramp that had started to dry in the sun...you get thrown
forward, sort like putting on the brakes half-way up the ramp. }
The skier pulls out to the left side of the boat and lines up with
the lower left corner of the ramp. Following the "crouch down"
instructions above, ride the ramp from lower left to upper right
corner. You don't HAVE to go off the top either. Try a couple
of jumps off the edge, say half-way up, just to get the "feel" of
the ramp. Keep the handle close to your right hip, pop if you can,
and take the landing with your knees (bounce on your butt if you
want). Keep that handle DOWN! And voila! You made it! Once you
master this, you can begin to increase your speed to the ramp by
waiting longer before you cut to the ramp. Soon you'll be cutting
to the ramp from the other side of the wake! And then once you get the boat speed up
to 35mph, you can challenge the world record (203 feet?). :-)
Good luck, and enjoy the flight!
...Roger...
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| Re: 2, Roger,
I'm not a jumper, but a few things I do know about, by watching tapes
and reading articles and books. Please correct me if I'm wrong...
The jump sling is used primarily for sustaining the resistance of
the boat while cutting the wake and jumping off the ramp. Proper
technique for jumping requires your arms to be in. Without the
sling, the arms will tend to be pulled toward the boat during the
cut and pop off the ramp, resulting in lost power.
And keeping your knees bent, when you get to the ramp can be dangerous.
It results in crushing. The best position at the base of the ramp
is to be standing almost straight up. That way when you hit the
bottom of the ramp you have some resistance against the impact.
The knees will bend naturally when you impact the bottom of the
ramp, and then you will be in the position for a "pop" off the top.
If you keep your knees bent when you approach the ramp, they'll
bend more when you impact the ramp and the rest of your body could
end up scrunched over in a crush. Without much time on the ramp
to recover, you could go over the top in this position!
Body position approaching the ramp is totally opposite to the slalom
buoy approached! Straighten ze knees (but don't lock 'em)!
-ric.
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| I must concur with Ric's version of the approach to the ramp. In
the early learning stages of jumping, bending the knees (just a
little) gives you a secure feeling that you can extend at the top
and still take the impact of hitting the ramp. But as we all know
in the water skiing world, old (read, "bad") habits are hard to
break, and when you start cutting harder to the jump you'll want
to do as Ric suggests and straighten out your knees more. I've
found that what works for one person does not always work for others.
Some folks I jump with can take the jump with bent knees and this
helps their "pop" off the ramp. Since I have pretty strong legs
I can jump like this. But others "crush" (as Ric pointed out) when
they impact the ramp, and this throws off your timing and power
(as Ric called it) off the ramp, not to mention that it can be very
dangerous if you crush too much, a.k.a. facial/bodily reorganization
by the ramp.
The sling keeps your arms in tight to your body so as to keep your
center of gravity over both skis. Extending out toward the boat
moves your CG over the right ski or even further toward the boat.
Body position is the key. As stated in an earlier note, good position
at the base of the ramp yields good position off the end of the
ramp.
Practice, practice, practice. Use the ESPN tapes as a guide (or
dream) if you wish, but remember these guys hit the ramp at
70+ mph...you're not ready for that yet (at least I know I'm not)!
...Roger...
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