| My 5 year old has been up and skiing this year using the trainers.
Rather than holding onto the (front) handle, the spotter wraps the
rope (no handle) around the rear grab rail ONCE. This allows less
arm fatigue for the spotter yet allows a quick release by the spotter
should a fall occur. Under NO circumstances should the rope be attached
to the boat if it's also attached to the skis! To start, put junior
at the shore (tips in the water, tails on the beach) so that the
bindings are just at the waters edge. SLOWLY take out the slack
(use about 45 ft of rope) and go smoothly when all the slack is
out. It doesn't take much speed at all, about 8 mph for my 5 year
old. After they're up, keep talking to them, and smiling and tell
them what a great job they're doing. (Even if they don't get up,
tell them what a great attempt they made, etc..) One thing, they
do tend to freak out as they are being pulled out into the "wide
open lake" (it must look huge to little people) So just yell to
them "We're gonna make a little loop" and come back around easy
(no sharp turns) as soon as they sight land, they calm right down
and start enjoying it.
The next step after the beach start is mastered and the child has
skiied and got used to it a bit, is to disconnect the rope from
the skis. Some more lawn training is now required to let him/her
get used to the pull of the boat. (arms straight, knees bent, let
the boat pull you, don't try to pull yourself up.) Oh yeh, the skis
are still tied to each other, but the rope is now tied to the boat
and NOT to the skis. Once in the water, with knees bent, tips up
(a person holding the tips helps here) and arms straight. Emphasize
ARMS STRAIGHT (i.e. elbows locked) and that when they get up, tell
them to STAND UP! For some reason, most kids tend to keep their
knees bent, and consequently go bum bouncing across the lake.
One problem with the trainer skis is that, as they are being pulled,
they tend to come up in the middle. (i.e. inside edges up high and
outside edges low) They can be flattened out by putting the knees
together thus shifting the weight to the inside edges.
One thing that progressed my son was the fact that he could have
ski-gloves (Kid-Skins from Overtons) when he made the "loop". Now
we have matching gloves. :^) He also hasn't tried the deep water
starts yet, he likes his "Beach Starts". (just like dad)
Good Luck and let us know how you make out.
Doug (who wishes I started skiing when I was 5 (or 8 for that matter))
|
| One thing we have is a pair of old, short skis with the tips and tails
tied together. We don't tie the boat to the skis. After you start
with your way, try it with them holding the rope. All you need is like
a 10 hp boat, too. (If you can access that.)
|
|
re .2
Alright Doug! Good advice guy. I got the 8 year old (Zack) up
on the 5th try. There was only two adults, so the beach start was
really the only way since he was unable to sit in the water without
flopping from side to side. If I had had a 3rd, I might have tried
a regular in-water start. It didn't look good at first. We tried
three times, then took a break. Once or twice he made it into the
water, but fell backwards when it got a few feet deep. I gave him
a pep talk on how that was normal and he just had to hang on til he
came out of the water. Zack had a real good attitude and wanted to
try again. I told him to show me his "war face" before we tried again
(also, I shortened the rope handle by tieing a knot in it). I think
my boat driving improved also, as it wasn't so easy to feather the
throttle just right at first. It was such a hoot to see the little
guy come up and stay up. He skied about 150 yds and wiped out on
the turnaround. He was actually smiling and enjoying it. I saw
what you meant about the skis being cocked inwards. We're down in
here in S.C., so we'll probably be able to work at it some more
through October. Thanks again. It made my whole weekend.
-pat (I already tried the "kid skins" tip too!)
|