Anyone straying away from traditional slalom? The one handed gate makes a lot of sense to me as it helps to set up a rhythm, but the counter rotation at the buoy is hard for me to get down. <BR> <BR>I'm starting to figure it out while free skiing but as soon as I get into the course I get "buoy blinders". I forget all of my form and technique and just try like hell to get that next buoy which never happens. <BR> <BR>Anyway just seeing who else is trying WCS and if you have any tips, pointers or things to practice I'm all ears. <BR> <BR>b

You won't get much slalom theory talk on here... If you are really interested in learning about WCS, check out... <BR> <BR><a href="http://waterski.nicholls.edu/waterski/" target="_blank">http://waterski.nicholls.edu/waterski/</a> <BR> <BR>Lots of good knowledgeable skiers online there!

Thanks Brad, there is some good info on there...ugly forum however.

yeah its an old style formatted forum but you get used to it and the info is valuable.

If you are making a full transition to west coast, you need to go to a school or a coach. There is too much to learn on your own. You will have to work buoy to buoy, you can't actually try to run the course if you are trying a new technique. I use part of west coast such as the one handed gate and work a lot with hips and handle position to mock west coast. I use sort of a hybrid form.

There are some good schools here but I don't think there are any teaching west coast. I'd say I have more of a hybrid technique as well but I've always skied pretty compressed so west coast seemed to make sense to me. Just having a lot of fun on the ski right now, hope to maybe get through 15 off @ 32 by the end of the season but we'll see.

A lot of the west coast technique is based off of stuff that can't really even be used until at least 36/22'. It's a lot of rhythm stuff. You could use some of the form and work that way. I don't know if I would recommend it for that line length, as I am sure there are a million other things you could learn first.

That was really one of my questions. At my level of skiing, is it wise to be concerned with the specifics of west coast or should I really just be focused on the basics until I get into some shorter line lengths. See, you answered my question without me asking it. <BR> <BR>Had some great sets this weekend, some of this slalom stuff is almost starting to make sense. Thanks!