I felt compelled to share it here.  Let me know what you think,…or go let Jenny know at Jenny LaBaw.com!!

FreeSkier Trash

If you don’t ski, sorry…this piece is mostly skiing. If you do, Listen up:

I spent all winter skiing, but its not what you think. I wasn’t in Tahoe, where I usually am. I wasn’t in Chico, skiing buoys left and right. I was in Tennessee, working on new product at MasterCraft. And most of my time spent on the water wasn’t spent in a course. It got me thinking about the culture of water skiing, specifically competition water skiing. It reminded me of how wrapped up we all get in our own efforts to challenge ourselves and push limits. So that’s what I want to talk about today….a secondary (and maybe someday, accepted) approach to improving and making gains on the water.

I can’t even count how many times I hear folks tweaking out on a technical aspect of skiing. Sure, to get better at slalom skiing through a course, it takes a focused technical diligence, far beyond what most sports call for. But, there is a balance.

Take a second to think about the last time you did some sort of on the water, functional*, technical drill for slalom skiing……how long ago was that? I am going to guess Never? I’m right, right? Right.

*Functional is defined as movement performed at or very near the speeds, tempos, rhthyms, angles, forces, etc. experienced during a typical run through the slalom course.

Now imagine a basketball team that never did anything other than play basketball, every day at practice. Or a football team that played 2-3 hours of football, 5 days a week, plus games on weekends. No drills, no skills, no discipline….just balls to the wall. I’m calling lots of injuries, poor technique and sloppy playing. AKA, performance well below full potential.

That’s us. That is what we do as skiers. And that is Trash. (I know, because I’m stuck in the trap too!)

If you golf, you can dial in your short game all day long on the putting green….or go impress the ladies at the driving range like John Daly (without the alcohol, of course) by swinging as hard as you can until your disks start popping out of your lower back like slobbery skittles from infant fingers. These are just a few of the drills, or what I call skill work, feasible within the sport of golf.

In water skiing, no one drills functional accelerations, transitions or carves. I mean, someone may go out once, and whip out to the side of the boat, let go of the rope and bank a carve until they run out of speed and wicked witch their way into the water (like they’ve seen portrayed in the magazines many times). Chances are that’s the last time they do it…because it only allows for one carve per serving, its not even a functional carve, and it burns through so much time, gas and friends that it really isn’t worth it. Another ridiculous drill is the “pulling drill” folks often use, whereby the skier simply pulls out to one side of the boat, and continues to try and stay out beside the boat for as long as they can. Hanging out beside the boat is a static position. The skier isn’t moving relative to the boat, the ski, or the handle. Again, not a functional drill.

There is something that works, however. And its almost so simple its stupid: Freeskiing. Its that thing we used to do before we were even good enough to make a slalom course. I hate to be the one to say it but once we mastered the course, it was in that moment that we instantly became its bitch (“we” being 95% of course skiers, myself included). The problem with skiing in a course becomes evident the first time a course skier tries to Freeski. It instantly seems impossible to carve with a tight line when there is no reference point, no buoy to say “turn now”. The accelerations and transitions start to fall apart and the frustration levels mount…usually.

But WHY? (As a side note, I am a firm believer that its not enough to just DO the right things on the water (or anything in life), without understanding. With understanding comes a deeper level of fulfillment, and a higher potential for performance. So, I always try to ask WHY?) “Why is freeskiing so hard?” Because we’ve learned to use the slalom course like a crutch, and forget to FEEL when we ski. The course conditions us to be numb to the input we are receiving from our body, and instead rely on our eyes. Your eyes tend to focus on the course and its checkpoints….”Just get a good gate, stay connected and move outbound, and keep a tight line at 1, then 2, 3…so on” The result is a series of sub-standard muscle memory movements based on punctuated or choppy input…which often results in choppy output. We try to connect dots, instead of find a rhythm, and that ultimately limits us from reaching our full potential…and truly “Flying”(…that moment when your mind clears, your body lights up and shit just happens without even trying).

To get there, we have to take a step back and remember why most of us started skiing in the first place: it was that rush of shredding on top of the water, banking big turns, throwing mad spray and FEELING accelerations and forces we couldn’t find anywhere else. The course takes a lot of that away from us…slowly so we don’t notice it happening. Its time to fight back…

With a new season comes a new opportunity to chart a different path. Of course your days at the lake will most likely be consumed by thousandths of inch fin movements, the latest technique fads and complaining about rollers, ducks or bad driving. But that doesn’t mean you can’t pry yourself and a few buddies away from the buoys every once in a while to remind yourself how important feeling is.

The more aware you are of your movements, the better they become. Freeskiing is the closest thing to a functional drill for us water skiers. It allows you to feel forces, line tension, swing, transitions, accelerations, carves, etc….without worrying about buoys, scores, timing or an ego. Do this at least twice a week, and watch how your course skiing suddenly becomes more natural and effortless.

Sometimes the simplest thing is the right answer. This is one of those times.

;

Go FREESKI!! NOW!

Gonna kick off a sub-series of blog posts, with no consistent timing nor reason amongst the lot of them: “Living The Dream”.   Just a series of posts, aiming to do nothing more than shed some light on the life, existence and purpose of a pro water skier.

My goal with “The Word” is to give people entertaining things to read, provocative ideas to mentally chew on….and maybe a few challenges to help folks find a new perspective on something.

Well, this is a prologue to my response…. to a challenge that seems to have surfaced without much effort.  I will do my best to keep this positive, because nowhere in the words “entertaining”, “provocative” or “challenging” is there any sense of inherent negativity.  I’ll try hard to keep The Word within those boundaries.

The challenge, or attack I could say, is on the very idea of a professional athlete within the world of water skiing.  Wanna know how it came about?  TWITTER!  Can you believe that?

The work flow went something like this:

1. I’m driving to lunch one day, on my lunch break from a REAL JOB (that could have some significance next month, or  whenever I have time to get to “Living The Dream, Chapter 2″), and I see a Twitter post regarding something called the Big Dawg World Tour*
2. *the Big Dawg Series of water ski competitions, for folks who aren’t tournament skiers, is a 35 yr old+ series (think masters) of semi-self funded tournaments in which a bunch of decently well-off folks with the passion and desire to train hard enough to be pretty damn good, travel around the country (or World) and compete.  Sounds harmless enough, right?  Hell, my brother even skis in the thing, so believe me when I say I see value in the Big Dawg World Tour.  But more on that later….
3. So without much thought, other than the few electrical impulses it takes to recall some earlier conclusion stored deep in the center of my brain…I started writing a tweet.  Pretty much exactly the same manner in which all tweets start…without a whole lot of thought.  AND, I remember the moment before I posted it…my finger hovered over the button…the traffic light turned green…and I had a tiny feeling that I might tick someone off….and then I thought “tough shit” and I hit post.  I had good reason for what I posted…and it wasn’t some self-centered, greedy reason seated in a sense of entitlement and laziness.  Unfortunately that’s what folks thought…and apparently I pissed off more than a few people.
4. The Tweet:  “Hate to say it but @SkiBigDawg World Tour cld B really bad fr Pro Skiing. Sport isn’t big enough 2 support 2 sets of pros.”

I’ll let you chew on that for….well,….as long as it takes me to find a moment to get to chapter 2.  Some are thinking I have all the time in the world…being a pro water skier.  You know who you are.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this thought puzzle:

Why is Golf so huge?

Hahahhhhh! GOT Ya!  Wrong half…try this:

How about Cycling, who blew that sport up in America?

That’s right….Mr. Livestrong.

Anyone see a trend?  Let me kick start it for you:  Traits these two embody….

1. Young
2. Better than anyone else in the world, at what they do
3. Have good style (in the arena AND in front of the camera)
4. They Inspire EVERYONE!  Young, but ESPECIALLY old people (are you kidding me?…this is Golf and Cycling we are talking about,..old people everywhere) are driven to the fairways and highways in record numbers to find their own sense of accomplishment and release….their own piece of “the moment”.  Simply because someone was able to reach all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, piercing thunderstorms and blurring country borders, to find us in our homes or man caves and grab us through the TV screen, by the throat, with a squeeze that said “HEY, you ain’t getting any younger….look at what is possible….now what the hell are you waiting for?”….all without ever taking his hands off the wet, cold, blood and sweat-drenched bars of his road bike.  Now that’s powerful.
5. Professionals

The one thing these two did not have:

1. A Normal Life….with a normal job, and a normal routine in a normal neighborhood.

They weren’t wannabe Professionals.  They did their best to be the best of the best, through a life of commitment and sacrifice.  And that is what gave them the power to transcend and transform their respective sports.

They are the reason we care about Golf and Cycling.

They are icons.

….end of Chapter 1 rant.

P.S. – for some light reading, and I do say “light” with the utmost sarcasm possible (matter of fact I might have spit a little bit on my computer screen when I said that out loud a moment ago), you can sneak on over to BallOfSpray.com or click this direct link to the Forum, see more about what folks think regarding the subject of Pro Water Skiing, what defines a Pro, and whether or not there is a need for Pro Water Skiing at all.

The Big Dawgs:

Exactly 1551 years ago, a British born bishop, who triumphed over persecution to bring Christianity to Ireland, died. Today we call it St. Patrick’s Day…..or St. Pattys for short, cuz we’re lazy…or drunk…or both.

Even though it’s a Saturday, I get the feeling a lot of people out there may have a very busy day ahead of them. A day that may include lots of green, lots of beer, and lots of really drunk people putting on an Irish front so that they can partake in way too much adult beveraging (nevermind that it’ll be far less than what their Irish Heros can consume) with hopes that they will get away with all kinds of inappropriate comments and behavior…

I say Let the Games Begin! Because even though I won’t be on that bandwagon today, I’m not afraid to use the bandwagon for my own little selfish 4-leaf clover wishes… because things here at MB.net are going to step up a notch but I need your help to get there.

Here is your homework:
1. Get on the bandwagon, ASAP
2. Get your Buzz on, but not too much too soon, to where you get distracted by the loud noises, stupid one-liners and pretty scenery…. because we’re not done yet… you’ll get to that in a second.
3. Just when those creative juices start flowing and you feel like a damn 8lb 6oz. newborn baby leprechaun dropped straight into a fresh pot of gold at the bottom of a double rainbow wearing nothing but your shiny new black boots and a gold plated belt buckle… I want you to figure out all the things you’d like to read about on MB.net Then I want you to write that down.
4. Tomorrow when you wake up and your life has come to an end because the pounding in your 8lb 6oz. head will never stop, I want you to leave a comment on this post with all the great ideas your little Lucky Irish mind came up with.

Due Date: Monday, March 19th at noon EST

Dismissed.

MB

P.S. Sorry for the demanding tone. Don’t take it personal, just hurry up and get to work and you’ll forget all about it…however, if your homework looks anything like this, you’re fired.

I’m ok with that. Here’s to all of us going outside our box…our comfort zone,…and making fools of ourselves…

Oh yeah…Colorado Rocky Mtn High. This place is off the charts beautiful…and the terrain at the mountain is as challenging as it gets. You can’t get an appreciation for how BIG these mountains really are until you look closer at the map:  a little place called ASPEN is only about 10 miles northeast of Mt Crested Butte, as the White-tailed
Leaf Warbler flies.  But if you were to drive from one to the other you would travel 206 miles!  Or approximately 4.5 hrs of sitting with a softball between your ass and your non-heated seat listening to NPR on some scratchy am radio station.  How big are these mountains?  That big.  Ain’t no road gonna take you the 10 miles between the two.

Sorry for the rant.  More to the point, why are we here?  Every year the Water Sports Industry Association  (sounds boring, just focus and hang in there for a sec) holds an annual summit, somewhere cool.  Park City, Whistler, now Mt. Crested Butte.  They bring in speakers who know a hell of a lot more than you know about stuff you never even knew existed…until now.  I feel like one of the most fortunate people on the planet, because my boat sponsor MasterCraft, decided to let me tag along.  Its great they can overlook the fact that I haven’t washed my hair in 5 years, or that I’ve been alternating between the same 2 pairs of jeans (skinny jeans, mind you…as that is all O’Neill seems to make anymore) for the past 3 weeks.  What’s even crazier is that they pulled the trigger on an Ad for the latest WaterSki Mag…with my bobble-mop head all up in there.  See for yourself!

Well thats all for now.  I’ll let you know how the week finishes up.  Till then, here are a few iPhone pics I snapped yesterday and today…for your viewing pleasure.  Be jealous!…

But, a few days later, something happened…and the pictures started looking like more than just a blackboard. I’m still an amateur, but its already been damn near a fortnight since my last post…so this is the best I could  whip up on a lazy Sunday. Don’t hate.

Just a few selects to make you think….afterall, what would this world be without light?

Cedar night sky in the High Sierras, June

Boogie Van under the Sierra Milky Way, July 4th

Campfire coals on Grouse Ridge, Sierra Nevadas, August

Sunrise Landing at night, August

Desert Sky at Lake Powell, September

Eastbound and Down, Loaded up and truckin' to Tennessee (Wyoming High Plains), November

Tree of Life, Somewhere in Utah, December

Sierra Buttes, Downieville, October

Moonrise over Solar Panels at The Ridge

People always ask us, “Where is the coolest place you’ve been?” or “What Pro Tournament is the most fun?”

The truth is, our best moments are on public lakes and rivers with some of our closest friends, whether we’re cranking out turns or just chillin.  That is what skiing is meant to be, and that is why we still do it.  I’m not gonna lie, rippin through a slalom course at 60 mph is sick.  The accelerations and crushing forces are hard to find anywhere else.  But we can never escape our roots, on the open water.  Just like the 7,000,000 other people worldwide who hit the water yearly….

So, with such a huge number of water rats in the world, what is wrong with competitive water skiing??  Here’s one take:

Competitive water skiing relies heavily on rules and regulations.  Obviously we need standards, to have records and ratings.  However, I don’t think fairness depends so heavily on such tight restrictions.  The fact that we hold on to records and ratings so dearly in this sport IS the very reason we end up with such a thick rule book, and a large part of why the competitive side of the sport has not been growing.  Competition is “the process by which one athlete interferes with or suppresses the activity of another athlete”.  The governing body in the United States, USA Water Ski, is not about competition. Its not about how you stack up to one another on “any given day”, but rather how close you come to a number or “rating”.  This means that tournaments have to be held on the best sites, with the best conditions if they expect people attend.  That’s not the spirit of water skiing.  Water skiing needs to find its way back to its roots and back to competition.  Skiers should have a reason to care about how they ski relative to those on the same starting dock.  It should mean something.  They should ski for placements, not ratings.  And those placements should be their ticket to the next level.  The current system is broken.

In August, 2006, we hosted an Elite Pro Slalom Event in conjunction with Boardstock, a wakeboarding event.  Toyota’s Last Man Standing Slalom Shootout took place on Clear Lake California, directly in front of Konocti Harbor and Resort.  20 of the top Men Slalom skiers in the world attended, and battled it out in a new format and with a new vision.  In the toughest water Professional Slalom skiing has ever seen, the event was run with 2 boats, 2 drivers and 2 judges….Nothing more was needed.  The skier who could survive the longest, won.  Period.  No ratings, no records, and no BS.  It was pure slalom and true competition, just as it should be.  Points were awarded for placement, and overall rankings were based off those points.  The site was challenging, but it was challenging for all skiers.

If we continue to stay the course and travel down the path of ratings, records and more rules, the dynamic growth of competitive water skiing may cease for good.  On any given day, anything can happen…in true competition.  We should harness the hope that lies in that statement, by getting back to competition based events, or we may have no chance of creating a better future for generations to follow.  Either way, there will always be the open water, always one more sheet of glass to rip, somewhere in the world.  If that’s good enough for you, it’ll be good enough for me.

MB

Ok, I know what you’re thinking….”how did he read my mind?!”.  Honestly, I don’t really know how.  But lets face it, the “how” doesn’t really matter to you anyway.  All you want to see are results.  Money where my mouth is.  And being that this is the most recent procrastination-heavy time killer you’ve come across….you’re skeptical.

Well I can tell you this.  I’ve seen a few places, learned a few things and created a few websites in the past.  Moving forward this here website is going to be the best of it all, in one location.  Nice and simple.

We’ll take journeys into the minds of some of the greatest from across broad sports disciplines…and we’ll go on adventures around the Globe.  I will ask hard questions, get lost in the outfield sometimes and even throw you a few curve balls every now and then.

But at the end of the day, all joking aside, hopefully this will be a place you can come and find something to laugh at, look at or learn from.

My quest in life is to be as curious as possible, learn as much as possible, and enjoy the shit out of every day.  I hope this here project can capture some of that.

Yeah, you may notice a slight bias towards water sports around this place….but lets face it, we all wish we could be as badass as this boss on the water.

Enough said.  Stick around awhile….

MB