I am the first to admit that my waterski background comes creeping back in everytime my brain fades and I get a little behind and rushed in the slalom course. What I mean is, as much as I preach about being balanced and loading progressively, I have a tendency to fall back to my back foot at the finish of the turn and therefore load the rope excessively. Since none of us are perfect, it never hurts to show multiple examples of how to get balanced, what it looks like, and what we get out of it.
The Prep: If you are balanced in coming into the turn, you have a better opportunity to be balanced at the finish which gives you a greater chance of staying light on the ski line as your ski carves its way back to the center of the wakes and out to the next buoy.
The Move: If you focus on twisting out to the shore your place the greatest mass of your body over the lnside leading edge of the ski and therefore all you need to do to create an effective turn is fall in the direction of desired travel while maintaining your countered position.
The Result: fF you can maintain a balanced stance and allow your hips to move back to the wakes slightly ahead of your feet, you will resist the urge to overload the rope too soon. This will allow you to carry your outbound direction through the wakes and out ahead of the next buoy.
Check out the pics below. In the first picture, I have greatly overload the line by dropping away with my entire head and body with no real respect to ski direction. In the second picture I have kept my body countered rotated, balanced, head up, etc. This position allows me to control my load on the line and carry my direction beyond the second wake resulting in an early and outbound approach into the next buoy.
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By Seth Stisher