Join USA Water Ski and the
United States Hydrofoil Association!

What is USHA?  The United States Hydrofoil Association (USHA) is the sport’s governing body for hydrofoil skiers and events.  USHA is a sport division of USA Water Ski, the governing body for organized water skiing within the United States.

What does USA Water Ski do? USA Water Ski sanctions water ski tournaments across the country for competitors of all ages and abilities in each of its sport divisions.  USA Water Ski provides guidelines and support for tournament hosts, officials and boat drivers; protects your right to access the nation’s waterways; and provides secondary personal injury insurance coverage to members! USA Water Ski also publishes 9 issues of The Water Skier per year. For a complete profile of USA Water Ski, check out the web site at www.usawaterski.org.

What are fly-ins?  A fly-in is a fun event for hydrofoilers of all abilities. From 30 to over 100 people gather at a lake and spend 3 to 4 days skiing together. Learn new skills and tricks, meet other hydrofoilers, and watch the pros show off their stuff. The best part is you get to ski as much as you want behind a variety of top quality ski boats. Fly-ins are the best place to improve your skills, no matter what your level of riding. For locations and dates, visit www.hydrofoil.org or call Sky Ski at 888-SKY-SKI1 or Air Chair at 928-505-2226.

Why should I join USA Waterski for USHA? Because you love hydrofoiling, want to learn more about the sport, or want to support the skiers!  USA Water Ski membership benefits include eligibility to attend fly-ins and compete in USA Water Ski sanctioned events; The Water Skier magazine; $10,000 of secondary personal injury insurance when competing in USA Water Ski events; and coupons worth hundreds of dollars in discounts.  Specify ‘HYD’ as your sports discipline for USA Water Ski, and you’ll automatically be a member of USHA. We can include the USHA membership at no extra cost thanks to the generous contributions of our sponsors – www.AirChair.com, www.SkySki.com, www.CinchMax.com, www.FlightWorlds.com, The Florida Fly-In, www.Hydrofoil-Inc.com, and www.ProHydrofoilTour.com.

What if I don’t plan to attend fly-ins or compete?   You can join USA Water Ski as a Supporting Member for $25 and specify ‘HYD’ as your primary choice in the Sports Discipline category to support USHA. The whole family can join as Supporting Members for only $40. Either way, you’ll get one year of the magazine The Water Skier, plus all the other advantages of membership – you just can’t participate in sanctioned events like fly-ins and competitions.

Do you have to be a good skier? USHA and USA Water Ski can help support all types of people, from non-skiers to people new to the sport to polished professionals.

Do I have to be a USA Water Ski member to participate in USA Water Ski or USHA events?  Yes.

How do I join?  Join USA Water Ski and support USHA today by visiting http://joinusawaterski.org or call 800-533-2972.  All it takes is five minutes of your time.  Make sure to choose Hydrofoil as your primary Sports Discipline.

How can I find or locate other hydrofoil skiers in my area?  Joining an e-mail list is the best way to meet hydrofoil skiers in your area and get tips from others skiers across the world.  Sign up for the discussion list by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hydrofoil/ or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChairChatter/

How do I find out about hydrofoil events?  The dates and locations for major hydrofoil events and fly-ins can be found on www.hydrofoil.org, www.flightworlds.com, and www.prohydrofoiltour.com.  Or call Air Chair at 928-505-2226 or Sky Ski at 800-SKY-SKI1.

Where else can I find photos, videos, tutorials, and more information? www.hydrofoil.org, www.foilfreaks.com, www.skyski.com, www.airchair.com, and www.usawaterski.org

If you have any questions or comments concerning USA Water Ski/USHA membership, contact us via e-mail at: membership@hydrofoil.org, or by mail at: USHA, 320 Starlight Place, Lutherville, MD 21093

Hydrofoil Style

This article discusses style as it pertains to hydrofoiling.  People don’t often think about how to improve the style of their tricks and some don’t understand what style is all about.  Hopefully, this article will help people to think about adding style to their tricks and give some guidance about how to start implementing more style in their riding.

In most of the Hydrofoil Pro Tour events, the riders are judged based on three categories; technical, air, and style.  The technical category is about judging the difficulty of a particular trick.  Most of the time, each trick already has a difficulty rating prior to the event, so it is relatively straightforward.  The air category is about judging the height of each trick.  The judges make subjective calls on how high each rider is going, since there is no real objective way of measuring the height.  Regardless, the air category makes sense to people because it is simple…the higher, the better.  The style category tends to bring up many questions... How do you score high in style?  What is “good” style?  How do I know if my style is better than the other person’s style?  It makes sense that these questions arise with the style category, because it is the most subjective category.

So what exactly is style and who cares about style anyway?  Let us look at the simple progression of learning a simple backroll to see where style fits in.

The first step is to just land the backroll.  During this phase, you are working out the mechanics of how to do an off-axis invert and ride it away.  By landing this trick, you have technically completed a level 5 trick (technical category example), but your air was probably pretty low and your style…well, what style?

The second step is to go bigger.  As you get more and more air, the landings become more consistent.  Pretty soon you can land a backroll every time and feel like you are getting some good hang time.  This is where a lot of people stop the progression of an individual trick.  Guess what the next step is?

The third step is to add style.  Now that you’ve mastered the consistency of the backroll, it is time to become creative with the trick.  What exactly does this mean?  Well, there is not really a concrete answer, because that’s the nature of creativity.  If you look at the meaning of the word style you’ll see words like these: “expression”, “distinctive”, “individuality”, “finesse”, etc.  So, having the “best” style requires some thought about how you would like each individual trick to look.  Adding style to your tricks will definitely take your riding to the next level, so how do you go about doing that?

The first step of adding style usually revolves around laying out the invert.  This starts to show that you are in control of the trick rather than being at the mercy of the trick.  Having good control of the trick is a part of adding style, i.e. making the trick look easy/effortless = good style.  Laying out a trick is generally accepted as something that looks better from the spectator point of view versus staying tucked, i.e. people like it = good style.  The last point is that it starts to separate your trick from the majority of other people that are landing the trick, i.e. making an ordinary trick look unique = good style.

After you have figured out how to lay out the trick, the next step usually deals with figuring out something new to do with the time you are gracefully floating through the air.  Some people point at the spectators, some people run their fingers through their hair, and some people even cover their eyes before the landing.  This is all good, fun, and somewhat unique.  But, it is usually just the first step to doing more difficult things while floating through the air.  The most common is to figure out how to grab the board.

Grabbing the board while in the air is generally accepted as a good thing to do to improve your style.  Again, it shows that you have great control of the trick, it is something that separates your trick from someone else that has started landing the trick, and spectators like the looks of a good board grab.  Yes…good board grab.   If you are slapping the board real fast and flailing your arm through the air, that’s going to detract from your style, since it doesn’t look like you are in control.  A solid board grab with good hold time during your hang time is key!

So is style just about laying out an invert and grabbing the board?  No, but it is generally a really good start to taking your tricks to the next level and upping the style points.  Let’s use some examples of the master’s of hydrofoil style:  Andrew Pilkinton and Jake Bradley.  These two people ALWAYS scored higher than anyone else in the style categories.  So what was their secret?  No secrets, just learn from their examples…

• Andrew would do a strut grab on the backflip and HOLD the grab longer than anyone else, while looking straight at the people in the boat…the whole way around.
• Jake was the first to layout the backroll with an inside mullet grab (grab near the tail and with the hand that people can see from the boat).  This took the stock backroll that everyone throws and gave it great flare.
• Andrew had great layout front flips, but it was really impressive when he was the first to do solid tail grabs on the front flip…without getting off-axis and staying fluid all the way through.
• Jake took the floater front flip to a new level by laying out the front flip and completely extending his arms straight out like a swan dive when he let go of the handle.  When Jake threw his floater front flip, no one in the boat ever asks “did he let go on that one?”

Do you start to see the trend now?  The people with great style are thinking of ways to take a stock trick and make it look cooler, make it look unique, and keep it looking fluid and smooth.  There is no set prescription to improve your style… it could be a certain placement of the grab, how long you hold the grab, doing a grab on a trick that no one else does, a certain way you release the handle (early in the trick, late in the trick, or all the way through), or some combination of these things, or things that aren’t even thought of yet.

Hopefully this article will help you to think of how you can improve the “style” of your own tricks.  Don’t stop thinking about a trick after you’ve mastered consistently landing it with some decent air…Think of how you are going to get people in the boat to say, “Wow, that looks cool!”  Think of how your set of tricks will look different than everyone else’s tricks at the next fly-in.  You know that you have good style when you start seeing people throw the trick like you do or when someone says, “I want my trick to look like that!”

Skiing in cold weather
How to be safe & have fun.

Remember the old 100 degree rule? If the combined water & air temperatures don’t exceed 100 degrees, then it’s not skiing weather. Winters are tough on waterskiers. We have boat payments and thousands of dollars in equipment invested. Lengthening your season is a great way to help justify the investment.

Maybe it’s December and the air temperatures are in the 40s & 50s. Water temps can be that cold easily, and a rider can get hypothermia in a matter of minutes. Even if you don’t get hypothermia, this is supposed to be a fun sport. Why torture yourself? You don’t have to. With the right equipment, you can enjoy skiing in cooler temps and have a great time doing it. Not just wetsuits. They’re fine for winters in Florida. We’re talking real protection from the wind chill and the water / air temps. And not just for the skier, but for those in the boat too! Keeping everyone warm will ensure that mom and the kids come out in the future……. and have a good time.

So here is a list of equipment for everyone:

Skier:

- Drysuit – Made from neoprene, a baggy nylon shell or a combination of the two. Drysuits made specifically for foil riders are sold by Wiley’s Waterski Shop & Adrenaline Watersports. They are made with a cordura non-skid seat, Velcro wrist cuffs over the seals & feet attached to the ankle replacing the seal. It’s not uncommon for foil riders to wear one of these suits over their jeans, sweatshirt & socks. The only thing getting wet will be their head & hands.

- Gloves – Dry gloves made from heavy rubber & seal at the drysuit wrist seal available at most waterski shops. Or diving gloves made from 4 – 6 mm neoprene, available from any dive shop. Most riders prefer the diving gloves.

- Neoprene hood, headband or mask.

Boat:
- Heater – Can be installed on most boats with open or closed water-cooled engines. Vents & hot tubes can be installed throughout the boat for everyone. Heaters are made by Heatercraft.

- Hot water shower – Using warm water helps bring your hands & feet back to life after skiing in cold water. Showers made by Heatercraft.

- Hot Wrap blankets – Polar fleece blanket with waterproof nylon shell on top & Velcro hole at the feet to allow heater hot tube to be attached, filling the blanket with warm air. Great for keeping your driver & spotters toasty! Available from Sky Ski

- Full or partial canvas on the boat. It’s unusual for inboards, but any boat shop can custom make protection for the top, front, sides & rear of the passenger area.

- A thermos full of your favorite cold weather beverage!

When skiing in cooler temps, the best thing you can do is keep dry. And when you get wet, get dry quickly. So bring towels with you. Dry off your head, hands & feet. Wear a hat to keep the heat in. You will lose more heat out of your head than any other part of your body.

When you get in the boat after skiing, using the warm water shower is great for warming your hands & feet. Then dry them off.

But showers can be a pain. They leak inside the boat. It’s one more thing to winterize. If you get it scalding hot, you run the risk of burning someone. And the excessive heat can break down the adhesives used in drysuit seals. So try using your heater in the same situation. Wrap your hands and/or feet in a towel & point the hot tube in there. You’ll be warm in no time!

A poor man’s shower is very easy to setup. It’s an old polar bear swimmer’s trick. Just fill a cooler with a lid with warm water & leave it sitting on the dock or beach. As the skiers get done riding, they can warm up their hands & feet in there. Close the lid when it’s not being used & it will stay warm for hours.

Setup your boat so you can easily winterize it in a few minutes at the boat ramp. A closed cooled system filled with antifreeze is ideal. But most boats can be setup with easy opening petcocks at each drain. Installing automotive radiator flush Ts in the heater & shower hoses at their lowest point in the bilge allows you to drain each system in seconds. Then as you pull the boat out of the lake, all you have to do is open each petcock and pull the cap off each flush T so they all drain into the bilge. Then pull the hull plug & drain the bilge too. Once everything is open, bump start the motor for 1 second & then shut it down. This will blow out the remaining water in the engine & exhaust and your winterized!

Hope this helps a few people enjoy skiing in the cool weather. Here in the Pacific NW, we use many of these tips for 5 or 6 months of the year!

Kevin Chong's Malibu... Probably the ultimate in cold weather foiling boats!

The Ball-N-Chain

Before trying this full twisting invert, I recommend you be very confident in your riding, having already performed several different inverted maneuvers.

With that given, you must first master getting in the wrapped position.  I recommend going out on the opposite side you want to throw this mobius, cut away from the wake, and then cut back towards the wake, creating enough slack to allow you to pull in on the rope, and reach around behind your back with the arm that will be holding the rope for the start of this trick.

So, if you want to do the Ball-n-Chain on the left side of the wake, or Passenger side, you cut to the driver's side, cut back to the wake, and reach around with your left hand and grab the rope.  Then, you want to put the rope on your belt line, and hold the rope in the center of your back.  Cut out to the Passenger side with a smooth continuous edge, and right when you are about 45 degrees to the boat, do a gainer.  After you launch, you want to look for the water directly behind you as if you were doing a gainer, and then instantly after initiation of the gainer, you need to look to your left.  Be sure to release the line with your right hand right after you leave the water.

When you are up in the air, focus on finding the water.  It may seem blurry the first few times you try this, but after you get over the excitement, you will see your landing.  You also do not want to throw this trick too hard.  Almost all people over rotate the gainer, and don't understand what is happening, but if you land on your right side, you over rotated.  So, when initiating the gainer, you must do about ½ of what you normally do.  It is because of the spin that you need to slow it down.  That, and the placement of the rope seems to accelerate your spin.

Upcoming Events

Florida Fly-In (7th Annual) -- April 27th - 30th, 2006 -- Phil Dixon
St. Johns River -- Astor, Florida -- www.floridaflyin.com

The "Flight Log" is compiled and published by team Hydrofoil.
www.teamhydrofoil.com