OPED BORN TO WATER SKI WATERSKI ON ONE SKI THE FIRST TIME YOU TRY By Brian J. Spence Imagine you're at the lake and you want to look good for the boss. She has never water skied before and you already have her skiing on two and she loves it. She's been skiing all day and is as stable as IBM stock. Imagine how good you'll look if you get her skiing on one ski, the first time she tries. Sounds impossible, eh? No problem. We do it all the time. Our approach? Simple. We con't allow our skiers to fall. EVER. To fall is forbidden at our school. PERIOD. End of discussion. NEVER. Well, perhaps now and then to cool off in the hot weather, but NEVER while learning. When I was taught to ski on one ski, my instructor had me start from the water. Crazy guy. I mean, really. Can you believe this? Start from the water on one ski. How absurd. It's hard enough to ski on the surface with one ski. But being pulled on one ski through the damn stuff? On your first try. Never! Totally insane! The man obviously had no idea about the concepts of motor memory ... or balance. My advice to you is to abandon this approach immediately. Teach your student (in this case, the boss) how to get out of the water on one ski AFTER she has mastered one ski on the surface. To summarize: it is easier to ski on top of the water than under it. Anyone who can ski confidently on two skis can, within a few minutes in the hands of a good instructor, learn to ski on one. The method is simplicity itself. The key to teaching this skill effectively lies in a good pre-instruction. Talk to the skier before she hits the water. Ex;lain a few basic steps. The first thing to remember, for instance, is to stay in the boat wake. Then explain what you expect her to do. Tell her: She must not drop a ski until she is ready to ski on one. Get her to repeat this sentence after you and then explain what it means. Follow my reasoning. While the skier is being towed on two skis, she is very stable and is extremely unlikely to fall. But when she drops one ski, her chances of falling are extremely good. And what happens if she falls? Well, it means having to come around with the boat, retrieve the dropped ski, stop the boat, toss the skier the dropped ski, put on the dropped ski, restart the boat and get the skier up out of the water. Very time consuming. And tiring. And boring. And cold. Point out to the skier that falling a lot is not the best way to maintain interest. There is a better way. It's called not dripping the ski. And not falling. Innovative, eh? What, not impressed? Well, Queen Isabella wasn't impressed the first time either, but Columbus never let up. Remember earlier when I said we don't allow our skiers to fall. Well, that's what I meant. You don't drop, you don't fall. And here's how you do it. Instruct the skier to ski normally on two skis and tell her (when she's ready), to very carefully life one ski out of the water. Keep the tips up and try to hold the ski out of the water for as long as she can. Pre-instruct the skier NOT to drop the ski at this time. Tell her that the first time a person lifts one ski out of the water, she can expect to keep that ski up for about 1 or 2 seconds, maybe less. But, and here's the punch line, every time she puts the ski down, she would normally have to count that as a FALL. Meaning, if she dropped the ski and lost her balance, she would have ended up in the water, with all that implies. If, however, she just lifts the ski and puts it down when she's off balance, she can do all her FALLS without ever hitting the water. This is what we mean by not dropping the ski. Each time she lifts the ski, she'll be able to hold it up longer and longer. Literally within a few minutes, she'll be able to hold it up for as long as she desires. In a 5-minute ride, for example, she can FALL AND RECOVER 20 or 30 times without ever getting wet. When she can hold one ski out of the water, tips up, for as long as she wants, she's ready to drop one ski. Then, and only then, should she drop the ski. Using this method, the skier will know confidently when she's ready to drop that ski. If the skier is insecure and doesn't think she'll know when she's ready, you can help out by using a prearranged signal, such as holding up your index finger. Once she's dropped the ski, tell your skier NOT to put her foot in the back binding until she is really stable on one ski. You have done the pre-instruction and now the rest of the lesson is up to Mother Nature. Don't forget, you cannot talk to the skier when she's up, so develop some signals to use while the lesson is underway. And GO FOR IT! Dr. Brian J. Spence of Calgary, Alberta has been teaching children and adults to ski at Red Deer Lake for over 25 years. His article is a distillation of some of the wisdom he has acquired along the way. Editor's Note: If you have an opinion or would like to contribute an Op-Ed article, please forward it to the Ontario Water Skier, c/o OWSA at the address listed on page 3. All articles are subject to normal editing.