Montreal, Quebec. October 21st 2008. Daniel Brais on Karina Nowlan. Hi Steve, as promised, here is my response to your comments on Karina Nowlan’s performance at Diablo Shore. First off, forget the West Coast mumbojumbo. I don’t see it and don’t want to look for it. I see an efficient way of skiing. Let’s call it Karina’s style: unique and all her own. Secundo, I don’t agree with “…maintaining an enormous amount of pressure…”. Pressure on the line is built from the turn buoy up to the boat wakes by the skier’s angle created across course. Then the pressure on the line is managed according to the trajectory of the ski on the water (initially a tangent) away from the arc the line is making towards the handle’s widest destination. On the subject of pressure, let’s be more precise. You’ll have pressure on the line because of the path across course, you’ll have pressure on the ski creating that path across course, and you’ll have pressure on the skier’s upper and lower body from the two previous elements. The pressures on the skier’s body are a combination of compression and rotation. The pressures on the ski are transmitted in the longitudinal and lateral planes of flex, combined with a dimension of torsion. I agree that no matter the body position or ski’s trajectory, letting go of the handle early to reach, releases some pressure on the line. If the pressure on the line is released, the line will stop arcing outbound. This will result in less distance traveled outbound and difficulty to reach the widest point possible. As you say, and I agree, the key here is to stay with the handle. Why? Because you need to keep enough pressure on the line so that it will continue to arc outbound, from the speed and direction that was created out of the previous turn, and into the boat wakes. But, it’s not the only element involved in the success of running short line slalom; you have to be able to get your body to also go to the widest point possible in the course. This is where pressure management becomes important. Lets agree that if Karina tried to keep the pressure on the ski against the boat path beyond the second wake, she would lose the battle against the boat. Her upper body would be thrown hard to the inside of the line’s arc, with the ski following closely the same trajectory, on an hard inside edge, and with too much turning power, too soon. So, Katina would have to let go of the pressure on the ski sometimes before this would happen. Now if Karina tried to keep a lot of pressure on the line while trying to go outbound, the force required would either twist her upper body inside the arc or, if she manages to resist the upper body torsion, the lower body and ski would react with increased direction to the inside, instead of outbound. So, the pressure on the line has to be maintained just enough or decreased gradually. Again, pressure has to be controlled.

The easiest way everybody knows to go in a certain direction on a waterski, is to edge it away from the pulling force. But in short line slalom, this can’t work pass the second boat wake, because of all the ill effects it has on the dynamics applied on the skier’s body and on the ski. So how can we keep on going outbound without edging away from the boat? If a flat ski doesn’t oppose much resistance to twisting forces, then the answer would be to use the inside or turning edge. But, you don’t want to turn right away or too quickly. Now that we know that a flat ski will not decelerate easily and will be subject to rotational forces, and that a ski that is edged beyond a certain point will load up and turn, our answer must lie somewhere in between. The transition from a cutting edge to an inside edge, when done properly, will keep a ski going as close to a straight line, as can be accomplished with a tool that is built with a rocker from front to back. How much of the front part of the ski is in the water or out of it, will also determine how straight a line can be achieved. A little running in a straight line (tangent) out of the second wake is required to get the ski outbound as opposed to the arcing trajectory of the line. Also. a slight inside edge will create enough resistance to keep a ski from pivoting under rotational forces. It will also make the ski bite into the water and create drag when no accelerating forces are applied. By releasing the pressure on the ski in the boat wakes, Karina manages to get her ski to go on an inside edge. At he same time, it also brings her center of mass and upper body closer to the handle. This way, she doesn’t have to pull on the handle in order to “get up and out” from the cutting edge position. Staying close to the handle helps her body to go with the tight line on the same arc. Not pulling or applying more force to the line helps her maintain her body alignment with the outbound trajectory of the ski and sets her up for a late release (reach). Because she stays as long as she can with the handle, it gives her the possibility of a making a forward reach that facilitates the counter rotation movement that will make the turn that more efficient and quick. Into and through her turn, Karina maintains flexed legs. This gives her the mobility to use the power of the upper legs joints and the finesse of the lower joints to direct the ski into a great exit angle. I suspect that the flexed legs also permits Karina to contract her abdominal muscles to help with the rotational movement of the ski, as opposed to extending the legs and pushing on the ski. Although the turn is quick and the exit angle tight, Karina manages to keep the ski from stalling and losing it’s speed and momentum. With a ski moving across course and no time wasted in the exit of the turn, Karina gets across the course real quick. How about putting images against all these words?

13 meters, into 2 ball. You can see here that Karina is way up on the boat’s side and she just let go of her left hand from the handle and brings it with the arm in front of her hips. See how the shoulders are aligned with the hips and ski. They are all facing down course.

At this point, she’s letting the handle slowly get away from her body in order to keep the ski moving away from it.

The speed is dying, the ski is loaded, the legs are flexed and Karina starts using her hip joints to get the ski to start its quick rotation.

The legs are still flexed to start the driving of the ski with the knees and ankles.

Look at this angle created with fluidity of motion. The ski not stalling. It is actually starting to accelerate again because of the rotational speed Karina has applied in driving the ski around.

Karina is now at the peak of her edging across course. She is well aligned to resist all the pressures on her body and ski.

With her arms still long from the edging position, Karina releases the pressure on the ski and lets the down course movement of the boat “get her up”. For a very brief moment, the ski is flat on the water. Her upper body is still opened to the boat from the rotational forces.

The tilting of the upper body by the boat’s pull, is getting Karina’s ski on edge and it gives her the possibility of bringing her left elbow back towards her vest without pulling on the line. The tension on the line is maintained and managed. The ski is still traveling outbound.

As Karina rides the arc of the line, the tension on her upper body diminishes just enough to help her realign the shoulder and the hips in the same direction as the ski. The ski is now starting to match the same arc as the line and handle.

Karina releases her right hand and keeps on realigning her body with the ski. Notice how the edging of the ski hasn’t changed much. It even decreased slightly compared to the previous frame.

The legs are flexed, the reach is forward and this starts the counter rotation movement. The ski is starting to roll more on it’s edge.

Karina is applying just enough counter rotation to stay balanced and set up her hip movement. Too much counter rotation would bring her away from her balanced position and she could get caught behind her ski with less of a rotational movement. She’s looking up and down course, to help herself stay balanced.

See how her hips are not falling in, but have started a rotational movement that is helped by the counter rotation and flexing at her belly button. Yes, there is a core muscle effort involved in this movement. Her reach is directed to where she wants the handle to be when she will complete the turn.

Karina’s legs are still flexed as she keeps on driving the ski with the hips, knees and ankles. Her head is turning slowly inside the course as her body brings it there.

Everything is where it should be. Karina doesn’t have to move her right shoulder in or pull on the handle to get her right hand back on it.

Great alignment.

13 meters, into 4 ball. We will see in these next frames, a few of the frames that were missing at the 2 ball shot. All of it is from a different angle.

Out of 4 ball, Karina still has flexed legs. See how she is getting away quickly from the turn buoy. That brings her rapidly to the boat wakes.

No ass in the water, handle at the knees, compressed position mumbojumbo…

…just a very well stacked and balanced position to accept and resist the pressures of a cross course path.

See how short the time and distance are, to where Karina has to take the full impact of the boat’s pull. At this point she is starting to let the pressure on the ski roll it out from the cutting edge.

Karina is on a flat ski (very briefly) and let’s the boat “get her up” from the edging position…

…without pulling on the line.

Time to realign…

…let go of the outside hand while keeping the handle close with the left.

Nice exit, well balanced and stacked…

…hold it to the boat wakes…

…and start to release.

Voila !

12 meters, into 1 ball. More of the same from a different angle.

This time, Karina goes at it a little hard. This same movement is what stopped her from going to 2 ball at 10,25 meters. This time she manages to bring the ski back down in the water.

Prelude to release…

…onto a flat ski, very briefly…

…and on to the inside edge.

Controlling the pressure on the line…

…letting the handle go away slowly, so that the ski can continue outbound, while she realigns her body…

…beginning of a forward reach into the counter rotation movement…

…but not too much counter. You should notice that the start of her reach is always low and that she let’s the increase in inclination of her body do the job of opening the angle between her arm and body…

…like this. Legs are still flexed.

Again, notice the flexing at the core. I would say that Karina is probably contracting her abdominal muscles to help with the rotational motion she started with the hip joints, knees and ankles.

Daniel Brais, Montreal Québec, October 21st 2008.