I hope to make this an annual recap of skiing, but this’ll be the first one…

This last year was my longest ski season to date. It started on March 23 and ended exactly 7 months later on November 23 (Thanksgiving). That amounts to 245 days of on the water activity. I’m hoping this off season will be my shortest off season ever as well. It was even longer than the baseball season, something I will strive to do every year.

I took my boat to the lake 45 times, putting 61.5 hours on the engine. I was at the lake nearly every day throughout the summer (June-August) for ski team as well. So actual number of days on the water isn’t known (need to count this better for next year).

Now for the break down of runs…
1 Ballet Run
2 Slalom Runs
2 Fluff Runs
3 Random Show Ski Runs (not sure)
8 3-High Pyramids
10 Jump Sets for a Total of 35 Jumps (my back didn’t cooperate, so this is basically just the count for the month of June)
16 Conventional Doubles Runs
95 Barefoot Sets

The 95 barefooting sets break down like this…

Overall I took 299 barefoot runs. I really wish I had done one more.

29 were of unknown length
28 were short runs (usually show ski passes, flyers off the docks & tumble turn attempts)
200 were medium runs
45 were long runs
14 were marathon runs
3 were figure eights

A short run is a typical show ski pass, a medium run is approximately a diagonal pass in the bay, a long run is usually at least two bay shore lines or more. A “marathon” run is qualified as a bay loop or more (or the equivalent) and a figure eight is a figure eight. The difference between long & marathon was tough to keep track of.

Of the medium runs, a lot were done in rapid fire succession. Dash across the bay, boat whips a shitty & takes off again. Never let go of the rope. Total time between runs is (if done right) about 10 or 20 seconds.

There were also 9 2-a-days. Usually these involved waking up and going skiing, then work, then going back to the lake for more skiing. I need to up this count as well next year. I didn’t do any 3-a-days, which is disappointing.

As you can see, this running sound for the ski team really puts a damper on me doing much besides barefooting. Only took 40 show skiing related runs all summer and 301 “other” runs. I think my wakeoboard made it to the lake 4 or 5 times but I never used it.

One final statistic that speaks to the quality of the people that come out skiing with me… I put $806.23 worth of gas into the boat and my fellow skiers kicked in for $497 of it. Considering there is usually 3 of us in the boat at a time and people are helping out for two thirds of the gas is great. Thanks to everyone for helping out with the gas bill.

Finally, both my first and last days on the water had air temps of 45 degrees and water temps of 37 & 41 respectively. Just to let everyone know, when your face is covered in cold water and you’re going 40+ MPH, that 45 degree air is bone chillingly cold on your face. The wind chill really does a number on you. According to NOAA, when it is 45 degree and there is a wind of 42 MPH, the air temp feels like 34 degrees. Then you need to mix in the already cold water on your face and it feels even colder, but I couldn’t find any place to mix in the moisture factor.

Finally, I think June 30 was the best day on the water. August 2nd & 3rd were a lot of fun too!

BTW, we (Mad-City) won a state and national show ski championship which is pretty cool too!