Free shipping on orders over $150
Written by World Record Holding Masterline Skier, Anna Gay
Trick skiing has two main passes. Typically, one for hands and one for toes. For toes you need to have a good stance on the ski. Toes are basically a series of poses that you need to understand first, then you just connect them with turns.
The first position is the stance in the Toe Front position. You want to stand tall on the ski with your hips right over your foot with a slight knee bend. You don’t want to be stiff or straight legged, but over bending your knee can cause you to break at the waist too much and your hips to get behind your foot. Your toe leg should be high with your thigh almost parallel to the water. Your knee should have about a 45 degree bend to it. You will work your leg from the 45 degree point pulling it in to the 90 degree point throughout the toe pass for just about any trick. You don’t want to let your leg all of the way out because it causes you to fall back behind your foot. I’m looking at the water between my ski and the rooster tail of the boat. I don’t look directly at the boat so that I’m not distracted. You want to start the trick with your toe leg knee bent 90 degrees. Your hands should be the height of your shoulders with your arms slightly extended, this way you can be more controlled and balanced.
Once you understand the correct position for the front, you need to know the correct position for Toe Back. In the back position, you want to be on your toes with your eyes looking just behind you at the water. One piece of advice that many people say is to look for the horizon or the trees. I find that if I look to far off in the distance, I lose my balance. You want to be standing tall without a break in the waist. The weight on the toes and the rope leg slightly in. You don’t want to in so much that your knees are together. Your leg should be out just a little bit from this position. Overall, you should have a slight lean away from the boat. Looking from the side, you shouldn’t be straight up in down so that you can resist the pull of the boat. If you are to straight up and down you can’t resist the pull of the boat. Your arms should still be in the same position that you started in, with your shoulders level. Try to hold this position all the way down the lake, so then you can become strong and comfortable in this stance.
Now, to start the Toe Back you will want to just connect these poses with a turn. You initiate the turn with your hips and resist the pull. As you start to turn, you should be pressing more on your toes as you move to the back position. Your arms should stay out to the side for control, but you want to keep them in control.
When you are ready to turn to the front, initiate the turn by lifting your knee. You don’t need to pull in on the rope, you just need to lift the knee to make the turn and finish in the same position as you started.
When it comes to scoring, Toe Back (TB) is worth 100 points and Toe Front (TF) is worth 100 points.
*When you do toes, BE SURE you have someone in the boat that knows how to pull release.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
jeff wiswall
December 28, 2020
Well done! This is great especially for a coach to use that can transfer from an additional source the proper technique for this movement. Thank you all for doing this for all of us.
jeff