Students from my camp at Jack Travers
Summary
On this episode of the Ski With Wade podcast, I am on location at Sunset Lakes, Jack Travers Waterski School—one of my favorite places. I’m down here coaching a camp and I was able to snag a few students willing to talk ski with me. I cut it up with Ty Meeker, Rick Jones, Amy Snyder, Quinn Stufflebeam, and his son, Aiden, about pointers, tricks, and the in and outs of our favorite sport.
Topics Covered
- Balance and confidence.
- The way gains in skiing seem to be incremental.
- How I went from skiing to coaching.
- Commonalities between all ages of skiers.
Blog
In this episode of Ski With Wade, I come to you from a beautiful villa at Jack Travers. I had the pleasure of speaking to four young skiers who are down here taking part in my ski camp. These guys are absolute beasts, and it was a blast hearing about how they came to love waterskiing to begin with.
Starting with Ty Meeker, superstar slalom skier. Ty is a returning guest, of course. He shares how he crashed (again), but his numbers still keep climbing. Being on the sidelines really amps up the desire to get back out on the water. Ty is right on the money about how boosting balance can in turn boost your confidence. Those two things together are key.
Next, I talked to Rick Jones, an Orlando local. Rick talks about how he wanted to try a new ski and the guys here have been nothing but helpful. Even in trying a new ski, Rick has made some serious gains. We’re happy to have him here.
After Rick, I talked to Amy Snyder. A graduate of my spring camp, Amy offers some more helpful words about how to build your balance as a water skier. I have known Amy a long time really, but she asks about how I went from skiing to coaching. While I was working as an insurance agent, I was still making time for fun. After selling the agency, I decided to just ride in the boat for a while. I’m still learning all the time now, even with something I’ve been doing all my life. And they all know that I see it all.
Next, I talk to Quinn Stufflebeam. Quinn owns a lake where skiers can run near Blackfoot. Quinn asks me what I’ve noticed is similar across young and old skiers alike. I tell him about how I’ve realized that many coaches talk a lot about center mass. He also asks about how to move past what is ultimately a plateau effect that he notices. I recommend not allow ourselves to plateau in the first place. If we’re doing that, we can easily scale the walls.
Finally, I talk to Quinn’s son, Aiden. He obviously is here to scope out the ski girls across the lake (his words). I shared the embarrassing story where Aiden sucked the tip and completely disappeared underwater except for his boot liner—it flew maybe fifteen feet up in the air. Absolutely insane. Aiden and his dad are absolute rock stars, by the way. I knew they’d be incredible. They’re like boxers, they’re so good.
Quotes
“You’re way better off to say you don’t know than to lie about it, because he [Wade] sees everything.”
“The more we can eliminate extra movement, the more efficient we can be.”
“I establish a sort of mythology of drills to work through.”
“You have a limited ability to stay in the course.”
“If we’re building the plateaus ourselves, we’re already building the walls.”