Handle Parts

Every now and then my skiers want rope to restring their handle.  Since I am not really set up to sell "parts", they purchase a jump mainline in the color of their choice.  Lake Elmo Sports is set up to sell "parts" and has rope (1/4" only), endcaps, handles, etc.  http://www.lakeelmosports.com

                                                                                         Brenda

H2OProShop.com

Terence Fogarty, of Fogman Bindings fame, now owns H2OProShop.com.  Terrance is also the owner of Fogarty's Lake Flower Marina in Saranac Lake, New York, where he reported the weather was 30 below zero.  Buurr!  The Fog of Fogman Bindings is from Fogarty.  Anyone remember where the "man" came from?
                                                                                                      Brenda

The Truth About Tom

So I have been talking with Alan Hendricks of Dallas-Ft. Worth Water Ski School and we got onto the subject of the Moomba.  Alan has gone to Australia with Tom Brantley numerous times and during their stay, in addition to Tom skiing in the Moomba, they give clinics.  Tom stated in a recent interview for his local newspaper (this article also appeared in my local newspaper and a copy is on my January 15 blog entry), "Everything is fun about it except for the plane ride which is a 16-hour direct flight from Los Angeles".  Alan joked about this because Tom sleeps the whole time.

My conversation with Alan regarding getting to the next line length will appear in my February newsletter.

                                                                                                        Brenda

Andy Mapple & Handle Size

A skier of mine recently e-mailed me that he skies with a 1.183 diameter handle.  The largest diameter I have carried in the past is a 1.125.  This season I will have diameters ranging from .888 to 1.183.  This leads me to a question I often get asked by skiers..."What diameter handle should I use?".

Andy Mapple has a new website MappleSkis.com.  Other websites to carry his name are TeamMapple.com and AndyMapple.com.  I have a page from his AndyMapple.com website that I printed out and saved titled, Handle Size - June 23, 2002.  It states, "I use a 1.092" x 12" handle" (back when I hooked up with Andy he used a 1.062" x 12" made by Custom Grip).  He talked about it not making any sense for different size guys to be using the same handle; "Their hands are just too different in size".  Andy said, "If I get too small a handle I get very sore hands, where as if I get too large a handle...it doesn't fit in my fingers.  Finding the right comfort level in your grip will greatly improve your pulling power".

                                                                                                        Brenda

Roping the World Since 1992

I took my son Jordan, age 20, to get a free flu shot.  As we were pulling into Saint Genevieve Roman Catholic Church, which happens to be located in a very poor part of town, he said, "Mom this place looks pretty sketchy.  I think the free flu shot is just a plan to get rid of the poor people".  It reminded me, in a round about way, how some people tried to get rid of me/In Tow.

I first started out stringing up and selling Performer handles.  A few years later I did it all. At an early time in my rope and handle endeavors a skier brought in In Tow slalom and jump mainlines for a tournament; I honestly cannot remember what state much less the skier's name.  I get a phone call from the tournament saying that Sherri Sloan would not ski in the tournament if they used my ropes. At the time she was sponsored by Straight Line.  Long story short they did not use my ropes.

Oh well, all's well that ends well!                                                  Brenda

Roping the world since 1992.
Yee Ha!

Me & Gordon

Gordon Rathbun & I have been having some fun talking about, "Left is right and right is wrong".  No, that's deciding which ear to sport the earring on.  Maybe it was, "Right is left and left is wrong"?  No worries...I'll have it spot on by the time of my February In Tow newsletter!  In the meantime, pass the time with this diversion.

http://minimalistgames.com  (I like the Warehouse one)

                                                                                                       Brenda

Tom Brantley In the Local News

Tom Brantley is currently preparing for the Moomba Masters as reported by my local newspaper the Las Cruces Sun News.

Tom is a 5th generation farmer in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

My History with the NFL

I was raised a Dallas Cowboy fan.  It was during the era of Tom Landry.  Fun unrelated fact:   Landry Jones, quarterback for Oklahoma who is from Artesia, New Mexico, is named after Tom Landry.  I remember names like Roger Staubach (I have his jersey), Golden Richards, Robert Newhouse (he had to have his pants specially made for his 44" thighs), Tony Dorsett, Too Tall Jones (I saw his Mercedes where the driver's seat was specially made to accommodate his height), and so many others.  I loved how the offensive line would set and reset.  I loved the balance between the running game and the passing game.  I loved the position of tight end.  I loved the defensive line.  I loved Tom Landry's trick plays.  Later in life I moved to Dallas with the intention of buying the Cowboys.  My second team was the Houston Oilers back in the days of Bum Phillips and Earl Campbell.  Both of my coaches wore hats :).  I loved the way Earl stiff armed.  When living in Dallas I went to a Dallas/Houston game.

I have not had a team for a while.  My son likes the New York Jets so I follow them.  I also follow players that I like; Brian Urlacher was a favorite of my son (Brian is from Lovington, New Mexico).  Did you know that if you wear your NFL jersey to Albertsons on Sunday during the NFL regular season you get 10% off your groceries?  I sport my son's Urlacher jersey.  This season I am a Texan's fan because I like good defenses (my son played defensive tackle/defensive end) so Go Texans!

The thing I miss most about my son graduating from high school is my football jersey...he had two jerseys, home and away, and I got to wear one to the games.

Rope Specifications: Then & Now

When I first started out making ropes and handles (about 25 years ago), the standard for slalom mainlines was 1/4" rope.  AWSA actually specified, to the best of my recollection, that the polypropylene rope for slalom mainlines had to be 12 strand, 64 filaments per strand.  When we went to the bigger 3/8" rope it was referred to by most slalom skiers as 80 strand rope.  This was a misnomer because it was still 12 strand rope, but 80 filaments per strand.  At this point, AWSA no longer specified the number of strands or filaments per strand.  So now a days most rope is 16 strand.  Not only can the number of strands differ but also the number of filaments per strand, the filament size, and how many times the strands cross per inch.

AWSA changed the rope specifications to make the average breaking point higher because pro skiers were breaking brand new tournament ropes.  I still contend the culprit was using pink rope instead of purple rope; pink rope is much weaker than purple.  Pink was an "in" color at the time (a historical moment for men) so Straight Line used pink rope for the purple section.  I'm not saying we should go back to 1/4" rope...just merely making conversation.

                                                                                                      Brenda

                                    

Who Was That Masked Man?

I'm sick.  In fact, I have been dragging butt for several days and have resorted to daytime television. Designing Women, my favorite sitcom of all time, has brought much comedic relief.  I have found my voice, so much so that my dogs have said if they have to listen to me sing the theme to The Brady Bunch one more time they will look for someone else to buy their dog food. Happy Days comes on after the four episodes of The Brady Bunch and it is at this point I'm bringing my story around to water skiing.  Fonzie "jumps the shark" on one episode.  Who really was the skier that went over the jump ramp?

Fonzie jumps the shark                                        
                                                                    Brenda

The Rope Lady

The first time I was referred to as The Rope Lady it caught me off guard enough that I laughed, but I liked it.  It was a new customer and the skier who had told him about me could not remember my name so he referred to me as The Rope Lady.  This blog will be a format for me to share my rope and handle knowledge, past, present, and future, with you.  I will not be adding any posts to my Slalom Mainline Blog, but rather will pick up here where I left off (sorta of).

The other day me and my old rope guy were talking about the rope and handle industry.  He stated that the only contribution Masterline had made to the industry was the slalom mainline training loop.  I told him this was not true that I had introduced this concept back in 1992.  It was a while after this when Masterline started marketing their slalom mainline with the training loops; they sold a mainline with extra loops between every line length.  A lot of my skiers over the years have ordered custom slalom mainlines from me with a couple of extra loops.  It will be interesting to see what skiers have to say in the forum regarding this training technique as a tool to get from one line length to the next.  In March I will be revealing another idea, pertaining to slalom mainlines, a famous skier uses at his ski school.

                                                                                                       Brenda

Another interesting blog:  Old White Woman versus New Mexico State University