Badger

I don't short line, but I still run the buoys occasionally and I have been riding a skwal 10 years now. I can tell that these two sports are very much alike and the first run on my Radar after the snow season feels so familiar thanks to the "snow water skiing" training on skwal. I recommend you to get a skwal and feel the similarity

There was a thread:Skwal and waterskiing here back in 06. Conclusion was the same then. Skwal is good for your summer slaloming

The higher the speed the narrower is the vision. This is the reason why people who shoot down the hill hit carvers. I don't count on my rights on the slopes anymore since one bad hit which left plenty of titanium plates in my arm. Probably looked like an owl again today on the slope a I kept constantly looking around 360 while skwaling among the skiers and boarders.

I had a King Carve teleboard 190 and had extra inserts fitted so I could bolt on hardbood bindings. It worked OK, but the small SCR ( 8 m I recall) and the length of the board did not quite match and I got the feeling that teleboad was too soft as a skwal. I put the telemark bindings back on the board and sold it away.

That weird offset configuration is a two axis skwal by Thias. None of those in my skwal wagon

I also use standard skwal bindings and the only way to get the back boot off is to first release the front one, but I find this OK as you normally only need to get the front foot out = opposite to the boarder practise. I never thought about ankle flex in water skiing - I figure it's all about weight transfer sideways and I've been applying this to skwal as well

My humble opinion is that you get no knee pain if you keep your angles at 90 degrees -this forces you to ride the skwal the way it was designed = like a slalom water ski. This also explains the knee touching the other one - the only right position on the water as well = the back knee tucked behind the front one.

Good news Fin. I'm also in a need of a pair of skwal bindings for Völkl monocarver. Her waist is admirable 11,5 cm.

I started riding a skwal without ever been on any kind of a snowboard ( only wide stance experience was from wakeboarding) It took some time to get the idea despite of many years on a monoski and a slalom waterski. I started also with Völkl monocarver 175 and that board requires quite a lot of speed before it really carves. Later on I boughta Thias Easy Jungle 165 and I would recommend that as the beginners skwal. I am teaching my kids with that one. You don't need special skwal bindings - standard hard boot bindings ar OK as long as they are narrow enough to fit the board. If you go to skwal from skiing you'll be better off with a parallel setup with the bindings. This setup works best with the narrow waterski stance that skwal requires.

To highlight Skwalleurs point I paste a comparison of two ancient Egyptian skiing machines. As you can see the shape differs, but the stance is the same and they ride alike. Water or snow- it's a carving show.

In slalom waterskiing the boat is not pulling you when you make the turn = the "carve" is very similair to one on a skwal and so it the edge-to-edge change. The rope is needed in between the curves. I would think more slalom waterskiers would ride a skwal if they knew how close it comes to buoy picking

I wonder how many of you skwalers/ carvers ski seriously around the buoys when the snow season is over. The technique of riding a skwal and slaloming with a waterski is practically the same. I have noticed that riding the skwal in the winter actually improves the slaloming with my Connelly once the lakes de-ice ( and I can tell that's late here in Finland). If you have some experience on a slalom waterski you don't seek for any angles to the skwal bindings as that changes the sport from "winter waterskiing" to boarding.