The beach start is a quick and efficient way to get underway on a single ski. And it looks cool. But its greatest value might be keeping you dry on those icy cold days!
The basic idea with the beach start is to stand on one leg in knee-deep water, with your other leg – with the ski on it – above the water in front of you. At the perfect moment as the boat takes off, you transfer your weight from the grounded foot and onto the ski.
Then you ski away looking windswept and amazing. And dry!
Of course it’s not quite as simple as that, but in this article I’ll teach you everything you need to know.
Setting up for the beach start
Stand knee-deep in the water with your back to the shore. Don’t be afraid to go deeper – even to waist deep – particularly while you learn this technique.
Have your ski on your favoured forward foot (for me that’s my left foot), with the other foot standing on the ground beneath the water.
Hold the ski handle loosely in one hand, and take up a loop of ski rope in the other – you’ll be using this to help you get your take-off timing just right. Hold the loop in your fingertips, don’t actually wrap it around any part of you.
Keep your front knee bent about 90 degrees, and your ski angled slightly upwards so that the ski tip is nice and high. Your front ski binder should be right about water level, or just slightly above it, with your ski angled upwards about 20-40 degrees from horizontal.
You can rest the tail of ski on the ground if you want to, for some extra balance and stability.
You’ll benefit from being comfortable and stable in this position for as long as you need to be, so consider spending some time practising standing like this (you can do this on dry land too).
The boat
The boat should move very slowly away from you, aiming to be idling or drifting in a gentle forward motion, right at the point that the slack in the rope is taken up. Remember you will still have a loop of rope in one hand at this point, and the handle in the other. The tow rope will become taught between the boat and the loops in your hand.
It’s not particularly important whether the boat is in neutral or in gear at the moment that the rope becomes taught. This is something that you and the driver can settle on down between yourselves. For now, though, you will probably find it easier to nail your timing if the boat remains in gear while it idle slowly outwards, awaiting your “go”.
The rope
As the forward motion of the boat takes up the initial slack in the rope, you will eventually feel tension on the loop of rope in your fingertips. At this point it’s time to cast that remaining loop of rope out into the water in front of you.
Keep the handle in your other hand – you’ll be needing that in a second!
Throw the remaining ski rope forwards and slightly to the outside of the hand that was holding it, so that it’s out where you can see it, and it won’t get tangled in anything.
Timing is everything
Here’s how that loop of rope relates to the timing of your beach start:
In a successful beach start you’ll transfer your weight from the grounded foot to the ski, at exactly the same moment as the boat starts to pull you forwards onto the water.
To achieve this, the boat can either take off just as the tension comes onto the rope handle, or it can take off slightly earlier, while there is still some slack in the rope.
The earlier the boat takes off, the faster it will be traveling when the force comes through the handle.
The perfect take-off boat speed for you will depend on a few variables:
- The amount of power and torque that the boat engine has (outboard engines may need to take off earlier than inboards)
- The reaction time of the driver
- How willing (and able) you are to labour through the water
- The strength in your arms and back
- Your body weight
- The length and width of your ski
- Your personal preferences
Bringing these variables together is something that you need to work on with the boat driver. It will take trial and error, discussion and agreement, practice and practice. Once you know how much earlier you want the boat to take off, before you yourself take off yourself, you can translate that into the size of the rope loop that you take up into your hand.
The earlier the desired boat take-off, the larger the rope loop. If the boat is a powerful one with an experienced driver, you may not need any advanced take-off at all. If that is the case, I recommend still taking up a small loop of rope – it will serve as a trigger for you to call ‘go’, giving you a moment of notice before the handle starts moving.
To begin with, I suggest taking a loop of rope about the length of your two outstretched arms.
To summarise this part:
- Get to know how fast you want to take off
- If the boat needs time and space to gather enough speed, the boat should take off before you do
- For more boat acceleration time, take a larger loop of rope
- For less boat acceleration time, take a smaller loop of rope
Now with that all squared away, it’s time for the fun part.
The take off
As soon as you’ve thrown the spare loop of rope out, loudly and clearly call for the boat driver to “go“.
Hold the handle close in to your hips, firmly gripped in both hands. Keep everything in a straight line with the boat as it takes off: hips and shoulders square to the boat; ski, rope, and boat all aligned.
As the boat takes off, watch the rope in the water in front of you so that you can anticipate when the force will come through the handle. As soon as you’re underway, look up to the boat.
Immediately the pull comes onto the handle, transfer all your weight onto your ski. Don’t do a big hop onto the ski, simply step onto the water with your front foot. You want your front foot to simply glide forward into the water.
Keep your body fairly rigid, but be prepared to absorb the pull of the handle through your biceps and back. Let the boat do the work, but try to keep the handle as close to your hips as possible, for as long as possible. It might be impossible to keep it there, but that’s OK – just let the handle slowly pull away from your hips towards the boat, until your arms are straight.
Keep your front knee flexed but stable. Resist the water pushing the ski towards you, but keep your body position as fixed and stable as you can. Don’t panic if you break forward at the waist, but once you’re up onto the plane make sure to bring your hips forward and in close to the handle again.
Put your back foot away
Some skiers prefer to drag their trailing foot through the water for a little while after a beach start. It can provide some extra stability in those first moments.
Whether you choose to do that or not, the next task on your agenda is to get your rear foot into the ski fitting.
It’s important not to be in any rush with this step. Gently bring your rear foot down onto the back of your ski behind your front foot. At this stage it doesn’t matter all that much where it lands, but aim to land it directly behind your front foot. If it ends up on top of the rear binder, that’s fine – since you’re not rushing, there’s plenty of time to sort out the details as you ski along.
You don’t want to put any real weight on your back foot while you do this – it needs to be a feather-light touch while while you feel your way into that back binding.
And that’s it. Follow these pointers and you’ll be impressing friends and strangers alike with your awesome beach starts!
Let me know how you get on, using the comment field below.
Your virtual water ski coach,
Todd
PS – Before you go, why not:
Can I also make this suggestion that you lock your elbows into your sides and have the handle at 45 degrees across your body and the middle of the handle roughly in line with your navel. Doing this allows the shock to be taken up gradually and the low angle minimises being pulled face first into the water. I am old now and can no longer ski (but I used to give it heaps all year round summer and winter). I have taught may learners how to deep water start and beach start. I frown on deep water starting with both feet in the ski until the learner can do it easily with dragging a foot and the reason why is because a beach start is the last half of a one foot deep water start. We now have our 11 year old granddaughter doing deep water starts and she will soon be ready for beach starts. She understands why I do it this way and we practice on the beach. You are 100% correct that it is all about timing. I used to ski at Lake Macquarie on the Upper Central Coast NSW amongst the sharks which just adds an extra level of difficulty 🙂 Check it out, early mornings and late afternoons is glass as far as you can see. Lastly, try out that method and also, same deal with deep water starts on one ski…lock elbows into your sides with rope low and ball forward. Makes easy work of starts. Been doing it since 1967 !!!
I love this. Good advice! Personally I never really got on with the ‘trailing the foot’ approach to deepies, but I can certainly understand how people might find benefit in the additional stability. But you’re right, if you can do that style of deep water start, it will make beachies easier to learn. I think I might have skied on Lake Macquarie at some stage myself, having grown up in cold Canberra. Wyangala Dam was our main stomping ground back then, but Lake Macquarie is certainly a beautiful spot.
Hi Todd, Wyangala Dam and the Abercrombie River…yep, know them well along with all the salt water lakes up the east coast and all the northern rivers, as well as the Hawkesbury/Nepean system. If there was water there we would ski it and if a boat wasn’t available then we would use a car. Desperados, yep. Also have skied in the Georges River and Port Hacking River. Got horror shark stories and photos which take the gloss of it sometimes. At least you don’t get them in the fresh water
Now to add to my previous comment, many years ago a group of us were talking about ‘what do you actually do when you deep water start and beach start?’ so we used to deliberately go and watch one another and see exactly what movements each one of us made and how it all came together AND there is a formula that works for newbies that will fast track their progress. There are 4 main considerations that need to be looked at and these are:- The power of the boat being used to tow the skier, The skill of the driver. The choreography of the skier and finally the timing. The first 2 of these cannot be controlled by the skier but the last 2 can be. So beginning with the deep water start the skier needs to be in water at least chest deep and the skier allows the ski to float to the surface and the tip needs to be out of the water. Front leg is bent, elbows locked into the sides. Now, I am right foot forward so I will use how I do it, With the left hand you grab the top part of the bar with the main part of your hand under the bar and fingers over the top. Then position the bar at 45 degrees downwards so that the middle of the bar is around your navel then grab the right side of the bar with your right hand with the main part of the hand over the top of the bar and fingers wrapped around the front of the bar. It is an ‘over/under’ grip. Make sure the bar is held into your body and not with your arms extended. You DO NOT want to have to pull any more water weight than you have to. DO NOT grab the bar with both hands facing in the same direction either over or under the bar. You will lose control if you do. Next lean forward onto the ski and the foot that will be the back foot is forced out as far as you can get it with the toes pointed away from the direction you will go in. Now comes the positioning of the rope. There are 2 ways you can do this but I only recommend one of them. The non preferred is to place the ski in the ‘vee’ formed by the ropes holding the bar to the ski rope. Some say this will centralise the ski but it has a disadvantage that if your take off is not dead straight then one side of the ‘vee’ with flick the ski tip and throw you in the water. I place the rope in line with the middle of my body (to the left of the ski) and I NEVER miss starts. Obviously, if you are left foot forward then reverse these instructions. Maybe long winded but it works.
Now, the beach start choreography…. this needs to be practised on the beach before the learner even gets into the water so it can be fine tuned. Get this position right and beach starts happen really fast. You don’t even need a bar for the practice session and neither do you need a ski initially because it is body position we are looking at. So, with a short length of stick (a cut down broom stick or dowel) we can begin. Stand on both feet with both feet facing in the direction that the boat is going to go. DO NOT have then at angles. Next, lift the leg that would hold the ski so that the upper part of the leg is parallel to the ground and the lower part of the leg is hanging just off vertical. You will need to deliberately push your hips forward to balance. Move the bent knee into the middle of your body and twist the foot so that it would be facing in the direction of the movement you expect to go in. Your body should be in balance. Next, drop your arms straight down at your sides and then bend them at 90 degrees at the elbows. Lock the elbows into your sides. Grab the bar and do the exact same grip as you did with the deep water start. Make sure the middle of the bar is at navel level and an over/under grip. Make sure your hips are in front of your shoulders and NEVER let them deviate once you have completed the start. When the start is completed and you are planing then look down your body and it should be a straight line. Lock the back knee into the front leg if you don’t have a rear boot fitting on your ski. Practice and it will happen fast for you. I cannot ski now but I still get in that position and still have the muscle memory to do it….just that my body will no longer let me.