We are having a great winter here but that doesn’t stop me from thinking water-skiing or engaging in similar endeavors (If you want a good laugh watch the videos at the links below). Yesterday I took two snowmobiles out to a friend’s Ranch in Steamboat yesterday to ride a little. Dave had the bright idea to pull out a vintage snow snake ski to Slalom with( it is basically an old 4 ft long ski crudely designed to be pulled or so we thought until Dave Googled the inventor and found out it was for ski area use in the bumps and soft snow. The inventor is considering driving up to Steamboat to meet the guy that still uses one of his handmade snow snakes.).
The Snow Snake was more than a little challenging to ski for me since it uses a normal ski boot and the forward lean really throws off your position on the ski from normal water-ski form and the partial rear toe piece puts almost all of effort on your front leg since you can’t get the normal leverage and thus control from using both feet. I suspect it was designed for leather boots that didn’t have the forward lean modern ski boots do given it’s age. “Water-skiing in 3 dimensions” instead of just two added an additional challenge. It was a ton of fun, sparked some great falls and has me thinking about modifying an old water-ski for future excursions on a powder day. I case your are wondering the snow in the valley has consolidated quite a bit in the week or so since it has snowed here vs. almost every day before then. A real water-ski handle would hurt either.
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