MY ZO observations from tournament yesterday

[adam]

I guess most people would consider me lucky to be able to train behind ZO.  In a way, I would have to agree, especially for someone who skis tournaments.  In another way, I would disagree.  It is similar to getting a bad driver at a tournament and bringing him/her home to train with.  If it was good, everyone would have liked it at the tournament whether they could train behind it or not. 

I have tried A2&3, B2&3, and C2&3 behind our 09 Malibu boat.  I feel they all gass me too long into the buoy and can leave me disconnected from the boat at the buoy if I have to do any significant amount of pulling past the wakes based on what happened at my previous turn.  I have not liked any of the B settings at all, but for some reason A 2 or 3 is better that any B setting, but C seems to be the best for me.  I skied KX+ and 0 on PP.  I am in no way saying that C anything is like KX+ or that ZO (any setting) is like PP (any setting).  I'm just stating that for reference. 

I skied with Wim two days this week as well as one day last Year.  Last year, he was coaching me to not work so hard and let the boat do the work.  To ski more efficiently.  I also had one set with Seth last Year and this was in line with what he was saying.  This year, Wim is telling me to ski efficiently to not engage ZO because it won't be good.  I will lose that battle.  It will gas me hard and late.  The coaching was the same, but the reasons were slightly different.  I'd like to mention that Wim is a excellent coach as well as Seth.  I don't think you could go wrong with either one.  Anyway, I was told that ZO feels different from boat to boat (and I believe it), but A1 is the most consistent from boat to boat so some skiers are using that setting so they don't have to worry about the boat selection as much at a tournament.  I skied with Wim behind a CC and he tried various ZO settings (with my permission of coarse).  He told me B anything was bad for me and A's were OK but gassed longer than C.  That was kind of in line with what my impressions were.  He told me C1 was the best for me based on what he heard from the boat.  That was a surprise.  I never tried any letter with 1 previously because I thought it would make it worse.  I have to say that I agree with Wim on the C1.  I think C causes it to engage earlier and 1 mutes the throttle response.  I need to spend more time with it to say for sure, but that is what I feel right now.  I am skiing a couple of sets behind our Malibu tonight and will give the C1 another try.

I hope that ZO continues to improve their pull and I believe they will.  Until then, the strong and heavy skiers are going to suffer the most or skiers that turn and burn.  If you can find a driver that will leave the wheel alone between the time you change edges until you hook up and start loading the boat, you will fare better.

Thanks for the Evolve DVD John.  That was awesome.  I already had Momentum, but I liked the music on Evolve better.

Adam

[Roger]

Adam; Wim DeCree? So you're taking lessons less than 30 minutes away from me... Do you ever make it up to Okeeheelee to ski?

 

[adam]

Yes, Wim, but not in FL.  He came up to VA.

Adam

[Roger]

Ahhh. Well, you are so right about him being an excellent coach. We are pretty lucky to have him and Chet at the same lake; two of the very best at coaching.

 

[Roger]

D Wolters: Update from tonight. I lucked out and a friend with a ZO boat showed up (09 SN). He let me ski both my sets tonight behind his boat. I opened with B1 28off to get a baseline feel. I ran two of those, then changed to C2 and ran one. I like it better than B1. Then I came back in with A1 and didn't like that at all, slack at the ball and the boat running on me at the turn. I went back to C2 and ran 2 32off passes and came in.

2nd set. Ran 28, missed 32 but my fault and probably partly all the letter/number changes, but still I missed it. Ran 32. Ran 3 at 35. Then finished up with 5.5 at 35. I believe C2 will be my setting for the SN going forward (will try same with MC, but can't say how that will feel yet). I have to agree with you that it felt the closest to PP (wish I had tried it ealier). One thing is still true though, on one of the 32 passes, I rounded 4 ball and loaded up over the ski and it was VERY HARD to hold my position with so much ski in the water and being a bit forward out of the ball and ZO responding with a lot of gas. I did manage to run it out, but like all the letter/numbers, you really don't want to get late.

Thanks for the suggestion and insight; much appreciated!

[D Wolters]

Not a problem Roger, When I first discovered it I thought...MAN don't tell anyone.. but that's not me. The SN and Malibu will be almost identical they are in the houston area. Best I can tell you about the MC is stand tall coming into the ball, let the ski finish the turn and be light on the line.

Bad part about it is it's easy to say...Doing it is another story!

 Glad you liked the setting, you'll end up doing well.

[scoke]

 

Dwolters,

 Good post from yesterday. Great explanation!

 

scoke.

 

[Roger]

I've actually had my best tournament sets behind the MC this year, so I'll try C2 with it but can fall back to B1 there if I don't like it.

 

[D Wolters]

Roger,

Last weekend was my first tourney of the year. Won't go into detail but a nagging back problem is screwing with me BAD this year. After 3 rounds best score(it sucked) was behind MC. Go figure

[Roger]

Back from Miami. Ran same score behind MC first round and CC 2nd round; 2@35. happy for now. One more round tomorrow. C2 felt good behind both boats.

 

[D Wolters]

Yea Buddy! Cats out of the bag now! Sounds like a couple of good set's!

Congrad's! Glad you like it.

Hopefully the ZO setting issue will end soon. I'm at work so no tourney for me this weekend. Hopfully I'll have a couple of good sets this coming weekend!

[ForrestGump]

Dave, I hope your back continues to get better. Mike Arora skied at Katy yesterday and said on C1, Chip's Mastercraft felt far stronger than the other boats. 

[D Wolters]

Shane, That's what I felt with bob's boat last weekend and I hear Jerry's is the same. Must be the tranny. Just need to load both barrel's and let the boat do the work off the ball.

Got to get a set in last night after work and ran back to back -32's, Hopefully I'm on my way back

[TeamWally]

As a 190# low end shortliner I have have been beaten and abused trying to get a handle on the new speed controls and updates. Last year I PBd and TBd behind a 08CC at SkiWest and of all things behind a Tige  at the INT US Championships. I think the adage of luckey rather than good came into play that week. None the less I tried Eric's KX- PX 10 on our lake boat, 01 CC with v6.5. I was a little conservative and added 50 to skier weight and knocked roughly 30% off the crew weight. ie 180# driver only went in at 120, 400# full crew went in at 300#. Results were as Eric indicated, opener and 1st shortning to 22 were noticeably  differnt from the usual KX n/PX5, I felt very rewarded when I skied with good form and handle control, the hook up off the ball was  smooth and progessive all the way to the wake, as soon as I let up the ski seemed to cast out and I wasn't getting yanked down course. When i shortend up my lack of good form and handle control led to the hammer off the ball and being yanked thru the wakes. The later I got the worse the effect, which is consistant with my experience with ZO in tournements. I tried switching back and forth on back to back sets and really noticed an improvement going back to the n/5 settings. The passes at -/10 seemed to have helped me ski a little better at my normal settings. That being said I'll continue to try Erics adjustments and work my my up to +100# in skier factor ( maybe if I peeled off 20#s of fat I might ski a little better.) Thatr is all (for now)

[Roger]

Update: After Miami (see my post above), I skied Ft. Lauderdale where I skied into 35 the 2nd round. I missed 32 the first round, but I think I was over skiing a bit because I hadn't skied there in a few years and was over thinking (if that's possible).

This weekend, I skied both 2 round R tournaments at Palm Bay. I ran all 4 32's and posted my best score this year of 3.5 @ 35. I used C2 exclusively for both boats (SN 196 and a 08 BU). For me at least, C2 with ZO seems to be working the best while practicing behind my 2002 SN 196 with PP Classic (KX+). I am ordering the 6.5NG chip so I can use KX++ which I have been using when I ski behind my friends boat who has the later chip.

There is still the issue of getting out of position and ZO punishing me, but at least I've brought my consistency up a level.

 

An interesting side note from that tournament. A friend who skies in my division (Men 5) and weighs about the same as me has a SN with PP SG in it. In his 4 rounds, he ran 4.5@35, 2.5@32, 1.5@35 , and in the last round chose SG (which was available in the BU) and ran 2@38. I chose not to go with SG since next year it will not be available at all in tournaments as far as I can tell.

 

[ForrestGump]

THAT'S my issue, Dave! I'm loading .22 Long Rifle and my barrels are chambered for 10 gauge! LMAO I talked to Jerry at our tournament and he said he has the prop that they used on last years 08 MC that he's going to try.

[tsixam]

I had my first 2 tourneys with ZO this weekend. I had 2 practice runs the day before and started with C2. On the first pass I had slack before the ball, so I decided to try B2. It felt ok at 28 but strange at 32. On the next pass I started with C2 again and I really put some effort in trying to ski with my elbows pinned to the vest from wake to ball. Much better, wide, early and no slack. To make a long story short in the competitions I skied C2 and skied 0.5 ball from my PB in both tourneys. The pull feels strong but I guess it´s just a matter of getting used to it.

Tsixam