New Radar Strada Report

[RichardDoane]

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I-Kt0bXum5I/TAPyDCUQXzI/AAAAAAAAAWo/KLLqCij6594/s800/RD.Charlie.FatCat.Broho.JPGFrom Broho Waterski Park

I've got to admit that I was beaten in the Head to Head round by a B3 Skier (Charlie Keinbaum) who uses  a pink ski. He ran 36/-22 for the win.  In my defense however, my 66" Strada was able to run -35 four times to make that final elimination.  Congratulations to Charlie, the "FatCat 2010 Champ"!

[robscholl-OF]

What RD did not say is that in the head2head, I think he had to run -35 off the dock three times in a row which is impressive to say the least......OF  

Oh yea, I got knocked out in the first round when I only ran 5@-32 .  Later when I went to drive the rest of the head2head, I found that someone had changed the PPSG to all mag. timing instead of one mag.  All of us who had skied behind the Malibu had got smoked in the 2nd segment with the 58K kids getting it the worst.  Note to self, do not put a driver in a boat if they are not intimately familiar with the speed control of the boat.....OF 

[bmiller3536]

RD, he may have a pink ski but he does not still have his dry suit on?

[RichardDoane]

That poor kid was shivering, so I made sure to sit in the water as long as possible waiting for the lake to settle.  Stategy plays a big part in the head to head format.

[jlittle]

Good strategy.  So you tried to "ice" the kid eh.  It's cuz he's from the east side would be my guess.  Dirty pool 

[RichardDoane]

those Keinbaum kids did a great job this weekend helping out, especially when it came to eating candy and using boat gas

[Nick Sullivan]

Getting my new 68" Strada tomorrow. Really looking forward to getting in the course with it and seeing what all the hype is all about. Just kidding, I'm a bit nervous that I might be a tad too big for a 68" at 217 lbs. I've been Skiing with the guys from Mint and they think I should do well on it. Now if the weather will only hold out.

[RichardDoane]

Sully - bring that 68" to Warman's Saturday, there's plenty of room, and you'll get 3 rounds !

[Nick Sullivan]

I wish I could. My wife has to work all day so I'll have my two boys out at Mint playing in the sand with some of the other members kids. We may stop by and watch Aaron P. ski. I pulled him last night so he could get used to the Zero Off. Man, is he sking good.  

[Nick Sullivan]

By the way, when I mounted the Strada rear boot on the ski tonight I looked at the profile of the ski after I put the four screws in and tightend them down. The plate is arched up in the center. There is no rubber under the plate where the front and rear screws go like there is under the mid section of the plate. Is that normal?

[Chuck_Dickey]

No, you must be missing some of the rubber. Mine are fully supported except very close to where the holes are. The stand-off washers help keep the plate stay level as the screws are tightened. I put a couple thin washers under the plates middle screws to simulate the thickness of the standoff washers used in the front and rear. Looking at the edge, my plate is perfectly flat.

[RichardDoane]

Sully, ther's no rubber, just a large plastic piece stuck to the underside of the plate. Some lift of the plate is totally normal. It was beautiful today @ Warman, AaronP ran 38 in the second & third rounds, his best was 2 @ -39 in the 3rd round.

[RichardDoane]

Zappy on the Strada, first round, 2 @ -39 in the drysuit !

[OSSKI]

Skied my first set today on a 66 Strada which I have as a demo at the moment. Coming off a 67 inch Monza which I have skied on for 2 and a half seasons. I'm 5ft 11 and around 154lbs, best of 5.5@32 (36mph). I think the Monza was supposedly too long for me, considering my height and weight, which was why I wanted to try something else, in addition to the good things I have heard about the Strada on this forum.

Firstly, I have to say I was not blown away by the Strada, for my first set at least, although I have only really ever skied on the Monza, so don't have a lot to compare to. The Strada was set up to factory settings. It feels at least as fast through the wakes, and super stable in the turn, especially the off-side (my 2-4), however I didn't immediately run my usual buoy count in my first set. I felt I wasn't skiing as well as I have done though, which must have been a factor. I also felt I was getting caught on the back of the ski a fair bit, although that may have had something to do with having rather fat washers at the front of my sequence plate, which meant the front of the plate was higher than the rear? This has now been rectified for another try tomorrow.

I am interested to know, for you guys who are on the Strada's and appear to love them, did you take to it straight away, in terms of running your average buoy count? (Or possibly even better?). Anyone have similar issues with being too much on the tail of the ski? And any other suggestions, perhaps as to areas where the positives of the ski can be exploited with any particular body movements?

As a side thought, I have also been wondering if there is any correlation between skis and the ZO settings they may (or may not) lead people to prefer? For example would you find a high proportion of skiers on the Strada using one ZO setting which may compliment the skis style? Or is it equally random across skis?

I will post back tomorrow when I see how the 2nd try on the Strada goes!

Owen 

[Nick Sullivan]

How did Stajgr do?

 The problem I see with the rear plate is how its rubbing the top of the ski finish off after four sets. By the way, I love this ski. I am amazed the difference from my KD CR-7 that I've been on.I was able to make passes that I wasn't able to make on my KD if I got late. The ski is so fast yet so stable I was able to make up so much time if I made a mistake early in the course. 

[ortecski]

Sully, Mike mentioned that you were getting a new Strada, Stay off the rocks with that thing. I want to try it; can you schedule a trip to Eugene Tues, wed, or Thurs?  call me at Arclin.

[Nick Sullivan]

Maybe, it'll take some finagling but I might be able to swing it. I'll call you tomorrow AM.

 

Did you guys get the new promo boat? I saw some pictures of the colors and they look awesome. 

[RichardDoane]

sully - Mike skied well, if his "par" is 3 @ -38, then he hit that in one of the rounds, he's playing with the fin a little still. osski - try moving your bindings up a little, see if that helps to get you off the tail, and remember front foot pressure with a soft front leg, especially as you come into the buoy.

[RichardDoane]

JTH - 401 posts, when do I get a BOS shirt ?

[OSSKI]

Tried again today, not much better, turns seem super long. When I'm patient the ski comes round nicely, I'd just like the turns to be a bit shorter/faster. How do I go about this with changing the fin settings? On factory settings at the moment.

[Steven]

OSSKI,

Did you verify the fin settings to be stock or just assume they were stock. A friend of mine just got a 67 and he just assumed they were stock and was having the same problem as you. We checked it out and found that the DFT was way off and re-set it to factory and it woke the ski up. He was pleasantly surprised to say the least!

[OSSKI]

Steven,

I did set it up to stock. Was told by the ski shop it was set to stock already, but as you say, thought I should make sure. Lets just say it was a fair way out, although it may have been changed by someone else previously as this is their demo ski.

Owen

[Deanoski]

Owen go to 2.500  75. 6850   try that 28 5/8   fb

 

Deano

[OSSKI]

So, turned out we measured the DTF wrong the first time, and the fin was way back. Moved it forwards to ACTUALLY on stock.

 

New verdict: Strada is awesome!! Ran 2@35 on it today, new PB, and ran 32 again in my second set. Phoned up the dealer straight away and payed for my new 66" Strada!

[Aarons01]

I got my 67 inch strada to stock settings and skied yesterday and my gosh that thing was on rails. The ski DOES NOT come out of the box to the recommended settings. I wasted a week on it trying to make it work before I checked them.

[RichardDoane]

Got back from PulliganPond late last night, it's 8 hours from Medford to Seattle, but well worth the trip.  The Rouge Waterski club put on a great event.  My best was 5 @ -38, which was in Saturday's first round (and in the bag suit), but my Strada did well, not missing a -35 in any of the Rounds.  OfficerFriendly had a 4 @ -35 yesterday, and my son set a new TPB of 4H @ -32,  overall it was a great roadtrip and a fun group to ski with.

[robscholl-OF]

Bruce,

We are both close.  RD or I will make sure you can ski every day if you want.  Give either one of us a call.

OF 

 

[Jam man]

Strada lives up to the hype

I had a chance to ski the Strada for the first time last Friday the 25th.  We were at Sun Basin and Ted Moser had a 67" to demo with the fin set up by Rossi.  I've only been able to do a lot of free skiing on the river this spring so this was my first quality time on a course this year.  My 1st set I ran my RS-1 and skied pretty well but didn't run my -32. 

2nd set I ran the Strada.  There was no "getting used to" the Strada;  it felt like I had been skiing it for months.  The first thing I noticed about the ski was the smooth effortless turns followed by cat-like reflexs when I put the ski on on edge.  I ran some good -28's on it and a scrappy -28 that I wouldn't have been able to run on my RS-1;  I only got 4 @ -32 but I planned to ski it again later.  2nd set on the ski was amazing.  The more I counter rotated on my off-side the better the off-side turns got.  I have never had off-side turns like that.  I ran right up through -32 and got 2 at -35.  My -32 was the easiest I ever ran on any ski - wide and early at almost every buoy.  3rd set was the same as the 2nd set running right up to 2 at -35. 

The main things I noticed about the ski is what OF had said in an earlier post -- you can make little errors on the ski but it doesn't seem to effect the pass.  A couple times when I came out of a buoy late, I was patient, put the ski on edge and was early to the next buoy.  What is strange is that when I put the ski on edge, the ski never feels like it accelerated to the point that I had too much speed to bleed off - it seems like the ski seeks angle instead of speed. I've never had a ski feel so comfortable and easy to ski off the dock.

Now my only dilemma is trying to justify to my wife why I "need" to buy the Strada.

 Jam Man

[RichardDoane]

So after riding Eric's ski, I reset my fin on my Strada and gave it a rip, planning on setting a new TPB at the SkiPark this weekend if things go right.

[robscholl-OF]

Jam Man,

Do like I did, just get the ski and worry about the wife later.......OF

[Old MS Accout]

RD,

Where are you at with numbers now and what are you moving to?

[ForrestGump]

As the water has warmed up, I've gone nuts with the fin on my 66, thanks to Paul Jager's fin program. I'm now at:

L- 6.805
D- 2.518
DFT- .705
Binding 28.5

The ski feels better than ever using these numbers. A 5 degree change in water temp moves the fin significantly.

[RichardDoane]

I'm back to : 10' wing upside down, 2.508  6.860  .765, but after talking to Eddie the other day, now that the water has warmed up a little (66') I may try a 67" Strada again soon.

[Old MS Accout]

Our water is at 80 and ski feels the same here as it does in the 90-100 water in La.

I am still real close to stock and have not made a move since May. I have skied better with more control in the warm water, but my ski feels fine.

Shane,

Thats pretty deep and far off. I am not sure I could make a move like that and like it.  

[slow]

I have a 67 inch in 70 degree water that now turns like the 66 inch I demoed in 55 degree water. The 67 strada is feeling better and better as the water warms up.

I am 180 lbs 32off 34 mph skier. This is the lowest effert ski I've ever been on that carries out with ease with a magical off side. My consistancy vs my 67 prophecy has improved dramatically. My only change is moving the front boot back a 1/2 hole on the sequence plate to 29.25.

 .750, 6.85, 2.50, 29.25, 9 degree

[MrJones]

From personal experience I have to say that all the initial "down sizing" on the Strada may have been incorrect. I am very borderline in size for the 66", but it was recommended so I went with it. In March and April it felt good, but with warmer water and shorter rope it was not all that.

I am coming off and injury and on a 67" now. So far it feels much more like the correct size for me. (Especially in 90+ deg water) Much smoother on toe side and less radical to ride. It will be a few weeks till I really wring it out, but I am hopeful!

[Agustafson]

Man reading all these post with 80+ water temp sounds so nice.. Radar Lake was 68* today.. I'm wishing I was in a warmer climate for skiing!! Working a bit more on my gates but 66 Strada is rockin!!!!! Took my week old baby boy for a walk around the lake today it was awesome!

[04196]

Now my only dilemma is trying to justify to my wife why I "need" to buy the Strada.

 Jam Man

Jam Man - Your only dilemma should be to justify to your wife why you "HAD" to buy the Strada!http://www.ballofspray.com/vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-laughing.gif Not "WHY you need to buy a Strada

Go for it and apologize later

Ron

[thager]

Grasshopper, snatch the pebble from my hand. "Confused MS say "Is easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission."

[Old MS Accout]

I have been on 67s forever and the 67 strada was way to big for me. 

[lbow]

Is there a link or picture that can show me how to measure dft properly? I have 8" digital calipers and i have looked at the d3 site. I don't understand what part of the tail i'm supposed to measure from. The top of the ski, the bottom, or somewhere in between? Needle or flat?

 

I have a 67 Strada and I feel like my offside turn is an all or nothing thing. I would like to tame the turns a bit on both sides.

 

190 lbs 34mph - sometime 28off - have not touched 32 this year.

[RichardDoane]

I pinch the caliper  to the bottom of the ski right behind the fin between my thumb and 1st finger, kind of wobble it up/down to where it fits the flatest, then slide it up to where it touches the back of the ski at the tail.  You don't have to do it exactly like someone else, but whatever way you do it, be consistent.  Make adjustments of .005/.010" and then go ski, and set it where it feels the best for your style.  Just because someone has their fin at a certain spot, doesn't mean that's where you'll end up.  And remember to write stuff down before and after for reference later.

[Jim Neely]

There's a picture on Chris Rossi's site.  http://www.proskicoach.com/gear/fin_measurement/

One of the best methods is to stand the ski on its tip or better than that purchase an EZfin Tool

http://vidkingdom.net/content/view/57/84/

 

[RichardDoane]

Jim - if someone's entered in the EZFin challenge, does that get them a 10% discount ?

 

 

[lbow]

Thanks - that is kind of where i was headed - get the caliper flat the on the bottom of the ski. Trying to get it as close to factory as possible before i start moving it around.

[Jim Neely]

Richard,

I have no idea. I recomended the EZFin tool because it has helped me get consistent DFTs.

Jim

[h2oski]

Richard

Keep entering, you might win one. That's a idea, a discount for someone entering at least 3 of them?? I'll work on that one.

Terry

[slow]

slot caliper is simple and repeatable for DFT

[ForrestGump]

MS, I would never have thought it would work with those numbers. But if you read all of Paul's documents on fin tuning, he makes some sense. The ski gets angle, a LOT of space, and still turns like a SOB without being pushed.  But most of all, it's free feeling.  As the water is cooling down here(it was 98 two weeks ago and 84 this week), I'm finding I am going back towards more stock numbers.

[Old MS Accout]

I will test it out this weekend.