Slalom Course Set up

[GAJ0004]

What kind of slalom course set-up does everyone have? On Lake Latonka we use an Accufloat permanent. We use brass clips and mason string to protect it from tubers and jet skis. Better to have the buoys get broken off than have the whole course ripped out if someone snags it. We submerge it during the winter months with half-filled antifreeze jugs and wire ties. I have a custom made grappling hook(all edges are rounded and smooth) for pulling it back up in the spring. It is out in the middle of the lake in about 15-20 feet of water.

[RichardDoane]

Broho has a floating ccourse, with a stainless mainline. It works great due to fluctuating water levels. Recently, when we went to the 1/2 water filled bouys, we had to remove some counterweights so that the balls would be at the right height.

[thager]

I have an accu-sink type course. Built the floating course myself with a few parts from Ed. Stainless steel mainline.Added the accu-sink a year later. I sink it every fall until spring. Going strong now into the 10th year.

[GAJ0004]

I think ours has been in place for 15 years. Some sections of the mainline have been replaced periodically. This is the second one that has been installed. The original was ripped out by a pontoon boat that decided to throw its anchor in the middle of it on a very windy day, and an I/O went through it and got the mainline tangled in its prop. For a few years we took the whole thing out, pipes and all. It took 10 people and half a day to do the job. Now we submerge it. I can submerge it by myself in about an hour , and it takes me two and a half hours to bring it up by myself. I am able to do everything from my canoe. I would love to hook up one of those systems where you can surface and submerge it with and air compressor, but we would need a 1/8  mile of hose just to reach the course. Just got done making 28 new buoy lines. My next project is to attach them to the buoys that are piled up in my boat garage.

[Tuney]

My public lake doesn't have a course but I have been throwing around the idea of putting something together for it. For those of you that have experience with it what kind of investment/maintenance does it take and do you have tips to avoid headaches?

[Deke]

We install a floating course for 4 months each season on public water. The floating course is essential for changing water levels. It's nothing special other than the 1/2 filled with water turn balls. We need a USFS permit, insurance, etc. Maintenance is more like repair, such as replacing buoys, buoy lines, replacing mainline sections and even damaged pvc sections. Although much of the damage is caused by wally's, a good bit of it actually comes from our own club members too!

[MattP]

I'm looking at getting a course. What kind do y'all like or think is the best made or needs less up keep?

[RichardDoane]

stainless mainline, and heavy duty PVC piping is the key. Remember your BOS advertizers !

[DW]

In addition to the efforts of course installation and maintenance, there will be lots of other entertaining frustrations.  On the public waterways, you will constantly be battling with the fishermen for usage and right of way, along with all the other boating traffic that feels a course is a great playground for their jetski "racing", kids tubing, pontoon floating, swimming resting buoys . . . . .  You will never cease to be amazed at what usage your course will endure and will soon realize the course owner and skiing the course ranks at the bottom of the list in terms of rights relative to others.  Contact EZ Ed Obermeier, he makes/sells courses and supports the site.

[kstateskier]

www.ez-slalom.com

[MattP]

Thanks I'll give him a call

[GAJ0004]

The floating type is the easiest to work with. Lake Latonka is a private lake of about 700 homes. It is 2  1/2  miles long and about a half mile wide. If you are lucky enough to have a sheltered place to put your course you can use the anchor weight specified by the manufacturer. The course on Lake Latonka is anchored by a 200-300 diesel block at one end and a camshaft at the other. I don't recommend using your boat to tug on the mainline to put tension on the cable after the initial set up. We have broken a cable or two over the years doing that.  One of the guys on the lake put a comalong at one end. If the course starts to bend we just tighten the ratchet. Our anchors are settled in pretty good. We used 1 inch thick poly rope as the anchor lines, and a 3/8'' snap hook to attach the anchorlines to the mainline. We have not had to do much to maintain it other than replacing tuber and jet ski divots, and submerging it for the winter.

[eleeski]

There is the old school option - cinderblocks, bungee (or innertubes) and buoys (or clorox bottles).

My course is rebar surveyed in when dry. Bungees hold down the watered down buoys. It is very accurate and does not move.

The rebar does rot away after a few years. Dig down a bit and I can find fresh steel to hook the bungee. In the old lake, I put a cinderblock on the totally rotted rebar. That has been working for several years.

San Diego uses fixed anchors on the bottom. They have a pulley and weight system that handles the tidal swings quite well. Subfloats stay in place quite well even when the Wallys chop up the buoys. San Diego Mission Bay Boat and Ski Club has the details (I didn't do the design - I've just skied the results).

Eric

[kdeupser]

I am in the Atlanta Waterski club and we use a few different types of courses.  Our Primary course is on Lake Allatoona, here in Atlanta, Ga.  We get an insane amount of boat traffic, however our course is very reselient.  It's been there longer than I have been a member ( 11 or 12 years).  Plus you can go to our website (www.awsc.net) to see how we maintain our buoys.  Since the Army Corps of Engineer's manages the lake so wonderfully..... our course is dry 3 months out of the year.  So the course has been survey'ed in, and all the buoy's have the large galvanized screw anchors.  Then we have a rope tied from screw anchor to screw anchor so you can find the course if the public tear's it up to bad(they usually do, morons).  We use crap trap sub-buoy's, then the brick counter weight system with plastic clips.  This system works so well we have incorporated it in many of the private sites around Atlanta.  This course is in usually 6 to 15 feet of water, depending on whatever they crazy corps does to us....  We use a slip system on the crab traps, and long brick ropes, so we can easily handle what the corps throw's at us.  They can drop the lake a foot a day, so the swings can be amazing to deal with.

We also do the floating course deal at two other sites.  Nothing good to say about a floating course.  Period!  We have to use one on a bigger lake, and when the wind blow's, what a pain.  We have put in so many counter anchors for every type of wind direction that when the public tear's part's of this course out, we have to sink new counters.  It's a real pain in the but.  This course is in 2 to 10 feet of water.

Our Winter course is another floating course, but no counter weights to help with the wind.  So we stretch it as tight as possible.

 

Good Luck,

Ken

[19skier]

GA, we have been using a submersible course in water that is some distance from shore and fairly deep. I use a hook on a line to retrieve a 70 length of the air line that is weighted to sink. Just have to remember about where it is and have a small compressor and tank in the boat. It can be made to work and sure beats daily repairs and liability of leaving it floating.  I have 22 very lightly used WallySinker bouys and all the hoses/fittings for a second submersible course for sale ($500?) if anyone is interested.

[Thomas Wayne]

The best method we've found for keeping tension on a floating course - where there aren't big swings in water level - is a bungee system I came up with many years ago.  Wind, ball deflection (due to skier crash), etc.  are all quickly corrected by the constant elastic nature of this set up:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/coursebungy.jpg

 

TW

[Steven]

We have a floating course at our site. We use the same bungee method as TW has illustrated above (works great!). Our site has a lot of wakeboard traffic passing thru and also boarding there when there aren't any skiers to claim the site. To eliminate pvc breakage on the arms, they put 6" sch 80 pipe sections (kind of expensive, but durable and no flex), although they get broken periodically. On one private site i've skied, they use 2" pvc that has been placed vertically into a concrete block, then surveyed into place prior to filling the lake. Then they made up some 10-12"x 1.5" brass weights that slide up and down in the pvc tubes. So if a rope hooks a buoy, the brass weight comes out of the pvc pipe. Then all you have to do is find the location of the pipe and drop the weight back into the pipe and you're back in business! At another private site, we made up concrete anchors using stainless eyebolts, surveyed prior to filling the lake, then used a section of 1/8" stainless wire rope, added a 2" chunk of the hard foam cylinder boat guides as a sub buoy (placed below prop level), then attached a drop line with a brass hook and a sliding tent rope adjuster so the buoy level can easily be adjusted according to water level. This system worked real well also!

[Old MS Accout]

There is a guy in Minn that uses fire hose inside the aluminum tubes. The course is blown up with a compresser tank. It is the best system I have seen for a permanant aquafloat.

[Steven]

That's a good idea! has he ever had anyone hook a buoy and end up bending one of the aluminum tubes? It's hard to believe that anyone could break sch 80 6" dia PVC, but they do it once a year! Maybe you're wakeboarders aren't as hard core as ours. 

[Bill Gladding]

Some of the guys at our club came up with installing the course buoys attached to weights in PVC tubes.  We still use longline clips to hold the buoys onto the line attached to the weight.  It has sure been nice since the buoys are always at the right height unless the water goes way up or down.  In addition, the weighted buoys move out of the way better when you hit them since the weight helps pull them down versus a regular type on a bungee or tire tube that loses tension when the buoy is depressed.

[east tx skier]

We have two club courses, both with individually anchored buoys. 

 I put one in on a cove near our family's place a few years ago with cinder blocks and surgical latex for buoy lines.  Measured it out with premeasured nonstretch rope lengths and line of sight.  We weren't too worried about records.  It's only about 4--5 feet with a mud bottom, so the suction on the blocks held them really well.  Buoys clip onto subs.  Short setup (about 1,850 total).  The falling water levels ultimately did us in by summer's end, but it was fun while it lasted.  I have a portable course in the attic for that rainy day where I'm without a ready to go course again.

 

Here's the one I set up.  The lilypads were a real PIA.  But it sure was private for something on a public lake.

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/attachment.php?attachmentid=1454&stc=1&d=1124747516

[Steven]

There was a place we skied in Kalispell Mt. called "The Slough" , by the end of the season we had to harvest lily pads around the turn balls and in the course. It got real bad! The only places without lily pads was in the skier and boat path. In those areas the roots (???) were just under the surface. So when you fell, you were immersed in lily pad. It was a great place to ski though!

[Laz]

We've had an EZ-Salom course for 2 seasons now, always on public water. About 35 minutes to put in and about 20 to take out. We have it down to an art. Just ordered the 55m gates for this year. The whole system works very well.

[skiep]

This is what Bill Gladding was talking about. Keith

[skiep]

one more picture. Keith

[slalom frog]

I purchased a stainless steel mainline from EZ Slalom and made the rest myself using 2" pvc.  I found some stainless steel spring clips to be able to quickly couple the sections together.  It has been very durable for me over the last 4 years.  It is a bit of a pain to get it tensioned properly but overall I am very happy with it.  If anyone is interested I think that I have the plans that I used to cut the pvc and related parts.

[east tx skier]

Steven, that picture was taken in March 2005, a particularly low water year.

 By summer, the water was low enough that we had to harvest lilies to ski.  We would go deep and cut the roots/stems pretty low.  There was a fair amount of hydrilla at the far end as well.  Good incentive to make two back to back passes and drop on the deep end.

 This picture shows how bad the lilies can get (see the background where we hadn't harvested).

 http://lh5.ggpht.com/_1gl9obJSimU/S3rB_ezBlZI/AAAAAAAACtE/ZEcIHXzIOBA/Buzzard%20Buoy%20MC%20Picture%20%28Web%29.jpg

[Steven]

That's awesome! It looks like a chunk of lilly is trying to get air born there about mid spray. Those lilly's work well to settle the water. Wish we had some at our site in Canyon Lake!!!!!!!!!! It's terrible right now! We're at full pool right now, the west shore has a steep shore line that creates some pretty busy water. After your third pass you'd better have some soft knees and a strong core or you'll end up kissing the tip. Oh well, at least I'm able to get some rides in. 

[Deke]

I'd be interested in some feedback from folks that have floating courses with 55's. Does all the extra length cause additional problems with tension and keeping the the course straight? We have a prevailing cross-wind at our public water site.

[Old MS Accout]

Put them in manually not attached to the course.  

[Ed_Obermeier]

What MS said.  If you have a permanently installed course you can add the 55's by individually anchoring a couple of buoys 180.4 feet from the end gates using concrete blocks etc for anchors.  Cheap and easy to do.

A properly tensioned floating course with 55's will have little or no bowing in a crossing breeze.  Assuming that it's a reasonably light breeze.  However with high enough cross wind you will likely get some bowing; just one of the shortcomings of any floating course design.  Properly tensioning the mainline will go a long ways towards negating that issue.  You can also fix that by anchoring the centerline (mainline) at various points within the course.  I.e. anchor below the end gates and somewhere around the center of the course in addition of course to outside the ends of the course (outside the 55's) and bowing will be a non-issue.  A fairly easy fix to accomplish.

Ed    

[Old MS Accout]

When we had our permanent floating course, my buddy came up with the idea to install a hand wench on one end. If the water was low you could get down there and tighten it up or loosen when it rains again. The wench end was in about 6 feet of water between a section of rope from the anchor and the main line.    

[Deke]

Separately anchored 55's, maybe just one at each end, sounds like a good idea. One reason our course is floating is because of the rapidly changing water level for the second half of the summer. As the depth changes, we also need to move it away from the shore frequently, making intermediate anchors a pain. I would guess that realigning our 55's by eye and keeping a 180' rope in the boat to remeasure when necessary would do the trick?

[Ed_Obermeier]

That would be the easist way to do it IMO. 

Another easy auto tensioning idea is to hang a 15 - 20 lb weight on the anchor lead on one end of the course, half way between the end gate and the anchor.  Functions as a counterweight to keep constant tension on the mainline as the water level drops.  You may have to put a little additional air in your gate buoys to offset the counterweights downward pull so they don't sink too low.

I've tried the bungee cord in line between the anchor and end of the anchor lead but I personally didn't have too much luck with that.  Probably didn't use heavy enough bungee I suppose.  Long rubber tarp snubbers might be a better alternative?

Ed

[Thomas Wayne]

For the bungee method to work you need to have multiple lengths of bungee working in tandom.  Even so, this method is really only meant to keep the course tensioned in the presense of wind and other small external forces.

For variable water depths with much fluctuation, bungee is not a suitable answer.  If your depth is sufficient, one of the best methods I've used for countering changing lake levels is illustrated below:http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/VARIABLECOURSEANCHOR.jpg

Obvioulsy the floating "anchor" needs to be well below surface at the lowest expected level, and the hanging weight must remain off the bottom to avoid a slack course.

We have also used the weight attached directly to the anchorline, halfway between the course and the anchor.  It works fine to keep the course straight, but does not recover from deflection as quickly as the bungee method - though it is much easier to apply.  If the course is properly tensioned to begin with a surpisingly small amount of weight will suffice.

TW