Portable course recommendation and questions

[david_quail]

Hi there. 3 or 4 times a season we'll spend a full week out at our cabin, so I'm considering investing in a slalom course.

 

Do folks have any recommendation?

- Installation time is probably more important than anything else. Even at the expense of a perfectly straight and stable course. Most of the options I see, advertise that you can install them in as little as 20 minutes. Which I find incredibly hard to believe. Can these actually be installed in this amount of time? I've got 2 little kids, so ski time is at a premium. If it's going to take an hour to install and then another to take down, it might just not be worth it. That's 2 days worth of skiing sacrificed for a few days of course skiing.

- Steel mainline vs rope?

- We have cranky fishermen in our area. So it's not completely uncommon for them to take the knife to the course. Is it easy to replace missing balls / lines in this event. I shouldn't blame it all on the fishermen ... it's a fairly busy lake during the day, so some accidental damage might just happen.

- EZ Slalom and Insta Slalom seem to be the 2 main options. Is there a preference? Another option?

[rodecon]

EZ Slalom is a great course, Ed is awesome to work with, we have a poly mainline EZ course we install weekly all season and it's held up well (it's about 6-7 years old), with minor maintenance (mostly replacing balls or bungees if the get a handle snag etc) spend the extra money and get the pre gates, well worth it.

 

When u first install it u will be getting used to it and it will take longer, prob 45min, but after u develop a system we budget 30 min for both install and removal each. 20 min is possible if there's no wind and u know what your doing.

 

I hope this helps!

[mjump]

Accufloat

[jhughes]

Correct. 20 min on and out is very possible. Of there is any wind you deploy with the wind and retrieve against the wind.

[rodecon]

One last tip: when you purchase your course i highly recommend you and your crew take it out in your backyard and install the gates and 1-2 turn ball arms so you can get familiarized with how everything works before u try it in the boat, will save u some aggravation.

[david_quail]

Great tips. @jhughes just so I'm clear wrt wind, are you suggesting that driving / setting the course down facing into the wind? Ie so you have a head wind? that makes sense given the goal of keeping the course tight.

[LeonL]

He means put the course out with a tail and retrieve going into a head.

[LoopSki]

Keep in mind that to achieve that 20 minute goal you will need 3 people. Can be done with two but not in 20 minutes.

[eyepeeler]

It is so much easier to freeski without going to the trouble of setting up a course. You will be skiing in 1-2 minutes, no cranky fisherman hassles, you can choose a calm or rippled part of the lake to ski in, no expense of a slalom course, your boat stays cleaner, more time with your wife and little kids. Freeski gets you in better shape. Freeski is a no brainer.

[swc5150]

We own an Insta and an EZ (compact). Both rope mainlines, which we bought for ease of reeling in, and they work great. I prefer the design of the EZ. It's more durable (I've cracked a few pieces on the Insta), and more well thought out in its design. Wind / current direction is your friend when installing and pulling, as stated above. Once you have experience with it, 20 min in and out should be no problem, even with 2 people. My brother and I alone can do 15 in, and 10 min out. 10 out isn't the norm, but we've done it when time was of the essence.

[dropski]

Our family has EZ slalom and it works well, and has held up for several seasons of use. With three people you can get it up in 20 mins after some practice. The only times it may not be able to get straight is if you drop in deeper water, or drop directly on the downside of a drop off.

[jhughes]

Also, install with work gloves on. The pvc edges can be sharp and will take a chunk of skin out of you get pinched between pipes or teloscoping portions while assembling or breaking down.

[Jmoski]

Agree with other posters that with a crew it can be done in 20 minutes - we have a system down where one person drives the party boat with the course components, the 2nd person rigs the balls and the sections who hands to the 1st person whose connecting the sections to the main line as you back up in a straight line.

 

Our record is 15 minutes to drop it in.

[walleye]

Drive straight when setting. Alignment can be challenging if u set crooked. Anchoring can be the hard psrt tightening. EZ slalom are very nice and boat friendly and easy to put together.

[david_quail]

Awesome info everyone! Keep the insights coming!

@eyepeeler I agree free skiing is fantastic. But with our setup I'm hoping to get a bit of the best of both worlds. We have a cabin right on the lake which we spend a week at a time at. The idea of dropping the course in on a Sunday night, skiing it all week when the weather cooperates with the family watching from the dock / playing on the shore, mix in some free skiing, and then pulling it out on Friday before the weekend lake traffic begins, sounds absolutely heavenly.

 

A topic for another thread might be bad habits one gets into while free skiing. I'm all around "better" after a week of free skiing, but definitely pick up a few bad habits that need to be forgotten (mainly pulling past the wakes, and also not letting the ski cast out wide during the turn, and treating it more like a turn into the gates where I slow down, ride parallel to the course for a split second, then turn in).

[Edbrazil]

Let me put in an endorsement for Accufloat. I believe they were the originator of the floating course, early 1970s or even earlier.

 

[epnault]

I have been happy with my insta slalom. I put mine in weekly 6-7 months a year. I put it in with anybody that can take direction driving our pontoon. My preference is only me and a driver. That includes my 10 year old son at the time I purchased it. The best put in time was 16 minutes and the best pull was 12 minutes. That is with me doing all the work and someone at the helm of the pontoon. Having my own course was the best thing I ever did for my skiing and you can't go wrong with either brand. Go for it.

[TallSkinnyGuy]

I wouldn't choose a cable mainline unless you planned to leave it in year round. I would think a rope mainline would be much easier to work with (but can't say for sure since I haven't ever installed a metal cable mainline). I wear old ski gloves when installing my EZ Slalom compact course and find that it works best if the glove tip is cut off on the thumb and index finger. Any gloves you wear should fit very well since a fair amount of digit dexterity is required.

 

With three people we install ours in 90' water depth in 30 minutes. I'm sure we could do it faster in shallower water since quite a bit of our install/removal time is lower/raising anchors.

 

Also note that a crosswind will bend your course -- even a light crosswind. It is impossible to get the course tight enough to keep it from bowing in a crosswind.

 

Also note your shoreline where you intend to install the course. Our lake has steep shorelines everywhere except in one spot and that is the only spot we can set up our course and not have to wait 3+ minutes between each pass (wake rebound is a bugger).

[Rw3]

Older thread, but wondering if most people still prefer the EZ as a portable course. Thanks!

[MDB1056]

@Rw3 YES definitely. Old thread info above still relevant but I'd strongly caution AGAINST a steel cable mainline. Much heavier and more of a pain to handle when you're trying to get in and out as easily as possible. Definitely go poly mainline. I had an Accufloat with stainless mainline, once installed it was great and stayed very straight but a real BEAR to work with also due to the PVC sections all being heavier duty sched 40 PVC and collapsing into one, again making it much heavier and harder to maneuver sections. The accufloat also had the sections all connect with eye bolts and wingnuts and other metal clips which were much more of a chore than the pop-up button spring clips that are inserted into the EZ slalom pvc sections, that simply pop into place when the sections are extended. If installing something for all season - love it. But if you're looking for what's easiest to drop in quickly and ski, yes definitely go the EZ Slalom or Insta-slalom route with a poly mainline. The hot set up for installation is off a pontoon as someone above noted, where you back it up while installing the course off the front. An added trick is to add a foot operated electric trolling motor off the front of the pontoon , so you can easily maneuver from the front and not need someone to drive . Works great. Definitely use the 30 lb river anchors at each end . Makes easy to tighten and keeps it straight.

[Rw3]

Thanks for the advice. EZ with poly it is.

[lefty]

Poly main line, get the 55s. 2 of us install in 45 minutes in light wind and deep water. Thought I had heard on this site though that Ed was retiring?

[75Tique]

Yup on Ed retiring. Still serving customers with what he has left but not sure that includes a complete course. I recently picked up some bungies but I know he’s not doing much with it any more. Worth a call.

[OREGON85]

A related question: how much current would you install a course in. Our closest spot has about 1.5 - 3 MPH current, depending on the time of year. That probably too much, right?

[Maxsend]

+1 for Insta with poly lines. Make sure it's deep enough with no weeds. I can be done in weeds and shallow, but a pain. With a pontoon and normal conditions, we can drop in our pick up in 20-30 minutes. Pontoon makes everything so much better. We take ours out on the weekends too. Well worth it. 55s are a must, we only use one set of 2 anchors. No need to anchor the 55s separately. Buy extra buoy lines and parts, you'll need 'em.

Most importantly, fill your turn balls with water or add extra weight beneath them. Otherwise 90% of the buoy is out of the water. Good for shinning practice, but dangerous if you're narrow or late.

[h2onhk]

@OREGON85 we install our portable course on a river with minor currents at times. 1.5-3 isn't awful , but will definitely pull your turn balls downstream a little bit. Just recreational course skiers here, so its good enough for us. We just adjust out gate timing a little bit to compensate for the amount of drift. Again, not perfect, but its doable.

[Killer]

You could be challenged to have it all on 1 reel using a rope mainline w/ 55s. The rope takes up a lot more room on the reel.

I'm in the always cable camp. The weight is worth the penalty, way more accurate and easier to keep straight especially if you're adding 55s

I also found with rope it is easier to run over and it can knot if you're not careful.

[Rw3]

Reply from EZ for everyone’s information.

Hi Brad,

Unfortunately I've retired and EZ-Slalom courses are no longer being manufactured. I'm hopeful that someone will pick up the business and restart production but right now that's still being discussed with a couple of different entities. Appreciate the interest, sorry I can't help you.

Best Regards, Ed @ EZ-Slalom (retired)

[Skiphreak]

A bit off thread I realize but is there anyone in northeast looking to sell a portable course? I’m located in CT, and would be willing to travel (within reason) if a deal could be worked out. Just throwing it out there since it seems like shipping isn’t realistically an option and sounds like neither is a new EZ ?

[Sunapee]

Don't overlook Wally Skier. We have had one on a large public lake for about 15 years and it's still going strong. Wally stocks and sells replacement parts as well.

[MichaelGoodman]

@Skiphreak I am in Plymouth Ma I have a insta slalom I might sell if interestedgive me a call at 508-400-9216