How do you react to different pulls

[Ski_Dad]

I regularly ski with 4 different drivers. How do you personally compensate for a deep water start if you get too much gas or not enough ?

[keithh2oskier]

the volume of my grunt changes.

 

If I am getting consistently not enough I will ask for more on the next pass.

[TEL]

Just hold on, let the driver know what you want. I ski regularly behind a 91 SN it's a slow pull up compared to my boat and other newer boats. Not much you can do

[BrennanKMN]

Maybe it is because I am a smaller guy (160 lbs), but I very rarely have an issue with anyones pull ups unless it's behind an I/O. I think most deep water start issues stem from poor technique vs. poor driving.

 

As far as your question. Get into your ball position with your ski at a shallow angle and hang on. A fast pull and you'll be up on the water quick and a slow pull and you'll just need to ride out the ball position a little longer. Lots of upper body strength and good grip allow you to absorb most pulls.

[Horton]

My lower back is a little grumpy so I'm pretty particular about my Pull-Ups. You just have to talk to your driver after any pull up that isn't what you want.

[LOTW]

Tell your drivers what you want, if it's too much or too little. I used to have drivers hurt me until I told them I'm 140lbs not 240 lbs.

[Tom351]

Go do a few deepwater starts behind a jetski...two things will happen:

 

1.) You really get the feel for trimming the front of the ski down to help it plane out (and help the jet ski actually accelerate)- useful when inboard drivers give you a weak pull.

 

2.) You will stop noticing much difference between inboard drivers.

[Ski_Dad]

before my Malibu i skied behind an underpowered outboard - the pull was progressive by nature. How do I explain the progressive pull thing to a few on my friends ?

 

My Nautique buddy completely gets it and so does my wife, but the other drivers I'm not alway sure what I'm gonna get. If I get too little throttle i feel like my current ski will stall out on me. I'm sure it's my technique

[igkya]

Simple, constructive, yet polite communication goes a long ways.

[BraceMaker]

@Ski_Dad - In someways you can tweak your technique to ensure you can handle different pulls within reason. The worst is being dependent on one very specific pull that you don't always get! We have one buddy who always wants the straightest pull out ever. Any little bit of the boat not being lined up and he won't go. You can work your way through this by trying some tougher starts, see what its like to have a pull where you see the left side or right side of the hull. Get some pulls out of shallow water where you have to keep the ski off the bottom.

 

Some odd factors -

Straight away pulls will feel more firm all of the acceleration acts on you right away, pulls where the boat is not lined up will feel softer because the boat is going away from you at an angle.

In gear or out of gear? Again some skiers are really picky I'm not sure which I prefer the guy who wants to be dragged or the guy who wants absolutely no drag. But if absolutely no drag and insists the boat be straight they better be ready for their moment and not taking a piss. "gear - go" might be one of the ways you could get a softer pull out of the hard drivers as they might be just burying you right off the trans engagement.

 

 

 

 

[vernonreeve]

On a side note, I encourage my skiers to say "gear" then "hit it" or "okay", and to not say "go" because "go" could sound like "no" to the driver.

[6balls]

Communicate. I like a quicker hop and have a touchy back. I have more trouble at tourneys I swear it's like they are trying to save gas I'm drowning back there. We get to the other end and I'm like hey I could use a lot more juice out of the hole. From then it's usually fine. I try to tell them up front before the first pull up...but I almost always feel my first at a tourney is a dragger.

[BraceMaker]

@vernonreeve get that some of our crew yells g'yup and ducks underwater.

[hemlock]

No one likes to be "yanked". And I mean yanked when the line is not quite tight.

And... no one likes to be dragged for an hour before the ski planes.

I don't think any driver will be offended if you tell them how you prefer your start.

 

 

[chris55]

As a driver and a skier, I always ask the skier how he likes to be pulled, normal courtesy :)

[JohnN]

Ski behind my Accuski boat :-) - always perfect. As a tournament driver I welcome having skiers let me know if they want something different, harder or softer, and as a skier I'll let the driver know if I need something different.