Don't have ZO - how about all practice at 1 or 2 mph faster than your division ?

[swbca]

We have all skied in tournaments where conditions made our toughest rope length easy and then other tournaments where you're looking backwards down the course thinking WTF was that ? You just made 4 balls on a pass you never miss and the site conditions look good. There are many factors, like water temp, but for me its all converts to the sensation of boat speed slow or fast.

 

I have the newest version of Perfect Pass with all the upgrades. I was considering if the full-course times in tournaments were always .5 seconds slower than practice times, that would provide a bit of head-room to offset inexperience with ZO. Maybe reduce the WTF experience.

 

Whether its 32, 34 or 36 your training speed is what your mind and body learn. 35.5 mph can feel slow and easy; 34.5 can be HOT and hard depending on your practice speed. So if you always train a little HOT that's what you know . . . giving you some tolerance for differences in tournament conditions.

 

right or wrong ?

[scoke]

One of my favorite movies was with Denzel Washington filmed in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

 

Zero Off is like playing chess

Perfect Pass is like not even checkers but tick-tac-toe.

 

It will be feel like skiing behind a freight train after perfect pass regardless of the speed.

 

You will not be able to run two passes within 6-8 sets. Book it. Others will disagree with me and say I am mean and a bad person for stating that and making that prediction.

 

The modern boats typically are 6.0-6.2l engines and 400+ horsepower. The older zero off boats might be more forgiving.

 

https://www.ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/comment/392434

 

 

[jpwhit]

I ski behind ZO primarily, but behind PP now and then. I agree with @scoke. It's not about speed, it's about how the boat reacts to your pulls. People say zbox with PP makes it closer, but I haven't skied with a PP boat w/ zbox.

 

For me, I ski much better behind ZO because that's what I'm really use to. When I ski behind PP, the boat feels like mush and it throws my timing off sometimes.

[Wish]

Take the boat out of the equation..sorta. What u are training at a higher rate of speed is faster reaction time. Will the pull feel the same...nope. But it should feel more like you can deal with the difference in ZO as it will be slower. I practice behind PP Classic at 35mph and ZO at 34. Does not feel the same but ZO does not feel hectic or like a battle I can’t win. Also if you’re thinking PP settings should match your ZO settings it may not be so. Diff ZO feel in pull could be compensated by a setting that best works with your style of skiing again making things feel even less hectic or rushed.

[Horton]

Depends on the level of skiing. At 30 mph 28 off you would not feel much difference. At 34 or 36 mph 35 off the difference is HUGE.

[jpwhit]

Another important consideration IMO is your weight. I think the difference in feel between PP and ZO becomes much broader as skier weight increases. I'm fairly light, and I still feel a lot of difference. The heavier guys I sky with seem to think the difference is much more significant.

[lpskier]

Another consideration is figuring out your right ZO setting for each boat/motor combination. If you are skiing the wrong setting, it will feel challenging no matter how you practice. The setting your buddy skis is not necessarily the right setting for you. “B2” is the default setting to start since it is right in the middle of the pull options, which probably means it’s the least wrong place to start your journey.

 

If you can, travel to ski with skiers that have ZO and try the different settings. Try A2, B2 and C2. Once you pick the letter that feels best, try 1 and 3, and see what number is best for you. This may vary boat to boat. It does for me.

 

If you don’t have friends nearby that have ZO so the above suggestion isn’t feasible, but you want to maximize your tournament experience by getting the best possible score, use your site familiarization set the night before to do the above experiment.

 

Can’t make it the night before? Okay, ski your first round Saturday class F. You get four passes to experiment. Ski back to back passes on a line you are sure to run but faster or shorter than your opener. You’ll at least get close to your ideal setting. Then use your next set to fine tune during a normal tournament set. You are allowed by the rules to change your ZO setting every pass if you want to. After second round you should be dialed in.

 

You may spend a couple weekends with this process since there are three different boats out there (and some may have different engines), but if you are planning to go to Regionals and Nationals you’ll be glad not to have ZO anxiety as you’re standing on the starting dock. On that topic, after the boat draw is announced you definitely want to go ski behind that boat to get ready for the big dance.

 

As the last act of a desperate man if you can’t bring yourself to spend tournament sets experimenting, after a couple passes opening round, ask the driver what he/she/it feels while you ski. As a driver, I can often feel when a skier is not in synch with ZO and can make a suggestion that will help. It may not be perfect but it will often work to get the skier in the right neighborhood. But only rely on drivers with lots of time in the seat for that feedback.

 

Finally, some say that by putting the KX setting in “+” and PX in “+10” or “+20” will more closely emulate ZO. This may or may not be true, but you can experiment yourself and see if it does anything for you.

 

On your inquiry about the wake on your boat, try putting 50 pounds of weight in the bow. If it’s better, add another 25 and see if that’s better still or worse and adjust accordingly.

 

 

[The_MS]

Training at a faster speed helps your skiing and reactions but will not help with the ZO feel. 16.95 is 16.95 but a ZO 16.95 has a different pull then a 16.95 PP

[RichardDoane]

+1 to @scoke 's comment, without ZO practice your tournament experience can go horribly wrong in an instant: bad gate, late 1, scrappy 2, miss 3 ball... MOP.

[Killer]

The biggest difference in pp to zo unless you're skiing shortline is the gate imo. Pp almost always gasses the fck out of you at the gate. It sets a poor rhythm and can be tough on the driver too. ZO is always there.

 

I ski way better on Zo but I also ski more on new Zo boats by about 4:1.

 

I'm dialed in after 1 to 2 passes after some sets on pp. Love Zo and wish I could afford a boat for the 20 sets I do on pp every year but it's really not worth it for me. Investing in a personal driver would be a better investment for me

[ALPJr]

We train behind a 97 PS and a 02 GTR 22, both with PP stargaazer, no Zbox. I didn’t notice a difference in the pull at a tournament with a new Prostar and ZO set on B2. I am a 32mph -15 to -32 off skier on a good day.

[Deanoski]

get z box, cheap way to the similar feel of Z off we use two boats 2016 200 and a 1990 NWZ with z box the wake width is the biggest diff I feel.

scores are to same with both boats.

 

 

 

 

[swbca]

I have PP version 9 with Z-Box and Star-Gazer. I know a couple of 35off 32mph skiers who practice together with the same PP setup and with ZO equally. They have no problem switching between their two boats or in tournaments.

 

PP with a mechanical throttle will always have servo latency so that difference will always be there but may not be a big factor for light weight skiers in senior divisions.

[The_MS]

So have you went to a tourney and if so, how did it feel?