What is keeping tournament slalom skiing bound to boats?

[Fastguy888]

Was pondering this concept when driving between 30 min to 2 hours to chase buoys when I originally bought my boat to ski a lake 1/4mi from my home. I still greatly enjoy the #lakelife including wakeboarding on occasion; but chasing buoys really has taken on its own form. Even if my friends are impressed by throwing some big walls on the lake; its not very relatable to course skiing. I desire perfect water, flat wake and consistent speed so I can be gratified through incremental improvements in my slalom skiing ability. Is Zero Off, Sure Path & the value of a Current AWSA legal towboat paving the way to go boatless. A electric winch powered tracked computer controlled pylon running down the middle of the course could likely be deployed at near the cost of a new 3 Event Boat. I guess cable parks have become a sport of their own with their own pro events for wakeboarding; I sure hope we keep the dynamics of a boat in the sport of slalom but possibly its not going that way?

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@Fastguy888 so exactly how is the "tracked computer controlled pylon" going to stay "down the middle" with several hundred pounds of lateral force applied? Keeping a roughly 2000' cable centered within a few inches with that much force would not be trivial or cheap.

And that's after you get an electric winch with enough instantaneous torque to keep the speed in the "Zero Off class" of variation.

[Mastercrafter]

Kind of had a similar thought recently. Like, we're pretty much doing everything we can do get the boat out of the equation, without actually getting the boat out of the equation. Auto-pilot is coming from Sure-Path.

 

Hypothetically.. Would crossing a centerline without wakes really be skiing? Would it be fun without the rumble of the exhaust and the smell of burnt gasoline? What happens to the chit-chat with the driver or spotter at the end of the pass? If nothing else, boats are fun to look at, talk about, and without them, there'd be no fuel Octane arguments on here, so that's no fun.

 

Getting rid of the boat takes a lot of my favorite aspects away from skiing, and I think most would agree, so my guess is they stay.

[MNshortliner]

I have thought about this same topic before, usually when you can’t find a driver! I don’t think it’s a matter of “if” but when. The building aspect is the easy part. A rail system under water and the cable pulls the trolley straight down the center line without deviation. Someone that loves slalom skiing and has enough money to try it just has to build it.

[jjackkrash]

I love both boats and skiing. No thanks on the cable.

[ALPJr]

I love boats and skiing, but a submerged rail or cable engineered into a purpose built ski lake would be the ticket. Just need time and money.

[BraceMaker]

Its gotta be built like a roller coaster. A track that goes down the lake above the water with a cart that hangs down so that the tow point is the correct level to the water.

 

The track would prevent the lateral deflection from being an issue.

 

Then you could drag the cart back and forth. The real gem would be if you could have multiple carts that dog legged off at the end so that multiple skiers could be loaded up and be resting at both ends.

 

The pylon should be able to retract the mainline based on skier preference.

 

You could easily "build in" whatever sort of flex in the system you wanted so it wasn't too perfect by having the pylon in a mount.

 

 

 

 

[dave2ball]

@Fastguy888 so you talk about the constants of AWSA and the boat less outlook having a cable or track system just made skiing

even harder to enjoy. You can only go to a cable type park every ski lake will be useless until this system can be installed at who know how much. I’m with @Bruce_Butterfield on this one.

[ReallyGottaSki]

I like boTz

[liquid d]

It's already built...Surf Ranch could be repurposed.

[Fastguy888]

It could easily be missed in my convoluted post, but personally I am actually championing boats staying in the sport. I love boats. I think skiing needs boats and boats need skiing otherwise its a different sport all together like "Cable Park" vs "Boat" Wakeboarding... By considering the possibility that boats could be eliminated; we can come up with even better reasons why they should stay.

[liquid d]

Don't misunderstand my point...it would suck!

[BraceMaker]

the low capacity of fatalities kills this sport. 25 people 2 rounds is a whole day.

 

can your local events handle 10 new participants?

[Than_Bogan]

@BraceMaker Did you say tracks above the water? I'm not grasping how that could be practically done without something in the skier's way. The tracks obviously need to be at least 10 ft up, but then you need something thohold them up which I think has to be a very large stucture to make that span and also be rigid enough.

 

Btw, underwater tracks also have to be at least a couple of feet down so you can't hit them in a crash, and I think that drives up the cost there as well.

 

Possible: yes. Happening soon: Doubt it. Unless Elon Musk is a slalom skier.

[BraceMaker]

@Than_Bogan

Right so its inverted roller coaster bascially. carriage rides below the track with a "mast" extending downward to whatever height above water you need. This would need periodic supports that the track would hang from. needs to be above so that the cart is extremely light weight and low drag and the water wont cause corrosion or scum

 

know its a pipe dream but since you could in theory run two in parallel or a lake like a oval track you could have run in a continuous mode with a drop at both ends and pull a reasonable volume. cubmerge the courses and run the lake for anything from beginning skier to jump to literally have water displacers that you could put on to create a purposeful wake form.

 

 

 

 

 

[RGilmore]

"a submerged rail or cable engineered into a purpose built ski lake would be the ticket"

 

It sure would be "the ticket"... the ticket to total OBSCURITY - and ultimately DEATH of the sport. The boat, boat crew, boating ads, etc, are ALL what make pro tournaments worth watching. If you want to eliminate all those things, just take up cable slalom - I hear it's all the rage in Europe (or something like that).

 

Also, NOBODY is going to want to spend time with their friends at their place on "a purpose built ski lake" with no boat - how could THEY ever experience the thrill of their first time up on skis? Or just riding on a screaming fast [to them] inner tube? Or riding in the back seat of a 3,000 lb boat doing a 180* turn around at 36 mph?

 

Lake properties like that would quickly go the way of silent movies - right after our sport did.

 

As always, IMO.

[BraceMaker]

@RGilmore I fully disagree, the death of the sport is the constant stream of "does anyone know where I can ski near x city" and the reply is oh 2 hours from there so and so used to keep a course I can try to get you in touch.

 

or going down the list of ski clubs on usaws website and inquiring of all of them to find they are all private or no response.

 

A pay to ride all day open ski ride 30 minutes from a city? how many people would rent a gear locker for a perfect ski set on the way home from work and btw the venue is purposefully built with video camera views of the passes seating where you can actually see the skier go etc.

 

it'd fly.

 

I love boats too and love open water waterskiing and messing around on boats. But we all know the issue with waterskiing is that it is a very low density of activity per minute on a lake. With 16 seconds of activity to see every few minutes and a single person taking 20 minutes to do a few passes....

[Wish]

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[BugHunter]

You could buy a lot of new slalom boats for the cost of one track/cable system. Maintenance/repairs would also be a drag. If my boat were to have an issue, I have several buddies with boats. If the track/cable goes down...

I'm looking forward to electric power though...

[BraceMaker]

@BugHunter you're looking at this as an individual asset not a new modality to increase the access to the sport. for the cost of 5 gallons of gas I can ride the cable three days.

 

for the cost of a boat lift I can join a ski club for a year.

 

for the cost of a boat I can ride a cable park 10 years...

[The_MS]

As long as someone else builds it

[Wish]

@Fastguy888

 

To your point; I guess cable parks have become a sport of their own with their own pro events for wakeboarding; I sure hope we keep the dynamics of a boat in the sport of slalom but possibly its not going that way?

 

....3 event is cabled now with international support. There was slalom course in Orlando towed by a cable. I believe that is no more and it is just wake sport (without wakes). Wanted to give it a go but never made it there. If there was nothing around as far as public access to a slalom course, I'd be signing up for some cable sessions.

 

.

 

 

[Cnewbert]

Personally speaking, there is absolutely nothing that would appeal to me less than watching or participating in cable skiing. Ski boats are an integral part of the package. But that’s just me.

[Wish]

Even pro coaching and fin adjusting. With success. 2@35 to a full pass at 38.

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