mike_mapple

On 7/30/2022 at 10:37 AM, usawaterskiHQ said:

https://www.teamusa.org/usa-water-ski/suspended-members.

link just goes to the home page for me...

just here for the answers.

2 hours ago, S1Pitts said:

I was out the other day skiing on 38off and was having a blast until I ran into rollers. True I would never run this on a course, (at least not yet), but it is still fun to experience it without the preassure of the balls.  The way I see it runing 20 -30 turns building a good rythmn with the boat in open water can't hurt anyone.

 

It builds a bad habit of not skiing wide enough if done to much...Most people who do say the free ski at X speed at X rope length usually struggle in the course. I know some free skiers that put markers on the boat where rope length would be at the buoy to help.

My dad used to make people free ski at full line length to prove they didnt really have any rope control, just relied on shorter rope to keep the rope tight, used to be funny to watch pros/really good skiers who couldnt run the course at full line at 32/34mph

Same here!

@dave2ball msg me if you want me to email or if you want me to just put it onto your account in the shop.

13 minutes ago, dnewton said:

It's not my place to set that kind of expectation on someone. Someone asked a question and I answered. You can be upset all you want and that is okay. I should have kept this to myself, but with all the talk in this thread about it not being possible I at least wanted to put it out there that I have watched a skier go around 6 buoys at 43 off. 

I was skiing with some friends. The gentleman ran up the line through 41 at 36. We figured he would either be done or run it back. He asked for us to cut the rope and slow the boat down. We sat back and watched with zero expectation and 6 buoys later the 3 of us in the boat were asking each other what the hell just happened. 

The driver is a rated driver. The site is "L" capable. I am not saying the boat path would have passed. I have no freaking clue because my head was just going side to side with pure amazement. It was a spur of the moment thing that somehow happened. 

im going to call BS until a name is said. Ive pulled and skiied with the best in the world/ever and never once seem them past 4 ball even at lower speeds. Any of the top skiers who ski 36 do not think 34 is easier to run passes at shorter length as the timing is different. Until a video is produced or a name. I will stand firm on my BS call.

I also never saw my dad run it at 34, and someone who doesn't want to be named is running it? Seems like either a solid ski school swerve was done for them, or the DR is back.

48 minutes ago, Horton said:

@mike_mapple I forwarded the contact info to you. 

@mmadore21 I deleted what you posted. I did not think you really wanted all your contact info out there....

got it all emailed out to you!

On 6/13/2023 at 6:20 AM, aupatking said:

@Jordan I don’t think he’ll ever leave D3. It really wasn’t what I was saying at all. My point was more of a question I’ve had forever: if the best in the world was in no way tied to any ski company, and could try any ski they wanted, would that push that number higher? Maybe on a XXXX ski, could he get further down the course? (Insert any ski company you like, or all ski companies). Andy was the anomaly. He knew why the ski did what it did and could fully design and redesign his skis. It doesn’t “appear” that Nate does that. Maybe he has more input than I give him credit for. And like @adamhcaldwellsaid, Andy even had the boat designers following his lead

most of the pros have tried the other skis..That is pretty common practice. Esp if they have anything to do with the input of new skis. I know multiple skiiers who came and tried our skis back in the day early morning and were gone before anyone showed up at the lake. There isnt really any big secret in skis, and most companies will get hands on the other companies to do Research and copy.

@Horton I reached out via pm also, but still have not heard back, Ill give it 48hrs if not we can give it to second place?

updated the first post below is what was added..

********Just an update on this for you guys, after speaking with Bill we are still offering this, however we want to make sure it is someone who contributes or has been a member for at least 3 months on the site, I have had a few people who signed up then immediately asked for the discount. If you are new (less than 3 months) still feel free to email me, just include your BOS username please, This will be case by case for these instances.

Meters if im not mistaken?

20 hours ago, BGrow76 said:

I did not, these boots were bought directly from Radar.

I would check your invoice, Radar uses pro shops to fill orders placed on the site, but also they are great people so they will help you out, and at least get you pointed correctly

Congrats @mmadore21 shoot me a pm and lets get you all squared away!

Love the color!

On 5/30/2023 at 5:16 PM, jjackkrash said:

The Icaro came from Perf Ski and it fits perfect.  The boy really likes it. 

glad we were able to help!

18 minutes ago, buechsr said:

true...forgot about that.  I'm not crazy in recalling that Bill was a part of it when built, though, right?

We ran a smaller pro shop there also, but when nautique took over, they didnt want us to do it anymore..but yeah bill was a part of growing it all, we used to do all the rentals for them.

37 minutes ago, BraceMaker said:

@mike_mapple

I think both golf and tennis are great examples, as is skeet or trap or sporting clays. In all three of these I can very clearly demonstrate why it is easier to get into any of them than it is to get into waterskiing. But also how they are quite similar and quite different.

Equipment costs - in all of these sports they are similar in that you can get started with a base level equipment/gear maybe even used gear that will do what you need all of these sports.  Then they all ramp up quite similarly.  No one owns one racket or one set of clubs, no one owns one shotgun.  They all have "uniforms" be it vests, sneakers, ear protectors almost all require a hat and glasses to get through a day.  Costs for a good slalom ski and bindings to get started used 500 bucks?

 

 

What is hard in slalom?  Public or open to the public waterskiing. 

There are clearly exceptions but I can go to darned near any city that has lakes and find a place to shoot trap, play tennis, or golf just by googling it.  If you want to pick a city and pay good money to get a ski set... well that's also expensive but also probably cannot have it happen.

And a golf course is surely more land than a ski lake and has tons more water.

yes a ski is 500, buy land and dig a lake, Min 500k in a rural area..you could lease a building and put a tennis court in it for much less, or build and own land..pouring concrete is much cheaper than digging a lake (Tennis) and upkeep is way less than a lake. As this i have first hand knowlege of with our lake, I know what it costs to have the water treated, fish have to be bought/ buoys(not really big) insurance if you have events / anything where people can die (I dont know what tennis insurance/golf would be like)

Golf course cost 7-25million to build lets say. bigger land for sure, but they also sell memberships for (bayhill) 30k initiation fee, + minimum spending each year on golf / food + 8k annual dues. On this they have a waiting list right now, so lets say they have 1k member total thats more money in one year than most ski clubs will ever make. No obviously you have costs to maintain that property. More land and more people = more money overall. I looked into turning my lake into a "club" but the amount of people who complain about paying 50-70$ for a ski ride makes it not even worth a headache, yes golf is 45-100$ average at some places, but then they are buying food and getting 300 people a day at some places (not everywhere of course)

A club pays lets say 70-80k for a new boat, which people complain when its not the newest so lets say that expense is every 3-4 years and maybe only have 20-30 memebers? Dues are higher and cost is higher, as soon as someone wants to buy a lake that handle 100-300 people a day, I can think of maybe 4 places that could make that work...skiing is a niche sport at best For golf that good 500 set will last people most of their life just like that 500$ ski can (unless you are trying to ski alot) which is the same for golf, I dont need my 1k set of clubs, just like 75-80% of people dont "need" the highest end skis, but we all want to get the best or we wouldnt be in the ski industry.

Really what it boils down to, Skeet shooting / Tennis / golf (in this conversation) are more marketable (tennis year round pretty much anywhere) Golf is getting more mainstream with Top golf and others like it. Skiing requires that 100k boat(less if you go older models of course) So its a much more "personal" buy.

Golf Tennis, and I dont really know about shooting have way more "public clubs" which is what skiing needs, but someone would need to spend some serious cash they dont plan to get back anytime soon in order to do so.

The side note I dont think many golf course actually treat the water, the run fountains in some to keep the water moving, since no one is in them, they are typically just taken over by algae.

19 minutes ago, buechsr said:

Does this mean OWC now MC, too?

we do not have anything to do with OWC, they are owned by nautique.

5 hours ago, LeonL said:

Does this mean that they are a dealer or something else?

No Action is the Mastercraft dealer, it will be similar to how its been in the past for us, where we will put on events that Mastercraft will be apart of / Gravel tour, which is wake event we used to do will be coming back as well.

skip the gates, just go right to one ball.

11 minutes ago, rico said:

I think, the only way to get more skiers is to develop ski clubs and ski schools. If there was a ski school near my house, I would consider that option over owning a lake house and a boat.

When I leaved in Florida, I could get 2 ski ride before lunch and spend the afternoon with the family at the beach or by the pool.

Local tennis club, not fancy, charges $75+ for a one on one 45min lesson. Just a guy renting a court.

I pay $60 in Florida for 15-20min with $150k boat, driver, coaching, gas, lake...

My point is you don't need to have a tennis court at your house to play tennis. You just go to the local club and pay $10 to $20 for a court.

Some locations are better suited than others to have clubs, but to me this is the door to more members and addicts.

while I agree with this, tennis / most other sports are bad examples, as for tennis you bring your own racket, which is what 500$ tops for the highest end? (I could be way off) Golf is the same, a solid set of clubs will set you back 9-1200$ but then thats all you need, and then you go play, with skiing, having a club is great but the pricing will never the be same( maybe golf is a bad example as I pay sometime close to 100$ for a round) but for tennis they built the courts and have very little upkeep fee, compared to having to have a 150k boat, a lake, and then upkeep/gas on all that. I do think it is a great way to keep it going, look at LaPoints, we get so many people in the shop who are members there. I hope to see more places like that pop up, as that is what will help to keep skiing strong. Dying is quite an overstatement though..

JT has done the master ramp for the past few years.

I have one in the garage, it was nice if you set a fin by hand, then set that to be the same, then you could do a bunch at one time. that was all i ever used it for lol.