Vernon Reeve

Ship Faced

Aquaholic

Just to throw out one more option, send your video to Terry Winter for analysis. I think it's about $75. His video analysis has helped me more than private lessons because it makes it easy to see for myself what I need to improve on, and I can compare it to new videos to see if I'm doing it yet or not. I'd love to go to a ski school that provides video feedback, but it's hard to justify the time and cost to get there being that I'm in Montana.

A popular youtube car guy that does lots of mechanic videos says to just see what the manual says to use. So what does the manual recommend? High end sport cars need higher octane according to the manual. Normal cars say 87 in the manual. I'm guessing boats are the same. If the manual says 87, you probably won't notice the difference if you put 91 in it. If the manual says 91, you probably will notice the difference if you put 87 in it because it actually needs 91.

@swbca I know a lot of people that want to be better before posting a video, but that really doesn't make sense to me. It's like saying "I want to take a long time to get better by myself, before I ask anyone how to get better faster". I know someone who doesn't want to send a video for analysis to Terry Winter until he gets better, even though he's seen the improvement I've made after my video was analyzed. This community of skiers is the most non-judgmental group of people I have ever seen. Always lots of helpful advice no matter the ability level. So don't ever worry about posting a video or sending your video to one of the pros. Plus I always learn something from the comments that are made about a video someone posted. And that's awesome your getting back into it at 75. Gives me hope that I'll still be skiing at that age.

We used to get our 1 gallon jugs from a local dairy for .25 cents a piece.

A new juicy fruit commercial, according to the current lifestyle, would be some non-athletic looking person surfing behind a boat, and being handed a stick of juicy fruit gum from the swim platform. (Same concept for beer commercials).

I like the idea of using eyebolts to reduce the friction from the straps that @sailworks made in this discussion /forum#/discussion/comment/230760. But have a few additional questions: 1. Did you put extra bracing under the eyebolts? 2. Did you put the eye bolts right in the middle of the slots that are already there? 3. Does the eyebolt still fit under the vest fabric? 4. Did you also heat mold the back of the vest for the curve of your back or is the back of the vest still straight? Let me know, thanks. Vern Reeve

Have Terry Winter do a video analysis. He is super detailed, with slow-mo/side by side comparisons and markup on the video. Well worth the cost. His videos for members are also very good. https://trainwithterrywinter.com/ I'm exactly where you are and his video analysis helped me a lot.

20+ years ago for me as well. It's so nice to be able to see the people in the boat for hand singles. I also wore spexs googles https://waterskiworld.com/activewear/spex-eyewear.html , like @Kroeks said, for the first 2 months, and still wear them for bright days. I used to wear them because of my contacts, prior to the surgery.

@sailworks Did you modify the back plate to follow the curve of your spine at the lower back or is it still straight from the middle of the shoulder blades down to the waist?

Maybe they should have a 42 off length, since 43 seems so unattainable. Might be interesting to see if anyone can run it.

@Drago I thought the difference would cause an angle that the hands would want to slide down the handle. But interesting that you've already done it, so the difference must be small enough that it's not an issue. Never tried restringing a handle however, so that might be a challenge for me. Also concerned it would put more force back on the elbow that I was trying to protect by switching to a reverse grip. I'm thinking I'll try the elbow brace that's designed to eliminate hyper extension, and if that doesn't work, use my power vest. Meanwhile, I'll be doing the Therabar with the Tylers twist that @BraceMaker suggested to increase the strength, and just hanging from a bar so my elbows can get used to being extended fully. Hopefully this will eliminate the need for braces/pv next summer.

@sailworks I would also like to see how you modified it.

@BS74 and @BraceMaker those both look like they should work. Thanks. I'll give them a try.

You guys are funny:) I might have to start using the power vest again. This time for the elbows instead of my back. Sucks to get old.

I recently switched grips to take pressure off my right elbow because of golfers elbow and move the pressure to my left elbow. However, my left elbow isn't used to the increased pressure so now it feels like it overextended. As a computer programmer, my elbows are naturally bent slightly, so now that I'm using better technique in slalom, my elbows are being forced to extend straight, which makes my left elbow feel over extended from a hard pull. So has anyone had any luck with a brace to help keep my left elbow from over extending?

The GoPro 8 has voice recognition. So the driver can just say GoPro Start Recording and GoPro Stop Recording. No need to push the buttons anymore:)

Looking much better. Now try to really get you chest up and proud, which will help bring your hips forward so you're not in the sitting position going across the wakes. Terry Winter has lots of excellent videos which helps to illustrate this. You can also send him a video and he'll send you detailed instructions with side by side/slow motion/marked up/commentary video making it super clear what to be working on. Well worth the costs. https://trainwithterrywinter.com/

Example of tail of ski being pulled through turn like @jepski said. This is me at 15off 30mph.

Another possibility is that some of the older and/or recreational skis had a flat spot next to the edge instead of the edge to edge concave our skis have now. That flat edge would allow the ski to skid more, creating a bigger wall. The edge to edge concave is like having sharp snow skis, and feels like riding a rail, so it doesn't throw up as much spray.

We've had better luck with a 2003 Malibu Response Lxi than the Sunsetter Lxi. Granted, the Sunsetter has more room, but the response has a better slalom wake. It also has a better surf wake (groan) because you can attach a wedge further to the back of the Response. The Sunsetter has a cutout at the back so the wedge didn't work as well. Also, the Response turns a nice tight turn and is easier to maneuver and can do bat turns. The tower on my Response only weights 40 lbs. Advantages of direct drive, is better speed control, better visibility for wakeboarding since the front stays down, and easier to get into after skiing because the ski platform goes all the way across and is at water level. Plus no prop to worry about when swimming back there. The advantage of stern drive I/O's is it's easier to steer when backing up, and you can raise the prop for shallow water or when pulling up to put it on the shore.

I'm 6'1 215lbs and have the 69" 2017 Senate Graphite. Big improvement from the 2016 alloy. I've used it to run 15off 34mph without the wing, but mostly stick to 30 and 32mph. Love the ski. Fast and forgiving. Plus it looks good:)

We used to have a rule that they couldn't tube until they tried at least 5 times to get up on one ski. Worked great:) Another rule was I would give the person next in line for the tube a stop watch. At 5 minutes (or whatever you want), it would be the next kids turn. The kid with the stop watch was right on top of it. Pretty fun to watch. And, of course, no tubing until everyone was done skiing.