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My wife is a good driver. She is now at a point she can drive 38 off.

A friend of mine's wife is a great driver and I ask him the process he said be patient it will be worth it in the end. He was right. Remember her stress level will be high...pulling the skier up, counter steering, the power of the boat, stopping at the end of the lake, not running over the skier, not hitting buoys, boat centered in the course....we all started at that same point.

Break it down to small pieces learning/being comfortable with each stress point.  I would wait on sure path as a fine tune tool when she is driving comfortably. 

Random thoughts:

• Look at the next tournament you go to....if it wasn't for long time skiers kids would there be any kids divisions?  I guess it is our fault for not reproducing at a higher rate...lol
• The cash events are on private secluded lake and they worry about performance. So, most people do not see them vs putting in the river in Wichita KS and having 10,000 people show up and see it. The Coors tour was a show for the people not for the skiers that is what gets sponsors.
• Cost as many have mentioned. I heard the sticker on a new Nautique is $179k now.
• And as mentioned it is not easy.....
• Private lakes...Access, and most tournaments they are running 2 lakes or more so you don't even get to see your friends ski. All in an effort to finish in one day....so, we are saying we don't even really like it...lol

Based on the one we have in 4 lakes I would suggest you pour concrete on the sides above and below the waterline to prevent erosion.

Ours has interlocking concrete and it does not work well. It is 20+ years old, but not in great shape.

I believe it is most about strength to weight ratio than anything. A good measure of the this is pull ups and push ups. I believe in weight training especially for legs. Regardless of what you do for workout and diet you need something you can stick with long-term. I have seen some very good skiers loose weight and improve...Dana R. told me one time when you had to give your weight to the driver all you guys weight the same 165 (at that time lol). 

I agree with @Bruce_Butterfield...odd but I do...I feel sorry for the kid that their parent thinks they are the next Tiger Woods. And shame on many coaches that push those thoughts. My kids played multiple sports growing up and in HS. They settled on Vball both got scholarships, but I think I could have paid for college for what club Vball cost.

I would check kill switch or is it in neutral....

We use Wally buoys and have for years. The orange turn balls on the blue dye water stand out great. The color holds well our only issue is the algae growth on any buoy in our lake.

I had that happen thru the gates. It was like a cartoon where the tire from your car comes off and you see it pass you...I saw the ski then realized it was soon going to hurt...then I put a strip of the 250 on the outside edge of the plate it never happened again.

We use Milliken like Horton but all blue at Princeton Lakes. We have 4 lakes and I dye it twice per year to keep it blue...otherwise it is tan from the clay. 1 treatment is 120 gal and it last 6 months roughly depending on rain fall/weather. It is not cheap. I do believe it limits our algae growth. You know slalom skiers some try to tell me it skis different when the dye is first put in.....lol

I would have said Deion Sanders, but then as I thought about it all the way back to high school you can't leave out Al Bundy or as mentioned Uncle Rico if coach put him in......

Not sure about the horse vs human comparison, but I do feel sorry for the owners of Sham....born any other year he is a triple crown winner too.

It is boring....when was the last time you even saw a person on a public lake on a slalom ski? and they certainly can't get access to a ski jump, but I bet they all have a cornhole game....

 

@6balls Those are the top Cancers and killers, but you left off the one that is close to all of us...

 

Melanoma. I know several water skiers that have died from it.

 

Get your skin checked by a dermatologist...it's quick, easy, and can save your life.

@Mateo_Vargas Our POA has a general liability policy, but I am not sure you can get specific coverage for he loop hole they have created with this....

I always think about it as handle control. You have to control it thru the wake, in the edge change, and the finish of the turn. Mine sits the same place on my leg/hip every time. It really doesn't matter where it is if you get a bad turn...

Do you really even need to be a member?

 

If you do not go to regionals, national, or have a passion for being an official do you need to ski in a sanctioned event?

 

At our site we have to use our own boats, have many good drivers, and people who can count to 6. We have the same safety person that is at our sanctioned events. If we put on an unsanctioned event we can do any format we want, have more skiers, charge less, have zero paperwork. (we have our own insurance)

 

It seemed that for all but about 1000 or so skiers in the US, USAWS has zero value even without all the mandates. Until they give more people a reason to join all this stuff is a speed bump on the road to the end....

Adam is a great skier, but man he makes it look hard on that ski.... I am not sure I have the energy to ski like that even with a new fin.

@6balls if you notice I said training...like SS Training?

 

With the rest of your logic I will score it Zero with no continuation.....

I have a different kind of training....I have 4 daughters and I promise you this safe sport training or not....If someone did something inappropriate.... I will not be reporting them to Safe Sport for them to investigate. I will also promise you they will never do it again. End of Mandate...lol

Most of the people at Princeton Lakes have Aluminum Boat Cradle lifts.

 

We have switched to these pulleys:

https://bh-usa.com/3-1-5-ton-painted-snatch-block/

 

And many have gone to a steel structure to hang the lift.

Gordon Hall ask me once how to increase membership....(I live at Princeton Lakes) We all spent $600k - $1m+ to live here, and half or more of my neighbors are not members. They don't see the value in the organization. And that value proposition keeps moving more weight to the bad side of the scale with mandates, rules, testing, and fees. I don't blame my neighbors for not joining. We will all have a tipping point...is it when the membership is $100 or $200, and entry fees to nationals are $300 or $500...and you still spend hours in a boat...you start to say I can take my family on a nice vacation for what it cost to go to a ski tournament....none of us lost our love of waterskiing we are just staying home....the greatest loss is not seeing friends you have known for 40+ years.

I would say the 21 has the best slalom wake of all brand 21's.

However, it does not track like a Nautique. Maybe it's the two I drove this year? It is like they have a short attention span, and get board of going down the path you set it on...and drift off. If they fix that and still have a much lower price point...this boat could dominate the market....provided they can keep up on production.

@Bruce_Butterfield good points.

 

The hope is protecting kids(which is great)

 

The irony is...if it was not for all of us getting our kids in to the skiing USAWS would have been out of business long ago.

Most of us are going to comply with completing the training.

My thought is when do we get to the breaking point when it is too much $ or time?

And the hard working people (all old btw) say I'll just ski at home have a good time and save the $/time?

Membership, safesport, clinics, pay for promo's, world ranking charge, travel....

 

Gordon Hall ask me when he was EVP how we grow the membership? I replied if you can't get the people that live in your developments to see a value in it you should look inward first.....

They are struggling....My wife ordered a binder....it never came and when she emailed and finally got an answer they were out...no contact to say they were out and they charged her card....