TallSkinnyGuy

@Horton‌ Shoot, I was assuming I could just watch a few videos of Nate and then go out and be able to ski just like him.

Just getting back into skiing and planning to start focusing on the course next season I have been watching a lot of videos recently. I have particularly been focusing on Nate Smith videos largely because he is a relatively skinny guy like me -- unfortunately that is the only thing we have in common. Well, and he is not too bad of a skier. Anyway, I have noticed that coming out of his on-side turns you can rarely see a point where he seems to really give a hard pull. His deceleration and acceleration are just seamless. However, on his off-side turns you can frequently see him give what looks like an extra tug on the line right after the completion of the turn but before he gets into the white water. It doesn't look like much and is amazing that that is all it takes for him to rocket across the wakes in time for the next buoy. So, to me it looks like Mr. Smith is using your option #2.

If the boat and trailer are in good condition then that is a great price for that boat. The LT-1 on that hull is very powerful -- your friend will not have any trouble getting pulled out of the water. Most of those boats had the 1:1 gear ratio rather than powerslot, but either way your friend will be fine. If the prop is the original you will be able to get even more hole shot by upgrading to a new CNC prop without losing much if any top speed.

It is generally accepted in the Mastercraft crowd that the 91-94 hull produced the best slalom wake. The '94s are pretty desired because they had this hull but also got EFI (only a few '93s had EFI, which came with the LT-1 engine upgrade). The 95-97 hull only has a slightly taller wake -- this was sacrificed to improve rough water performance. If you're a slalom nut on a private ski lake and are in the market for a early-to-mid '90s boat, the '94 MC 190 is probably your best choice. With that said, if you have a line on a good '95 at a good price you will not be sacrificing much.

@AB Yes, if your transmission is only supposed to hold 2 quarts (like mine) you should be able to get out only about 1.5 quarts because there is always some left in the cooler and hoses. I would do what you are thinking -- put in 1.5 quarts, warm up the engine for a few minutes, shift into forward and reverse to clear out any air pockets, shut the engine off and then check the level within 30 seconds after turning off the engine. Also, you can get a general idea of the level with the engine cold -- the level cold should be a little higher than the "warm full" line. If you check it cold after adding 1.5 quarts and the level is well below the "warm full" line then your tranny probably takes more than 2 quarts. However, to get an accurate reading you should check it warm.

When you can duck and roll the falls aren't too bad, but I never like those face-plant falls that smack your face and wrench your back at the same time. Since I never really got the hang of the duck-and-roll fall I just quit. And I have no regrets.

Wiley has a $50 Proline handle and rope combo for $50 for those who are not as particular about having a high end handle. https://www.wileyski.com/PROLINE_-_WILEY_8-SECTION_MAINLINE_WITH_HANDLE.asp?catID=21

When you buy a company that is making a profit you generally pay a price that considers that that profit is going to continue to be made in future years. When the purchased company is one of your suppliers you do indeed get to "sell to yourself" and earn that profit within your own company. But you want the purchased company to continue making a profit to make it worth its purchase price. If you lower the price to yourself you may increase your own profit but only by the amount that you are decreasing the profit of the purchased company (this is assuming the price of the end product stays the same along with some other assumptions about other things staying the same). So, in this scenario it will be a zero-sum game. Ultimately, unless CC bought these companies with the intention of making changes that will make the companies more profitable than they are now, they are just buying them to have more control over their supply chain. Regardless, whatever reason CC had for the purchases, it was likely not because they wanted to be able to lower consumer prices. Wow, I really am a buzz kill. Sorry.

The press release says they are not planning on changing the management or the location of the acquired companies. There is a good chance that these purchases were not made with the goal of lowering engine costs but rather gaining more control of their supply chain. There will probably be some cost savings from eliminating some back-end support redundancies (e.g. accounting) if they do that, but it seems likely that buying these engine companies will not result in any substantial cost savings.

I was away from the skiing for about 25 years but bought a boat with my brother last fall, so this was my first summer with the boat. It has been so much fun for my family and it has been great to spend time with my brother doing something we both really enjoyed in our younger years. My brother is the natural athlete in the family, so he picked it back up like he'd never left. It took me a few months, watching a bunch of videos and working on Gordon Rathbun's 12 drills, but I started improving dramatically by mid summer and am now looking forward to getting into a course next season. I am planning on doing some boat upgrades before next season, including a new CNC prop and adding Perfect Pass. I then hope to buy an EZ-slalom portable course once I confirm that I won't get ticketed for it on the public lake we use. I'm sinking a lot more money and time into this sport than I was planning on, but I am just getting sucked back into it and really enjoying it.

My understanding is that ski boat builders try to increase wetted surface area to improve tracking. The stepped hulls help boats increase speed, but ski boats only need a certain amount of speed. I think the ski boat builders give up speed in exchange for stuck-to-the-water tracking, which is also why horsepower has been increasing in ski boats without WOT speeds increasing.

@eleeski Actually, changing the transmission fluid has nothing to do with cold weather or winterizing. It is a regular maintenance activity like changing the engine oil, but it doesn't have to be done as often.

I have worked in the surf industry for many years. Sammy has become a highly respected retailer in the industry with his "The Curl" shop and gets a lot of attention from the top brands due to the volume he moves and the great vibe he has created with the store. It's a store where all the top surf brands want to be.

@Ed_Obermeier‌ -- My understanding regarding the fogging is that not all EFIs are the same and need to be treated differently. EFIs with a TBI (a "wet" intake since fuel gets squirted into it) can be fogged through the intake just like a carbed engine, but the MPI engines have to be fogged in each cylinder by removing the spark plugs, squirting the fogging spray in each spark plug hole, then hand cranking the engine to spread the oil around a bit. I've been told that a ring of rust can develop at the top of the piston head in the cylinder where it is sitting idle for a long period of time during layup. The likelihood of this probably depends somewhat on how long your layup is and how humid your air is, but unless they are making cylinders in new engines out of something rust proof it seems like fogging would still be beneficial since it's purpose is to keep that ring of rust from forming. The ring of rust is unwanted since it can reduce pressure in the cylinder, especially after multiple seasons and multiple rings of rust.

The impeller can get really deformed if not turned for the whole winter and then not do its job as well. Those of you who change your own impeller know how the fins on one side are really smashed up against the casing. If they stay squished up like that through the whole winter they can stay like that and then not provide as much suction. I take my impeller out during layup, coat it with a silicone lubricant and seal it in a ziplock bag to keep it moist. Of course, it is probably safest just to put in a new impeller each spring.

A guy in Florida is trying to sell his unused 422 on Ski-It-Again for $380. http://www.ski-it-again.com/php/skiitagain.php?topic=Search&category=Propeller&postid=27906

Those of you who wear "heater shirts" to extend the season a bit -- is that just a lycra shirt (aka rash guard) or is it a neoprene top (aka wetsuit jacket)? If it is neoprene, what thickness is good to add some nice warmth but not be restrictive? I was thinking of getting a 2mm wetsuit jacket for skiing, but I've never tried wearing one before.

At the end of Andy Mapple video hosted by Gordon Rathbun, Gordon suggests doing a specific exercise to get into skiing shape in the off season. He recommends hooking up a ski rope to a tree or something solid and doing a series of leans on both sides just like you were skiing behind a boat. He makes a comment about how it is hard to find an exercise that works out the same group of muscles that skiing does, so it is best to actually simulate skiing with the workout. I planned on trying that in the spring before next season starts in hopes of minimizing the muscle pain at the beginning of the season.

@rockdog - Do you have some insight on the next PP version and in particular how it may affect the settings being discussed here? Please share. I did just find on the PP website a "News" note from earlier this summer: June 24, 2014 New GPS Slalom Mode for Wake Edition Star Gazer Wake Edition now features a new GPS Slalom Mode that is perfect for course skiing. Designed for skiers who still enjoy running buoys but do not require the exacting tolerances of the Star Gazer Three Event. Accurate, simple to use, no calibrating and features No Magnet Timing. The "no calibrating" part suggests that this version has done away with settings used in previous versions and supports what the PP tech guy told me a couple weeks ago about the latest software version.

I talked to one of the techs at PP a couple weeks ago because I am planning on adding the system to my boat. He told me the latest software version (8.0.5 I think) is pure GPS and does not use an RPM base. We did not get into discussing the kind of settings you guys are talking about, but I am curious to know if you guys are using the latest software version and if that makes a difference.

Many of you have probably already seen this video since it was published in September 2013, but I just stumbled across it and found it pretty interesting to see a modern ski being made and hear a description of the process. For those of you who haven't yet seen it, take a look:

I think forecasting is actually harder for retailers because they don't get any "pre-orders" at all.

Forecasting well is actually not an easy task. Even if you produce only what was ordered, those orders can get canceled for many reasons after a manufacturer has made the product but before they got paid. If you don't make enough product to fill orders you are losing sales and if you make too much then you usually have to move it at a much lower margin (this is to enable the reseller to make their required margin on a product with low demand). Forecasting may start with historical sales but then has to include a bunch of assumptions, especially if it is a brand new product. Other assumptions have to include competitors' market entries, economic factors, growth rate of enthusiast interest, growth rate of distribution outlets, etc. Note that a "growth rate" can be positive or negative in direction. Usually dumpsters only get filled with discarded prototypes or seized counterfeit product. Otherwise, the product has value and any company trying to stay alive will try to maximize that value. Of course, they have to be careful about moving products through channels that could tarnish the brand and/or set unrealistic expectations by customers (for example, having a lot of product on sale at deep discounts at the end of every season consistently causes customers to expect that every year and then not ever want to buy at full markup).

Like others have said, have your new bunks ready to go so that all you have to do is take off the old bunks and put the new ones one. However, if you really need to spend more time on the trailer you can put it up on blocks. Here is a description of how one guy did it: I used 12 concrete blocks ... 4 stacks of 3 blocks, and then 2 pieces of 2x6 approx 12" long that had a double layer of carpet I placed the blocks between the trailer frame and the bunks .. in the rear the width is just 8" on that trailer so its a tight fit. I used a car jack, a foot long 4x4 and a 12" long 2x6 with carpet on the top to jack up one corner of the boat at a time. Then with that corner on a jack, I put the concrete blocks & 2x6s in place. Did that for each corner then pulled the trailer forward about 18" each time. now begins the iterative steps of moving the blocks. So this took about an hour to remove the trailer and about 45 minutes to get it back under the boat. There is a pic of his boat up on blocks in post #37 of this thread: http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=59142&page=4

@XR6Hurricane -- Your experience with wakeboarding seems very different from mine. The wakeboarders on our lake seem to be having a great time. Also, I have come to the conclusion that slalom skiing has a much longer learning curve than wakeboarding, i.e. wakeboarding is easier to get to at least an "intermediate" level than slalom skiing. Also, I know I am doing a lot of things wrong, but I fall a lot when slalom skiing. Many of those "falls" are me letting go of the handle before actually falling, but I know it is inevitable, so I let go before incurring a hard fall. It is not uncommon for me to fall three or four times each set.