Dano

@jim_s the purpose of having a goal like cross the wakes and get high on the boat. Is to keep you honest. In this case if you pull long or past centreline, you will not get high on the boat. It also rewards you for creating speed before centre line. Drills that are designed with purpose should not promote skiing slow and lazy.

I agree with @swbca, I've found free skiing does not really translate well into course skiing. That is, if you simply go out and link turns together. There is too much time and, it can't really replicate the intensity of a course. for me i use free skiing to work on/try different things. Rather than simply trying to get high enough, why not try to get as high as you can. See if you can get 90 degrees to the pylon with tight line all the way up. This is a really good drill if you can already run some passes, and you will learn a tonne from it on your first attempt. Or you could practice wake crossings without worrying about how good you made a turn. Focus on keeping the handle low with straight arms. Try just standing on the ski correctly, try straight legs, or bent knees, even weight on the balls of both feet, etc.... Mess around with things. Most of all take video. Use your time on the water to explore different ideas. What works, what doesn't.

I put an OJ 310. CNC 3 blade 13x11.5 on my Centurion falcon 1:1 trans. Hole shot is unreal and the pull while skiing is very good. With my old 13x13 stainless steel prop the boat felt under powered, and the pull while skiing felt weak. This prop fixed all of that. By the way perfect pass works way better with a boat that doesn't get pulled down easily. putting this prop on this boat made Perfect Pass feel much better and the ball times have very little variance from specified. The OJ prop was probably the best money I've ever spent on this old boat.

@SlalomSteve it sounds like they are using the same liners. I'm have the carbitex, am 10.5 shoe, and I buy the size 12 carbitex boots. The 11's i can get on but they are not at all comfortable (too short) The 12's are comfy, supportive and always release as they should.

I don’t ski at this level. But -32@34 is a pass I can run maybe 50% of the time. “Be a weight on the end of a string” has helped me. I really focus on keeping the handle in tight to my COM, and the ski underneath me off the wakes with a tight line. Really working to keep COM connected at the handle and not behind the handle path. I would not say I am “pulling” at any point here. It almost feels like I’m “dragging” the handle out to the ball line with me, as if my COM is ahead of the handle if that makes sense? I know it’s not the case but it’s that sensation that your momentum outbound is pulling the handle along with you rather than the handle pulling you. One of the Adam’s had a thread that talked about coming out of angle sooner and following the handle path which is what I was trying to do with this thought process. Coming out of angle sooner for me seems to really help in managing load and having the ability to stay connected all the way out. Like Adam says in his thread, too much angle after CL will cause separation since you will be skiing away from the handle. Working to keep the ski underneath you I think does 2 things 1) maintains speed and 2) prevents your shoulders from moving to the inside which maintains that connection and “swing up” or outbound or tight line whatever you want to call it. I had also had some video coaching from Marcus Brown who commented I was edge changing too abruptly and moving to the inside too soon. His suggestion "don't let the ski roll onto the inside edge so soon". I think that advice is inline with "keep the ski underneath you" It’s been working for me, I hope it helps somebody else.

Quiksilver makes some nice stuff. I also own some oneil tops which i like very much. Camaro didn't fit so I gave it away but it did look and feel delicate.

For anybody following this thread. I'm on public water that is really hard to get good water this time of year. The tweaking I've done isn't honed to perfection. I have too many variables with wind and boat wakes etc.... But the changes have resulted in a much faster lock to set speed. If you are running a carbed boat with a 4 barrell and you find the boat runs past set speed, and takes several seconds to adjust back down. Try this. Run auto cal to get your baseline RPM's established, enter the baseline RPM screen and lower the set speed RPM by 30rpm for each speed. You should now find that the boat settles into set speed a little faster. If you find it is now settling in below set speed and then adjusting up, simply go back to baseline RPM screen and add some RPM's. Maybe it's just my particular set up. but This does seem to have resolved my concerns.

I took the boat out today and messed around with it a little. Ran it through auto cal then confirmed it was still running past set speed. manually lowered baseline RPM for each speed by 40rpm. This definitely helped it settle into set speed quicker. I think 40rpm may have been a little too much. I made several no skier passes through the course and both timed out perfect. Thats starting from a short set up and throttling up hard. boat was settled nicely before the 55's. I say 40rpm may have been too much because the wind came up and the water got a little lumpy, the tail wind resulted in best results but head wind saw the boat hit set speed and fall slightly below before PP brought it back up. But that was all much quicker than the original Autocal settings. to be fair to perfect pass autocal may work pretty good in more controlled environment. i'm on a large public lake that nearly always has wind even when it seems calm. I've run several autocal's and it kicks out different baseline RPMS depending on the day. For instance today autocal headed north consistently set 34.2 baseline RPM at 3420 but turn the boat around and head south and the baseline would set at 3370 consistently. This was at a time when the wind was very light if any. So perhaps big lakes have stonger currents than I thought. 50rpm difference seems like a lot.

@jpattigr those are all good mods and I think they would help with throttle response, if I had time and money I'd likely do the same. I did upgrade the prop to an OJ CNC 13x11.5 which was such a big improvement It really has made the want for more power non existent. I haven't had a chance to mess with things since my original post. I did talk with PP and they told me if everything looks to be set up correctly it's possible the motor simply doesn't react as quickly as others to decelerate. It is lower compression and lower HP, perhaps the vacuum secondaries play a roll etc.... So his suggestion is to run auto cal again to see if it calibrates differently. if not, then manually lower the base line RPM for each speed so that PP will lock onto the RPM earlier and not run past set speed. PP sets a temp RPM for the set speed on each pass as it gets GPS readings after it beeps when throttling up. So changing the baseline RPM should not effect set speed or ball times. As it is right now once PP beeps and settles to set speed it does a very good job of maintaining speed, i get good individual ball times and overall. I just want it to settle to the set speed a little faster. Other peoples boats do, so I want mine to as well. I do not think this is a PP issue so much as it's new tech on an old boat.

@Horton with the 7 points you've listed above. They all sound like your following some advice Adam Cord put out in another thread titled "connection and swing" where he talks about coming out of angle earlier. Is this what your trying to accomplish?

@Wish was right. Hot summer nights sold a lifestyle. If you want to bring spectators back you have to sell the lifestyle. It's one thing to host tournaments, it's entirely different to promote the tournaments as an event that everybody wants to attend. Hot summer nights made things look like a party was happening and "some people are doing cool things on skis too." The shore lines looked like the place to be for anybody looking to have fun. I don't really know what goes into hosting a tournament currently. Are organizers out there informing and hyping up the surrounding communities? Is there any advertising taking place? Is there anything at the lake for the spectators? A fun way to stay cool? Beer Gardens? Good food, good entertainment, and hot sun shouldn't be too hard to sell. wakeboarding took off in the 90's as the new extreme sport. Snowboarders could easily relate to it and already had a culture to support it. Big jumps are cool and impressive, the boats could hold more people and the speeds were much slower. Surfing is easy and everybody can enjoy it. But when I see ads for both sports i see company's selling the lifestyle not so much the sport, they show somebody riding a wave and then the camera pans to the people on the boat seemingly having the time of their lives watching the surfer. So the consumer sees "if I learn to surf or buy a boat, this lifestyle could be mine". on my local lakes I see surf boats enjoying the lifestyle, loud music, cold drinks, loads of people, and rarely is anybody surfing. Point is they bought all the gear, the boat, the boards, the ropes, the lifejackets, etc.... when really all they wanted was a boat, music, and the ability to say they spent the day "surfing".

For tv How about recorded viewing rather than live with the down time trimmed out. Get the whole day or weekend down to just 2 hours. I don’t know what went wrong back in the 90’s but I can remember watching tournaments on ESPN. I think it was called hot summer nights. If we could just get back to that I would watch every single one.

Check the transmission oil level. If it’s like a borg Warner low oil level will cause it to fall out of gear momentarily when cornering.

@On_edge i do have vacuum secondaries. That would explain the behaviour I’m seeing. I’ll have to check into this further.

@skiboyny I tried a stronger return spring. no difference.

@BraceMaker will do when I get back to my boat Sunday. I have done this test when I installed and both servo cable and throttle cable moved freely and smoothly. I will double check though.

@VermontSkier yes I’ve done auto calibration. Mine beeps as it should but doesn’t seem to react right away. Not really a noticeable change in rpms or acceleration. I’m comparing to another boat that I’m familiar with that is the same hull but running the mercruiser tournament ski 350 with a 2 barrel carb. In that boat pp beeps and the boat almost immediately stops accelerating and locks onto the set speed. It’s very noticeable change in acceleration once pp beeps. Same with several other boats I ski on but they are DBW.

Anybody using PP 9.2 with a carbed indmar 351? I thought mine was locking and settling into speed well, but after driving several other boats I have noticed they hit target speed and settle without overshooting at all. It’s a very sudden change in acceleration after PP beeps. Mine does not get this and runs past set speed 1-1,5mph. Settling back to set speed a few second later. I’m trying to sort out if it’s just the way it is on these Holley carbed motors or if something is not right with PP. I have Kx set at ++ and I have tried a stronger return spring with no change to how it settles to target speed. Runs good ball times after it’s settled and the pull feels very good. It’s just the settling into target speed.

Anybody using PP 9.2 with a carbed indmar 351? I thought mine was locking and settling into speed well, but after driving several other boats I have noticed they hit target speed and settle without overshooting at all. It’s a very sudden change in acceleration after PP beeps. Mine does not get this and runs past set speed 1-1,5mph. Settling back to set speed a few second later. I’m trying to sort out if it’s just the way it is on these Holley carbed motors or if something is not right with PP. I have Kx set at ++ and I have tried a stronger return spring with no change to how it settles to target speed. Runs good ball times after it’s settled and the pull feels very good. It’s just the settling into target speed.

Read the link @AdamCord posted above then go free ski and try to get high on the boat with a tight line while keeping the handle in tight to your hip. You'll quickly realize "pulling" the handle in does not work. I'm not a short line skier and I probably am terrible at executing what Adam is talking about, the little bit of improvement i have made in this regard has for sure improved my skiing.

Does he have receipts for the engine replacement? If not who knows for sure what was installed? Providing the engine is the correct block with the correct heads, and the correct ignition system. It's likely something relatively simple, like fuel supply (carb), timing, or weak spark. Carb's can be troublesome especially if you have a vacuum leak at the base of the carb (most likely spot on a boat). If he's installed an automotive distributor rather than original equipment your timing will be all messed up since cars generally use vacuum advance, boats do not. faulty spark plugs or a weak ignition, can cause most of the issues you mention in your post. Because your problem seems to worsen at 3000rpm it seems to point towards a weak or failing ignition. Check the ignition components are the correct ones, check timing both at idle and insure it's advancing as it should, by 2500 RPM you should see roughly 28 degees of advance give or take. If that all passes then install new spark plugs. If no change your likely looking at a fuel issue.

@chrislandy yup I know the feeling. I was in disbelief it was the cable because it has always operated smoothly. I consider myself to take exceptional care of my boat but I had overlooked regular changes of the cable. Which could have been very dangerous. I personally know a good number of boat owners that likely have never given their steering cable a second thought. They probably should.

@Rednucleus I've owned the boat for the past 20 years. It was not tight to steer at all. Not even a little bit. I cut the cable apart to see what happened. It broke about 4 inches beofre the aft end. (before it attaches to the steel rod that runs through the support tube. Looks like it corroded through the cable.

Holy smokes I dodged a bullet today. Skied a couple of days ago with no issues. Took the boat home, parked it in the garage and then launched this morning. While pulling away from the dock the steering cable broke. Thankfully i was at idle and going no where. I can't imagine how bad this would have ended if it had happened at ski speeds. for the record this boat is a 1989 Centurion Falcon with a rotary helm. The steering has always been super easy and seemingly without issue. the lesson here. Steering cables should be replaced on a routine basis. This cable looks to be original, and way past due for replacement. In doing some research here I'm seeing it's recommended that cables be replaced every 500hrs or 10 years whichever comes first. If you own a boat that is exceeding these, I encourage you to order a new cable and get it swapped out. I'm really thankful this didn't end with an injury or a boat parked on shore.

@ReallyGottaSki I have to agree. Get out there and free ski, do drills, take video, do it some more. Free skiing is a great way to learn new things. Don’t even link turns together. Focus on the one thing you are trying to fix. I like to practice pull out, and gate shot into a glide on the other side. Goal is to stay tall, connected with the handle in tight, and to keep a tight line all the way out off the wake. In this scenario there is no turn to think about just stack and connection.