blagrata

@Robbo5252 we used to have one person sit on the floor just forward of the windshield....others on passenger seat. The person in front helped counterweight the engine in back and made wake flatter. Make sure boat is well balanced side to side and you'll have a great ski wake

I used to have a 2011 VTX. Loved that boat. At 31 mph and above the wake was actually very nice for free skiing.... not too much different than the lxi. Not a very course capable boat unless you can already make it course at 32 mph and above. The pylon is above the v drive compartment too... which makes the boat wag back and forth a bit. (in 2012 the vtx got the option of a removable center pylon). I have also skied an xti of about the vintage you have. I think the VTX wake is definitely better. Lots of room/storage in the vtx for a 20 foot boat. I don't think you'd go wrong with the vtx. Tower folds nicely too. Only reason I traded mine in is the family got more into pure slalom skiing... so we went to a DD

Does anyone have experience with the Wakeye Cylon? The technology and video look great on the posts that I've seen. Worth the investment? Looking to get a camera mount for the spring. That ski doc orbit looks cool too. Thanks.

@brooks Size 13 foot. Plan would be to put it on an HO Omni Syndicate. It may be in combination with a MOB release for the front foot. I'm currently on double xmax and just want to give the HRT... or maybe just a RTP a try.

Is the Radar HRT XL going to be offered on the aluminum plate for 2019? I thought I saw someone post that a while back but I can't find it available for sale. It is my understanding that I need an aluminum plate to put it on an HO ski. Thanks.

We have a phoenix tandem axle for our trailer for our 200. We have wear on the chines from the trailer. We never power load it. Slowly float the boat on and then winch it up. Kind of touchy how deep you have to have the trailer in to get it over the bow stop vs really having the drag it up the bunks hard. The phoenix trailer also has kind of a screwy set up for the bow stop. It just has a pressure bolt that holds the whole thing up.... and not all that well. It frequently slides down. Overall the quality of the phoenix is pretty good though. I guess overall I would recommend it. Definitely a tandem axle if you do any significant towing. Drives and backs very nice. My opinion (with no facts to back this up) is that a more generic trailer will do more damage to your boat... and be less easy to work with. On the other hand.. I have a prostar that includes a trailer built for that boat. Much easier pick ups/centering.. and does not appear to wear on the boat. Just my 2 cents. I think I'm going to try the greasing the front half of the bunks where the contact is made when picking up. seems like a logical solution.

When we were looking for a boat we tried a Response 2003 LXI. I used to love that wake... demo... hated it. Felt like a huge hit at 28 mph. One week later tried the Response Txi 2013. Had huge hopes because I really like Malibu's lines. Couple of passes.... really didn't like it. Skied the SN200 later that afternoon. Felt amazing. I'd be very curious to try those again a few years later now after I've improved my technique.... I bet they'd all feel better... maybe negligible difference. Again... I think the ability to keep the ski on edge and forget about the wakes... as well as different skiing styles leads to widely varied opinions as to which wakes are "the best". I think the answer is... there is no "best"... but there may be a "best for your style". Just my amateur opinion.

I have a 2018 Prostar and half of a SN200 (half owner that is). I ski regularly behind both of them. When I first skied my Prostar I didn't like it at all compared to the SN200. Maybe it was some mental buyer's remorse. I think that people's skiing styles affect how they perceive the wakes of the boats. I have no good data to back this up...just a thought. I tend to have my knees a little more firm through the wakes and let up on my pull a bit at the second wake sometimes. I think I tend to skip off the wake of the SN200 and land in the flat. For some reason I think the Mastercraft doesn't feel as good when I'm skiing that way. I think maybe the wakes are flatter but wider and I end up hitting the second wake. When I keep the ski on edge I don't notice a difference. They're both fantastic boats. I ski 32-34 mph 15 to 22 off. I used to think that a 2004 Malibu Lxi had the best wake ever... and then a SN196. I think the new Prostar and SN200 definitely have them beat though. Just my opinion.

@Stevie Boy I have used contacts to ski for 8 years. I remove them when I get home and clean them... but that's often after wearing them for 5-8 hours at the lake. I have never had a problem with any kind of infection or hypersensitivity. I have tried to find a daily wear lens that I can just dispose of.... but they seem to soak up water and interfere with skiing more. I wear 2 week disposable toric lenses for skiing (which are different than my everyday 2 week toric disposables).

I second the camaro long sleeve shorty. Much better than a short sleeve shorty with no significant compromise in mobility. Camaro is very warm but a little fragile (not a big deal... just be careful). Dries out quickly. I'm sure other brands probably have good stuff too... but I have really liked the design of the long sleeve shorty.

My 8 year old got up on a half of a junior combo set this summer... I measured it at 59". Seemed pretty wide and stable. Standard adjustable bindings. I then wanted him to get a real slalom ski. I ordered the Radar Total Awesomeness with the small sized Prime binding. His shoe size is about a 3-4. I found that his foot would not slide out of the binding very easily. Per a recommendation I found on this site I called Wiley's and they said that since I had to snug the lace up binding so much that it took the elastic properties out of it. I ordered a semi custom binding from Wiley's tailored to his foot. It fits great and he comes out of it very appropriately. I feel that for his build and foot size that the rubber binding is more appropriate and safer. He may go back to the prime when he gets a little bigger. He loves the ski and loves the binding... and has had great success on it. He can run the junior course up to 22 mph and pulls straight through both wakes. His success has been one of the highlights of our summer. Wiley's was great to work with... they knew just what I needed and shipped it out the next morning. The radar ski is awesome too. This setup has worked great for him.

@Woody74 I don't see why there would be any problem with direct connect on front and a plate on the back. The direct connect boots as no bigger than the boots themselves. I have double boot direct connect ..so hopefully someone else will chime in and confirm. xmax are very comfy. I've been running the 2016 model for 2 years. I just bought a pair of the 2018 model (which has a little higher cuff height) to try.

@scotchipman Radar has surface area on their website. Very insightful. A 67 Senate is similar in area to a 68 vapor

@Chef23 Since skis went on sale yesterday I decided to take a chance and go for the 67" Syndicate Omni.... will try it out this weekend. It may just encourage me to keep my weight down.

Are there any good intermediate skis out there that are a 68"? I'm always right in the middle of a 67 and a 69 for all of the weight ranges for the senate, HO skis etc. The only ones in the 68" length seem to the be the high end ones. I ski 15 off 32-34 mph. I currently ski a HO CX superlite 69 inch. I feel like something shorter might be a little better for me at 190 - 195 lbs... but am a little hesitant to pull the trigger on a 67".

@Horton Do you keep the bow cover on plus add weight in the bow to keep the balance that you refer to? Do you find the bow cover integral to the appropriate balance of the boat above 26 mph?

@JoelR A possible different approach to your son's problem is to investigate a different type of contact lens for waterskiing. I have found that Vertex Toric contact lenses from Coopervision (I have no commercial interest in them) are much more resistant to spray/splashing. They are a little bit older style lens and are less hydrophillic than a lot of the more current lenses that keep your eyes more moist. I can wear the Vertex lenses with no problem when skiing. My daily wear contact lenses not so much... if i get splashed in the face with those they soak up the water and blur my vision. If your son doesn't wear Toric lenses (astigmatism) then they of course wouldn't work... but maybe there is a different kind of lens out there that might work... optometrists can usually get free trials. Just a thought from my experience with contacts.

@ozski what kind of lace up binding did you have him in? I just order the radar kids ski for my 8 year old and am worried the bindings that come with it will be too big.

@Horton Thanks for your help. I suspected maybe the two different lakes (shallow and deep) might make a difference (I've heard it can make a difference with surf and wakeboard wakes.) I'm going to try a few variables of the tower off... stripping the back seats and bow cover off, etc and also run the Prostar on the shallow lake with the same config that I've been running on the deeper lake. I haven't been as thrilled with the Prostar wake at 15 off 30-34 mph... but was thinking that might be more due to the lake depth, course set up...or the extra stuff I have weighing the boat down. I have skied a Prostar with no tower and seats on the shallow lake and it seemed pretty comparable to the Nautique. Could have been my mentality and technique too. @eleeski I'm not sure what exactly a "troll thread" is. If you're implying that I'm trying to be negative about the Mastercraft or something compared to the Nautique or bash the Mastercraft then you're dead wrong. It's a fantastic boat... it is rock solid in every way and I wouldn't have bought it unless I did some vetting before hand. My wife loves the wake at 28 mph and we love the layout. My intent was to get a boat that was a little more multipurpose and family oriented without compromising the adult speed ski wakes. My focus is not "drilling" the kids on slalom... it's to let them develop and succeed in whatever they want. They even love tubing behind the boat and I love driving it for them. I'm not trying to start any rumors about this hull or anything of the sort. I have no such agenda. I'm throwing these questions out to an experienced community of skiers who may have juggled some of the same variables in order to better understand how I can maximize the performance from this fantastic machine.

@skihart Perhaps the comparison to the Nautique isn't quite fair. Nautique has the advantage of the hydrogate to tweak the wake. Mastercraft had to try to design the hull to be trick at "low speed" and flat at "high speed". I have accidentally skied behind the nautique with the gate in the "trick" position.... and launched myself off the wake onto my face.

@oldjeep. My thought on the tower was the same. It's robust looking... but I believe it's aluminum. I can't imagine that it would be more than 200 lbs... particularly because it's made to be taken off if desired. I wouldn't think that would make any more difference than 2 people sitting in the observer seat instead of one.

I certainly can try stripping everything down (including the tower) and see what difference it makes. At 20 mph it really seems to settle down....but it is my perception that a lot of parents start running their kids in the course at a speed slower than 20 mph.

@eleeski the kids haven't said anything or noticed any difference...I certainly havent brought it up to them. There is no need for them to have any larger wake if something can be done to make it better...and I guess I was expecting a little more out of this generation prostar.

@Horton bow cover has been on. No extra weight in bow (except for brief experiment with someone sitting on bow cover....which didn't make noticable difference). This is on a fairly deep lake...approx 30 ft....and the nautique is run on a 5 ft deep ski lake. I have not run the Prostar on the 5 ft lake for comparison.

Just wanted to hear other's experience with this. I have been pulling some kids (double skis and slalom) behind my 2018 Prostar between the speeds of 15 and 19 mph. The wakes looks huge... far greater than a 2011 Ski Nautique that they also get pulled behind. To be honest it actually looks like a pretty good wakeboarding wake for that speed. Has anyone else experienced this? I know that the wake at those speeds isn't usually great... but I wouldn't have thought there was such a stark contrast with the Nautique. I do have one back seat in.... and the fuel tank has been fairly full. I do also have a tower on the boat. We tried putting a 180 lb person in the bow... and that didn't seem to make any difference. Any thoughts to make this better (I'm sure I will get snide tower comments... but I don't think that can make that much difference). Does one 40 lb seat and some fuel make that much of a difference? or is this just how it is with a Prostar at those speeds. Thanks.