braindamage

@rlyons124 I have an ‘00 sunsetter and couldn’t be happier. You can’t go wrong with that one. It looks really clean.

Where I work this is what’s we call “a solution in search of a problem”. What is the problem you are trying to solve? Good quality ski tugs in that price range are plentiful in the used market. As everyone says, an economy ski tug has been tried and failed by many manufacturers.

@oldjeep, I bet the wake bounce comes back without any dissipation due to the flat wood. We see the same on our lake where people have put down concrete shoreline. It amazing how much wake comes back.

@Ed_Johnson: 0% chance I’d stay on a lake with that many poisonous snakes. I love to ski, but I love to live even more.

Pm’s Sent

From Themalibucrew http://www.themalibucrew.com/index.php?/articles.html/motorbox-insulation-r4/ One of the best mods I’ve done to mine.

Help me understand. Legitimately. I am a strong skier advocate and in general a “live and let live” kind of guy. If it’s a temporary course, when it’s not in use and sunken, does it restrict anyone from doing what they want? I get the potential objections to noise and shoreline distance ordinances. @ScottScott makes a good point that people associate speed with wake damage, and that is just a case of not thinking things through. @slow makes a good point that the majority of lakefront owners aren’t skiers so property valuation is probably impacted What is our best “pitch” that we can all use (with facts, studies, empirical evidence, logic, and physics) that we could build and publish to help out our fellow skiers? If you ask me, the waterski association would be better served publishing documentation like this along with positive PR than working on more arcane competition rules. Just my $.02

Oh...I forgot. 2 of these 3 need to be true in order to sustain either a healthy diet or exercise: 1) you love it! 2) it enables something that you love 3) it builds social networks or strengthens relationships. Without at least 2 the odds of continuing are close to 0%.

$20/ season is cheap. I love all the ideas!

Principles to make this easy: Diet: 1) Eat food your great grandparents would recognize as food 2) everything in moderation, including moderation. Exercise: 1) strength 2) heart 3) flexibility 4) balance For us normal joe’s, do both by the “80 pct rule”. Good enough is good enough, unless you are a high end competitor in your field.

I think this would get people like me who love to open water ski and probably could run a course to give it a try and get into it. That may bleed to my kids who also like to ski. Otherwise I’ll be perfectly happy to do my 3-4x/ week early am runs with my small ski group.

I think this is a great idea. Don’t over complicate it though, just follow @WBLskier and start posting scores. Add a video would be a great feature on a website as well. I think this would promote local groups getting together to record their weekly scores.

This is either going to be the centerpiece of a potential future or massive financial ruin. My vote is for the former.

Pressure wash first, the. FSR. I like it cuz it’s a gel so you can wipe off most of it before rinsing. This leaves little mess and little environmental impacts.

Coming from a ski that old, I’d say anything is better. I did a similar upgrade from a 1990(ish) HO Extreme a few years back. I did a lot of research but didn’t demo anything because I got a great deal on one of my preferred options. I’m not unhappy with my choice but you might consider demoing the skis before committing.

Totally a blast!! Makes me wish I was 30 yrs younger. I loved skiing even when I was in high school and college. Unfortunately my Lake didn’t allow a course and I chose an engineering school in the UP of Michigan that gave me 100% scholarship... but no ski team.

You can’t go wrong sticking with what you have. I agree with @Bill22. A dedicated ski tug, while great for early morning sets, isn’t so great if you want to bring friends and family out to watch the july4 fireworks. I like the ‘99-04 Sunsetter LXi cuz it is a great ski wake but has much more room and creature comforts.

@"Keith Menard" I think the retro trend may go to magazines as well. We’ll see. To support your point: my millennial son loves to read but only from a “real” book. Counter point: most of what magazines offer he prefers to get via video. (People stories, events coverage, reviews, tips, opinion pieces, etc.).

@Dirt - do you have a link to the vid?

I see this less as a sign of the decline in waterskiing as a sport and more that this is just the way of the New world. I don’t get info on boats from magazines or dealers, I get it from Themalibucrew, planetnautique, and teamtalk. If I want info on my old jeep I go to Jeepforum...info on sailing I go to sailingforum... info on waterskiing I go to BOS... I get men’shealth magazine that I don’t plan to renew, offroad adventures mag that comes for free and I have no idea how I got on the mailing list, and runnersworld. Runnersworld is he only one that has value beyond what I can find on the ‘net. It’s sad and ok to be nostalgic, but I don’t think it practically reduces the number of valuable resources for the sport.

I had this and crazy enough, I switched to using the PC mouse with my left hand and all went away. Not kidding. If I use my right hand for about a week it comes back. Don’t use the compression Velcro things. It is the worst thing you can do. It removes the pain but makes the core issue worse.

Frozen enough that a full size snowplow was used to clear the ice skating rink.

I once had a party when I was in high school and one of my friends had a mudder truck with a big lift and 40”ish tires. He was out on the lake wheeling and broke through. The depth of the lake there was about 75’ but luckily only the tires went in and the ice held on the frame. We tried for a couple hours to pull it out, but it was about 1/4mile from shore so the only way to tow was with another vehicle, which couldn’t get any traction because it was on ice! Finally he had to rent a helicopter to have it lifted out. It cost him a ton of $$$ I thought it was hilarious

I get the “occupy the space in front of you”. I used to do triathlons and the mass of people at the swim start freaks out most people. The solution is to swim as if you occupy the space in front of you and swim like you are alone in the water. If you hit someone else, most likely they will move by the time you return to that stroke side. Most people recoil, short stroke, swim inefficiently, and get in the way of people behind them. Its the natural reaction. There are tons of things in life where your natural reaction is the opposite of what will work...like breaking at the waist with a flat ski to absorb the shock (natural reaction) vs holding your stacked position and slicing across the wake (what works best).

I agree with @Horton...brand loyalty confuses me. I am not brand loyal in any way. I do a lot of research and pick the quality-function-price that fits my needs now and as far as I can see for the future. I also tend to buy and hold over a long time. Current malibu was bought used 7 yrs ago, current HO ski 3 years ago. I don’t see me changing anytime soon.