Fun posts! My first and only tournament was an un-sanctioned regatta on Gull Lake in the late seventies. Wooden concave ski, long line 75 ft , public lake, first pass, no warm up, was 36 mph behind a 17 foot J Craft with a a big 175 Johnson two stroke (it would do 73 mph with a stainless prop and jack plate but I digress). My family ski boat had just been upgraded to a used 65 hp Merc so I believed I had sufficient know how. I made it to 2nd buoy (RFF) before the mother of all OTF yard sales...skipped and cartwheeled for an eternity . I didn't try the course again for a couple of years.