pregom

If your budget is in the $2000 range (the price of a new Denali with boots), I would consider spending roughly half of that on a new ski plus boots (one of the many suggested here) and use the rest for ski lessons. Also, I second ski-it-again, it has some excellent lightly used options worth considering.

Should this thread be named "who is already skiing in January?" Trying to have a positive attitude here... :smile:

A good stacked position is what allows a skier to get the maximum mechanical advantage from the boat pull. Good stack - you convert pull into cross-course speed. Bad stack - you end with a nasty OTF fall. If I could only learn how to do this properly...

@MISkier to get around the problem of not enough depth, one solution could be to have an "anchor" directly under each point to be submerged, a total of 10 anchors from 55m pre-gates to 55m pre-gates at the other end. In other words, instead of pulling one rope to submerge the course as in the first drawing of this thread, you pull 10 ropes. I like the idea of mechanical means to submerge a course - @swbca is a genius. Much easier to maintain than all the air lines of a Wally Sinker or similar.

@swbca I'm far from being an expert on the subject of corrosion or rust. I've suggested you check that because I think that not all stainless steel is created equal and because I've seen rust on all the stainless steel eyelets at the end of the steel cables on the slalom course we have. This is at Webster Lake, a fresh water lake with water depths that vary from 5-6 feet to 20-30 (my wild guess). It's a busy lake with water chemistry that could be influenced by many factors. Another thought: the pipe interacting with the cement of the anchor should be similar to the rebars in reinforced cement, I imagine, or is it different? Would it be possible for you to tie an extra poly rope from the center anchor to one of the gate 3 or gate 4 lines? In this way you could pull up the anchor for inspection from time to time.

@Keukaskier since you are taking a road trip and you will arrive in Orlando early, I'd suggest you bring everything you have and you play it by ear. See what the weather is like as you get close to your ski school week and decide if you need to stop by Performance Ski for any supplemental layer. There are several manufacturers that make great products. To answer your question about what we wear, I can tell you what I use as the water gets progressively colder (not in Orlando, of course): a heater shirt, a 2-3mm short sleeves wetsuit, a 2-3mm long sleeves wetsuit, a drysuit (a non-baggy kind). For all the wetsuit/drysuit combinations sometimes I also wear a heater shirt underneath.

As others have already said, you should probably be fine with just a heater shirt, but everybody is different. Given that you have mostly been free skiing, let me also add that course skiing is quite different from free skiing. With free skiing, even if the water is cold, you don't stay much in it: you do your deep water start and then you are just more dependent on the air temp than on anything else. With course skiing, on the other hand, you spend much more time in the water than above it: you start, one pass is over in 20-25 seconds and you drop back in the water and you wait (for the boat to come around, for your coach to give you comments, etc.). If the water is cold, it gets to you quite quickly. Have fun! I'm envious!

How much did a top of the line slalom ski cost 50 years ago? Adjusting for inflation, how does that price compare to today's top of the line prices of close to 2 grand?

This is definitely an interesting way to submerge the course. So, if I understand this correctly, from the anchor there is one rope that goes to ball/gate 3 which then goes to ball/gate 2 which then goes to ball/gate 1 which then goes to the entrance gate which then goes to the 55m buoys. And another rope that goes on the other side to ball/gate 4 and then all the way to the other 55m buoys. How much do you need to pull the main rope from the center anchor before the 55m buys get submerged? Also, regarding the 180 degree stainless steel tubing you have found, depending on the quality of the steel, rust and corrosion could still develop depending on the chemical composition of your lake water.

Alright, who has gone skiing on the first day of this new year? Please make all of us northerners envy of your balmy temperatures while we freeze our asses off!

The main difference between free skiing and course skiing in my opinion is timing. You can learn a ton just free skiing. This summer my ski buddies worked on my stance, beating into me the importance of being stacked. I improved a lot. And then you try the course and you realize that you are not there by miles! Those little suckers come at you in rapid fire and they spit you out before you can realize what’s going on. Go to a school and let the pros work on you. You’ll never look at skiing the same way after you do that. Have fun!

From looking at a few bent handles my ski buddies have, I don’t think there is more than an inch of difference between the end points of the handle and its middle point. Would that really make a difference at tournaments?

@MarcusBrown we'll want to see a picture! or see a full FPM episode with you wearing it :smile:

Well, you made the rules for this giveaway and his comment was the best, in my humble opinion. Isn’t it great to see pro’s like Marcus give awesome advice?

I would highly recommend a Concept II rower. Cardio, power, full body exercises as hard as you can make them without passing out.

@mike_mapple - what do you mean with a lot of "body weight"?

@pbrb - keep an eye on skis for sale on ski-it-again. There are some pretty good bargains out there. Also, @perfski has good sales until the end of the year (no affiliation, just a happy customer). As for which ski to get, there are many different opinions out there and lots of good skis in your price range. Note that I'm interpreting your $600 budget to be just for a blank ski, with no bindings.

@jbwann - unless you have a Goode ski, you don't need a slot caliper. All fin setting numbers are published and shared using the heads method to measure DFT (see here for instance. A few years ago I bought this caliper and I've been happy ever since.

The two of you look mahvelous, @"Keith Menard"

Cool it, @"Keith Menard"... first of all, I would have to drag you out of bed to go ski that early... during summer time... :smile: During winter time (like this past Saturday when your picture was taken) at 5am you would need floodlights to break the darkness... :smile: P.S. I was happy to participate in your #Swaterski event. Well done raising that much money for a good cause! P.P.S. yes, it sucks to get ready to hit the course on a public lake and have a yahoo cut through it without even noticing that maybe, just maybe, they screwed you up...

This summer I got a Stokes EVO2 comp vest - @Thomasasher was very helpful finding the right size for me (Large, fits me really well). The EVO doesn't make me float as well as my previous CG approved O'Neill vest and I had to make some adjustments getting out of the hole. Now I like it a lot and it allows me to keep my elbows closer to my waist. As for sinking, I tested it and it holds me on the surface.

Skied in Central Massachusetts today. Water temperature 40, air temperature 46, very low winds. I was part of the Swaterski event organized by @"Keith Menard"

Excellent work! Do the valleys in pageviews correspond to summers? Are we skiing less and day dreaming more during winters?

Happy Thanksgiving! Now we can concentrate on all the Black Friday deals that are around. I'm going to ask for forgiveness instead of permissions from the higher authorities (aka wife)...

What is "01100010 01100001 01101100 01101100 01101111 01100110 01110011 01110000 01110010 01100001 01111001"? Oh, wait, of course, ballofspray!