epnault

What a great book. Not just about fin tuning but just a full understanding of how the ski works.

That is a solid ski machine. The whole hype on the fuel pumps was more about neglected maintenance and care. I owned a boat from this era and owned it for 600 hrs on same fuel pump before I sold it. The hull was released in 2001 and by 2004 it should have all the updates. That bull was in production until 2014 so a long time. Good luck.

I read your post but I am unclear on what is your primary purpose in your next boat and what features are most important. If you are a picky consumer you might want to stick with MasterCraft, Nautique, or Malibu.

I loved watersports all my life and really enjoyed skiing the most but frankly until 2007 I would only slalom on combo skis behind my parents FourWinns I/O at their lake place. It was miserable and based on my size and power and the ski it was impossible for that boat to get me out of the water on a deep water start. I just used to hang on for as long as I could hold my breath but usually would end up dropping a ski. Ha ha. I had skied behind a real ski boat a couple of times so I knew what it was supposed to feel like and I kept trying to get my wife on board that we needed our own boat so I could ski more often and get a better pull. It took a while for her to come around as our kids were still very young and we lived over 5 hours from my parent’s lake. Finally in the winter of 2010 the local MasterCraft dealer found us our first MasterCraft 209/X9 tower and we bought it in the dead of winter. We had some great memories on this thing and it did everything and fit a lot of stuff/people. Sadly we sold it this summer. I would post pic but it isn't working for some reason.

Tom, I think you are on the right track. I am a newbie too as of a couple years ago and I know the struggles of being 200+lb guy and learning at the slower speeds. The fact is the skis were never designed for our body type. My normal skiing weight the past few seasons has been around 215-220 and I work my ass off in cross-fitness and eating properly to maintain that. My amateur advice is the skiing will come with training and coaching but to excel at this game you got to be in the best shape you can too. Dropping weight will make a huge difference and get into a regular exercise program that is full body training (balance, body weight exercises, cardio, etc). I set some pretty tough goals this year and that is to get to under 200lbs and I am doing this by managing my calories using an app called myfitnesspal and exercising in some way 6 days a week. My goal in the course is to make a 34mph at 32 off pass. Game on! Eric