riplash

I think that new boats should be priced at whatever the market will bear, and whatever makes the boat manufacturers the most money. However, I think the more important questions to discuss are along the lines of boat access and price for waterskiers who don't compete yet, they may have a boat, maybe even a DD boat, but I think there is a perception that you need a Newer top of the line $$$ boat to even practice at Long Line and Intermediate lines. I am not sure how to best describe the question but it involves boat prices/access for people who are not into tournament waterskiing yet but could be in the near future. -Ryan

I hear two of my many skis whistle all the time. One is a 2005 Obrien world team, and the other is a 40 year old world team. I think it is just the ski, because I have a lot to learn about skiing. before I even would know where to start adjusting the ski. Rip

Hey Mike, I am about your size and I have some 10 and 15 year old skis that are the biggest they made at their time. If your parents place is near Melbourne, let me know and I will let you try them. Also how is the boat propped? A lot of bigger sterndrives are propped for top speed and they take a while to get up on plane without a skier. If you can change the prop to a lower pitch and add a blade it will help you alot. (Of course if the boat is a Bravo 2or3 with 2 props that would cost a lot). You just won't have as high of a top speed, and you may have to limit your throttle at speed to keep from overreving the motor. One of my wakeboarding friends has a 20 foot sterndrive that came with a 23" pitch prop and it was terrible getting out of the hole, and getting on plane. We changed the pitch down to 19" or so. And it is so much easier with the lower pitch prop. I can easily get up on my fiance's tiny 66" slalom ski from a combo. New skis are always cool too, and the new types of bindings are great too. I had old rubber bindings on some of my skis, and I was always exhausted after getting my feet in the bindings before trying to start. Adding dish soap or Astroglide helped a little bit. But the new bindings by almost all the brands are so much better than the old style too. Cheers, Rip

Hi @gt_skier5, I am the the new guy that @Mark_Matis talked about in his post before. Last year I lived in Indialantic, and now I live in Melbourne on the Eau Gallie river 1 mile boat ride from the community boat ramp to the Indian river Lagoon. Lake Poinsett and Lake Windsor are a bit a far and the water is always relatively shallow. (every body of water around here except for the ocean has there shallow spots). My friends that have a boat and drive for me are irrationally scared of alligators in Lake Washington. I have only been able to get them in lake Washington 1 time 2 weeks ago, after trying to get them to go for 10 months due to alligator sightings and the Disney Alligator event last year. In the near future I am probably going to build or buy a portable slalom course for the river. You should look up Melbourne Wakeboard/Waterski Friends on meetup.com. Tomorrow we are having a morning waterski/wakeboard meetup. (I should be in bed so I am not too grumpy tomorrow rather than typing this.) The morning skiing is new, but last summer we would ski and wakeboard in the Indian River Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. The 1st week would be on Tuesday and it would be my turn to host and drive, and the next week Rick would drive his boat on Wednesday evening. We would normally ski in the Indian River between Pineda and Eau Gallie bridges, but sometimes I would go south between Sebastain and Vero. Both Rick and Myself don't have fancy Inboard skiboats yet. We both have sterndrive bowriders. I hope I can stay awake long enough to send you a private message but I need to go get the boat ready for tomorrow and It is already later than I wish it was. -Cheers Ryan "Rip" Lash

Hey Gus, You should make sure that the negative terminal of the sun powered ventilator power source and/or battery is grounded to the negative terminal or engine block of the boat. That should help reduce that static, and that static is probably adding to the electrolysis problem. -Rip

If you use swim goggles, you can smear just a tiny bit of Johnsons Baby Shampoo in the inside of the goggles and it will keep your goggles from fogging up. I buy a travel size for a dollar or two and keep some with my swimming stuff and another bottle with my snorkeling stuff and it lasts me a while. I imagine it would work on other eye protection or glasses too, just as long as it doesn't interact with other fancy glass treatments that may be on the glasses.

@DaveD They need the cooler to keep the beer from getting too cold and freezing. When I lived up north. I had to put the beer in the cooler in the back of my truck, otherwise it would freeze on the drive home and burst.

Hey, I should have mentioned that I was going to try to stop by Stillwater lakes on Saturday or Sunday. I guess I would have officially met Ellie Horton and Roger Clark. I probably saw both of you guys but had no idea. I had to work till 2:30 on Saturday. But after I was done My girlfriend and myself drove down there (it is only 15 miles away from our house) and got there around 4:30. We watched women's slalom ski but don't know what division. I hope to ski in the August or September tournament there after I get some slalom lessons and more practice.. After work today I am trying to get in touch with Gerald Carson for lessons and sets. Ryan "Rip" Lash

No long links?

Hey tap, Have you found a victim, or volunteer to test the body temp of the water skier. I think skiers tend to get awfully stiff when the temp falls just a few degrees below 98 degrees F. Seriously though. I think that there are way too many variables that cold water affects, much more than just the viscosity of the water. If people make changes for cold water, they should do it empirically finding the changes through trial and error, rather than making changes based on theory of viscosity. Just my two cents. -Rip