ScottScott

If it is truly a Pop-up many of us have Pop ups blocked in our browsers so we'll never see it. It may very well be a nice thing, but maybe can be done in a banner or something, much as the current "unknown sport of waterskiing" banner is now.

@Horton Oh, duh...I missed the whole head to head part. Don't pay any attention to me, continue. Think @Drago missed that too. We'll be ok

There's something a little off about the top 3 mens scores.....?

I have had many therapy suggestions, many involving some type of decompression. Some chiropractors have decompression therapy (like a variable traction...?) Some have suggested inversion table (I shy away from anything that has a long list of warnings, tho that suggestion came from an orthopedic we ski with.) I have seen videos of a variety of upright therapy either from hanging from a pullup bar to laying in different angles off furniture (most hanging therapy suggesting specify that you want to still rest your feet on the floor so you don't use TOO much force, and lighten the load on your arms.) I think the decompression and reasoning behind it make a lot of since. I have almost daily for a couple weeks now been hanging from a ring type pool float in the pool. The buoyancy of the water lightens that enough, but there is still enough gravity acting on my body that I do feel some stretch. Between that and using 22off instead of 15, I have been able to get back to 2-3 days a week. Hopefully that continues improvement. It was only 3-4 years ago I could go out on our boat on the weekend and do 10-12 passes twice, both Saturday and Sunday.

@lpskier There are lots of muscular, nerve, etc causes for back pain, and a variety of things that contribute to it. I've tried everything, certainly tightening core is one of them. I have a pretty strong core....doing 4-5 minute planks and a variety of other core workout. Its not that simple

I've been struggling with back issues as a result of my deep water starts, and all of that for the last couple years now. I have tried everything I can think of as far as modifying my technique etc. and can't seem to make anything work better....it has really limited my time on the water. I'm sure loosing about 15 pounds would help as much as anything. Lately I've been able to ski a little more, what seems to help some is: I abandoned 15 off. Starting at 22off 30mph. Even tho I'm not running that many passes anymore. (maybe I'll try slowing to 28 off...? But I hate to go much slower at 22 off tho.) The pullup is noticeably easier at 22 than 15. Hopefully it gets me more time on the water more and I can get back to seeing passes into 28 off at 32mph. As boat starts I bend forward and try to resist as little as I can, allowing the pull to compress my body to the ski. Doesn't seem to matter if I look up or down, and when bending forward its easier to look down, than to try to look up.

You never really hear much comparison between ZO settings and ropes....but the amount of stretch in the rope is similar to the ZO settings. A more stretchy rope would be more like an A setting, and a stiff rope would be like a C. Maybe with a stiff rope, an A setting would feel better, and a stretchy rope could feel better with a C....?

This is the absolute DUMBEST technology for a fuel gauge to put into a ski boat (of all things.) The same grade gas from the same service station from tank to tank (station tank fulls) can vary in ethanol enough to throw the whole thing out of calibration. The ONLY way to keep this accurate is to fill to full EVERY TIME. OR, at least fill up, then fill all of your 5 gallon jugs at the same time from same tank full of gas at the gas station. Then as long as you're putting in gas from that same tank you should be ok for partial fills. Once they get a new tank of gas, it could all change. The only thing dumber than this system, is that its been this way at least since 2014 and they have kept the same ridiculous system this whole time. The fuel management system they put in place is ridiculous. If the system doesn't work, then replace it with a system that does. This workaround BS is pathetic. I'd REALLY be pissed off if I lived on a lake and used 5 gallon jugs to add gas. At least since I trailer everywhere, I just fill up completely every time and have only had issues a couple times.

Maybe it was Chipman, or his alter ego.

So the record that still stands was set 10 years ago? Is that correct? Roughly? Certainly a couple years more than 6 years when Smith broke it, but didn't.... If anyone came on here asking for advice and was skiing on a 10 year old ski, everyone would be telling them that they need a new ski. 10 years of ski development has gotten Smith no farther.... What does that mean? I don't know.

@B_S I'd disagree with that reasoning, many skiers had struggled with gates from the other end. Besides I don't think anyone is going to risk not running, or doing as well as others, on a 41off pass where the tournament will be won or lost, to get a better shot at 43. That being said, I don't think he is any less motivated to break his record not having a boat sponsorship with bonuses. Im thinking D3 would have a pretty nice reward for him anyway.

When you think about how long its been since mens record was set, and how little it has been challenged, its also significant to consider whether he got outside of 3 ball 6 years ago BECOUSE of the out of tolerance boat path or DISPITE it.

@jgills88 other skiers scores are irrelevant as to whether a skier can continue on to see how far 43 they can go as long as they run 41.

@UWSkier Yes, that would help. But, there is an audio operator. Their job is to do more than turn mics on and off. There is a fader and gain controls that can (and should be) turned up and down to compensate for louder or softer people (or microphone proximity.) There are also compressor and limiter devices/functions, or whatever your equipment has or maybe need to add to help level things out. This also goes for the commentators. They had 3 people at the commentator desk at some points ALL at different volumes. Gain and level controls can and should be used to equal them out. A high quality production can and should do better.

I actually find that mole to be kinda sexy......not being able to hear a skier being interview.....NOT sexy. I know many can be hesitant to find fault in something they appreciate and respect....but sometimes pointing out fault is needed. TWBC does a great job, certainly better than anything waterskiing has had in many years. They have invested a good bit of money into high resolution cameras with various tracking capabilities, and misc other production equipment. They appear to have a goal to be a high quality production company, and audio is an important part of the overall production quality that they are missing a little with. I know I'm a little more sensitive to these things as I was an audio engineer for 20 years doing a variety of music/bands, corporate AV presentations, and broadcast both to tape and live. But....I also know why it is the way it is, and how easy it is to fix. And as is evident in 2 other comments already within the last couple hours, I'm not the only one annoyed by it. (and to my knowledge they don't have the level of audio background that would make them overly sensitive to it.)

The coverage, commentary, cameras and camera angles provided are very good.....approaching some pretty serious broadcast level production from a video standpoint. I also enjoy the other skiers providing commentary and doing the dockside interviews. Fun to see some of the personalities of many of the skiers we watch. My only video/content comment is that many of the dock closeups are just a little awkward....shorten? wider view of the dock area? Audio....needs work. It took a few broadcasts, but they seem to have figured out how to minimize the mic drop-outs at the dock. But still...Across the board there are drastic audio volume differences between commentators, and even larger differences between the dock interviewer and the interviewee. They aren't difficult fixes....just need a little more focus in those areas, maybe a little instruction for the operators...? Edit: HA!! as I was writing my comment I saw a notification of a new comment (from MDB1056.) Great minds think alike...... I will add, it wasn't just swiss....that has been a constant theme since the begining. Hopefully they will add some focus in that area and make improvements.

Performance has had a Nautique wake/surf boat that I assume is a promo boat they use at events, and often see on the local public lakes. Now its a Mastercraft......thats probably all it means. I'd say its news worthy particularly considering their proximity to the Nautique factory.

Another gripe about master broadcast...... why not get it streaming on you tube. Everyone's tvs can stream you tube. These days we shouldn't have to cast it to the big screen, it should be on you tube.

Thanks @swbca Good tips. Its all a pain in the butt. Next time I need to remove that rear panel I"ll be prepaired ahead of time and I'll work out a way to swap out that hinge with something that either has a hinge pin, or access to screws holding the hinge to either the dog house or floor panel. (Maybe even make that a dedicated project sometime if Im bored.)

@Andre Yep..... one thing to add to a list of many stupid things i've done, most out of pure laziness. I'm looking at this thing as I'm disconnecting the linkage thinking "I could very easily set this off." I considered looking into it deeper to see if there was a pin that could be put in (or back in,) or finding another way to tie up that lever, as I continued maneuvering the linkage to disconnect and suddenly POOF!!! Very fortunate that it wasn't a more harmful substance that could have burned my face and eyes. No harm done other than sending my glasses across the garage and the need to purchase a extinguisher. After the fact I decided to read the warning labels.

Found this thread when looking for tips removing my doghouse so I could replace steering cable. Seems my '17 prostar also doesn't have a way to separate the doghouse. What kind of idiot designs a boat where you cant separate a piece like the doghouse. Is a hinge-pin such a foreign concept? Ridiculous, I guess these engineers never actually work on boats, just draw them on paper? The whole process didn't take too long, but it may have been the worse couple hours of my life. On a related note, I'm going to need a new fire-extinguisher.

This conversation comes up often......and I guess my questions is " who cares?" 1st, I don't think its dying, maybe not on TV as it was in the 80s, but there are many other things that have more global appeal (like cornhole.) Long-short. ESPN and advertisers will pay to broadcast what they feel people will watch. How does an increase in popularity of the sport benefit the majority of us that enjoy it? The biggest benefit would be the pro skiers that are athletes equal to many of the other sports that get paid big money. But, be careful what you ask for. It is often considered how lucky we are to pay a small fee to go get a lesson from some of the top skiers in the world, or to approach and have a conversation with the top skiers at tournaments. Can you get a golf lesson from someone even like Jordan Spieth or go chat with him while hes on the driving range or putting green before a tournament. It is bad for the top skiers that they aren't compensated for being a top level athelete like golfers, baseball, basketball, football players etc....but good for us. I was at my neighborhood lowes a couple years ago. I heard a voice say "nice shirt." I had to look down to see what shirt I was wearing (I had no ideal what shirt I threw on that morning.) It was a D3 shirt, I looked up and theres Nate Smith. We talked for 5-10 minutes, while people walked by, no-one knowing theres the best water skier currently in the world. Funny....as I wrote this I then turned to Facebook.....my memory from 6 years ago is video of Nate Smith breaking his world record at swiss, that was later not certified due to boat path issues. One of the things we talked about at that lowes was that I just had a 3 year memory notification of that video I posted. Goes to show that Slalom is hard. In 6 years he hasn't gotten there again.

The pressure regulator also includes a filter. The screen should catch most before it gets to the pressure regulator....hopefully. If you have the earlier Millennium Industries fuel pump there is NO replacement for that pressure regulator, so if the filter portion is clogged or it doesn't hold pressure anymore, you have to purchase a whole new pump module ($800-$1000 not including installation.) There is now a pressure regulator replacement kit for the newer TI Automotive pump modules.

I think its been touched on a little earlier in the thread, but I think (related to @lpskier post above) one of the primary failures at Masters, beyond the technical (both camera and tower judge locations,) was that with a lack of better information the benefit of doubt should have gone toward the skier.

I think we're sidetracked a little on this $80k camera. TWBC puts good money into providing an ever increasing quality broadcast. While that level of camera will potentially provide a clarity that could make a difference in some video review situations, that type money isn't necessary to provide BETTER video coverage for judging.