Gus

@dvskier you're right! the picture in the brochure also has a 4-blade:

@Chef23 I know.. thanks! I also watched this video many times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7UGrLQhY44 but I still think I don't need to bother anyone with the stress of being a release-person. I just need to get the TWF to work with a barefoot handle - and I think I can :)

Toes Rock! btw Regarding this thread - I have a SN 1997, with 4 blade prop. I think it also originally had a 3-blade prop. Mine came with a too small 3-blade prop, which I replaced with a better proportioned 4-blade prop. I also don't like the newer boats I encounter in competitions for tricking. But I'm not sure if a decent size 3-blade prop would improve the tricks table on my boat. It somehow doesn't make sense - I imagine a 2-blade prop would need more RPM - and would push a harder stream backwards, ruining the table. So the more blades the better.. but you never know. I'd be very interested in the results too.

@eleeski Absolutely! Fully agree! I should have explained.. after picking up tricking again about 4 years ago after a like 30 year break, since last week I'm back doing toes. I stayed away from toes because I don't have a release person. But I got too annoyed about those 'easy' 630 pts - grabbed an old 'front toe barefoot handle' and it works! Its a bit tougher, especially the TWF, but I think I'll get that one in as well. And indeed - very safe! Also in combination with the reflex binding - I had one weird experience with an edge catching fall where the ski went first before the toe foot had time to release, but it felt right, no hint of danger there. I don't think I'll put in a TO though, that might be pushing it :)

@mxhideout Maybe you have a wifi-only iPad model. The app needs the speed, so it needs the GPS and some iPad models don't have GPS.

safer :smiley:

Regarding C3.. I changed to requesting A1 in competitions. I realized that our boat doesn't have a speed control so I'm trained on something less harsch. I'm not sure if I can actually feel the difference, but it felt good last time.

@BraceMaker That must be it! Makes sense. I trimmed on the entry gate; probably the score would have been higher when trimmed on the first three balls. I can see how that eventually pushes you towards getting 'earlier' on more balls. I wouldn't have realized that by myself as I'm too much of a slalom noob. Thanks a lot! Quick slalom question: should I proceed with the 24.9mph until I can make six balls, or would it be easier to go up a notch in speed? I've got a KD 7000 - 'old but good' as a pro told me, but it feels a bit like its ploughing. Amazing - this app has got me thinking about slalom..

:smile: Thanks!

More feedback: Yesterday we tried again. I noticed two issues: 1. Duplicate activities - somehow the activities from sep 1st got duplicated. Might have something to do with the activity on sep 2nd. 2. I was a bit disappointed with the 1458 score (graph below), comparing to the graph of the 1564 score(graph above, earlier post), the 1458 looks much better. Don't understand.. Duplicates: Graph 2/1458 score:

I think the goal/vision for the app should be that people without a course, can learn to ski a course using this app. Well at least the middle parts of it - learning to time the entry gate remains a bit of a challenge when free skiing i'm afraid. A waterproof augmented reality system seems still quite far away. But that would be long term vision as well. For the short term, some ideas for the backlog - I'm only looking at the 'free skiing' usage; when you do have a course I don't see the point of using the app (except for validation; and maybe later automated scoring): - I read in the FAQ of the app that in free skiing mode you don't have to enter a speed. Thats not correct, you do have to enter a speed. Unclear how it affects the score. But the S-pattern looks ok; I remember from my two attempts at a real course, also at 15 off and 24.9mph that I had a similar result of 1 buoy and almost making it to 2nd bouy. So maybe fix the FAQ? - Allow additional 'guest' profiles per iPhone (one main account and some 'guests'). That gets the android crowd on-board already and promotes 'in family/friend group competition'. - I think the points system is fun the way it is, but it does bump into critiques like 'How can you get points when you missed the entry-gate?'. There's a philosophical discussion there and I guess the main point is that its easy to manipulate the system so a ranking doesn't make much sense for now, but why not just do both: one free skiing special type of scoring and one 'official slalom score'. Both are helpful, and more importantly, the official one kills that kind of critique. Seems fun to program that. For learning to time the entry-gate.. adding just two bouys in free water is a lot easier than an entire slalom course.. maybe something like that could solve this problem? Or is there some pre-entry-gate bouy that slalom use to orient themselves to?

Great! I never slalom, no course on the River; always trick. I once tried a course 2 years ago and could not make it and gave up after 2 tries; back to tricking. But I think, with this app - I might pick up slalom again. It takes a bit of instruction for non-skiers to operate the camera and drive the boat, but they managed. I like that its tolerant, I did get some 'points' :) The 'trimming' could be a tad easier, have to tap(and hold) the < and > thingies; would be nicer to touch and move. But I'm going to do this more often, its fun! Great app!

Thanks Eric/BraceMaker! Fantastic thoughts and advice! Portable, lightweight (lithium pack) and loud.

I just realized that in most of the tricks events we have over here, the timing happens with the judges, and is not visible/audible to the public. Another reason for such a device; makes it more fun for the spectators. A skilled commentor, or aide, could operate it; in parallel with the official judge timing off course. And given that the judges mostly use the video system for timing it should also not interfere with that.

Looking at the videos of a training session aftwards and check the timing of trick runs via the videos also works, but it seems more fun and direct to do it on the water. I couldn't find anything to just buy and use. But a few weeks ago I bumped into this little device, which works on 12V: Its program 2 mode is perfect for this and its accurate enough: 20.0 seconds. Its easy to get it, at least here in Europe, from China for less than 15 dollars; I ordered two for 12 euros. And it works great; I built a prototype to test if a 12V powerled, without beep, would already be enough. It sure is as the test confirmed, but its probably more fun to add a beep. That gives this wiring: So the operator (and probably also the skier, its a loud beep) can hear when the clock starts to tick (confirming they effectively pressed the button - and giving the skier the opportunity to instruct the operators afterwards on timing). I'll add a switch for the beep though, it might be too disturbing or annoying. Nice to use in the beginning, and turn off when the operator is skilled enough. Anyway, I'm quite happy with the results so far, and now I'm left struggling with connecting it to the boat electric system. For the prototype I just connected it to the battery. I see three options: 1 - just give it its own little battery and reload that once and a while. 2 - hardwire it directly to the boat battery (including a fuse) 3 - add a cigarette lighter plug to the dash of my 1997 ski nautique and use that to connect the device. Option 3 seems most elegant. Option 1 makes it portable to other boats and usable on shore as well. But I'm hesitant to drill a hole in the dash for a cigarette lighter plug and I'm unsure how to connect it to the dash wiring. I would appreciate any tips on that: Can I just connect it to 2 connectors of the ignition (a 3 connector plug)? Drilling a hole in the dash unproblematic? Any tips much appreciated!

There are various good tips about learning the offsite backwrap on this forum. One I picked up from here is to do it outside of the wake. Left foot forward: Passenger side. Its easier to hold the awkward position outside the wake with a bit of an angle. Other tips I saw: handle low (but not too low); and 'use a bigger handle in the beginning'. I didn't have much success with any of those tips, but I also don't spend too much of my skiing time on it. It becomes relevant to gain a bit of time with a fast BB and WBB (instead of the slightly slower O's) and later with the reverse W5F. For me the 'do it outside the wake' tip seems to work best. You're well on track! Just keep going! One thing that can really make a big difference in Tricks is to ski at least once every day for about a week.

I got the PTM 140 with bracket, the one so gracefully unpacked here by horton, but I find the mirror is mounted too high, and a bit too far away from the driver (1997 ski nautique). I get a stiff neck from looking upwards and the image is smaller than it should be. Then I saw that the new ski nautiques have the same 140 mirror, but use a different mount, much more the way I'd like it: not so high and a bit closer to the driver. I asked ski nautique where to get such a mount, but no response. Does anyone here know?

That works really well! Impressive run. I like the tablet idea, light is also less intrusive than some loud beep every twenty seconds.

I macgyvered together this contraption, a slightly simpler design as the one I drew in winter (2nd picture above), but the same mechanics. The goal is to allow me to get closer to an SLB. Unfortunately there's nobody around here who can actually do an SLB, so I have no clue whether its any good. Here's how it looks when I try it: I think for the WO and W5's its quite good; especially in combination with the trampoline.

Gus. 48. Married. IT. Netherlands, Europe. Parents had a 50Hp outbound Chrestliner and could get me to sleep as a toddler by taking me out for a ride. Early 70's. So I grew up family skiing. 70's, 80's.. Great summer hollidays! A little holiday house next to a river, on the Belgian side. Where everyone had their boat in front. I still remember the very first time - two very heavy white painted 'kid' ski's, made from normal wooden ski's with some parts cut-off. Horrible things. I also remember feeling great relief when I tried the - still way to big - normal Reflex ski's for the first time. No slalom or jump possibilities in the river. Just skiing. At some point my older brother brought in some trick-ski's. Mesle. Big heavy wooden boards. Skiing backwards was a cool trick though. So we played around. Pyramids. Long 10 Km rides. Barefooting. There was nobody really to teach. No youtube, no internet. I found some books, but those cover the mere basics. I learned how to barefoot from a book :) But tricking was my thing. And became my sport. Crawled up, without coaching to around 2000 points, with the basic toes until TO, steps and WO's, which I only did hand-to-hand. WLO. By that time the neighbours had a nice Boesch boat, my brother had a Boesch and a barefooting friend had a Ski Nautique, a brand new 2001 I guess. We'd practice together, he'd barefoot, I'd trick. I joined the Belgium waterski federation, about to do the first competition. Then I took a bad fall with a WLO, which put me in hospital. I must have been around 17-18 then. Skiing on a reflex wooden trick ski, one of a pair, quite long and small. My Kidder trick ski, ordered from the US, sadly arrived a couple of weeks afterwards. I fully recovered, but the holiday house and the boat were sold. And so was the Kidder. I went to college, and the skiing stopped. That was 30 years ago. 4 years ago from now, I started again. Decided to not do toes and keep it safe. With some friends we bought a 60Hp Sim Super V, little speed-boat. Just right for a bit of skiing. After a while on an old O'Brian trick, I got a Quantum. Ánd we upgraded to a 97 ski nautique. Took me a year to go to a Reflex binding, which I now love. In the first year I took part in a Dutch competition, for fun, 660 points. My first competition ever. The Dutch waterski community was very helpful and welcoming, I could join a training of the Dutch national team, and received brilliant coaching from Belgian Coyotte, 45+ World Champion. WBB RWBB, W5F, and he encouraged me to add the steps again, which I did. Except the WLO off course. My goal for this year was 2000+ points and I scored 2120 in a competition, such a great feeling! 660-940-1640-2120.. it's getting pretty tough now - let's see next year. I'm also very grateful for this site! Thanks! There's so much high quality information on water skiing here. And so much love for the sport. Fantastic.

I compared the dyneema rope I normally use to a slalom rope today. Results: dyneema definitely wins indeed. The slalom rope didn't actually mess up any tricks in my run (pb 2120, only hands), but the 30-40 cms of stretch feels bad, like another undesirable factor to deal with. Still, I know one 5000-6000 skier who said he prefers a bit of stretch. Guess he's an exception.

@Intheday yup, I never tried one but they seem pretty useful for toes, difficult to find a video or picture of one. I'd love one of these in winter: @BraceMaker interesting idea, maybe also nice for toes. But jumping on a moving platform doesn't work. I'm looking for a better way to practice SLB and W5.

I like the traction reel. A smooth spinning platform is not easy. I discovered this works pretty well, especially if you keep it well lubricated: Improvement would be to use a thinner piece of wood or other material for the platform, making it lighter. Jah, too bad a large swimming pool with a winch doesn't fit in a closet :)

Here's the classic. I've been using that since I started. This design is also quite easy to build. I use about 10Kg of weights. Together with a rotating disc on the ground I also use it for muscle training. Just rotate 50 times in each direction every day :) Without disc its also useful to practice the handle passes for the WO's. I measured the pull of the boat on me and found it was about 25Kg skiing straight behind the boat. More than I expected. Which brought me to consider the next idea, still conceptual, I'm going to build it. The idea is that like this it mimics the effect of pulling - the force becomes less for a while and then snaps back to normal. Different tricks, like SLB vs WO, will require different weights/ arm lengths.. I'm interested in any other solutions and experiences with them.