lazzn

Maybe this is naive, but why does a promo boat have to be a one person gig. Perhaps a small group could be the "promo team" for a specific area, it's less financial and time commitment for everyone and the factory gets even more people that are promoting the brand. If one person isn't available to get the boat to an event, chances are good that another would be. Just a thought...

Looks to be up to me...

As a skier for a team that is constantly flipping between D1 and D2 from year to year, I would much rather go D1 every time, because in my mind I'd rather lose to some of the best skiers in the world than win against teams that have no chance at coming close to us. Unfortunately this is not the mindset of everyone on teams like this. On the subject of funding, some school's club sports organizations reward teams based on the number of events they win or tournaments they place highly at blindly, we can tell them that we lost to the winningest team in all of college sports, but it doesn't mean anything to them, their guidelines reward successes. We would never EVER dream of sandbagging for this reason, we are all out there to ski our best; we went D1 last year and wanted to go D1 this year, but being unable to practice at our home site for the entire season because of flooding, that becomes much harder. Aspirations aside, what all of that means money wise is that us having a power year and finishing low in D1 can result in less funding or priority with our overseers than us having a less successful year and winning or finishing high in D2. Funds are crucial to a team like us that brings upwards of 50 skiers to the conference tournament, most of whom have never been to a tournament before, and have to pull between 50 and 75 skiers for practice weekly at the home site. addendum: I can't say for certain, but I'd be willing to bet the administrations of power schools care about whether their teams win nationals, and may adjust funding/support appropriately. It's no different for us, just with orders of magnitude less money/support. And that's what a 3 division nationals would do in my mind, more accurately separate competitive groups. I sort of envision it ending up as the power schools, the highly competitive club schools, and the beginning teams/building year teams.

Aren't there still 2 supercharged 7.4 2015 MC's running around somewhere from the MC throw down when Freddy broke the record last?

Are you by chance duck footed? My right foot (I'm LFF) is worse on the duck footed thing than my left one, to the point where my ankle flexion is severely limited if it is completely straight. One of the reasons that I do not use toe plates is because most toe plates forced my right foot completely straight, and in order to compensate my heel would lift because there was no other option. I run double boots with a straight front foot and a little bit of rotational offset in the back foot (but not so much as to remove my foot from pressuring the centerline of the ski) and this solves my problems with respect to the heel lift thing. If you aren't duck footed and/or don't have an ankle flexion issue, it's probably a stance thing like @Horton said and it's probably best to not run any rotation of either foot.

I feel like if Nationals was not a tournament that had entry qualification requirements, the scheduling of it and its potential to grow the sport would be a lot different. Realistically if you/your kid is good enough to ski nationals then they probably are already in it for the long run, or at least that's how I hope it would be (coming from a skier that's not nationals qualified but definitely in it for the long run). On the scholarships/high school sports note, I've always thought HS coaches need to be more lax about things, its ridiculous enough that fall sports start a month before school does. And I've watched far too many of my peers throw away all kinds of money on AAU and clubs to then choose some DIII college that offered them a minuscule scholarship over a school that might suit their career goals better. And chances are if your kid is approaching college and they are competing at nationals, they are probably good enough to get a scholarship at one of the token college teams that get enough money to offer them. So circling back around, to me a labor day nationals would make sense(the current dates don't seem too bad either).

Late model MC 197TT's '87-'90 MC 190's (red/white, with safe-t-top) Response LX (preferably in red) The red/black Bennett's jump boat this year 80's Stars and Stripes

ightmares

Drag is certainly the biggest effect of the wing, and this is easy to demonstrate. Take your wing off and go ski shortline. The speed difference/deceleration into the turn should be obvious

@DanE and @Than_Bogan if you haven't remapped/recalibrated a GPS location on any GPS platform for a while GPS drift will become a problem. I'm not sure how much drift correction ZO has built in...

I was about to recommend the blue o'brien x-grip pro gloves because they are(were) half the price of everything else on the market and I like gloves with kevlar palm and amara fingers, but now I see they are now $50 and not the same anymore. So I guess I'm in the same boat...

I always thought of shortline as 38 and above for obvious reasons, but I stumbled across an ad from WSM may 1989 that defines a little differently. Maybe at the end of the day we should all be thinking of shortline as whatever lies past our hardest pass...

Myself and some others on my team are on DC xMax bindings and haven't had any issues. I keep a tape measure in my ski bag and check boot distance every few sets. A little harder to measure on double boots but if you've got a baseline you'll notice if anything changes. Having more ability to change binding angles is nice.

Something about "High Output Skiing"

Also I'm pretty sure that's Siani Oliver selling it and if she was skiing on it for two months after scratching it and it hasn't broken yet I'd venture to bet it won't break because of that. A little resin and buffing and it would probably be fine. Do some negotiating

A flex test may yield more information as to the ski's integrity.

Anyone ever make custom footbeds to go in the xMax bindings with velcro footbeds? I'm thinking of cutting some out of eva foam, but I'm unsure if they will affect releasability?

@vtmecheng I think what Horton is saying is that fins and bindings should be tuned for what happens prior to the turn, ie pull, edge change, deceleration, rather than adjusting for feel in the turn. A turn is only as good as your setup is. Once a skier transitions off of one edge the boat is not applying force to the skier/ski; it's just the inertia of the skier vs whatever the fin is doing. Of course the fin parameters are still important during the turn, but I think however much speed is carried into the turn is something to analyze, and more importantly, something that can be controlled with fin and wing adjustments.

Anyone know where I can get sample footage from jump measurement cameras? Doing an engineering project...

A thought: automated webcast with wide angle shots of both lakes and no commentary or whatever the tournament has going on for the local audience. That way those of us who aren't there but watch can see enough to know whats happening live, and not much time/money is invested by organizers. I feel like it would be better to put saved effort/money from that into highlight videos. It's way easier to show off tournament skiing to non tournament skiers with a highlight video than a webcast...

Maybe I'm asking for a few too many industry secrets here, but as an engineering student I'm curious: When a modern ski is designed, how does the design process work? 2d detail drawing or 3d model based on existing information with some tweaks, then prototype and physical modifications? Or less computer/paper design upfront and more physical development? Has anyone simulated the hydrodynamics of a ski throughout different points in the course/turns?

Biggest thing that I notice when going from my collegiate team's Mastercraft to my family's Chris Craft I/O is that as @Than_Bogan was saying the prop is not meant for a torque-y hole shot, and combining that with the rear mount point of most I/Os, my ski and I won't plane until the boat planes and the engine gets a little less load from the boat and can take off. It sure makes for a fun fight and also teaches discipline in deep ups; getting up is like nothing when I go back to a ski boat. The position to fight the boat in is hard to describe, definitely more of a feel thing, but I find that usually I have a lot of weight on my front foot and am halfway between standing and staying tucked. Once everything planes out I've pushed myself up.

We've had a Wizard ash wood slalom (most likely of 1950's vintage) in the barn at our camp in Vermont that's been challenging me to give it a ride for all my life. This year I gave it a go, and boy has this industry come far. The ski has 90 degree edges all around and a flat bottom, save a few carriage bolts that hold the bindings on. Before I actually rode it I considered trying the course at LL and the slowest speed I could stay up at, but then I got up and discovered just how much drag and resistance to turning it had. First ski I've ever ridden that pulled me onto my front foot. Gave me a whole lot more appreciation for what I ride today (Goode 9700) and even the 70's Ski Tech combo's, O'Brien World Team, and various EP's that I learned on.

Had a beaut of an OTF and got hit in the head with the ski after it released. As with all of the best falls, of course, there was no camera in the boat :/

I feel like this begs the question of how your edge change affects your relative weight position going into the turn and how this shifts while turning. The snow skiing reference reminds me of how the speed of a snow ski edge change affects your position, if you really ram your edges over you can end up way back because of how the skis behave on 0 edges, whereas a smoother transition from 2 edges to 4 to 2 keeps you relatively the same, how does this apply on a water ski? Wouldn't you end up more forward in a smooth edge change because of increased surface area, thereby making an aggressive edge change easier to maintain proper stacked position on?