tjs1295

Hi Pete, I can give you a perspective from a recreational skier/boater. I've spent all 43 summers of my life in northern WI, so am very familiar with Hydrodyne and Dyna-Ski. I have always loved the boats. Around 2010 or so, I almost bought an older Hydrodyne before I bought our 1994 Ski Nautique in 2013. It was a pretty beat up boat with an older engine. I did test drive it, and the main thing I noticed was how shallow it was, and it didn't like waves much. I'll describe how we use a boat. It spends all summer on a lift, on a public chain of lakes. We pretty much just slalom early in the morning. Later in the day we sometimes go for boat rides. Additional family members use the boat as well for other watersports activities. None of us are very good or ever will be, but we have a ton of fun trying. Here are some of the things I like about our inboard. A decent wake. I like the tracking. Even though I don't need it for course skiing, it still feels nice. The boarding platform. I grew up with an inboard/outboard so I know you don't need it to teach, but it sure is convenient. The throttle and steering are so smooth (even on a 1994). I don't have speed control, and honestly don't think I will ever need it. I don't think our boat is great in rough water, but I sure don't want something that would be worse (no idea how the Dyna-Ski compares here). Sometimes we have to go through waves to get to the calm side. Or lots of boat waves when we're out people watching. I think outboards provide a lot of benefits. I absolutely would buy a Dyna-Ski, and thought about it a lot. The main reason I didn't is because there doesn't seem to be much of a used market, and I wasn't (and might never be) in the position to buy new. After all, we boat in northern WI where the season is insanely short.

What do you mean the south? I thought Beloit is the south!! Driving to work yesterday morning the temp got to 7 below zero at one point. The entire 31 mile drive was below zero. Gotta have more than one hobby up here. I've been skiing like crazy since December. My V2 technique has never been stronger. Solid or liquid H2O, it's all a blast.

Joel hit the nail on the head as far as northern WI lakes. Especially the part about finding a lake with multiple shoreline options depending on the wind. I'm on Cranberry Lake (eagle chain) about 50-60 days between May and September, and I rarely see anyone else skiing before 10 AM. Usually it's high noon before anyone heads out. But when they do, they do! I've given up on trying to ski in the afternoon/evening. It rarely works. You can ski, just don't expect great water. But cruising the chain is fun for people/boat/boat house watching. The other thing that has been hard to predict is when the chain is busy. There are some weekends I think will be crazy, and no one is around. Then I will be around on a random Wednesday, and it's really busy. But the one constant has been almost no ski traffic well into late morning. Might have something to do with the fact that the temperature is usually in the 50's or 60's???? Not sure.

What part of Wisconsin? If you're looking at the northern part (Eagle River area in particular), I might have a couple suggestions.

Incredible looking food! I've used amazingribs.com for years as well. Learned as much there about smoking (food that is) as I do here about skiing.

Hey guys, first post here. I have some observations from northern Wisconsin. I agree with Joel, when earlier he stated you either have the bug, or you don't. My observation is kind of the opposite. Meaning that I'm surprised anyone age 25-45 (I'm 42, wife 40) is out on the water with a boat doing anything. How do casual water sports fans do it? As stated previously, the youth sports seasons are never ending, we spend a small fortune on phones/television/internet/cars/gas, and every household has everyone working. I think for the average family the start up costs are still overwhelming, even if you do it cheap. We went the cheap/used route, and it's still a decent commitment with ongoing costs. Then you need a place to store the boat (at least in places where the water freezes). My wife and I have taken multiple people from the area out boating and/or skiing. A few actually loved it, but there is no way they would ever consider buying a boat and using it themselves. Our boat is about 1 hour 15 min from where we live, and work. You'd be surprised how many people think that's about the same as driving to Alaska. There are lakes all around where we live as well, but I don't know anyone who water skis locally. I grew up on lakes, learned to water ski at a young age, and absolutely love everything there is about being out on the water in a boat. That being said, there's no way I would spend the time, and money on a boat if I couldn't keep it on a lift at the lake. We actually owned the house on the lake for 8 years before we bought a boat in 2013 (1994 Ski Nautique). The main reason is that I have to use something in order to justify getting it. Plus it was only my wife and I, so water skiing was out of the question (need 3 to ski in WI). It would have been torture to have a boat and not be able to ski very much. Wife never spent time on boats growing up either. Once my brother's kids got older (who live where the boat is) we got one. They all ski, but have too many sports all Summer long to get out that much. They seem indifferent to it anyway. Well, those are my observations from a place where at times it appears there's more water acreage than land acreage.