jercrane

Anyone have a source for extremely cheap buoys? Before you jump on me about “spend the money, prevent injury, etc” these will never be skied on. I need these for winter storage of a submerged Wallysinker course. I have a set of brand new super nice buoys on the course right now and I want to remove these at the end of the season, deflate and store to keep them super nice as long as possible. However I need buoys to swap in to the course before submerging for the long winter nap in Octoberish. Course has to have buoys on it to keep it off the lakebed and enable proper raising in spring. Three requirements. 1) must have exact buoyancy of an 7.875” high end buoy so the course sinks and floats properly 2) must be green, the darker the better to reduce visibility 3) durable enough to remain inflated in 40 degree water. They will be below ice level but probably only a foot or two below the ice. Miami Ski Nautique has poly form green for $7.99 but that’s still over $200 for all 26. I’ll do it if I have to but man if I could get that closer to $100 that sure would be nice. Also in past years those poly forms have lost air over the winter. So still not sure on those. Ideas?

Oh yeah this definitely looks like a better option. https://wileyski.com/stay-dry-drysuit/ Thanks @Rednucleus Side note. Someone needs to help Wiley’s with there Search engine optimization.

Anyone have any experience with Hammond drysuits? https://www.hammond-drysuits.co.uk/stx100-multi-purpose-dry-suit-adult-standard.html Brit based company. Trying to find a drysuit for my teen girls. Not many options. O’Neil Boost appears to no longer be made and even the extra small would be too big for them anyway at 5’1 and 5’2

What if you orient the magnets vertically (assuming discs) so when you pull the line to disconnect you are sheering the two magnets apart instead of pulling directly against the magnetic force direction. Per @Than_Bogan comments I really dig this and will be very interested to see the final results as we are in the same boat in NH and hooks are a bit of a pain.

My 15YO daughter just quit her Lacrosse club she has been involved with for about 3 years because their approach was all or nothing. They didn't explicitly say this but it was clear to her that If you weren't completely committed to getting recruited to a D1 school for lacrosse there was no place for you on the team. This meant no summer job, no social life, and demonstration of almost professional athlete commitment (nightly wall ball video submissions). She wants a summer job, wants to hang out with friends on the weekend and wants to be able to do things in the summer like go to a few random water ski tournament's. Water skiing is no different for her. She doesn't need/want to be the best, but she does desire growth and improvement over time. We have a hard time getting access to a slalom course. This means when she does get in a course it has often been 3-4 weeks since the last time. This unfortunately often means she's starting over each time and gains come very slowly. She's barely 5' tall and knows she's never going to be elite at the sport or really any sport but she really enjoys doing it. The organized competition aspect makes it more engaging and fun. Regular access to coaching, training and engagement with others is the key to her happiness in the sport ... any sport. She doesn't want a trophy. She just wants a place to have fun with a sport, get better on her terms and be a part of something. I completely agree with @Timr71 .

Someone at work just sent me a link to this because "I'm into water sking" http://www.solowatersports.com/ How is this company still in business? Looks like they shifted gears to Wakeboard focus. just wow ...

Nitrile gloves under regular gloves. Cooler with hot water in the boat for hands and feet when you finish set. We have also been known to use the hot water after a couple passes even. Generally the cold numb feet aren’t too much of a problem but numb hands make it pretty hard.

Hey folks I felt like this needed to be shared in here. @Luzz sent this to me in a DM and I found it to be a really great podcast. Honestly for anyone dealing with an injury in sport be it pro athlete or amateur. Definitely worth a listen when you get a chance. https://injuredathletesclub.com/2020/05/14/26-water-skier-and-coach-matteo-luzzeri-strength-through-support/ Off to go find a couple empty chairs now ...

Got my wife on the Butterknife this year too and its the first time she has proactively asked to ski when we go out as a family vs me talking her into it. It has been really fun. Especially while I've been sidelined. @Than_Bogan what about 3 big injuries? ... too stupid know better? cuz that describes me I guess :D

@Bruce_Butterfield ”very impressive for a girl” ??? Come on man! (Shaking my head) That was impressive for a human ... man or woman. What value does it serve to throw that ... “for a girl on that”. Sigh. Edit ... ok ok I read the rest of the comments. I see it was in jest. I’ll go have another beer :D

If anyone needed proof that 90% of what matters happens behind the boat and 10% happens at the ball this is it.

@skimtb pretty decent shape still. The rough edges at the cuts do grow a lot of algae so they are a little tricky to find in the spring after sitting all winter untouched. It shakes/scrubs off though.

This! https://www.instagram.com/p/CDoif5MhLj-/?igshid=18vquglk1r7ne Love this video so much

Ok sorry to keep pulling this thread up. Was going to ping a couple of you direct but then thought maybe others might want the info later. I’m two weeks post surgery today. I’m wondering how delicate this tendon repair is at this point. Surgeon already has me at neutral as he said I had very little tension in the tendon. I’ve always been pretty flexible. I’m being super careful not to actuate my foot or doing anything intentionally to stretch the tendon. Occasionally though I’ll like adjust my leg at night or something when I’m half asleep and get a little tug in the back of my ankle where the repair is. It’s not painful. I just feel a little pressure. Like slack coming out of a rope. This is all while fully secure in my boot and all that. Do I need to worry about these little tension events? Everyone keeps telling me how important it is to not stretch the tendon for the first 4 weeks. Am I being hyper sensitive or what? How fragile is this thing?

Depends if you have stitches still. If you do I would wait until those are out and maybe even give it another day or two after that for the stitch holes to close. Infection is the real risk and lake/pond water is not a clean environment. You DO NOT want an infection in that region.

Tonight we did dock starts for the first time. First try Second try Third try ... success!

@Andre not even remotely!

Well it has been a very painful (mentally) and slow couple of weeks on the sideline since my injury but I gotta say I am having a pretty good time getting out and driving the girls every night. We've been taking more time to just play on the water too. Pretty cool to see these two having fun together and not trying to tear each other apart for a few minutes. The younger one sure does like that she can spray big sis but not vice versa.

Honestly you only wasted the gas if you didn’t enjoy those passes over the past 15 years. There is literally no other reason to do this sport for anyone. No one. Pro, amateur, beginner. None of us. If you aren’t having fun a majority of the time, then yeah you are wasting the gas. Otherwise smile and appreciate the fact you get to partake in this ridiculous pastime. It’s the best! And I suck at it! Ps. Written from my hammock dreaming of 2021 and trying not to beat myself up too much.

I don’t know I’m only using this as a substitute for regular crutches and I am spending the vast majority of my day with leg elevated. It’s just for getting around the house. There’s no office for me to go to and I live in a house that is not really scooter compatible. I probably have this thing on my leg like 15 minutes a day in total right now. Fwiw I had no anchors placed and my surgeon said it was a very clean very straightforward tear. I have not seen the incision yet but he told me it’s only about 2 inches long. The tendon basically just tore inside the “sheath” and just stayed right there. I’m sure those are not the correct medical terms but that’s roughly how he explained. Will check out Tony Gentilcore thanks @vtmecheng

Just going to throw this in here in case anyone else comes across later. Surgery yesterday so now I’m hobbled for the next 1-2 months with no weight bearing. I ended up getting an iWalk crutch. It’s sort of like best of both worlds for crutches and knee scooters. So far I am a big fan. I’m pretty mobile at this point obviously won’t work when I start needing to do partial weight bearing but that’s a month away at least. https://iwalk-free.com/ Also sell on amazon.

@ScottScott yeah for sure. I’ve never really looked at a MOB IRL. I dismissed originally due to bolt on plate approach but I will revisit for sure. Not meaning to imply it’s a hack and not well designed. If I have any take away for anyone it would be to test your release mechanism regularly. Stand on your swim platform with front foot in and try to run forward while pushing knee down and lifting heal. It should fairly easily eject. There’s a video kicking around somewhere on here of @Horton demonstrating this. I had not done this in a long time. Who knows whether it would have prevented this or not. Doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. Time to heal and dream of someday getting that full pass at green and maybe someday get into blue even. :)

@ScottScott I was on Reflex Super Shell 3.0 with the 840 release. Tension is set at 4.0 and I weigh 165ish. Its my third season on the reflex and honestly I've done what I did multiple times before and had it release just fine. Could be I need to lubricate the springs? or it could simply be I had just enough angular loading that the spring didn't release quite right. It's an inherently dangerous sport and there is no binding that can completely eliminate all injuries. I know folks that swear by the MOB system and I'll certainly check it out. I just always shy away from systems that feel like I'm hacking things together. Not that the release mechanism is a hack but you have to bolt things to your shell etc. I like systems that are holistic in engineering design intent. I'm still gonna check out MOB for next year. Or I may just turn my release down and be ok with a few prereleases. I'm not going for world records or anything.

@davemac a good Sports minded PT within 30 minutes of Squam would be amazing if you have any recs. Most of the PT clinics in this area are focused on occupational therapy and senior mobility. I’m not ready for that yet. ?

Thanks fellas I appreciate. @Luzz thats the playbook and guidance I am looking for thank you! Your approach aligns exactly with how I am thinking about things. My short term goal is to be chill snow skiing One thing that is going to be complicated for me is PT. We are living up in NH and have been since March to hide out from Covid. I have a good surgeon I know up here actually but no clue on PT. In Boston where we live normally I have lots of options. Maybe I can find someone doing telemed PT and I’ll just suck it up and buy a bunch of bands and small weights etc. Along those lines anyone know a PT they might recommend that knows waterskiing? Maybe they would be open to telemed and that opens my options to pretty much anyone. @Andre I already have an affinity for craft beers ... uh oh :#