jercrane

@Chef23 Nope we're going to make Dube's our first and then hopefully hit VT tournament the following weekend if schedule works out.

pffft He's clearly looking right at 2 ball. There's no way he's going to make that. Needs to get his eyes down course. :D < /sarcasm >

Just registered her for her first tournament! Also registered for my first in 24 years! :#

Are you guys just on a mission to make people like me that bought new 200s feel terrible about that purchase? :D

@mknippen bummer

We use those bullet fenders around the bracket and I slide clear braided nylon pipe from home depot over the pipe. It’s the stuff you get in the plumbing section that is flexible and rubbery. Just have to match the ID of nylon pipe to the OD of your dock pipe. It’s money. Result

Thanks all ... great advice. Going to drop her down to 21 on Friday morning when we pull the course up and register for some tournaments today! Will throw the old Concept in the boat too just in case the 62" is sitting too low. I knew I kept that ski around for a good reason.

@Bruce_Butterfield interesting ... I have her on a 62" Connelly Prodigy right now but I have an older 65" Concept in the ski locker. You think that would be a better ski and then put her out at long line and drop speed to maybe 21? I mostly went with 25mph because that's what Jodi was skiing her at down there.

@Than_Bogan well maybe that's my problem. I've seen too many of her gymnastics meets. Thanks that is great advice. Probably just need to do it ... both of us. :#

@dvskier I've had her down to Jodi's Ski Skool twice now. He was fantastic with both my girls. He's the one that got her skiing the course to begin with. Learning to slalom is not really the issue. It's learning to ski in a tournament and go through all the motions of how things work in that setting. @Jordan for sure. I have zero expectations, only hopes and dreams and those are simply that she has fun and finds as much joy in it as I do. I learned a long time ago trying to teach them to alpine ski that Dads shouldn't coach. :)

My 14 YO daughter is really interested in skiing a(some) tournament(s) this summer. I'm trying to figure out the best way to support this desire while simultaneously avoiding her getting overwhelmed and feeling defeated. She is not the most "gritty" kid, meaning she is easily defeated by failure. My worst nightmare is I take her to her first tournament, she misses ball 1 on her first pass, and quits skiing altogether. I know that scenario is unlikely but that is way too high a cost. She's a very athletic kid (gymnastics since age 2) and skiing pretty well these days but not like off the charts or anything. She's very close to getting the full pass at 25mph/15off. I haven't wanted to go any slower than this as the wake just seems enormous to me (SN 200). She is a pretty small for her age. Like 5 foot nothing and 90 pounds. Considered going to long line but haven't as I usually don't even have that section in the boat. She crushes the mini course with absolutely no problem and can get the full pass at 25 with a couple speed assists here and there. I'm hopeful that in the next couple weeks she will get the full pass with no speed assist but I know that doesn't mean she's going to get that in a tournament setting. How do I get her into this without screwing it up? Also how much coaching typically happens for kids at local tournaments? The last time I skied a tournament it was a collegiate tournament in the mid 90's and I remember getting yelled at by the driver because I didn't stand on the correct side of the dock waiting for my set. I really want her to have a great first experience where she can learn the ropes a bit and know that its ok to not have a clue how the whole thing works. We are in NH and there's a couple tournaments near by over the next couple months. Wolfboro and Dube's. Maybe folks have experience with which might be better for a kid? I believe Dube's is a "grassroots" tournament? Of course Dube's is a pretty tight course which might add some stress??? I'm probably doing that overly stressed dad thing nd should just chill and just let her jump in but any advice and guidance would be great.

@Horton what are "the right words"? I've spent the better part of this season trying to bring my hips up and its not working. I keep thinking the hips are a symptom not a root cause but I'm struggling to get to the root cause. I'm also a terrible backfooter but that also feels like a symptom and response to some other bad thing I am doing. "Get forward" "hips up" "stacked" All these things sound easy enough but when I attempt to execute what I think it means in general very bad things happen. "Get forward" ... I end up breaking at the waist or going OTF "hips up" ... I end up on my tail and get dragged down course "stacked" ... also puts me on the back foot I seem to have far less of an issue with my offside with these things oddly enough.

#4 is my huckleberry

I talked to tech at Nautique. There is actually a calibration adjustment on the back of the gauge. They said to switch tweak that with a screwdriver one notch to knock down the analog gauge slightly. Also he confirmed as I suspected and as everyone implied the ZO reading is pretty close to dead on. @scoke dislike because of the obnoxious ad hominem comment at the end. You provide a bunch of great perspective and info and then insult the reader ("worries about petty stuff") at the end for little to no reason. Great info ... crappy attitude.

@TEL oh for sure but that entails pulling the boat, taking to dealer, waiting for them to assess, order parts, slot in their schedule, and then do the work. All the while I am boatless as the season is just getting good and the water is finally a respectable 70ish degrees. If I can do the work myself at night in my boat house I generally prefer to go that route.

I have a 2018 Ski Nautique 200 with 6.0L engine and about 105 hours on it. It's a base model so it has the analog cluster which I personally prefer. I've noticed that this season the tach is running high on the analog cluster. Comparing to the RPM reading on the ZO in rec mode... Runs about 3550 rpm at 34.2 mph on the ZO Tach reads just over 4000 rpm at same speed Also the analog tach basically pegs at 40mph while the ZO is in a reasonable 4800-4900 range I am of course assuming the ZO is more accurate than the analog cluster. If that is the case is there a way to calibrate the Tach? or do I just have a bum head unit that I should replace. Its a not a big deal but I like to keep an eye on my RPMs and when ZO is in comp mode I feel like I'm flying blind a bit.

@mknippen DM your email address and I will add you to a Dropbox folder for you to dump them in. I can then load them to a Youtube or Wistia account for public consumption.

@Jody_Seal @MalaysianBaller no I couldn’t find them. All I can find is more advanced videos and pro stuff on YouTube. I really like these videos because they were a great beginner progression. Just picked up a trick ski this summer and was going to start teaching my self. Oh well

Someone needs to tell Sacha to smile more. :D It’s supposed to be fun!

oh man it looks like the original videos from this thread have been taken down. Does anyone by any chance have copies or a mirror?

Ooooh is this an opportunity to bring the warm water vs cold water debate back to the table? :D

That has to be the worst ramp in America for so many reasons.

I was in a hurry the other day and forgot to pull my gloves out of the step box in the Nautique after my last set. 4 days later I pull them out and holy moses. I skied with them this morning but man I’m not sure I’ll ever wash the funk out of my hands now. Anyone have any secrets to getting the funk out of a pair of gloves once you have failed at the preventative measures? They are in way too good a shape still to just replace them.

That notch strikes me as an odd design. I've never installed inserts in a water ski but I have installed hundreds in alpine snow skis. I use these https://www.bindingfreedom.com/insert/ The slot in top of those is for an insert tool to slot in or a screw driver. https://www.bindingfreedom.com/insert-installation-tool/ The bottom of the insert is closed and provides more surface area for the epoxy to adhere to without effecting the machine screw that screws into the insert. Obviously a lot less load on a waterski screw so maybe this is easier and cheaper. I just feel like I'd constantly be battling with epoxy interference.

Just gotta put a plug in here for any folks that are relative slalom novices like me that read my previous comments on this thread. I think I finally found a really good spot to work from on the Whisper Fin but more importantly @SkiJay went way way above and beyond helping me sort out a few things and providing me with a bunch of help evaluating my skiing to understand my struggles. I feel like I'm on the verge of a big breakthrough now. Pretty exciting. I can't recommend @SkiJay 's Evaluation programs enough. https://finwhispering.com/product/stage-i-personalized-setup-feedback/ All I want to do is ski right now. Not great for my motivation at work but hey can't blame anyone else for that!