OscawanaSkier

My wife decided we needed to get both. She gets more kudos from my ski buddies than I do! Until this weekend, we’ve had chilly water all year, and the heated seat is a wonderful surprise when you take the helm.

@adamhcaldwell Your rear tow plate setup seems worth trying. Thanks for sharing! I would normally order an XL (size 12 shoe). Do I need to upsize, or order the Wiley spare parts (rear toe rubber and overlay) in order to move the rubber loop back on the plate and not have it be too tight to get my foot that far in? Also, will any old grip tape work (many available on Amazon it seems)? Thanks again!

@Mazda, I have the same reflex setup. While I don’t think I felt worse back pain after switching, I think the above comments likely hold your solution. I too only ski in certain bathing suits with low resistance (don’t catch water in the legs), press knees tight together (less resistance on legs), and use that core, not just the low back. In terms of exercises, Google “McGill Big 3”. Developed by researcher and doctor Stuart McGill up in Canada. I’ve read multiple testimonials from people who say if you do at least these 3 exercises (curl ups, side planks, bird-dog) EVERY day (it’s about 20min) your core will be in much better shape. To @9400 point, I’ve added gute bridges to my daily routine as well (again too much desk sitting) - big difference! I’ve been doing these 4 exercises for a month and have never felt stronger! One interesting thing - through his research he says planks held more than 10sec aren’t helpful. Better to do multiple reps of 10sec holds.

@skispray - interesting, that’s NOT a problem we had. Although I wish we did...my offside would have looked a whole lot better!

To fellow 17-19 TXi owners - anyone have software newer than “TXi v12-2017 V2”?

@VTskier is right, best results with a X (and likely Xs) is by using selfie-facing camera. Used mine that way all last season. If I remember correctly, the penalty is inability to zoom, and not as high of a frame rate. I purchased the Wakeye vibration plate last year but never ended up using it. Might try it this year to see if it solves issues.

I don’t think a $75K+ boat is where I want to teach myself proper winterization technique, especially up here in NY. I’m positive my local marina (or me, with research/training) could do a lot of the required work. My question was more about risk of invalidating the new boat’s factory warrantee (either Malibu or PCM).

I’ve been using the same on-lake marina for my boat service for years. Great service and easy because it’s right on our lake. Last year we purchased new TXi from dealer 45min away. We negotiated first year’s pick-up/drop-off/towing into price of boat - so used dealer all service last year. This year we’re picking up the dime, so wondered how important it is to keep using dealer for “regular” service. Is dealer service required for full PCM or Malibu warrantee coverage?

@UWSkier - “usual” towing will be less than 1mile of driving to gas up and splash in the lake beginning of season. Tried this in another Q5 - no problem! If I need to trailor to my dealer, it’s a 30mile drive on medium hills including 15miles of highway. Maybe ok in good weather and taking it very easy?? I would never consider driving the two GIANT hills near us with a Q5. The TXi would push me down the hill!

@ski6jones - I wish I could (don’t want to be surprised heading down the huge hill on my way to the gas station!) Malibu states dry weight as 3100lbs. Single-axle trailor adds 1080lbs so we’re up to roughly 4200lbs. Gas weighs about 6lbs per gallon, so another 240lbs for a full tank brings us up to roughly 4450lbs. So the big question is, how accurate is the “dry weight”? I’ve heard some manufacturers don’t include engine weight??? That could be another 800lbs. Not to mention gear, undrained bilge water, etc, etc. Short answer is - TXi is too heavy for the medium-sized SUV we were considering (Audi Q5) which has a max trailering weight of 4400lbs.

Wife and I are looking for a new tow vehicle. Has anyone actually weighed their 2017/18/19 TXi with the trailor (not just the dry weight). Bonus points if you also measured the tongue weight. Also, how many axels?

Really appreciate the insight. I’ll resist my ski buddies telling me to “just drop your hand” and focus my energy and concentration on improved body position.

So I always use the beginning of the season to make a big change in my skiing technique. For example, Seth told me to wait until spring to swap my goofy grip (which worked great). Now I’m wondering if this year I should force myself to drop a hand starting from pass #1 (I’ve always skied double-pawed). I have lots to work on (strength, body position...) so just wondering how important you guys think one-handed passes are to progress as a 15off skier.

@BraceMaker , yes R-Style. Agreed on the weight...not a deal-breaker at all. As I said...we’ll worth it.

Sounds great! @The_Krista , would Bojan be willing to share a sample workout video (maybe a partial of first one of the series)? I find that I connect with some instruction methods, and not others, so would be good to preview.

All we can do is share our opinions and experiences so anyone reading can make best decision possible. For my part, I took an OTF 5 years ago that resulted in a destroyed left ankle (surgeon called it a “9 out of 10”). Thought I might not ski again, but with encouragement and advice from pros like Seth Stisher and Mike Mosley, I was back at it 18months later, on top of an OB4 double boot system. Now I run a hybrid OB4/MOB front boot, with a Reflex rear. I find the Reflex rear gives much needed forward flex, and a much lighter weight ski. I’ve had one or two identical OTF’s since, with no hint of injury. Only injury I’ve had since was a small tweak when I fell while experimenting with a higher release pressure. +1 for just following Mike’s pressure settings. He’s got it right! Only things you need to know with the OB4/MOB system is that it is heavier than the others due to the metal plate (MOB’s new plate is somewhat better in this area), and the release mechanism does need occasional lubrication (once every outing for me). Small price to pay IMHO! Heal up @Orlando76 ! You’ll get there!

One additional thing to check: Last weekend driver seat heater wasn’t blowing air. I pulled the plastic bin behind the starboard bow seat to see if the hose had come loose. Sure enough it had. THEN also found out the motor box vent hose had also fallen off!! Two metal hose clamps later (factory had used plastic wire ties), and hoses were securely fastened. Can’t say for sure how much difference it made, but AIT seemed to be a bit lower today over yesterday. It certainly didn’t hurt. If you’re seeing high AIT’s double check your vent hoses behind both bow seats.

@jstaab3 Do you have pics of inside of motor box around billet? How much difference did that step make? How much plastic did you remove? Additional noise after removal? I took a close look at the billet today, but haven’t ventured down that road yet.

Oh, and skied people for 2 hrs continuously this morning and never went above 136F AIT. Starts were great and for once we were early up to speed on the tight end of our course. Huge difference.

For anyone who’s thinking of adding a blower, I was successfully able to control a 5amp blower through the touch panel, by disconnecting the motor box light (see below) and wiring in the blower instead. Turned on blower, all lights, and stereo loud for 20min and didn’t pop the 10A breaker. I don’t have tower or swim lights, so those might put the breaker over.

I kept looking through photos - seems like there might be additional fresh air paths to the motor box - perhaps between the hull and stringer (see large holes in photo below). Hopefully someone can confirm which is the intended fresh-air path.

In my conversations with Malibu, they're working on possible solutions, but the dealers are not in the loop yet. I don't have a schematic, but I have factory photos of my boat, which seem to show the path into the motor box. I'm not at my boat (maybe someone else can confirm) but I believe the two vents in front of the windshield are connected to two hoses that connect to the two round inlets below the deck (in yellow), but then the air seems to simply "duct" through the stringers back to the middle of the motor box (in red). Clearly not a direct path to the flame arrester at the front of the motor where the AIT senor is. @jstaab3 - where exactly are you getting your cool air supply from? Looks like you're running your hose to the port side - are you going to that port-side stringer entry half-way back on the motor?

@gt2003 Just got my first inboard this year too, so understand the learning curve. My biggest lesson was patience behind the wheel. A little hit of throttle and a cut of the wheel to one side - and then wait for the boat to slowly come around. I’ve found that less is often more with inboards.

When I asked Seth Stisher the same question after I realized I was holding the handle “goofy” he told me to wait until the beginning of the new season. Wasn’t worth the time lost mid-season, and switching is easy at beginning of season when muscles are still rebuilding getting in shape. Worked for me!

Been using latest Wakeye software with iPhone X all season, using the selfie camera. Very smooth, up to 120fps, however there’s no zoom with the selfie camera. BUT if you view it on your phone, you can easily pinch to zoom in (best place to review training videos IMHO). We find Wakeye’s convienence (turning on/off automatically) can’t be beat. Also, we’ve been using one camera, and simply using AirDrop at the end of the sets so my buddies can take home their videos. Super fast to transfer (way faster than downloading on to a computer and sharing via the cloud)