SkiBeKaus

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We only get to pick one? Too hard to choose from the list.Can I pick one skill I'm doing well?... wait, nevermind.

@Cooper_Trelawney are you talking financial help? Haha. Maybe if I win the lottery one day.Looks like the dream to live out there, and less than an hour from my work. Someone will be very happy living there - looks beautiful!

93 octane would’ve prevented that…

What brand FAE is that? @One_Ski Any observations on wake and performance impact? Worth the money? Primary motivation? I know there is a thread or two on this already; have the same boat year & model, so I figured worth asking.

Hold up, are y’all telling me that color has no indication of how hard a ski rips? Black always means hardest in snow skiing.

Grew up skiing and fishing the San Bernard and Brazos rivers in Texas. Both see barge traffic and I’m sure fall within that waterway classification. Not sure how long that law has been active in Texas, but of all the times a coast guard or local authority boat has stopped us on either river for an inspection (yes, sometimes cutting someone’s ski run off), the kill switch has never once been brought up. Your mileage may vary, especially since it’ll be a newly enacted law for many locations. Maybe some will blow it off unless people are being overly wreckless, maybe some will enact it hard as a show of no-nonsense, but I’d think it’d be pretty difficult to enforce. All I can hope for is that your local authorities are as service-first minded as I’ve experienced on our waterways. For the most part, my experience is that they are very professional, friendly, and courteous (even if they don’t seem to understand how frustrating it is to be stopped in the middle of a ski run).

Can’t help you too much on binding size. Go with what feels best to you since you have wakeboard experience and you should be good. Don’t want to be too tight, but too big is much worse (my opinion, not fact) since it limits your control over the ski. As for tightening the laces, I’m assuming you did that in the store just to see if you could make it work, but just in case: don’t overdo it (practically fact, not my opinion). Binding should be snug at most. For the most part, gravity pulling you down into the ski and water forcing it into your foot during a cut will keep it secure on your feet and sliding around, so no need to overtighten for that reason. When you crash, you may end up in a position where that ski is dragging in the water in the opposite way that your body wants to. Good way to sprain an ankle or do even worse to your leg. You should always be able to come out of the binding in a crash. If you put your ski on and can’t remove your foot on the platform without loosening it, it’s too tight. I know a few who advocate for wanting both feet to stay in or no feet to stay in. If both are in, your body stays more together and supported and the force is shared by both legs. If neither is in, then no force from the ski is transferred to your feet. Maybe not a shared opinion by everybody, but good rule of thumb in my book, and impacts the way I view binding safety for those who use double bindings vs a rear kicker. Plenty of threads on this site about binding tightness and injuries from not coming out in crashes. Good luck!

I actually think done right it can be kinda nice: Saw a an older model ski boat a few years ago (think it was a Malibu) that had a 3rd party tower fitted to it. Stayed off the boat most of the time for course skiing, but could be attached on somehow (maybe lightweight or lowered with a winch), and fat sacks + a few beer guts provided enough weight for recreational wakesurfing and boarding. If the tower is heavy or limits short-line skiers with rope interference (will never be an issue for me, but you never know about your guests), it should to have some method of removing it temporarily. At least that’s my opinion.

I always thought one goal of skiing was to minimize the differences between our onside and offside; its always those skiers I enjoy watching most, but maybe I put too much value in learning from the 0.1% @Bruce_Butterfield guess I'll stick to rotating my back foot and start looking for where I can capitalize on strengths on either edge of the ski. I would gladly post video if I could find a place to ski. Likely won't have another opportunity until late August, and the only video I have is on my Uncles ski with double bindings (I use a rtp) while recovering from an ankle sprain. Safe to say it doesn't accurately depict my skiing unfortunately. @TheBigHead PT sounds expensive, but I will definitely have to look into resources to try to self-diagnose and make what improvements I can. As always, thank you for the advice!

Hmm, I absolutely love my green 41s. Then again, they’re the only gloves I’ve ever owned. if they work and I don’t know what I’m missing out on, I can’t be mad, so here’s to ignorance. (Ignorance also being heavily influenced by finance). Or maybe it’s perspective of what different level skiers need, me being on the low end.

Dry fitting my binding today to get a new perspective on my stance, I noticed that due to how duck footed I am (my feet point excessively outward when my knees face forward), my hips must not square up to the ski well. My guess is that with my back foot in a rtp, the back foot rotates to compensate and my hips open up to the boat quite a bit on my onside, and don't quite square up to the ski on my offside. I lack a stacked stance on my offside as I bend at my hips too much which I'm guessing is in part due to this. Trying my uncle's ski with double bindings, I noticed that while my hips are forced to be more square to the ski allowing my upper body to do more of the work in opening my shoulders up to the boat, but I loose a significant amount of mobility, ability to bend the knees, and control over my stance as my knees both bend inwards together, and it's a lot harder to stay on my front foot on offside turns. For reference, when I squat at the gym, I have to point my toes out so that my knees can bend straight forward. If I try to keep my feet parallel, I can't go nearly as low as my knees start to come together in a very weak and flexibly limited stance. Current PB (no tournaments) is at 36mph and I feel in control, but know that this is an issue in technique that will limit me later if I don't solve it soon. Anyone else overcome this? Do you just live with buying rotatable bindings to angle outward (seems like a serious compromise that no hardshell can accommodate as far as I know)? Do you use double boots and ski long enough to force yourself to adjust? Corrective exercises? Sorry if there is a previous thread on this, as I couldn't find any. Looking forward to your advice! -Mitch

@OldboyII no worries. Any and all info is welcome to me to help me decide on a new binding. Seems like the MOB is the safest option (which is my no. 1 consideration) Unfortunately it’s also out of my budget as a college student (I have access to a lower priced, but still new reflex). Not 100% sure, but I am leaning towards reflex for now and will likely upgrade to MOB once out of college. That’s very impressive @mmosley899 to ski for 20yrs on your design with no injuries, and I’ll be very likely looking you up in the future for my next setup. Thank all of y’all for your input! It means a lot to get insightful feedback from such an awesome community.

Thank y’all so much for your input. That’s actually what I did wrong with a ho animal on my first sprain @Ski_Dad - last sprain I didn’t tighten at all for that reason and came only half out (my boots the right size, maybe I just have weak feet).

Hi. I'm kinda a long time visitor to some of the discussions and this is my first post, so I'm sorry if this is a overpopulated topic or a not so acceptable use of the forum, in which case I'll learn better for the future. I just figure before I invest money in a new binding setup, I'd be stupid to not at least try to reach out to some clearly knowledgeable people for advice. I'm looking into getting a new binding setup to hopefully prevent future ankle sprains and injuries. I'm mainly considering either a reflex and rtp or double wileys (these are what two people recommended to me), and greatly appreciate any advice from y'all if you're willing to offer it. (If this is not a good use of this forum, please let me know and I will do whatever I can to rectify it if possible) A little background info if it helps: I currently ski a 66" vapor lithium (5'11", 155lbs) with a vector front and wiley rtp and have become rather comfortable running 34 mph (my only two times trying 36, I got 4 buoys each) (no tournament scores, so no official PB), and with my rather limited access to course skiing (pretty non-existent this summer), I know I could be running into 22 or even 28 off soon given the opportunity for more practice. I've had two ankle sprains, both on offside (LFF) 4 ball turns (one overturned [on a community ski] and the other I was working on looking to the next buoy sooner and hit the one in front of me, both times resulting in the ski dragging the water behind me, a situation I'm confident a reflex would've released; And after the second sprain, I know that I need to change something to ensure that I either keep both or no feet in. I know bindings are to be considered the last line of defense against injury as smart skiing and not pushing it when your already behind is the best method, but I can't deny that occasionally, crap happens and I get dumb; But I'm usually pretty good about backing out of, or circumventing a bad situation. I also realize there is no perfect setup for preventing injury (other than staying on the dock). I know the release mechanics of wiley and reflex, and I know that some consider reflex to be only for extreme short-line skiing and some don't. As a fan of the rear kicker, I'm more than willing to do the maintenance and regular release test with a reflex (thanks to Mr. Horton for making demonstrating very valuable info). I know switching to doubles or reflex will take a transition period, but I also know that I need to change something for the sake of my ankle. Sorry for the long post (holly crap I'm sorry, just want to include as much detail that might potentially help), and thanks in advance for any advice y'all are willing to offer! I greatly appreciate any help and advice y'all provide. -Mitch