Cnewbert

My only comment would be that tight is good, but excessively tight is not advisable. The outer skin of these suits is very fragile. If it takes too much effort to get one on, you run a greater risk of tearing them. Ours are in their 2nd season and in perfect shape, so with care they last just fine and they are great suits!

Not to mention he said he ran 100%… 51 out of 51… of his 39s this season. Who’s ever done anything like that before? Of course that means that with running 25 41s, he completed just a hair shy of 50% of every 41 pass he attempted. That’s other worldly. Yes, skis and boats have improved, but all his contemporaries have these same advantages yet no one is coming remotely close to what he is doing.

The O’Neil Fluid Neo is great. Very streamlined.

Ski at least 3x weekly. Ride my horses when not skiing. Enjoy the fact I don't have to mow grass every single day.

@klindy we missed that. We had a 2 hour drive to get home and left right after the men’s slalom. Smart solution though. I understand time was of the essence for the men’s jump final because of the lowering sun angle and west facing jump. I think the organizers did an amazing job managing the entire event so well with the many weather challenges they faced.

@klindy okay, thanks. I thought I saw TWBC display a screen graphic with Tgas in 2nd and Asher in 3rd. I appreciate the clarification.

I missed something: how was the men’s slalom 2nd place tie resolved? Last thing I remember was the discussion between Tony, Aaron and Rob on what would happen if Nate won, with Tgas and Asher tied in the final with 1 @ -41 and identical back up scores of 2 @ -41 in the prelim. I think it was Aaron who joked they’d flip a coin. Next thing I knew Nate won, Tgas was awarded 2nd and Asher 3rd, but no further explanation from the booth. What did I miss?

@jpwhit thanks! That is really interesting information.

@skiinxs since I have a ‘20 Prostar, I wouldn’t mind saving 30 lbs in the stern where the battery is located in these boats. That’s equal in weight to 5 gallons of gas. But I wouldn’t pay too much for the weight saving as the wake is perfectly fine with a full tank as is and 5 gallons is less than a quarter tank. I’m not sure I’d even notice a difference. Do you know if there are any cons to lithium starting batteries? Isn’t fire a concern with lithiums? I know I often had trouble with the airlines when packing lithiums in my baggage when I traveled during my career. And the charging of lithium batteries is strongly suspected of being the source of the dive boat fire tragedy off Santa Cruz Island that killed over 30 people in 2019. Maybe safety concerns are why they are not being used more than cost.

@Rednucleus if you lived in FL you’d realize that it’s the sound of an approaching motor that scares the alligators away. You might not be quite as anxious for a quiet electric boat! ?

@Mastercrafter @skihacker Earlier in this thread I went off topic a bit to express my loathing and contempt for the placement of my ‘20 Prostar’s seat back adjustment lever, inexplicably installed on the left side of the seat and projecting into a space narrow to begin with, virtually guaranteeing frequent, sharp, painful, expletive generating ankle cracks, whereas it could have easily been placed readily accessible but out harm producing way on the right side. After my ankle’s most recent excruciating encounter with this hard Bakelite lever, I finally had enough. Out of some old 7mm wetsuit material I fashioned this sleeve to fully encase the lever. I’ll still hit it often with my ankle when stepping in or out of this space, but now it is soft and spongy.

@503Kento neither did I! Or maybe I did when I first got my Ski Doc a year ago, but I've never removed the Ski Doc from my pylon since I first mounted it, so the adjustment screw would have been long forgotten even if I once knew about it. It's under the clamp and not readily visible. You will have to expand the clamp to get at it.

Such a bummer because we have had consistently superb weather and ski conditions in Central Florida through spring, summer and so far in October.

On & Off worked magic on some rust stains we had on our white gel coat resulting from water draining from the dripless shaft seal. It’s potent stuff though! Use carefully and protect your trailer.

This is the result of lubricating my Orbit with WD-40, loosening the tension screw slightly, and putting the clear plastic tubing I described above over the Orbit rope guides to try and improve its response to rope movement. The first photo is prior to any tinkering when I was nearly skiing out of frame at 1.4x even when not very high on the boat, and the second shot is from this morning after all the attempts at improvements. There has been a definite, though not wildly dramatic, improvement. I’m noticeably higher on the boat in today’s photo, yet still well in the frame at 1.4x. I doubt the improvement is enough to keep me in frame at 1.5x, but I’ll try that tomorrow I suppose. So bottom line, these things all helped to some degree and the result is better tracking. The only thing left I might try in the future would be a more precision rope guide extension than my first crude effort a while back. The goal, as before, is better tracking that will allow a greater zoom ratio without losing the skier at apex.

I am able to store quite a bit of useful things under the passenger seat of our '20 Prostar. 4 CGA life jackets (we ski on a public lake), two boat fenders, 4 docking lines, an anchor and anchor rope, a tool kit, an oil funnel and oil filter wrench, extra gloves, an extra tow rope and handle, mask, fins, snorkel and weight belt (for course buoy maintenance), a roll of paper towels, wet suit booties, a boat hook, the plexiglass air dam that slides in the walk through that I've never used (or whatever it's called), the Bimini supports and Bimini cover, fire extinguisher... what else... I'd have to go look, but there is still room to spare. We have the heater, and that takes up some under seat space. Without that there would even be more room. But if the boat has the MTS ballast system it will greatly reduce this under seat storage capacity. There's also a small under-deck storage bin in front of the doghouse where I keep 2 qts of oil. Since, like many, we never use our boat in an open bow configuration, there's ample space in the bow for all kinds of things. But if using it the open bow configuration in protected water, that space would obviously be lost. The port and starboard ski racks are awesome and leave the interior space of the Prostar more generous than the competing models.

So this is interesting: as mentioned above I sprayed the moving surfaces of my Orbit with WD. In the process I discovered the tension adjustment screw I may or may not have been aware of a year a ago when I put my Ski Doc on my pylon in the first place. So I loosened that screw a hair as well. The whole works seemed to operate more smoothly as a result. The two photos shown here include the original one I posted previously demonstrating how nearly out of frame I was at 1.4x. The second is from this morning after making these improvements on the Orbit’s movement. The camera orientation is identical in the two photos, as I keep the GoPro mount permanently affixed to the Orbit, along with index marks to confirm it hasn’t inadvertently moved. You can see in #2 that while I am actually higher on the boat than in #1, I am quite noticeably more within the frame. So it appears that these actions I took were successful. Soon I’ll see if I can increase the zoom to 1.5x without a problem. Regarding the other issue discussed of excess slop of the ski rope within the Orbit guides, as I looked at it more closely today I realized the gap was too great for heat shrink to make much of a dent. So I got some 9/16” OD / 3/8” ID clear plastic tubing. It slides down over the guides snuggly but without force. It takes up the bulk of the free play of the rope between the guides, theoretically making the response of the Orbit more immediate. I should know more tomorrow if it has a beneficial effect. Only after that will I give 1.5x a shot.

@swbca I also made an extension a while back. Mine were out about 6-8” farther than the Orbit guides. It didn’t improve things much, but perhaps it was too crude and had too much play of its own. I’ll be interested to know how your friend’s works. Maybe I’ll have to revisit that idea, only make it more precise next time.

@skierjp I’ve thought the very same thing. Just a little slop at that point will get magnified at the handle. I was thinking of sliding some heat shrink over the guides, maybe a few layers… however many it takes to snug up the rope between them so the Orbit will respond to the rope movement more quickly. Meanwhile, I removed my Orbit from my pylon for the first time in a year, so I could spray some WD between the moving parts. I noticed there is a tension adjustment screw I’d forgotten about or never knew about in the first place. It was probably covered in the instructions, but you know how that goes. So I loosened the tension a bit. The Orbit seems to be rotating smoother now, so I’m eager to see if it tracks a bit better as a result.

@swbca the skier should look the same size regardless of whether he is high on the boat or directly behind at CL, as his distance from the pylon mounted camera is determined by the rope length alone and that doesn’t change during the pass. I really can’t answer your other question without some knowledge of the phone camera used. Aspect ratio perhaps? I just don’t know honestly. I’m just showing what my GoPro looks like at 1.4x with the linear lens setting and why I can’t use a higher zoom ratio. Naturally I can look at my video frame by frame with the GoPro Quick app, and zoom in on anything I want a closer look at. I find this sufficient for my purposes. I do look forward to lubing my Orbit to see if that has any effect, possibly reducing the tracking lag a bit.

@MichaelWiebe I’m not quite sure which photo you are referring to, as the all ones I’m looking at only show a skier on one side only. I know my camera is perfectly aligned as I have put index marks on the mount to assure it’s not a skewed to one side or another one day to the next. I use the same set up as you minus the GPS speed trigger. My photo is a direct screen grab from the video without subsequent zooming, appearing full frame as shot at 1.4x.

@swbca It’s probably not useful to compare apples to oranges… a GoPro image vs a phone image. If you had a GoPro photo using the same lens setting and zoom ratio as mine, we could accurately compare the tracking between the two. My Orbit rotates to either side its full range, well beyond 90°. You can see I have actually quite a bit less slack in my rope than the skier in your photo, so I doubt excess slack is the issue with the tracking lag. But obviously if I used a zoom ratio any higher than 1.4x with the Linear lens setting I’d be out of frame at apex, or if my skiing improves and I get higher on the boat I’d be out of frame even at 1.4x. But there is definitely a degree of lag in the Orbit’s tracking such that the skier can get well out in front of the optical axis of the lens. No matter what, it will never keep the skier dead center, as the ski rope is not rigid and the Orbit uses the direction of the rope just inches in front of the pylon to rotate the camera. Maybe I’ll take the Ski Doc off and spray some WD-40 inside the workings and see if that doesn’t reduce the lag a bit. Considering the speed of a skier across the water it wouldn’t take much friction drag at the pylon to result it some tracking lag. One other project I intend to play with when I find the time is to modify the camera mount on the Orbit so the camera is centered directly over the rope and not sitting off to the side, creating parallax. One of these days…

GoPro Hero 9 on SkiDoc Orbit, Linear lens, 1.4x digital zoom, 28 off. If I were a better skier getting higher on the boat I’d be out of frame. Not sure of the result with a shorter line getting higher and wider. Maybe the two would offset and the skier would remain in frame at 1.4x. But certainly a greater zoom ratio (2x max with this camera) would not work unless somehow the camera could track the skier more directly.

@StrokerAB I suspect they may have moved the battery forward to reduce some weight in the stern. The farther aft in a boat the less bouncy it is, not more bouncy. Also, since they've increased the fuel capacity from 25 gallons to 30 gallons, and I assume the fuel tanks are still in the stern as with the previous Prostar incarnations, a full tank would add an additional 30 pounds of gas in the very back compared to a full 25 gallon tank. But since an Optima Blue Top battery (which mine came with) is 44 pounds, moving that forward results in 14 pounds less weight in the stern even with a full tank.

@Chris Rossi I only started water skiing 5 years ago, but I have 25 years of equestrian sports behind me. A great many horse clinicians have done very well by making and selling DVD packages of instructional video for various equestrian disciplines. 6-12 DVDs per set is not untypical. You and Trent do better than anyone in the business articulating the often complex 3-dimensional movements a skier must perform through various stages of a pass. But painting word pictures can be ambiguous at times and subject to a listener’s interpretation, and, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words… probably more when describing physical motion. I can only imagine how great an instructional DVD series produced by you guys with Radar would be. You could incorporate video footage of good examples, bad examples, high end skiing to more basic levels, slo-mo, actual speed, forward, reverse, stop action, overhead drone views, telestrator technology, zooming in and out, different line lengths and boat speeds… and on and on. And for skiers who pay $75 a set for 15 minutes of coaching, I’m sure you’d find a ready and eager market for a fairly priced, comprehensive instructional DVD package.