DangerBoy

@Cnewbert I don't know if addicts are born so much as snared but whatever term you use it's a great thing to have an enabler/ski buddy (and a driver possibly?) as a life partner. How convenient and easy is that?! You're one of the lucky ones. ;)

Update on the cataract surgery: I am doing quite well adapting to the new lens that was put in my right eye back on June 24th and today the same type of lens was implanted in my left eye. My vision is great at all distances in my right eye and things are starting off really well with the left. A few hours after I had the first (right) one put in, I could only see shapes and areas or blobs of light, dark and color. No detail at all. The eye test I had about an hour or so after the first surgery said my vision in the treated eye was 20/140 or so. Very poor. By the next day, things had improved quite a bit from that but my vision was not all that great. This time, I can see much better through the new lens right off the bat. Things are still a bit hazy and of course I'm getting double imaging because my brain doesn't know what to look at and what to filter out so it looks at everything that's coming through that left lens but I can see much more detail and much clearer with that eye than I could right after the right eye was done. Proof of this was that I tested at 20/40 on the test they gave me 1.5 hours or so after the surgery today. That's way better than 20/140. While I was in the testing room today, I had them retest my right eye to see where things were at. I read the 20/20 chart 100% and it was easy. I asked them to put up the 20/15 chart because I think I could've read it too but they don't have a chart for better vision than 20/20! So based on that, I can say that I have at least 20/20 in my right eye but there's a good chance it could be better than that. According to my Doctor, my vision should still continue to improve for up to a year after surgery. That makes me very optimistic. :) As for the near vision in my right eye, I see very clearly and with great detail at about 20 cm or 8 inches. I'm told that's very unusual and that I'm a bit of an outlier in that regard. I'm told that normal for that lens is about a minimum of 30 - 40 cm (~12" - 16"). So it seems I'm very fortunate in that I may have picked the ideal lens for my eyes but we'll have to wait and see if things turn out as well with my left eye. It was always the weaker of the two but I don't know by how much or why. I had such good vision without glasses when I was young I never bothered to get tested so I don't know how good my vision actually was in either of my eyes at any point in my life prior to being tested at the cataract clinic earlier this year at age 58.5. By that time, my vision was pretty bad in both eyes due to the cataracts. At the outset of this adventure, I set "my aim" (or what I wanted) at 20/15 in at least one eye and the other one no worse than 20/20 as a best case scenario and I had hoped that at worst I'd be at 20/20 in both eyes. I also wanted near field vision to 20 cm or less so I could thread needles or more importantly fly hooks without aid of magnifiers/reading glasses. Also, my goal was to not ever need glasses for anything - not even reading glasses/magnifiers. I set the bar for complete success very high. We'll have to see how things go with this left eye but if it goes anywhere near as well as it has so far with the right, I just may achieve one of those targets. Wouldn't that be a splendid result! ??

What can you say? She's simply incredible. And she's doing that at 34 mph. I ski at 31. At 34, I can turn my ski but I don't have the power or ability to make much of a cut at all. She just cranks that ski around the buoy so easily. And that scrappy pass she made in the subject video? Unbelievable! What athleticism and ability! I'm in awe. :o

Winning both jumping and slalom at the same time is pretty tough isn't it? I mean, slalom tends to favor taller guys but doesn't jumping typically favor shorter people? I'm assuming it does mainly because Jaret Llewellyn is only about 5'6" but other than that fact I'm not sure if it's fair to say that jumping generally favors shorter people over taller ones. At any rate, if taller people tend to do better than shorter people in slalom, generally, and if shorter people tend to do better than taller people in jumping, generally, then for Carl to be able to win both events concurrently and that he's the only one that's ever done it would really speak to his extraordinary talent and ability.

The thing that really bugs me about that poster is that I can't cut that well on either side when holding the handle in the correct hand. :(

Apparently, he had/has quite a sense of humor to go along with all that ability. Saw this poster for sale on eBay a while back... :D

@oldjeep I bought the binding new but cheap on SIA last year or the year before. Only used it for the first time near the end of last summer. As such, I'm guessing that O'Brien would not be willing to offer me any warranty support on that binding. I'm on my summer holidays right now out at my cabin. It's about a one hour drive one way to the nearest town where I would have a decent selection of glues so I went with what I had on hand. That left me with a choice of either Marine Goop, JB Weld and Kwik Weld, Gorilla Glue, regular and 5 min epoxy and an expensive 3M Neoprene and gasket adhesive called 3M 1300. I have used the 3M 1300 on a few things before and it's worked really well so I went with that one. So far, it seems to have been a good choice. It did a good job of bonding the parts together and is holding up very well after a few skis. We'll just have to wait and see how it holds up over the long term. Thanks to all who offered suggestions. It is much appreciated.

Attached is a photo of an O'brien prodigy binding/boot that I've only used about 10 times or so. You can see that the upper part is starting to separate from the base at the toe. I was wondering what glue would be best to repair that with. I was hoping someone ( @AdamCord? ) might know what the material is and what adhesive might bond to it well. Hot glue gun maybe? Does anyone know if that problem was common on those bindings or am I just unlucky and got a rare one that failed like that?

@lpskier That's interesting to know. This baby is going up somewhere on a wall in my cabin this summer so I doubt I'll ever be needing replacement rubber but it's good to know it's still available if needed. I didn't know the company still existed.

Thanks for clearing that up @"Pat M". Most adjustable bindings of that day slid the heel piece and not the toe piece but a sliding toe piece seems to make more sense in terms of keeping the center of gravity constant. Was the sliding toe piece a Maharajah innovation or had other ski companies done that before? This ski is from about 1974.

@ski6jones Possibly. Here's a close-up of the front binding. The toe piece does appear to be the part you slide to adjust the size. I didn't notice that the toe piece slid and not the heel piece. I thought people didn't start making bindings that adjusted that way until later on. Hopefully, there's someone here who had one of these skis back in the day and can verify your theory or tell us otherwise.

I just picked up a nice old wood Maharajah ski for my collection. I posted about it in my "Show off your Vintage Skis" thread. The ski has this little yellow plastic wheel thingy mounted on it just above the front binding toe piece. The name Maharajah is embossed in the upper surface of the wheel so I'm assuming it's original to the ski. I can't for the life of me figure out what its purpose is/was. Can somebody please enlighten me? I'm curious to know! ?

Score! Just picked this up today. Unbelievable deal. ?? I've been wanting to get a Maha in my collection for a long time. ? What is that little yellow wheel thingy mounted just above the front binding? It says Maherajah on it so it seems to be original to the ski. I have no idea what it was put there for. Does anybody know?

Just picked up this nearly mint pair of Sea Gliders which I think are from the 60s. They are in unbelievably good condition for their age. The graphics are great and absolutely pop. ??

I ski on a big public lake so the only time we get calm water to ski is first thing in the morning. Often we're on the dock at 7 am. For the last 30+ years it has been our longstanding tradition to finish off either sitting out on my friend's dock to enjoy the morning sun or sitting in his hot tub just off the beach to enjoy the bubbles. In either case, we do it while having a couple of coffee and Baileys. These are shots of me enjoying a post-ski coffee and Baileys. After we've had our coffee and Baileys, I will jump in my boat, head home, fire up some breaky and start my day. It's all very civilized you know. :*

@dazarovitz Back in 2006, I was still skiing on a 1987 or 88 HO Mach 1. I finally convinced myself that I should to get into this century so I bought a what was then state-of-the-art HO Monza. I found it quite different from what I was used to and couldn't really do anything on it on my first run. But after I made some adjustments to boot position, I got the ski to where I could get it to turn a lot easier and found the Monza was pretty forgiving and easy to ski on. It was then I started to fall in love with it. I was absolutely gobsmacked at the difference between the two skis and what a difference the Monza was making in my abilities. My skiing notched up several levels really quickly after the switch after having plateaued and staying pretty stagnant for a lot of years before. In hindsight, I was kicking myself for having stayed on the Mach 1 so long. I wholeheartedly recommend you relegate the old Short Line to a wall hanger and get something at least from this century. But get something that was high end with carbon fiber construction and at least a PVC core. Even if you just get something mid 2000s like an old Monza which you should be able to get pretty cheaply, it'll be light years ahead of what you're used to and your skiing ability will increase a lot. If you can swing a bit more cash, move up into something a bit more modern but the jump from something like a Monza to something a lot more modern will be relatively small compared to the jump you'll get from your old Short Line to the Monza. That jump represents a quantum leap in ski design and material technology.

@H2OWOOD that is a VERY impressive collection of wooden skis that you have. For how long have you been collecting them?

First eye gets done tomorrow afternoon. I could have gotten the other one done on July 22nd but that date interferes with the beginning of my summer vacay and water skiing. Water skiing comes first. Getting it done on Aug 19th instead. For those interested, I'll be blogging about the experience/journey on a blog I've set up at www.MySightStory.com. First post is already up. I'm very excited about what changes this will bring. Some images on my blog will give you an idea of what seeing through my eyes is like right now.

My ski buddy piling in on his Senate

I've noticed that traffic on our freeways and main traffic corridors has dropped off a lot lately which is kind of eerie but it also seems like maybe it's also a different kind of traffic? ...Hard to put describe why. It just seems different somehow... Maybe you can kinda see what I mean from this recent traffic-cam image taken along Deerfoot Trail which is one of my city's main freeways...

That one went for $90. Did anyone here get it? Another nice one has just come up on eBay. Looks like it's in pretty decent shape and the price is reasonable. $65 starting bid. $85 Buy it Now. Someone should grab it https://ebay.com/itm/223971186534

Cut 'n Jump Trickster Competitions in mint condition. From the early 70s I think? Only skied on twice for a very short period of time each time. The guy I bought them from said he bought them new thinking they'd be a heap 'o fun but they absolutely kicked his ass both times he tried them. To avoid serious injury, he gave up trying to ride them after the second attempt and never tried to ski on them again. He finally decided to sell them a few years ago and I gladly took them off his hands. They are in flawless condition.

This looks like it's in really nice shape and the price is definitely very reasonable. $65 US OBO plus shipping. Item located in Arkansas. Someone here should snag it before it's gone. https://ebay.com/itm/114163625836?ul_noapp=true

@liquid d And if the cocaine doesn't kill it you'll be high and won't care so it works either way. (At least until the cocaine wears off) ;)

Here's something else you all need to know. This comes from my ex-wife who is a 25 year experienced Respiratory Therapist in one of my city's major hospitals. She works right on the front line and directly with patients with respiratory issues. RTs are the ones in the hospital who run the ventilators and manage the patients' respiration in conjunction with the Doctors. They also work as part of the team in managing patients' treatment while in the wards post-ICU and then after they go home and receive long-term at-home management. She told me that some patients that survive the virus go home with significant damage to their respiratory functions that are likely permanent. She recently had a previously healthy 52 year old patient with no co-morbidities (e.g. not a smoker, no asthma or other respiratory issues) go home on a portable O2 tank and with severely damaged lungs. It's currently unknown if the patient will ever recover enough to where he/she will ever not need the portable O2 tank. Her best guess is the patient's outcome won't improve much over time but this is all new territory. :# Be vigalent, stay home, and be careful to not become infected.