DangerBoy

This site is in English and it gives you the up-to-date stats for each country plus charts for the world stats. https://worldometers.info/coronavirus/ The stats for Italy and Spain are staggering. I fear they could be even worse for the USA. With the lack of testing that has been done or that was being done, I fear the numbers reported here for existing cases in the USA are way under-reported. I don't want to be perceived as bragging or anything because I'm very concerned about what will happen on our continent and on our planet but comparatively speaking, Canada has done a much better job of testing and handling the crisis and keeping the numbers of cases down. As of today, USA has roughly 22 times the total number of cases and a little more than 24 times the number of deaths Canada has had. US population is only 10 times Canada's so on a per-capita basis, the USA is a little more than twice as hard hit as Canada when it comes to total number of cases and number of deaths from COVID-19. Factor in the fact that the USA has tens of millions of people without health insurance and you've got a potential recipe for a disaster brewing there. Let's hope not. :s If you look at the charts showing the total number of cases and total number of deaths for the world you'll see the curve is following that of exponential growth. If you click on the country's names in the table, you will get to a page where you can see a time graph of the number of cases in that country. Shockingly, USA's and Canada's curves are steeper than either Italy's or Spain's right now. If the numbers keep trending the way they are, things could get right out of hand really fast in both Canada and the US. Time will tell if all of the extra testing and earlier measures we took in Canada will make much of a difference in the end. It may just be that this virus is going to go through the entire population before we can develop a vaccine to stop it. I guess the object then is to extend the period of time all those infections take place over (Flatten the curve) and keep the total level of active cases going at any one time below the level which would overwhelm the health care system. Maybe that's just the best we can do. :s

Shuswap Lake, B.C. Canada I wish it was always this calm.

@BraceMaker Good old ave? Not sure what you mean.

Went for my first assessment today. Turns out my cataracts are quite bad. The Doc said it was surprising how bad they were for a guy my age. I always say, if you're going to do something, do it well and be the best at it. ;) It seems none of the doctors around here install the accommodating Bausch & Laumb Chrystalens AO anymore so my choices will likely be limited to a monofocal or choosing between a couple brands of trifocals. Probably will do the trifocals. Looks like my choice there comes down to either the Alcon Panoptix Acrysof IQ or the Bausch & Laumb FineVision IOLs.

My toilet is right next to a bathtub and shower and a sink like most people's so I'm not worried about running out of poop tickets. I took a different approach to preparing for the long self isolation period.

I'm 58 and up until a week or two ago, I had never been to an eye doctor or optometrist. I had great vision in all ranges and any kind of light up until somewhere in my 40s and never needed glasses for anything. Then, in my 40s, presbyopia started kicking in. That's where the lenses in your eyes start to harden and you start losing your near vision. Since then, I've been getting along with just cheap drug store magnifiers/reading glasses for closeup stuff. For the last two or three years however, my vision has been getting much worse. I thought it was just presbyopia so I didn't do much about it because our health care system doesn't cover any eye surgery costs for that and I don't have the money to pay for eye surgery owing to not having had much work since oil prices tanked in 2015 (the economy here in Alberta is pretty dependent on the oil industry and oil prices). Not too long ago, I finally decided I should look into these vision problems I'm having and looked into what the symptoms of presbyopia and cataracts are. I was stunned to see that most of my symptoms were consistent with cataracts and not presbyopia. That's actually good news because our health care system will pay for basic cataract surgery. So for the first time in my life, I actually went in to have my eyes checked by an optometrist. Turns out I do have cataracts in both eyes so now I can get cataract surgery to fix my vision problems. Our health care system will only pay for the surgery and lens replacement with basic, simple monofocal lenses but I can get premium lenses if I don't mind paying the difference. I don't mind paying the difference and will opt for getting tri-focal or another type of premium lens if they'll work for me. My first appointment with an ophthalmologist is this Monday afternoon. Before then, I'm trying my best to learn as much as I can about the different alternative intra-occular lenses (IOLs) that are out there, their limitations. pros and cons. etc., so I can ask intelligent questions and can make sure whatever goes into my eyes is going to give me the best chance of having good vision at all ranges and not needing to wear glasses at all or at least not for most things other than maybe really close-up things. It's going to be an interesting journey and the decisions I make with respect to my eyes in the next little while will have an important effect on my vision for the rest of my life. I know there are a lot of people on this forum that are in my age group or older so I suspect that a number of you have had IOL replacement surgery already. Any advice/insights you can give me would be most welcome. What type of IOLs did you get? Were there any negative or positive effects on your ability to ski that came from the lenses you chose or from getting your lenses replaced in general? How long did it take your brain to adjust to the new lenses in your eyes? I'm interested to hear what others' experience has been with IOL replacement surgery with respect to skiing and in general.

@ReallyGottaSki As one who appreciates photography and dabbles in it, I have to say your daughter has a terrific eye. That is a GREAT image. <3 My hat's off to her. Please don't tell me she was like 12 or something when she took that photo. I'll just throw my camera in the bin if you do. :s

Yours truly. Not my best cut but I love the sense of drama the back-lighting gives the image. Another one of me the same day. I was still on my old '06 Monza back then.

Anyone who collects or wants to collect some beautiful 70s vintage Connelly slalom skis should take a look at this eBay ad. There are 3 of them up for sale in one auction!! Pick-up only in the Seattle area. These skis look pretty nice. https://ebay.com/itm/333527951734

@MDB1056 I would love to try one. Until last year I had never skied on anything made by Connelly even though I've got a nice collection of gorgeous mahogany Hooks and Comps on the walls of my cabin. You have to understand that I was a victim of the oil price collapse which resulted in major unemployment in my province starting back in 2015 and I have not worked steady since then. For the last 4 years I've only been able to eke out a marginal existence so I've not been able to spend a lot of money on waterski equipment. I managed to get an excellent deal on HO V-type ski and then with persistence and little luck I got a screaming deal on a pair of Connelly Talon bindings which I mounted on the new ski. Those bindings now represent the sum total of Connelly ski equipment I've ever skied on in over 40 years of water skiing. I have to say they're pretty nice bindings and I like them a lot. I've read so many good things about the GTR and I would really like to try one out but I don't know anyone who has one I could try and in truth I don't get to do a lot of water skiing every year. For me if I get even 4 weeks worth of skiing in during a full year, that's a good year. I wish I could do much more because I'm so in love with and so passionate about the sport but it's just not in the cards for me right now. Maybe someday.

This is my boy Radar in the pilot's seat doing about 40 on the way home from a morning of great skiing in a sheltered bay a little ways down the lake from the cabin. That's my other dog Nugget (not a waterski related name) in the back seat helping him navigate. Bailey's and coffee waiting for us on the dock when we get back! B)

@Bobd It took a while to get used to the V-Type and it took trying a few settings to get the ski set up right for me but I'm now really starting to like the ski. I had some trouble at the beginning though with the stock settings being too mundane and not responsive enough, some other settings recommended by @savaiusini being too aggressive for my level of skiing and then finding perfection on some other settings recommended by @Horton. I didn't get that many runs on the ski with those final settings before my holidays ended so I can't wait for next year when I can spend more time with those settings to see how well I can do on the ski. Initial impressions are though that the ski is an improvement over the Monza and that I'll be able to take my skiing up another level or two with it. I can't say enough good things about the Monza though. It was a great ski for me and helped me take my skiing up several levels in fairly short order. To be fair though, when I went to the Monza I was coming off an older HO Mach 1 so the Monza was light years ahead of my former ski. I would say the V-Type is a better ski than the Monza but going from the Monza to the V-Type is nowhere near as big a leap in technology and design as going from that old Mach 1 to the Monza was.

@Shell Me and my handsome boy, Radar. He gets all the girls. This shot was taken about 7 years ago. We've both aged a bit since then. He more gracefully than I. He never misses a morning of waterskiing when I'm out at the lake. Along with my other dog (a German Shepherd cross), he's always up front in the open bow section, watching and helping the boat get on plane faster with his weight. ;)

@escmanaze My dog's name is Radar. I think it's a cool name for a dog. Tell your friend to go ahead and use it if he or she likes it.

Aack! You just can't unsee that! :s The horror... the horror... Happy new year to all on this forum from Canada as well!

I met Jaret once at some event many years ago when he was still competing and a world champion. Real nice guy, genuine, friendly, approachable and personable. A really down-to-earth and likeable dude. If Dorien is anything like his Dad in terms of personality, he'll be a very likeable person as well.

Awesome photography! Given the technology they had back then. I'm just trying to imagine how they got some of those shots. Now we have drones and Go=Pros and all manner of ways to get those types of shots but it must've been so much more difficult back then. I'm also amazed at what the skiers were able to do on those flat bottomed wooden skis with bindings that were no more supportive than a pair of bedroom slippers nailed to a plank. A lot of us here are "okay" water skiers, some of us are good and a few of us are great skiers. I just wonder how good any of us would be if we were made to ski with equipment like that our whole lives. I'm old enough to say I started out on skis like that but I really wonder how far I would've progressed if I still had to ski on skis like those instead of having all this incredible technology that I now have strapped onto my feet. I have a lot of respect for the athletes shown in the magazine photos.

Introducing the all-new 2020 Sealion 500, THE environmentally friendly wakesurf boat!

They're for keeping the Seagulls off

@MDB1056 Good eye! I'm on my '06 Monza which I rode up until last year but the pic was taken in '08 I think. Loved that ski. Old school Approach Bindings on it. That ski and one of the bindings used to belong to Ian Trapp when he was the reigning U21 World Slalom Champion when I bought it from him on SIA in 2006. He was changing sponsors to Radar and unloading all his HO gear. It was a blem and one of his practice skis. He gave me a good deal. That ski made a HUGE difference to my skiing ability. My skiing improved numerous levels in pretty short order after I got it. After being ridden by Ian, that ski probably always wondered who this hack was that was riding it. P.S. I seem to have a knack for buying pros' old skis off SIA. My new ride is a '15 HO V-Type that I bought from Thibault Dailland who now skis for Connelly. It was his back-up ski.

Yours truly

What's that? 7.5 buoys? Not a mere mortal. All hail @adamhcaldwell, King Slaloman!

Me on my old Monza

A ski buddy of mine. I like the sense of drama the backlighting adds.

I love my Glastron 180 GT with a 150 HO Evinrude eTec. I's not a dedicated ski boat but it's a great runabout and really nice to ski behind. Glastron's SST hull design is great.