75Tique

@oldjeep Clearly you have no appreciation of a classic among the classics, which is fine, its a matter of taste and personel preference, but the 70s orange Nautiques/Skiers/Mustangs are highly desirable and sought after. This one is very close to but not exactly one of the 72 promos, also highly desired and mostly with the yellow interior. The 70s orange boats were the inspiration for the 2009 CorrectCraftFan 196 that sported the white boot stripe and white racing stripe on the deck.

Good reminders. I've heard of floats in the middle. I have to sink my course after each use. wonder of those floats would keep it from sinking? Milk jug route might be the way to go, that way I can fine tune.

1. My boat gate balls opposite the turn ball end of the arm (i.e. the ball at the end of the arm, left end of ball 1 arm) has slack in its line because that end of the arm seems to float higher then the the right ball. Pretty much all my gates are like this. Maybe the arm is sagging between the gate and turn ball, lifting it up. One suggestion was tighten the turn ball line, but that wouldnt make the sag go away. Maybe weight the end of the arm that is floating higher? 2. For an EZ slalom course, how much leader would you recommend between gates and anchors in lateral feet per foot depth. (asking for a friend, mine is set in place and I never measured.)

Hi, I'm Larry. 65 years old. Learned to ski at around 9. Fortunate enough to have a family boat and a summer place on the water. A few years later, my dad traded the old woodie for a 66 Correct Craft Mustang. Became enthusiastic about the sport around 16 - 17. For my age and experience, I should be a much better skier and barefooter, but I was never exposed to or had access to show skiing, a slalom course or competition. I just did it for fun. At 17, a friend and I taught ourselves to barefoot, certainly a novelty on our small lake in 1972. Fast forward to post college years, and a move to Houston. My own boat, regular skiing and footing, but still no course work. Stepped up barefooting by graduating from dropping a ski to deep water starts, tumble ups, tumble turns, one foots, toe hold. Never got backwards despite a few futile tries. Next chapter, family and kids. Little to no more skiing with "ski buds." All family time on the water. Kids became good skiers/wakeboarders. That lasted about 15 years. Now its about 2005-2010, kids are pretty much grown and on their own. Super rare access to a course, but met up with some footer friends that reignited my interest in going backwards. In my late 50's early 60s taught myself short line then long line back starts. In this recent chapter, also getting some exposure to courses, in fact, have custody of one now. Again, despite having over 55 years of experience, I am just now graduating from being a 15 off to a 22 off skier. But the challenge is real and fun and making 22 for me means as much as making 39 means to someone else. Here is a little video recap, its a little crude, but it is now 15 years old. I did it at the infancy of do-it-yourself videos.

Cheapest, quickest, easiest fix. If you have a rear boot, replace it with a rear toe plate. If you have that already, that's better. Start with your rear foot out. MUCH!!! easier. No back foot pressing the back of the ski down into the water. Stretch your back leg out behind you, toes pointed back. Not only is back of ski not being pushed down, the thigh of your back leg helps push you out of the water. Less stress and strain on your back. Just rest your chest on your front leg knee. Very easy to start this way. Better way to go than dropping $80,000 on a new boat or even $400 on a new prop.

This picture is from an ancient (60s) book and he has a funky old two handle rope (tho possibly helpful for starts) Use one of those deep V handles, or any regular rope/handle with the rope on your back leg side of the ski.

Does anyone know Dsully and how to reach him other than through this site? He appears to be a pretty infrequent visitor, but was on a week or so ago and I am trying to get him a message. I tried PMing, but he hasnt been on since then.

Last of the CC foot pedals was around 1967-1968. Not sure the Nautique ever did but I know the 16 footers(Mustang, skylark, and probably some others) did.

Old thread, but I stumbled upon it after googling the ski. A few people picked and a few others concurred that the original green/black/trees O'Brien Competitor was the best looking ski. I never owned one. It was pricier than I could afford, so I went with the classic blue-green-silver World Team. The Competitor was my favorite ski even tho I never had one. I would still like one today. I check the ads regularly looking for one but havent spotted one that worked for me. So, there are some incredibly nice people in this sport. I recently went to look at a local boat for sale for a friend. Got talking to the seller about boats and skiing and skis and he mentioned his old competitor. I said the green and black one with the trees? Yup. A while later he sends me a picture of it, and mentions he might be willing to part with it. I made what I thought was a fair offer, based on what I see them advertised for. He called me back and offered to give it to me because he wanted to see it go to a good home and to someone who would appreciate it. The ski looks absolutely brand new. Fresh rubber, not a mark on it, no fading at all. Ski had kind of a sad back story that I wont go into, but I know it meant a lot to him. So many thanks to my new boat/ski friend who did this for me after knowing me for less than a day. My porch with this ski hanging was, but is even moreso now, my happy place.

I just bought my first radius handle, because it seems like a more natural position. Do it now, sitting at your desk. When you put your hands in handle position, they are curved and to straighten them takes effort. So having my new handle which I enjoy, I have been looking at a lot of videos of pros and I dont think I've seen a single radius handle.

I'm not a high level/tournament skier, and I have never had a non cga vest so I dont know, but are CGA vests really restrictive to impact performance. Hard to believe. I know two people that had major rib damage in recent years. I took a spill a few weeks ago (again, rookie in a CGA vest) and did what I think was bruise some ribs. Still hurts and still impacts performance. I cant imagine going out with any less protection.

two props, one with a 5" hunk of shaft in it, cell phone, keys, gas cap, about a thousand pairs of swimming goggles till I started lanyarding them to my barefoot suit. Must be more but not that I can think of now.

Not sure what I side shift is, but I'd rely on your Dr for this call. Having had a badly ruptured/herniated disc that I had surgury on, I was going to say if it truly is ruptured, surgery is required. I just did a quick google search and found that is not correct and that some ruptured discs can heal. As soon as my doc saw my xray (or MRI, I dont recall) he was ready to schedule surgery. He said in a lot of cases, rest, medicine, PT....can take care of it, so you got that side of it. But apparently mine was severe enough, he didnt pause with the surgery recommendation. Surgery in october. Skiing in May. Not sure if recovery is really that long but I was in MA at the time, so that was when the season resumed.

Sorry to drag this discussion down, but could you help a newb out here. What do you mean by "open to the boat"? Are you talking about body position and open to the boat means facing the boat vs pointing in the direction of the ski? Just trying to learn as I am a rookie working on body position and last year and this year am focusing on "stack" (I've learned that one) and body position behind the boat. Let me know. Thanks.

Or.....build your own. Like this guy did.

But then sometimes, slalom performance aside, a v-drive inboard is just too cool not to want, especially one from "the good old days"

Sort of like the Nautique 200 sport? That had enough of a market to last 5 or 6 years. What do you gain? The v-drive interior configuration and some cross-over performance. What do you lose? A tournament quality wake. I've never been behind one, but I know people who have them and love them and say the wake is great....considering its a v-drive. Also, they arent 38 off competition skiers. But still, the right boat for some people.

Friend of mine had a nice one done.

Yes very cool, now if you have 4 minutes of your life you dont mind never getting back, here is another daddy daughter dance. But hey, it does have some skiing footage in it.

@cougfan Sorry, no idea. Just a photo I saw over on FB "waterski hub" Maybe you could reach out to the poster and get some info. Looks like fun, doesnt it? New to me but I am guessing folks around here must know about Redwood Shores.

It would appear Nate also is leading with a Rico.

Go for it. Not hard. I've done all 5 seals on mine. There are a zillion videos on youtube to guide you through it. Key is looking around the house for a form that the ankle or wrist will fit around tightly. For wrist, I found the perfect size pickle jar. For ankle, a plastic thermos bottle. (for neck, the toughest one, a big clay flower pot).