Slalom.Steve

If it's cumulative for the month, I won't win, but if it can be judged on a single piece, here's my submission: https://www.ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/25207/testing-of-cold-water-footwear-for-water-skiing-boots-socks

Trying to figure this out once and for all:

I know this is super early, but I'm figuring out some summer plans and this year Nationals is super close to me. I want to catch a variety of slalom divisions, but especially OM and OW. I expected they would ski on Saturday, but it looks like there's a schedule posted already, and those divisions are slated for Thursday. Is that correct or am I missing something? @JeffSurdej

alright, got them installed! Final question: should the screws/rubber be tightened down as hard as they go?... cause I realized one of them is so tight I can't unscrew it without stripping the screw head... I suck at this DIY stuff. Thanks for all your help everyone!

@Gloersen, I grabbed some nylon insert lock nuts.. but they don't fit in the plastic "rail" slots, the diameter is just slightly bigger than the cap nuts that came with it. Have you had any trouble with that? I might be able to hammer the lock nuts down in there, but don't know if they'd ever come back out lol.

@lpskier I'm not sure I understand. You're saying put it together with longer screws, then swap out one-by-one for the regular screws? What advantage that does give?

New rubber purchased!

Can I get some more life out of this or is it now a safety risk to not replace the rubber? If I'm replacing the rubber, I'd also consider just buying a new different RTP. Not that I'm unhappy with this one, just that it's the only one I've ever had, and I know there's some good love out there for HO, Wiley, and Radar as well.

Interesting stuff... I did move the strap back one and at least on dry land I like it better. I can still get my toes to the edge, and my foot feels more secure with the strap farther up my foot. I might have a different problem though, with ripped screw holes in the rubber. But to keep to this thread on topic, I made a new one for that here.

I just moved my RTP strap back one hole, and on one side, it seems two of the holes that go through the rubber underneath the overlay have ripped open. When I unscrewed, several pieces of rubber fell off. And now one side is definitely different than the other. I have no idea if it rescrewed it "correctly," and I didn't think to look before hand if it was "unbalanced" at all before moving it (the fact that the top of the strap is slanted is cause it's adjusted to my foot, but I mean the amount of rubber being held down on the sides). All the screws are super tight. Is this okay to just let it be? Can you get just a replacement rubber piece? Here's some pictures: much more rubber held under much less rubber held under, and the piece my thumb is touching, I can move it back and forth a bit (since it's not connected along the outside of the screw).

@dchristman - My understanding is that you want your back foot basically as close as possible to the front, but I am very much a beginner with lots to learn.

I use a RTP and kick in after getting up. In terms of foot placement within a RTP, my understanding is that you should get your foot jammed into the RTP pretty much as far as it can go. Is that correct? Then in terms of sizing of the RTP, and placement of the strap, what's the goal there? To make it specific, here is my foot in my detached RTP, and I feel like this is usually about where I get it while skiing: Does that look correct? I think the overall sizing is good, but the front of my toes actually go past the end of the padding a little bit. I'm wondering if I should move the strap back one hole so my toes stay on the padding? just for reference, I am 10.5 US size shoe, and that's a large D3 Contour RTP.

What's this drysuit worth? It's a SWS Sahara drysuit, bought somewhere around 2014 but never heavily used. It's size XL and while there's no obvious rips, by the end of a set, your bum and lower back will be wet. It still keeps you exceptionally warm though - I've used it in 50 degree water and been totally fine. It was handed down to me by my brother @Nautique99, who is 6'4" - for comparison, I am 5'10"... It actually still kinda works, just with lots of extra fabric lol: (yes that's the face of joy of the first ski of the season) I don't have the budget for a new drysuit, but if I can sell this and use the money to buy a similar mostly-drysuit that's actually my size, that'd be awesome (and maybe a baggy one? so hard to get this thing on and off). Or I now have a Camaro Blacktec 2.0 wetsuit, which I've seen several people claim keeps them almost as warm as a drysuit... I'm suspicious, but if that's the case it's another reason to sell this one. Thanks!

Being able to easily lift your heel that much within the boot is definitely too loose, though. You want to feel connected to the ski. Just make sure when you're sitting in the water that you can use your back foot to push on the back of the ski and get your front foot to pop out. Not with no effort, but not a struggle either.

I bought these neoprene socks last year for cold water skiing, only tried them once or twice. At the time I had a D3 Leverage Blackout front and D3 Contour RTP. I now have T-Factor front, but still rubber. I only wore the sock on my back foot (front foot stays somewhat warm in the boot, and I'm aware of the danger of not being able to release from a rubber boot wearing a neoprene sock)... but I could not get my back foot far enough into my RTP - the sock just bunched up and stuck really bad. Now, I admit the sock was a little too big once it got wet, but it felt like the materials really stuck to each other regardless. My ideas for an alternative: 1. Putting aside the setting that these are probably usually used for :D , would something like these latex socks be any better for fitting into a RTP? Not very warm but would help keep water/wind off the foot. 2. What about these supposedly "frictionless" neoprene socks? 3. What about Sealskinz waterproof socks? Probably not as warm as neoprene, but maybe better for slipping in a boot? (maybe even ok to use in the front as well?) 4. Or do I just need to get a better fitting pair of thinner neoprene socks? I have seen some other threads saying that 0.5mm neo socks can work. I know Camaro has a 0.5mm and a 1mm, or NRS HyrdoSkin 0.5mm.

I am happy to "hold onto" anyone's hi-end spare skis during the summer - my "storage locker" fits 66" size just about right. ;)

What are the effects of using a ski that is either too big or too small for one's weight; and of using a ski that is designed for 34-36 mph, but being skied at 28-32mph? And are there any generally-applicable adjustments (works in most situations) that one can make to mitigate any negative effects? Boot placement or fin, though personally I'm not yet making fin adjustments off of stock. If one is on a bigger ski, the ski will sit higher in the water; smaller ski lower in the water. Slower speed, ski will sit lower in the water. Given that, I was trying to reason out the physics of it, but I don't understand the physics of it enough. One alternate, more generalize way to ask the question could be: what are the effects on stability, speed, and turning ability of a ski sitting lower or higher in the water than it was "ideally designed" for given weight/speed, and how to remedy any issues?

The "original" Ross family had a long tradition of lake vacations, started when Jim and my mom were just kids. As the family grew and grew (as happens when the 10 kids started having a lot of kids themselves, I have 22 cousins just on that side), the vacations continued, and after doing it at resorts for a while, Jim for many years offered up his own home for the whole family to stay and play. So in addition to the yearly "Club Ross" that Dave described for people at his lake, Jim also hosted a huge week-long family vacation every year. Generous is an egregious understatement. Due to my brother Carl's efforts, the lake tradition now lives on within the smaller Florian family and a new round of children. I wrote the following email to Uncle Jim after a Memorial Day family vacation in 2018, shortly after Carl bought Uncles Joe's old boat and Uncle Dave sold/gifted Carl and me his old Radar Vapors: "The vacation was quite enjoyable, but now being an adult, it also gave me a unique opportunity to reflect on my own lake experiences growing up. I saw perhaps more clearly than ever before the effort, time, and cost it takes to own and operate a boat, and, by being able to begin to teach Carl's kids 'the ways of the ski,' it made me realize just how much effort and time you gave to me and many fellow Ross grandchildren. I am so grateful for your taking countless hours out of your vacation time to pull us skiing, tubing, barefooting, etc; jumping in the water and showing us how to hold our skis; encouraging us and giving us technique advice; and even pulling us by hand across the waterfront on the blue board when we were hardly even three feet tall (something I don't even really remember but have video evidence of : ) Thank you for your kindness, your selflessness, and your love. You made vacations for us little ones pretty frikin rad, and instilled in me a love of skiing that I still hold today. You were a role model on how to be brave, try hard, and be a good person. Know that you are appreciated. While I know I said 'thanks' when I was little, I hope my older, just-slightly wiser self can now put even more meaning behind it: thank you."

this:

@A_B I'll sleep in the closet.

First a quick clear-cut question: when making fin adjustments to the thousandths, is it only ever in increments of .005" (so the final measurement ends up at .xx0" or .xx5"), or are there people ending up with measurements like .xx3"? Then the real question: I am fairly new to course skiing, and have yet to learn much about fin adjustments, but I certainly plan to, as I really like the gear/tech side of things. But I have to confess: I don't understand how moving a fin .001" or even .005" could make a difference in performance. An average human hair is about .003." So we're talking an adjustment of roughly the width of a single strand of hair… intuitively, it just doesn't make sense to me. I am curious to hear people's subjective opinions, but most especially if there's any definitive "lab testing" that shows what difference, if any, can come from such a tiny adjustment. And maybe a scientific explanation to replace my unscientific intuition of how that's possible. Thanks!

@lkb ...you coulda just sent him a PM asking what was up before publicly accusing him of malicious concealment.

was hoping to buy a Denali this year, then I got injured and covid slashed my income :'( Eventually, I will come to thee, sweet C!..75

Do you mean the D3 Leverage Blackout, or the old Leverage with the rear laces?

How is it that so many skiers seem to be at-home machinists? Everybody's always on here talking about their boot modifications and all this custom-built stuff they put together in their home workshops, and I'm like "um... I've used a drill to screw things into other things." :D