Slalom.Steve

@Hucklefin just message them, he can put it together for you with the sleeves.

I have an Armaid and I love it. I can't speak whether it will heal a true medical issue, but it sure feels good!

This echoes my experience with my '22 Vapor. Super fast and aggressive, in a way I'd expect to be a bit wild, but not so - whatever you do, the ski is just there for you. I tried one other high-end ski this summer and found it similarly fast, and a dream when I was skiing well, but if I wasn't locked in, it felt more unstable and like the ski was gonna take the line it damn well wanted to take whether I was ready/telling it to or not. But the Vapor responds no matter what you're doing. You want to fly, it's there. You get a little wild and need stability, it's there. If it could speak, it'd just say "It's all good man, I got you." :D*to qualify this review, I have 3-4 years in the course, skiing 32-34mph 15off-22off, so far from an expert opinion.

This echoes my experience with my '22 Vapor. Super fast and aggressive, in a way I'd expect to be a bit wild, but not so - whatever you do, the ski is just there for you. I tried one other high-end ski this summer and found it similarly fast, and a dream when I was skiing well, but if I wasn't locked in, it felt more unstable and like the ski was gonna take the line it damn well wanted to take whether I was ready/telling it to or not. But the Vapor responds no matter what you're doing. You want to fly, it's there. You get a little wild and need stability, it's there. If it could speak, it'd just say "It's all good man, I got you." :D*to qualify this review, I have 3-4 years in the course, skiing 32-34mph 15off-22off, so far from an expert opinion.

According to Masterline, the improvements from their cheaper Monster Team handle to their more expensive Custom Ski handle are that the Custom has a smaller aluminum bar with thicker walls and more rubber on the bar, and that the rubber compound is higher quality. I certainly believe them, but I don't have the budget nor the skiing skill to care too much, so I've always just bought the Monster. There's also an obvious cosmetic difference though in that the Monster has most of the V-shape wrapped in a rubber sheath casing. I don't know of any functional reason though, and I don't like that it covers the colors of the rope. As an experiment, I took my just-retired Monster handle, and cut the rubber entirely off of one side, and most of the rubber on the other (pictures below).At the end of the bar is a little foam piece, which is easy to pull out and you can see down into the bar itself.For the side I left a little bit of rubber on, there's certainly wiggle room for the rope within the rubber. So the ultimate question: is there any reason I couldn't cut the rubber off my future handles? The foam piece was a little bit wet, even after being out of the water for 36 hours, so it' not like the rubber casing was keeping the inside totally dry. Obviously the foam would come out if I used it as-is, but I could just cover the foam/the hole with marine epoxy. And the end of the bar isn't sharp or anything, so it's not dangerous.Or I could just leave a little bit of rubber on, and even though it's not tight around the rope, I don't see any issues with having it that way. Or I could maybe zip-tie it down really tight. Anything I'm missing here why this wouldn't work? Any idea why Masterline puts it on in the first place, except to make the more expensive Custom handle look cooler? It's interesting that the rope that was under the casing is in better shape than the rest of the handle, and you can even kinda see where the casing ended - no fray above it, bunch of fray below it - as if the casing is actually an improvement! Probably harder or impossible to restring it though? But again, why even have it in the first place? Here's the pictures:

@C5Quest what speed and line lengths are you skiing?

I am all for the advancement of water skis... but Syndicate now has 3 different top-of-the-line skis, D3 has 3 different top-of-the-line skis, Goode has 3 different top-of-the-line skis. It's hard enough to demo just a couple skis before deciding what to buy, much less 10! :D

@Clydesdale whats the video time stamp for when that happened?

Their website says they've paused the store due to supply chain difficulties, but it's been like for I think about 2 years now. Is the company still active or planning to become active again? I have to think the owner is on here somewhere.

@Horton when's the full review comin? Eagerly awaiting =)

@vtmecheng - how much $ for you to build me one? (serious question).

Curious how the Vapor boots adapt (or don't) to the angle of a slightly bow-legged leg?Below is a pic of my T-Factor, which after two years has kinda shifted on it's own to fit my leg (RFF). I know in this thread about the old Vapor boots , someone even suggested adding a wedge, though others said the boots would just break in.

When skiers come in late and hot around 6 ball, they turn the buoy normally and end up taking a huge slack hit. When they come in late and hot around earlier balls, they s-turn and cut back to the wakes without a slack hit.So why doesn't anyone s-turn the 6 ball? The only reason I could see not to is because you may end up cross the wakes before the gates, which doesn't matter on earlier balls but does after 6 ball. But I have to think you could adjust the pull to make it through the gates, at least in most instances.

SKI!

Gorgeous. You doin' a full review or just for fun?

Yeah Zane was great! It was nice watching longer-line skiers because Zane was giving real time "coaching", often things that will be helpful to me, also being at longer-lines.

I've never used one, probably not as necessary at 15off, 32-34mph.. but I'm progressing and better to be safe so I'll grab one before too long. I see there's 2-foot and 4-foot versions - which should I get?

@Horton lol, well I guess I actually shouldn't talk - I haven't tried a bunch of different diameters and only been seriously skiing about 3 years, but I almost never have issues with blisters or callouses on my .940. I have smallish hands (wear small gloves) and even shorter pinkie fingers (seriously, it's weird, I've got extra long thumbs and extra short pinkies). So on handles over 1", in order to actually get my fingers around it, the handle ends up sitting more in my palm than in my fingers, which seems to create more friction/pulling on the skin of the palms and more blister issues.

so to be clear, I do already have a Radar padded bag and a fin firkin, but that feels kinda clunky for inbetween sets in the boat. I did warn you that I want to baby the ski lol.

I find a smaller handle is easier on the hands, you don't have to overgrip and the handle can sit more in your fingers rather than ripping on the top of your palms.

I just bought a new ski and wanna protect it well (read: baby the s**t out of it), so I want one of those neo sleeves with the fin protector for in the boat. But I spent all my money on the new ski lol. Anyone have a sleeve (used/beat up is fine) they'd be willing to sell on the cheap? Thanks!

I seem to remember my parents telling me "Well son, life ain't always fair." Even if the training is a total waste - and I actually don't think that but I doubt either side is changing their minds on that point - but even if, skiing is way too important to me to not sacrifice a couple hours for it. If I had to sit in a empty room for 2 hours, or run a mile backwards, in order to partake in the sport that means so much to me, I'd still do it. And the intention with SafeSport is at least valid, again even setting aside arguments whether it's effective or dumb or anything like that, it's at minimum nothing nefarious. Seriously, the number of hours we as a society waste on a daily basis doing meaningless things, spending 1-2 hours over an entire year for something that is at worst meaningless, at best helpful, doesn't even register on the scale, particularly when this sport that I love needs all the support it can get or else there eventually won't be any tournaments for us to argue about in the first place.

Yeah I don't think he's advocating riding the tail all the way around the turn :D It does look to me like the top skiers, as they pass the buoy at short lines, are pushing into the back foot to rapidly change the ski angle and in a sense "stop" their downcourse speed, then immediately getting back into a forward/balanced weight position. Consider this piece from Denali GUT 101: "In order for a skier to complete a pass within the constraints of the slalom course at the 10.25-meter line, the variance in down-course speed is huge! They are traveling significantly faster than the boat in the down-course direction from CL to the buoy, and much slower from the buoy back into to CL." The physics of being tied to the rope dictate that in order to get around a buoy at 41off then be back at center line with a tight rope, the skier must drastically reduce their speed at some point before getting back to CL. In a race car, the more speed you can carry through the corner the better (generally speaking), so that they can finish the lap with a greater total average speed than other cars. But skiers ultimately can't go through the course any faster than the timing of the boat, so every person who runs the pass has roughly the same average total speed through the course. [edited following @brettmainer's corrections below] I think @A_B's comment is insightful: how do you stop if you're about to hit the dock? You slam the back foot. Whether that's the best way to create deceleration within the many other considerations of running the course, I have no idea lol, but at least in isolation, digging in the tail is an effective way to slow down, and slowing down is necessary to run short lines. Going off the GUT theory, my understanding of the Denali approach, and I could be way wrong here, is to allow the ski to slide, like a rally car on dirt drifting around a corner, so that the ski is starting to point back into the course and scrub speed, even while still traveling outbound (due to the swing of maintaining rope connection/load even as the ski unloads), so then at the finish of the turn, there isn't as much a need for immediate drastic loss of speed after the buoy. @AdamCord?

Any similar dampening mechanisms for a Wakeye? I'd be willing to buy one from someone, I suck at DIY lol.