o2bnMaine

@Horton I guess it is a habit from when I lived in Maine. When I skied in March and November. Now, in Florida, I'm more curious whether it is in the high 80s or low 90s.

I use the boat's gauge at this point because I haven't bought a thermometer for the dock yet.

I'm always curious how people measure water temperature. So, I guess it is Poll Time!

That's cool. I think it sometimes frustrates her ... that her skiing looks so effortless. She doesn't think it looks like she's working hard enough. ;-) 26.1mph

...it now lines up with our dock! We put the course in a couple of years ago, but didn't try to get it aligned with respect to our dock. While the water is low, we needed to tighten up the anchors, so I pivoted it enough to line up with our dock. I love being able to see straight down the course while sitting on our dock. I guess it is the little things in life that can make my day. Of course, you have to zoom in to see the course in the picture, but it is pretty easy to spot sitting on the dock. Clearly I'm posting this just for fun, but if someone is going to buy a slalom course, you can usually opt to include the pre-gates on their own, separate, anchor system. This helps keep the main section of the course shorter, which will help to keep the course straighter in light winds. But you'll have to spend much more time trying to keep the pre-gates aligned. We started down this path of tightening the course up this winter. It took no time at all to tighten the course. It took 5 times as long to get the pre-gates lined up again.

I wish I could help. The farthest north in Maine I've skied is Cumberland County. We have courses around my place, but its no where near north compared to Aroostook! There's a ski club in Saskatoon Canada. Now, that's NORTH!

She manages to get into most pictures, it seems :smile:

@UWSkier Here is a pic of my camera mount.

We just switched to an F150 because of quality issues in our 2014 diesel Jeep Grand Cherokee. The GC has been fixed a few times for ignition/starter issues. It was ok for almost exactly 1 year and then it happened again. We didn't want to trust the GC for our coming drive to Maine and I wanted to switch to a truck for the utility. Other than the quality issues, I think our main issue with the diesel was that we don't drive it enough. It needs to be driven on longer drives than we do in Florida. When we lived in Maine & Massachusetts we were doing 3+ hr drives every weekend. In Florida, if we drive 3 miles that's about the extent of it. The F150 we picked has the 3.5 ecoboost. It has about the same torque as the Jeep, but fuel economy doesn't touch what the diesel was able to achieve. I've had the F150 for one week so far. I've only had to tow a construction trailer to the dump a few times. The trailer weighs in at ~2,000 pounds. The trash added up to at most 1,500 pounds. So, not quite equivalent to a ski boat and trailer. But, still, the truck was very impressive. In the Grand Cherokee, a full tank meant over 700 miles at 70mph. The truck doesn't boast that much range, but with the Max Towing Package, you get a 36 gallon tank. The computer is telling us we have close to 650 miles of range. So, if we can get the 23mpg Ford advertises we should get well over 700 miles to a tank. We'll test that out in a few weeks when we drive to Maine. We won't be towing a boat, though. I guess this is a vote for the 3.5 ecoboost. We chose the 4x2 Lariat model as that was on the lot and we don't think we'll need 4WD. The dealer near us in Winter Haven has some insane deals going on.

@mmskiboat I hope it helps! I know people that do almost everything the opposite of me, but at least this will give you some concrete things to try.

@mmskiboat It takes more to describe, but I'll give it a shot! I'll describe for a left-foot-forward (LFF) skier. For starters, I pinch closer to my actual knee (left elbow, left knee). My right forearm close to the elbow pinches just below the knee above the calf muscle. The idea being you should be in a tight ball with your back leg up as close to your body as possible. By pinching with your arms, you create a small, compact ball that follows the handle as the boat (gently) pulls you forward. Before I tell the driver I'm ready, I put the ski on a 45-degree angle to the left with the rope to the right of the ski. This slight lean is much easier to maintain while the boat gets set. Also, it will make it almost impossible for you to roll over to the right. When I'm driving a newbie who's learning 2-foot starts, I will put the rope off the left corner of the transom and keep it there until I hear a "go boat." I straighten the wheel before accelerating. This mean the boat keeps turning in a slight circle until accelerating. By doing this, the skier is no longer being forced into perfect alignment with the boat... boat -> rope -> handle -> feet -> ski. This gives the skier the opportunity to balance in what becomes a 3-point stance. The skier is actually no longer directly behind the boat and will get pulled back to centerline with their body being "open to the boat." Your feet are no longer in alignment with the directional force the boat is applying and therefore your body has a chance to achieve a little bit of left/right balance through your feet. It is subtle, but I find it helps those who are learning. Eventually as one gets more comfortable this is no longer needed. In a way, it is similar to what I teach people getting up on a wakeboard for the first time. If the skier is not intentionally leaning to the left, I will watch for them to unintentionally lean left. It is almost always bound to happen as the skier is adjusting their weight to stay in position. I never give the boat gas if I see the ski leaning to the right as that's a recipe for failure 99% of the time, in my opinion. Even just a very slight angle to the left will help the chance of success. As others have described, when getting pulled up 2-foot, it is important to keep your butt as close to your back ankle as possible. The closer to your ankle, the less water in your shorts. You'll know when you are doing it right when you don't get bogged down by ballooning shorts. ;-) If you wear tight shorts this won't be an issue that you'd notice. I'm not sure how else to describe the sensation, but when done properly, the get up is very effortless. I have a friend I ski with in Maine. He has had a bad back for decades and gets up 2-feet in. He probably weighs between 200-230 pounds depending on the summer. He asks for a very gentle start. I give him a softer start than I give my wife, who weighs in at approximately half his weight. And he pops up quickly too. I say this just to point out that it is more about finesse than muscle.

Yesterday afternoon, I paid more attention to my get up. For a 1-foot start (LFF), I make sure the left side (inside) of my left bicep is touching left side of my left knee. I get up with a standard LFF handle grip -- my left hand is grabbing over the top of the handle -- but for years I gripped "backwards" so either should work. Here's a picture of what I'm trying to describe. When the boat starts to lift me out of the water, I don't try to maintain this connection for very long. I let my body roll forward over the ski with my back leg dragging behind me. Then, I scissor my legs together as a stand up. I do a similar sort of thing in my 2-foot starts -- I'm pinching my knees from both sides, but the arm placement is slightly different. Here, I make a tiny ball that can't roll out of position as the boat goes in/out of gear.

I like to teach LFF skiers to lock their left elbow to their left knee during the get up (until you are ready to stand up). RFF skiers would lock the right elbow to the right knee. This keeps your body in alignment and your front knee bent (enough) and your weight in a good starting position over the ski. I think it is harder for people to get pulled forward when they try to lock elbow/knee. Rudder is what people say. Just let your back leg relax and drag. When you are ready to stand up, scissor your back leg up under your body as your stand up on your front leg. People will press down with their back foot's toes if they need to add stability. As you get more comfortable, this will no longer be needed.

@VONMAN 28.500, 8-degrees flat wing, 2.500, 6.780, 0.900

@UWSkier It is tough to answer this one. I think the answer to your question is, Yes, but I want to say, No. Technically, the post-processing will do cropping. I have never used it because the image quality degrades quickly as you zoom in. I currently am using a unsupported microSD, which means I can't record with the 5.8k 360-degree feature. I'm stuck with just using 4k 360-degrees. (aside: I made the mistake of using the Rylo-supported microSD card when I rebuilt a Raspberry Pi and I've been too lazy to remedy this) This doesn't mean you get 4k resolution like you would think from a regular phone camera because the total resolution is calculated on a 360-degree image/video. I THINK that I'm already zooming in digitally during my post-processing. I THINK the quality would be better if I could use the 5.8k feature. While post-processing, you can zoom out to show the "planet" or in to show the perspective I usually show for the skier. The final zoomed-in notch I use seems like it is digitally enhanced meaning it is already compromised. I think the Rylo does great for 32-off and shorter. Any longer the rope length and the skier starts to get small fast. 15-off, the skier if very very small and there's not much I can do about it without losing image quality. https://support.rylo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000883733-Which-SD-cards-are-compatible-with-Rylo- I've said it before, stay away from getting a Rylo. The company isn't maintaining the product anymore. The above "supported card" page keeps running out of available options. The supported microSD cards aren't active products anymore. Fewer and fewer are actually available. Also, in the Florida heat, the camera overheats too frequently, in my opinion. The third complaint I have is that Rylo isn't waterproof and when using the waterproof case, it fogs up too much. I'm curious about trying out either the GoPro Max or the Insta360 modular camera next. It is supposed to be waterproof. https://store.insta360.com/product/one_r I swear by using the 360-degree cameras for filming my snowboarding and skiing. I ski with just a driver. We can record the entire session and then I can process where to point the camera later. This is a great feature as you don't have to worry about someone screwing up the filming -- you just have to remember to hit record. ;-)

I'll take a picture of how I mount it when I'm back home. The footage can also be saved as a VR ready 360 video.

The camera is a Rylo. It has a great stabilization algorithm. I tell the camera where to point in the post processing on my phone. The company isn't focusing on this product anymore which is a bummer.

@Andre I'm conditioned at this point. My watch usually logs between 4 and 5 miles per set. I'll drop if I want to progress through the lengths. I've been working on my 32-off gates and getting better turns. Some sets include 10 or 12 incomplete passes. But that's because I drop the handle! Good bless my wife for being patient!! When I spent summers in Maine I would get up between 4:30am and 5:30am to take 2 or 3 3-4 mile runs freeskiing. Then I'd head to the end of lake for breakfast by seeing how far I could barefoot. Then after breakfast we'd take a nap!

Here's my 32-off OTF from this week. I rarely try to make just one more buoy when I know I'm out of control, but for some reason I thought I could get back on the ski and get there. Nope! This link should line you up for the really bad 4-ball turn, then you'll watch me ride the back foot across the wake over to 5 and then flat-ski the exit at 5. Then, I decided to try to get around 6 anyway. Big mistake. My rear knee slammed into the back of my front knee. It is still pretty sore. I had to climb a ladder yesterday. I almost couldn't lift my leg high enough to do the climb. Go to 3:30 for the crash if the link doesn't line you up. (update: it doesn't sync to a time, oh well)

I can't recommend our last tow vehicle. It may be a bit small for you too, based on what other vehicles you've been talking about. We used to use a diesel Grand Cherokee (2014). It was amazing. We loved it. You couldn't feel our Response in tow when accelerating. But it has two annoying issues... With the diesel GC, we were told if you don't drive it enough, the diesel particulate filter (I think that's what it is called?) would need to be cleaned, which can only be done at a speed around 50mph+ for 20~ minutes. My wife would be driving to somewhere on a schedule and get the message it was needed. She would have to make a decision to continue driving until the message clears or run the risk of needing to take it to the dealer and spend $200~ to have them do it for us (eventually, the car tells you that's the only solution). We even got the message at the end a drive from FL to NC, so that should have been plenty of time to clean the system. About 1.5 years ago it wouldn't start reliably. The issue was electronic and intermittent. Our local dealer in Florida tried to fix it but failed. They were so inept they couldn't even put the battery back in the car correctly. Our dealer in Maine was able to fix the issue, it seemed. They tried replacing the starter and the ignition switch. The Florida dealer didn't wire up the starter correctly, we were told. Once the guys in Maine fixed that we didn't have the issue for awhile. Well, the problem came back almost exactly one year after being fixed "for good." That was the final straw. If you are looking at a Jeep/Ram diesel with the V6 in it, I'd do some research to see if they still have either of these problems. These two issues were enough for us to give up on what, otherwise, was the perfect vehicle for us. Since I'm doing my own home renovation project right now, it made sense to switch the SUV for a truck. The local dealer had deals that were too good to pass up and gave us a great trade-in value. Now we're using an F-150. We literally picked it up yesterday. I can't recommend it (yet) until we actually tow something with it, which won't be until October, I think. But the 3.5 is an amazingly powerful engine, so I figure we'll have no issues.

I've flown with skis tons of times. I've never had a waterski or snowboard get damaged, but my sporttube has been crushed pretty badly. The wheels have been destroyed. A professional once told me that the sporttubes are great, but a forklift will win every time. I will still use my sporttube as it is a great place to put all the wet gear from the last day of a clinic. I have never been charged extra for what is clearly an over-sized bag. I have no idea why that is, but I walk up and fill things out. I click "no" on the oversize option and they take it without question. If you are worried, get insurance. If you can plan things out a bit, you could also ship the ski via UPS. That simplifies flying. I'll leave this here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Breaks_Guitars

@Chef23 It would definitely provide benefit. I'll revisit once contracts start up again. For now, no income means no coaching. Boat gas and groceries are the top priorities!

I couldn't agree more. I used to live an hour from Coble Ski School. I would go there 2-3 days each week after work. I had a "frequent skier card." I'd usually hang out after. They would feed me before or after my 1 or 2 sets depending on the time. For 4 or 5 years, I'd fly April Coble Eller up to Maine to ski with my friends. It was a great experience. I made huge strides in my course skiing while I lived in NC. I managed to eek out a 2.5 @ 35-off / 36mph before slowing down to 34mph. Then I moved to Maine, and the professional coaching dried up for me until I moved to FL. Now, I have coaches all around, but I'm resisting mainly for financial reasons. But I miss it, for sure.

.... or just magic and lasers (better than science). Everything is better with magic and lasers.

@MISkier I love it. I have it on my '09 Response LX. It sure made winterizing the boat super easy.