Johnseed

Only 91 days 'till spring.

Took a ski tip just below my right eye on a stuff the tip fall. Bad black eye for 2 weeks....x-rays said nothing was broken.

We had this issue on our lake and it peaked during COVID. Our public lake is only 300 acres but watersports are allowed the only restriction WAS 23' length. Surf boats began to take over and the local city government banned surfing for half the summer. Problem solved. Then the surf boat owners complained as they sunk a small fortune in their barges and could no longer use them. A committee was formed and it even included a skier on this forum, so we had a voice in the process. Fast forward a year later and the ban was made permanent but the slalom course is still going strong. Most of the property owners understood the massive differences in boats and wakes. Our course is in a protected cove and the turn buoys are less than 100' from the shore easily. The 200' number came up during the process as a minimum suggested distance to allow surfing if at all. Thankfully in our situation all towed watersports were not simply lumped together. Wakeboarding is even still allowed but without ballast or use of wedges. Once in a while common sense still prevails.

We have a course on Williamstown lake approximately 40min south of Cincy straight down I-75. 300 acre lake surrounded by homes 3 access ramps to launch a boat. Nice water most weeknights or early on a weekend morning. Course is back in a cove and somewhat sheltered.

@BrennanKMN most of the skiers on the lake practice courtesy. If it's one boat fishing normally we'll ask but with 2 my wife opted to wait patiently but they never got the 'hint' ;). Like you, only once in a while will a fisherman be a jerk. PWC are another story however. They tend to never care even racing into the course as we are starting a pass. Truth be told Wednesdays are bass tourney nights and the cove with the course is listed on the KY fishing maps as a bass hotspot.

@Edmund , you forgot the worst part....the occasional pvc repairs or mainline splice. We were very fortunate this summer for sure. Last Wednesday night stunk for sure....perfect glass, one bass boat at each end of the course! We sat there in the middle for almost an hour and nobody moved. Go figure!

We live near a 300 acre reservoir which until last year only had a 23' length restriction and a slalom course, it's a public lake with homes all around it but only 2 boat ramps, both public. When we first started boating here in '99 most of the boats hanging in lifts at the lake were 3 event DDs from every era, now it's a mix of I/O runabouts, pontoons, and surf boats. I only see a couple newer DDs, most of the older ones are gone, however skiing seems to be coming back in the past few years. Surfing was banned last year but the boats still remain, they just can't use the wedges or ballast tanks. Pricing on new boats especially DD and watersport boats seems like a recipe for disaster for the sport. Used is the only way to go for many folks, not sure how that works out in 10 years with not many potential used boats coming on the market.

Some of what you are referring to as a slippery feeling can be from some slalom skis looking for an edge vs just riding flat. The combo slaloms usually have wider rails or flat spots on the outer edges of the bottom and will handle riding straight behind the boat with less effort than a true slalom ski that is designed to be ridden on edge and slice through the wakes.

I'm not saying my way was technically correct but it seemed to work easy and effectively through a zero degree Northern Kentucky winter. I ran the boat on the lake till it was warm. Pulled boat and changed oil and transmission fluid. Drained block. Made approx 5 gal of antifreeze solution in a bucket. Used a sump pump and the fake a lake. Started boat and sump pump. Ran until bucket was empty and solution was coming out the exhaust. Over and done. I wasn't a fan of leaving the system dry all winter. At least the glycol or whatever is in the antifreeze seems to help with rust.

The aftermath of the latest...ski tip into nose/left eye. First question to the doctor was "how long before I can ski again?"

LeonL...isn't that version pre-stargazer? Might be a manual on the PP site.

My wife's concern is lack of feeling in control. Our course is on a public lake and has a short set up at one end and the open lake at the other end...not much room for error and she worries about not being able to adjust things. We went to a larger lake this weekend and the course setup was much longer and she said she almost wanted to try it so there is still hope. Now that we are past Labor Day our traffic during the week is much lower so we will probably try it just open skiing first. She doesn't like change and we just made the move from an I/O to the Malibu last fall and now from hand driving to PP...too much too quick. Ironically speed control makes things so much better and easier for both the skier and the driver....how fast was that pass? Around 30mph? Could be 28-33mph

Update.... Tonight we tried a couple different things... 1. I changed the 'pull factor' under the slalom settings menu down to 20 instead of 60 2. We drove more similar to hand throttle on the pull up - once the skier is up and the boat is planed we throttled down to around the set speed quickly The results were - PP worked as it should - no surges and the lag time to settle was much better. Thank You for all the suggestions BOS is an awesome resource!! Now, how to convince my wife to trust the PP system in the course...suggestions on that one?

I would think the operator/driver and the rental company for not offering boating instruction would be more liable than Malibu. 4 kids in the bow of a Response Lx had to seem crowded and easy to lose one...that area isn't that large to begin with. No mention of life vests either that I saw. Tragic to be certain but add to that the reality of preventability.....wow...just awful.