Fastguy888

Was pondering this concept when driving between 30 min to 2 hours to chase buoys when I originally bought my boat to ski a lake 1/4mi from my home. I still greatly enjoy the #lakelife including wakeboarding on occasion; but chasing buoys really has taken on its own form. Even if my friends are impressed by throwing some big walls on the lake; its not very relatable to course skiing. I desire perfect water, flat wake and consistent speed so I can be gratified through incremental improvements in my slalom skiing ability. Is Zero Off, Sure Path & the value of a Current AWSA legal towboat paving the way to go boatless. A electric winch powered tracked computer controlled pylon running down the middle of the course could likely be deployed at near the cost of a new 3 Event Boat. I guess cable parks have become a sport of their own with their own pro events for wakeboarding; I sure hope we keep the dynamics of a boat in the sport of slalom but possibly its not going that way?

Now with the song playing in my head "I can't drive to the 55's" : @Cnewbert & @klindy bring up interesting concept on boat speed through 55's. I have seen a few post on this but nothing conclusive. I am curios on the rule for this? Seems the boat should be at speed by the entry 55's and through the finish 55's; would guess the boats were at Stillwater but it was close. Imagine an extreme example of a boat accelerating through the 55's at 40mph then Zero Off or PP getting it down to 36 / 34... at the entry gate and running a clean time. Because the skier accelerates and decelerates at a different speed than the boat you would have huge slack trying to get your gate. Even more interesting is the exit gates; a boat could almost spin and stop before a long line skier exited the gates after a good time...

@Rw3 you must be my doppelgänger. Im 44 y/o 6'2" 200lbs had not skied since college in 1999 (Sac State) ( 69" Connelly Revolution Speed Base) and got back into Slalom end of last summer. I posed your same question on this same forum. Our situation is unique, as we may not be on quite as a linear progression as a new skier. It would be cool to do full ski reviews for guys in our situation; that I think is actually quite common. I ended up buying a new 2020 Radar Senate Graphite 69" with Boa Bindings because it was a great deal and was a Senate after all; that had been recommended, well not really. @Horton and other suggested I get a Senate Pro and I wish I had listened. The different materials really make them different skies that should have different names. The Graphite Senate Flex and Rebound feels a bit soft to me; like the energy I put into the ski returns but a bit muted and delayed making it feel a bit twitchy. This is all relative to me last skiing 21 years earlier and on a ski so stiff I can not make it flex at all. I gained access to a course here in Southern California back in April and skiing almost weekly. I am clearing the course again 32MPH 15Off and progressing fast. I may be buying a new ski next year; if I had gone with the Senate Pro I don't think I would feel the need to upgrade so soon.

I am really digging my Miami Natique Miami Vice Gloves (match my '94 Tige color scheme perfect too). I ordered a set of Men's Large from them, the fingers were too short. I was able to do a quick return and got the XL. Was pleased the XL had about the same size palm just with longer fingers. If the same sizing logic scales to your size, you may find a good fit.

I would try and ensure that the reason why the original block required replacing has been resolved; beyond that I would guess fuel and a lean condition at higher RPM's. A good place to start would be replacing all fuel filters, inline and water separator as well as ensuring you have good fuel. A little 5 year old fuel in the lines will surely gum up your filters and possibly the carb. New plugs wouldnt hurt either.

I am 6'2" also about 215lbs. I picked up a new Senate Graphite 69" back in Sept 2020. Great Ski and huge improvement coming off my 1997 Connelly Revolution Speed Base. Now that 95% of my skiing is on private course and I am upping my speeds, I am looking for a new ski. Please message me if you are interested in purchasing my 2020 Senate Graphite.

I had the pleasure of skiing with @scotchipman while passing through Salt Lake on a family vacation this last week on my birthday. My daughter, wife and self all where thinking #lifegoals. Years ago in college I was able to ski some nice man-made lakes in NorCal like Bell Aqua, Shortline, but I think during the summer Still Water Estates has to be one of the best Western residential lakes around. I was skiing poor 15Off 30.4 MPH; likely due to eating and drinking for 5 days straight at a family reunion, but between the Carbon Pro and Lake the experience was still awesome.

I just purchased a GoPro Hero 9, will try it out this weekend. I made my own tracker using an old tripod head that follows fantastic using the tripod arm with a wire loop around the rope, but with my Glaxy S20 picks up the vibrations too much in any given setting, I also look forward to horizon leveling for POV chest/head/ski shots. I think in Linear Mode in 4k 60fps the zoom/crop looks pretty decent. Also with the 4k you can edit in 2k or HD and essentially zoom in 2x and still have great looking video. I have a degree in video production and using GoPro's since they came out, should have some great videos out to share soon of me hacking through the course.

Southern California. Live 1/4mi from puddingstone reservoir (San Dimas, Raging Waters); Ski at the Quarry Ski Club in Corona, CA and San Diego Water Ski Club. I still have family around Bay Area and Sacramento; parents still live 10 minutes from Lang Lake, my mom taught the Lang Kids in school and I believe some connections to BD as well.

I had the privilege of practicing with some greats on Sacramento Sates Ski Team in 1998-99. Having not skied since 1999 until recently in August of 2020; this article was pretty cool to me (written in 2008). I was a bit frustrated back then with how little water time or coaching I got; but now I understand why, future world champions were being groomed: https://statehornet.com/2008/02/former-sac-state-skier-finds-success-as-a-professional/ @MarcusBrown pulled me through the course for my first pass ever on Lang Lake in Shingle Springs, CA. Marcus and Coach Dulgar were just figuring out Perfect Pass settings on the Ski Natique Bubble Butt. I had spent hours free skiing and watching Advanced Slalom Clinic featuring Bob LaPoint; I thought I would be running into the 30 off's in no time. First pass I think I asked for 34mph 22 off; went OTF at one ball almost hitting the shore, never even got through the course skiing with Sac State; understandably never skied a tournament for them. I probably got less than 15 passes over the two years despite spending 100's of hours on the dock, and those were my only times I had ever been on a course; however, I absolutely loved the sport, got to try jumping on Winchester Lake (Sac Delta Slough) and tricking on my wakeboard with no fins. I moved to SoCal in 2,000; college poor, without a boat, and where the sport was much less popular. Happy to now be skiing the course again 22 years later at 44 y/o. Clearing 15Off@32 MPH after only about 10 days on a course, PR almost every time out. Blessed with good health, a boat, and recently becoming a member of a course to ski on almost weekly. Motivated by being surrounded by guys into their late 60's skiing short-line. I am super psyched on my future of skiing and honored to have been a shadow to some great history why it was being made.

Buy a quiver of skis as you progress. The highest end ski you can buy for learning the course will be different than the highest end ski you can buy to clear 41 Off. Buying the highest build level of a ski designed for your speed and ability would be the way to go. Just like other professional equipment such as a racecar; it's the time and resources required to tailor equipment to work best for you that cost the most. Paying an elite coach to adjust your ski, advise on when to upgrade; that would be the highest-end you could go.

@kmenard I had the pleasure of asking myself the same question yesterday after clearing 6@15Off 30.4MPH for the 3rd time. My answer for myself was have fun with the sport. Fun for me was trying 32MPH; felt like Mach 5 and I blew past 1 ball 5 feet before I could think about turning. I had more fun failing at 32MPH than a back up 30.4MPH. Having skied the course 10 times in the last 20 years, 10 of those days in the last year, 6 of those days in the last 6 weeks; my progression is much different than the 38 Off 34 MPH ski partner that has probably skied 600 Days over the last 10 years. He would probably not bump the speed to 36 MPH after clearing 6@38Off; rather, if he was feeling good, he may try 39.5 or another 38. A professionally ski coach like Terry could probably tell if you were technically sound enough to progress without further enforcing bad habits; habits that could haunt you and your ability to have fun progressing at a later stage. The better we get at something the harder it becomes to make incremental improvements; however, possibly further slowing our progression is the mental fog we develop along the way that makes us reluctant to try new things.

I came from an old high wrap double boots (20 years ago) and when I started skiing again went with the Vector BOA Front and HRT Rear. I learned to ski on a single ski with both feet in; so never understood purpose of RTP until reading some recent fodder about freeing up the heel, also noticed many of the cool kids (pros) running RTP. I didn't want to commit to RTP but was sold on the logic, so the HRT seemed like a good compromise. Just 8 months back into skiing after a 20 year break, so I don't think my binding choice is my limiting factor; however, I think I will be going back to a full rear boot. I am a RFF Skier but Wakeboard, Surf and Skateboard LFF. I think I would better engage my left / rear foot and feel more natural getting into a better stack off my offside turn, hips fwd to handle if my rear foot felt more secure. Here is a recent video of an OTF in the Radar BOA with HRT Rear

Is their any live webcast or tv of the Masters. I see its not on The Water Ski Broadcast Companies Schedule?

That was awesome!

I had replaced my Morse with a Sea Star a few weeks ago. 2nd time out with it yesterday noticed the wheel had the up down side to side free slop; not steering play, but the actual wheel moves. Its almost like the helm is loose in the dash (going to check that). What's this brass bearing you are talking about @BraceMaker ?

I am a member at San Diego Water Ski Club but have not been going much as its 2 hours away from my home in San Dimas, CA. I am also a member at the Quarry in Corona, CA that is 20min away. PM for details, I mostly ski weekends.

As a former personal trainer and lifelong athlete myself, I find the body composition of skiers very interesting. Despite course skiing being similar intervals to football; I think its because skiers carry the largest load in a isometric "stacked" position that major muscles stay compact. Probably skiers arms make the largest isotonic movement and by my observations skiers biceps and deltoids are bigger proportionately than their back, lats, traps, core that may carry a larger load but move less and therefore don't gain as much proportional size. It would be cool to see side by side video of an equal height and skill heavier skier vs lighter skier making the same pass and if/where there are advantages and disadvantages.

@MNshortliner I was very tempted to go rack & pinion (same price) however the cable helms @MacsBrendella23 offer a 3 Turn Lock to Lock ration vs the rack & pinions I found were 4 turns lock to lock. My original Moris was 3 turns; I didn't want my steering any less responsive or to change my flow with the skier in the course so for my needs cable was still better.

I just had similar issue on my 1994 Tige SLM Comp. What broke there looks to be the tilt column mechanism. Same thing happened to mine when I cranked too hard on the wheel when the steering cable seized and I was floating away from the trailer. That looks to be the older style Morse Steering Column and cable. You will need to replace both the helm (what you are showing in the pic) and the cable. Morse is no longer in business so you will need to replace with another brand like TeleFlex. You will need to determine your cable length (usually code printed towards end of the cable you can google). I chose to go with a non tilt column replacement to eliminate the additional moving parts and failure point. Your steering wheel should bolt right up to the new helm.

Its a good day when you spend it in Board Shorts. I have no affiliation with but really like the quality and style of Virus Apparel. I just picked these up these are awesome. Virus should start sponsoring 3 Event Pull Sport athletes and advertise on Ball Of Spray. The O'Neil and Hurley leg holes are a little too tube like and straight where the Virus stuff fits my legs and butt great. https://virusintl.com/collections/mens-shorts/products/active-airflex-short

I was facing your same decision 3 months ago @kmenard . I already had electric controller for my rig. Pricing it out (I also needed new actuator) would have been close. I ended up going traditional Hydraulic Drums like factory. Was $900 including new A-60 actuator, lines, bearings, and Inner Drums including labor. My thinking's were if I ever switched vehicles, or a friend needed to pull my boat, or if I rented an RV through Outdoorsy.com the brake system would be self contained and good to go.

Thanks @ALPJr and yes @Than_Bogan . I think I observed at Swiss Webcast only Hard Boots or what I have now learned were T-Factors (previously thought they were Rubber High Wraps). It got me wondering why boots like Radar Carbitex, HO Free Max, Connelly Tempest or my Radar Boa Vector were not seen (by me at least) at Swiss. It made me question if I should change my binding setup; not because my boots are currently an obvious limiting factor at my current level, but because I would prefer to progress on something that won't set me at a disadvantage at some point in the future.

I didn't look close enough. The TFactors kind of look like a traditional high wrap rubber binding through the TV, and I guess they do have some elements of rubber high wraps in them (not a bad thing). It was actually Nate's Set Up that prompted the question as I wrongly assumed they were traditional Rubber High Wraps like Wiley's. I am reminded of @Horton survey where I ranked the influence of what pros are running almost last, and yet here I am, a weekend warrior being influenced by what I saw the pros running.

In the 1990s I skied double boot rubber bindings. After a 22 year break I was sold on the Radar Vector Boa / HRT BOA Bindings; mostly because that seemed to be the "kit binding" with most the Radar Senate Skies I saw and price point. I am no pro! Just getting through 6 at 22 off 30 mph with major progression every session. I could not help but notice over the last 2 years of pro events I watch on TWSBC its 95% Plus Hard Boot Front, with the other 5% or less seeming to be some type of high wrap rubber (like I had in the 1990s). Even skiers at my current ability are running hard boots. I notice with the Radar Boa I feel like ankle movement does a good job translate to edge movement; however, I sometimes feel like I don't get a lot of input from the ski on front to back movement, or feel edge pressure very well through the ball of my foot. Their must be a reason no pros have the same bindings as me; and that must be why I am not running 41 off? lol.