swbca

@Slalom.Steve  I think you comment in your posts above that iPhone users may want to use the selfie camera to avoid the stabilization with the rear cameras when they are zoomed in to some level.   I tested the selfie camera on my iPhone-XS and my wife's iPhone-14 Pro.  You also commented the Selfie cameras are probably better on later phones - You were correct on that - I tested two iPhones yesterday.      

- The iPhone-XS selfie camera was not good zoomed in 1.5.  Soft Focus - not sharp.
- The iPhone-14 Pro selfie camera is very good when zoomed in the same amount . . this would be good for slalom videos

@BugHunterThis is the view I get with my 8 year old Android phone at 1.5 zoom.  The shake when the rope is snapped tight by the skier is bad.  Can a GoPro ZOOM get close to this view ?    (the skier fills about 1/3 of the frame height - close to a 50mm-equivalent "normal" focal length on an film SLR. )   

This is Paul Chapin a week before he skied in the last over-35 World Tournament .   He's not in course, but he is skiing full width - there was too much wind in the course this day.   Thanks for your help with this ?

12 minutes ago, BugHunter said:

I will get some sample videos and post them. I do not ski at 35off (I wish) but my ski pals are so I will make the video this weekend.

Great!   thanks alot . .  I don't know the difference between GoPro models . . what would be the best option to work with your APP ?    

I don't recall if it was posted on BOS in the past, but I read about iPhone users disabling the mechanical stabilization with a small rare earth magnet near the lens.   Has anyone here done that ?   

Do you have a slalom video that you could post here ?

Specifically,

Where ZOOM is set to have a 6' adult skier fill around 1/3 of the height of the video frame at 35 off when he is upright at the wake.

And showing that the skier doesn't ski out of the frame at 35-38 off when zoomed as above.

This zoom spec approximately simulates a 50mm equivalent "normal" lens on an SLR.   Not the usual way-to-wide angle seen on old GoPro videos.

I have been using an old android phone on SkiDoc.  There is no vibration problem and Individual frames are great quality, but the "rope shake" with short line skiers is bad.

Looking for an improvement on the stabilization of rope shake.    I just tried the Selfie camera on an iPhone-XS zoomed at 1.5 and every frame is soft-focus.  Not good enough.

Ready to switch to GoPro if it looks good at the 50mm-equivelent described above.

Thanks

17 hours ago, BGrow76 said:

Hopefully it works out and the Android version becomes available sooner rather than later. Worldwide Android has 70% of the market, 40% in the USA.

Saving your ZOOM setting when minimized is currently a feature exclusive to PylonCam Pro.   
-Wakeye on iPhone loses your ZOOM when minimized
-Wakeye on Android loses your ZOOM when minimized (tested on Galaxy S22 and S7
-iPhone native camera loses your ZOOM when minimized
-Android native camera loses your ZOOM when minimized

So PylonCam Pro didn't just inherit this characteristic from the iPhone, its unique to PylonCam Pro APP.

Many skiers have a phone dedicated to their Pylon Videos.  So even if you have an Android phone, you could buy a used iPhone on ebay for your skiing.  It avoids the complication of having your phone usage getting tangled up with your ski outings.

Of course they could probably get the ZOOM save feature on an Android if they get to it, but its a big effort for a small market.   Steve the developer had to do this out of the "love" for high achievement.  

14 hours ago, Slalom.Steve said:

@swbca So right now, if you go to your home screen or another app but don't actually "close/quit" the PylonCam app (ie it's still in the background), it does save the zoom setting when going back to PylonCam. I'll look into whether I can get it to save/re-load the zoom even after a "full quit and re-open."

I tested it and I see the zoom value survives when you put the app in the background.  Until today, I have been using an Android phone with Wakeye and it didn't preserve the zoom value when minimized.   That feature of the iPhone and your new app pretty much solves the problem.   I can set all the values of that app in our kitchen before I head for the lake and they will be ready when we start the app from background when we start skiing.  No worries about trying to do it in bright sun without my reading glasses 🙂  Thanks this is a great improvement ! 

Would it be possible to have the zoom level be a saved value ?   When out on the lake in the sun its hard to setup the app, or for your driver to verify settings in the sun if you are already in the lake.   We lost getting good videos sometimes with wakeye because someone touched the phone screen while changing rope length.   I can understand why saving zoom level might be difficult but it would be a nice feature.    

We had the earliest "ICE_OUT" in 70 years.    So we put in our dock with plans to ski April 1.

This was this morning and 6 more inches of snow are expected today.  Steve Nelson, our local M9 current world trick champion has been skiing for 2 weeks.  He had to buy a new Nautique to practice for the last world tournament.   I have his old Master Craft still safe in a heated garage.

Ski Boat Owners, be careful not to operate your Ski Boat like a Wake Boat too close to shore.   This is behind our 2004 ProStar.  Two family members in the back seat for ballast.
 

42 minutes ago, The_MS said:

@swbca I never tried the washer under the block thing. It may have been one if the @adams. Cord/Caldwell. Do you have off side issues with the Titanium? 

 

My only problem with the Titanium or most other skis is me. The washer is something I have never tried to see if it would help on either side.  I just found it was MISkier's post where I saw this detail first.  Always up for testing an idea ?   Thanks

15 minutes ago, buechsr said:

Action is needed in many areas.  Equity and reimagining are not boogeyman words.  As I live youth sports issues in the present, they are very legitimate issues.  

As long as there aren't DEI activists that insist on and promote gender confusion among our children in sports.   

Master Craft advertised the 1986 Pro Star as the first NO WAKE slalom boat.  The 86 was the first year with the Rainbow Graphics.   I bought one because I had just had meniscus surgery on both knees from 10 years of skiing behind Nautiques.   The 86 wake was like a flat bottom race boat.  It also turned like a race boat. It turned with G's and no roll at speed.   Everyone now says it had terrible tracking but I didn't know better at the time. 

@The_MS  I believe you made a comment somewhere about putting a small washer under the center screw on one side of the fin block.  I understood that would slightly reduce the fin area on that side but not the other.   I don't recall if you said that helped your on-side or your off-side.

IF you are RFF which side did put the washer ?

Thanks

20 hours ago, eleeski said:

Absolutely real. 2004 MC Prostar with a wake that Nautique skiers complained about. I drilled a hole near the prop with a tube extending above the waterline. Softened up the propwash noticeably. 

I drilled a hole near the prop with a tube extending above the waterline.
Please explain this.  Any hole drilled -in the hull- near the prop would be a hole below or behind the fuel tank.   I have no plans to copy your idea, but curious about what you did.     I knocked down the prop wash on a 2004 ProStar with a replica of the Nautique Hydrogate.    I quit using it because was a waste of fuel.

On 2/1/2024 at 8:43 AM, scoke said:

To get the ski to engage and turn more in the tip, have you considered drilling a few "relief" holes in the forebody front deck? or even in the front side walls? That's a common solution to relieve pressure.

I've been thinking about the "common solution" you describe above for a month.   

@Horton  Thanks for the North American Moomba schedule.    It prints out first 5 columns into 5 pages with no formatting effort  . . . Very Helpful

15 hours ago, MISkier said:

@Drago and others, here is the submitted bill.  Nothing has been passed yet.

 

https://legislature.mi.gov/documents/2023-2024/billintroduced/House/pdf/2024-HIB-5532.pdf

Edited: the definitions below and the bolded text at the bottom are essentially the sole changes to the existing law:

"Wake boat" means a vessel that is equipped with wake enhancing equipment. Wake boat includes, but is not limited to, a wake surf boat and a ballasted boat.

"Wake-enhancing equipment" means ballast tanks, ballast bags, compartments, containers, or similar devices or mechanical systems designed to enhance the characteristics of a boat's wake.

"Wake sport mode" refers to operation of a wake boat with wake-enhancing equipment engaged.

 

A person shall not operate a vessel in wake sport mode on waters of this state where the water depth is less than 20 feet. A person operating a vessel in wake sport mode shall maintain a distance of not less than 500 feet from the shoreline or a dock, a raft, a buoyed or occupied bathing area, or a vessel moored or at anchor.

 

 

Regarding the phrase:

"Wake sport mode" refers to operation of a wake boat with wake-enhancing equipment engaged.

Aren't the hulls of wake boats designed to create a large wake even without the "Wake-enhancing equipment engaged"  ???   

I agree the language in the bill is very good, but these boats operated without the operator's consideration of his wake can cause more damage than a ski boat or most other recreational boats.   Obviously Boat speed is a wake enhancing factor but not a feature unique to wake boats.   Not sure how that can be addressed in the bill.

@Drago you have a lot of thumbs down.  Perhaps explain . . it appears you are against having a law that includes a definition of "Wake Sport Mode"   The Michigan law looks good but enforcement and citizen complaints may come from confusion about the phrase. 

"Wake Sport Mode" is likely to be misunderstood by Wake Boat operators.  They may think going 16 mph at 200 feet from shore is fine as long as the aren't using ballast or similar wake enhancements.  

Hopefully ski boat owners wouldn't 16mph with three people in the back seat at 200 feet from shore which makes a wake that could easily be considered a Wake Sport wake.

The law should have a clear definition of what it means.

If 3 meters (10 feet) is your high water mark, and the water drops to zero later in the season, have you figured out the minimum safe depth for running a ski boat with skier ?   4 feet would be my guess.

If you end up using a second float to maintain tension,  the two floats are going to seek the same distance from bottom when the water is down to 1/2 of maximum water depth = 1.5 meters or 5 feet. If you use a 2 float setup you would have to make a mid season adjustment so the 2 float system can allow for water less than 5 feet.   Sounds like a good place to ski.

On 2/22/2024 at 10:20 PM, dvskier said:

Will this be the ski that you ride to win the 2024 M9 Nationals?

Not a chance, but I placed 2nd in a Men3 Nationals on a 66" HO with this same tuning setup with over 50 skiers in the event.  I believe Gordon Rathbun won the event.

Now that I have this ski ready for testing, I see that it looks like a throwback to the 45 degree sharp edged bevel used on KLP's 1970s Maharajah but in this case its only on the last 16" of the ski . . . . leaving the larger radius modern bevels on the rest of the ski.

The purpose of the 45 degree bevel is entirely different than the classic 45 bevel.  Performance adjustments are by modifying the bottom edge from from razor sharp to not quite razor sharp.  You tune the ski by dividing the back 16" into a number of zones and finding the best combination of bottom edge sharpness across all zones.  The logic is parallel to tuning the metal edges on alpine racing skis.  And, like with tuning alpine skis, the adjustments made on the bottom edges of this slalom ski are physically so small you can feel them but can't see them.  Like dragging your thumb crosswise on a knife blade to see if it has the feel of very sharp or not so sharp.  The very sharp bottom edge on the ski assures a straight flow of water away from ski . . . no trace of water wrapping the edge. 

This tuning framework gave me a competitive advantage when tournament skis in the 80's were not great.  I'm Optimistic but not sure how it will work on this D3 EVO which didn't work for me in its stock form.  

Just now, VONMAN said:

@buechsr Yes, I used to think that until I saw this on Lake Bowers a 150 acre lake max. Some how this boat was on this lake.

Looks like someone found a solution to reduce the wake of this beast.  Those little plugs on the bottom of the boat are only finger tight. 

The "Minimum Wake" signs work when we enter the narrow channels connecting bays on our lake.

Imagine if we could put up 16" Maximum Wake signs everywhere.  If our Lake Association took a vote for that I think it would pass.  It wouldn't be legally enforceable but community pressure would have a big impact.