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Ranking notations * # On the individual rankings I get that the Asterix means Penalty for having less the 3 qualifying events, but what does # mean. I looked at rule 1.13 but didn't figure it out.

From the skiers experience is there significant latency in the boats response to the skier ? How constant is the boats speed in a "typical case" 180 pound, 35off, 34mph skier. . . is the boats actual speed running up and down in a 1mph range or more? or less? What does it feel like to the skier.?

@VONMAN Interesting, I am sure you have a good outboard setup. I had a young doctor friend on the lake with an outboard with a large engine. I only weigh 170 but when I skied behind it once, the low weight of the boat made it a rough ride for the 2 people in the boat and I bent the ski tow that came up over the engine. What kind of hull do have that's up to the task of pulling a real slalom skier through the course. Remember the Crosby Twin Rigs ? Can you describe how your PP responds to the skier. I Assume it reacts to being pulled down by the skier. Or does it have some intelligence to anticipate ? Overall does it feel like one of those great boat drivers that makes slalom skiing ease while driving in tolerance straight down the middle of the course ? What's with magnets on the gates ? I received the upgraded PP, StarGazer and Gauge yesterday. Are gate magnets part of using upgraded PP ?

DIAGNOSE THIS PROBLEM Watching the MasterCraft Pro tournament on YouTube, there was a woman skier, in the middle of a pack of 10, that was having a bad time on 2 and 4, her "on-side" at 35 off. Her D3 ski wouldn't turn, water was spraying up from her boots for a long time and she was breaking at the waist before the ski would turn . . . way to late. The commentator made the comment that she needs to get her ski problems addressed. If its possible, can anybody suggest what fin/wing adjustments she should make ? or should she just learn to get back on 2 and 4 like the best men on D3's Its of interest to me, because that was the kind of problem I had to tune out of every stock ski I had, but that was before Fins were part of the tuning game. Occasionally I would get a ski setup to snap an on-side turn at excess speed with weight neutral - tip down.

@lpskier You said "2@35 won M9 Nationals last year". . . maybe I should just keep running 38off passes in my head . . . at 75 I have no problem there.

@MISkier 22off qualifies ?? The 1985 Highlight Reels of skiing that are still in my head, still fool me into thinking I can just start where I left off. What a shock it will be when the ice goes out in Minnesota.

@VONMAN does the D-3 Leverage perform any differently than the older "wiley" style bindings? I can see the D-3 comes up higher but is the height so compliant that its only function is for ease of putting on the ski ?

@MISkier impressive . . Thank you . . I have the spread sheet "2020 Level 8 COA" are those the COA's in force up to the 2021 Nationals, or is the COA a moving target ?

Qualifier A "A skier may also qualify . . after the Cut Off Date by increasing his Ranking List Average above the Level 8 Cut Off Average before the Natls" Qualifier B "or attain a score equal to or greater that the Level 8 Cut Off Average in a Regionals or any Class C tournament before the Natls" Qualifier B makes it appear that a brand new skier (with no Level 8 Average) would only have to ski in 1 Tournament - plus the Regionals - during the summer of the Natls. with a Level 8 Cut Off score to Qualify. Is that correct ? It seems like B would always supersede A because how would a skier have a Level 8 Average without skiing Qualifier B performances multiple times ?

@lpskier Interested in your opinion . . other than the need for batteries, what are the disadvantages of digital ?

This doesn't translate into a recommendation, but the 1985 Master Craft Prostar 190 that I bought in 1985 had a much smaller wake than the 2004 ProStar I bought recently. The 1985 hull shape hadn't been worked over to eliminate spray or to make trick skiers happy. It was just a big flat sheet of fiberglass that skimmed along the surface with "no wake". It also cornered flat at high speeds like some racing hulls. I bought the 1985 Prostar after recovering from knee surgery on both knees' caused by the wake on my 2 earlier Correct Crafts.

Is it relatively safe to use the Radar Carbitex without a release from the ski ? When I was an active competitor, I didn't lose my ski in a fall more than once per year. But when it has to happen, will the Carbitex let you out ? At 30 mph what could possibly happen that you would want to be separated from your ski ? :)

@Horton Instead of spending money on Wiley bindings, do you think the D3 T-factor would be too much of an adjustment for me. Its a rubber binding with laces. Thanks for your feedback.

@VONMAN @Nando Regarding digital calipers; Any specific recommendation?

@Horton D3 has the fin and binding setup measurements for all of their skis on their web site. Are those values a sensible starting point ? Thanks

@Nando Not sure if it will be a comeback, I hope so and time will tell. Spending my free time this winter working out to regain strength and getting down 5 more pounds to my best skiing weight. Also got some good feedback from this forum and other places on improving balance and reflexes. Its great having a reason to get fit. My choice of ski is a 68" D3 ION considering the 30mph speed. I am sure there are other good choices, may be better choices but I figure this is a reasonable starting point. I am stunned by the all the articles and forum threads on fin tuning. All credible people agreeing that .00x inch adjustments making huge differences. All the language developed to talk about fin settings and I have no idea what they are talking about. I am also in the dark about ski bindings. I talked to Lance about boots. He told me he couldn't ski at all after mounting a new boot. He installed a snow skiing cant to fix it. Do the new boot options actually improve performance versus typical competition bindings from the past ? Are skiers using the hard shell boots for lateral control like ski racers ?

ITS THE SKIER NOT THE SKI What about the skier that doesn't worry about the performance of his ski's. In a charming way always pokes fun at the guys who are always messing around with their ski's. THE TRUTH A gifted athlete can do pretty well on a terrible slalom ski. A mediocre athlete will get higher tournament scores on a great ski. At the 1965 Nationals in Minneapolis, A skiing legend / World Champion trick skier introduced himself and asked if I could use a practice partner. The skier had started a real job and had been transferred from California to Minnesota. He started skiing at our place that day, the day before his Trick event. For the following 2 summers he skied at our place every weekday morning before he went to work. He had signed an endorsement deal with a sports company known for their basketballs. He didn't get his input into the products that he was expecting. He had their skis for all three events. The designs were nothing more than a marketing guys idea of where to put their name. The trick skis were shaped like a diamond that came to a blunted point at each end. There was no tracking and no fore and aft support. The slalom ski was a banana design like used in ski shows. He finally used a hand saw to cut the slalom ski so it also ended with a blunted point at the tail. THE PROOF . . I think he placed in the 1966 Miami Nationals on his diamond shaped trick ski. He occasionally ran 30 off in practice on the slalom ski. It took a gifted athlete to accomplish those performances on the skis he was using but far below his abilities. He loves the people and loves the sport. He always had a smile even though I'm sure he knew that he would have won 3 more medals at the 66 & 67 Nationals on any other skis. So keep on tuning your fins and bindings. At 17 years old, a Mixed Doubles champion with Vicki Van Hook. Currently in the USA Water Ski Foundation "Legends Program" and skis the western mountains about 20 days a season.

@Bruce_Butterfield You talked about the skier as one of the variables . . I haven't skied for a long time but am committed to do as well as I can in M9 by every means available. The ski's I had configured over my final several years in various men's division were far from stock. When I borrowed or tried any other ski I couldn't ski on them at all in the limited time I gave to them. My problem was the same on all stock skis. I expected them to snap turn, not making each turn a long drawn out process. I have heard and can see on pro tournament video that modern skis are much more interested in turning than the old skis. With the improvement in ski's, I have confidence that there are stock skis that work out of the box . . so its up to me to learn how to ski the ski . . and then work on the fins, boots and boot positions.

@Bruce_Butterfield @Nando I will get the book - I appreciate the recommendation. Bruce mentioned Theories and Explanations. What makes ski tuning a black art . . ? When I told Dave Saucier or Karl Roberge that my new Saucier or new Kidder ski was disinterested in turning on my On-Side turn, they would round the bevel more on the right side in the binding areas . . when they did that to my skis it didn't work . . but that was just me I guess. The way my other skis were setup I would make the bevel smaller and edges less round to get the mid ski to help initiate and complete a turn. In 1967 Merrill LaPoint was helping run a local tournament in Marin county and I dropped in after seeing the event from the highway while on a vacation. Merrill loaned me Kris's Maharajah because that's what I was using that year and I had talked to Merrill at the nationals a couple of week earlier. Kris's ski still had the small sharp 45 bevel from the factory. All sorts of things can work that appear to conflict with prevailing tuning frameworks.

@eleeski @Bruce_Butterfield and others FINS . . I experimented with edges of skis and binding positions constantly for 30 years, making skis work for me, but what I learned doesn't mean anything with the new skis which aren't constructed with surplus non-structural sidewall material like the old skis. We never experimented with fins decades ago, except in the 60's everyone learned that drilling a couple of holes would prevent the ski from turning sideways after crossing the wake, throwing you out the front apparently because of a vacuum pocket behind the fin. CAN SOMEONE ELABORATE ON FIN ADJUSTMENTS ? at least of few of the basics.

@eleeski @The_MS I wasn't mocking Bondo. for relevance, I was referencing eleeski's practice of adding material to ski edges as part of ski tuning process. @eleeski uses Bondo or similar, I layer spray coats of colored epoxy. No Mocking here . . tournament scores are what count.

@Horton I won't be touching the skin of my new D3. When the blank ski only weighs 3 pounds you know the ski's structure is its skin.

@eleeski Tuning Addiction ? re: Bondo . . When skis made of aluminum, foam and composites started being built, I used multiple coats of catalyzed automotive paint to replace material that was "tuned off". It was easy to build thickness with the epoxy paint. I had a spray booth with infrared lamps setup just for skis. I rebuilt and reshaped the edges of my EP and Kidder skis endlessly. The ski always looked like new and occasionally worked better. But tuning is like gambling . . when you have a "win" you bet again, never know when to stop. All that matters is being ahead for the season "finals".

@Horton The designs were crude and the wood skis could completely stop working when they sat around in the dry winter air between summers. The wood Obrien which was my best ski ever at the time, didn't work at all the next spring.

Some dates are wrong 1962 - Minnesota slalom skiers used Northland slalom skis. Warren Witherall, who had his signature on the ski cut 1.25 inches of the back of our skis and moved the fin forward. As a high-school student, I felt felt pain when he extended the fin slot forward with a big hand saw. 1967 - Just before the Texas Nationals I was trying to make a Maharajah ski work. KLP could make the ski work, but other skiers would just fall over into their good-side turn when they were on their difficult rope lengths. To widen the ski along front foot, I used a band saw to cut a slot down the right side of the ski from the tip to the back of the front binding, then spread the gap and filled it with resin. It worked pretty good. The 1967 Austin Texas Nationals were on a river during a Texas flash flood with logs, branches and huge rollers in the course. Jump champion Chuck Stearns won slalom, I think I placed 7th. Many of the top seeded skiers fell in the rollers . . Floods are an equalizer. When Merrill Lapoint saw my Maharajah ski, he thought the saw cut was to fix a manufacturing defect rather than to "tune" it. I declined his offer to send me a new ski. 1968 - When Dave Saucier wanted to get a skier on a Saucier ski, he would meet you at Lake Saucier in a woods in the middle of a farm somewhere. Before you ever tried the ski, he would fill his boat with white dust as he made the very large round bevels larger and rounder. 1969 - When Leroy Burnett was the slalom sensation on a wood Obrien, running 30 off (or was it 36 off ?) at every tournament, I drove to his house in Northern California to get a ski. It was the best ski I had to date after I widened the ski with epoxy about 3/32" on the good side turn from the front heal forward. Later MasterCraft-Obrien built in the same asymmetry with their La Point Radius ski, which was sold in 2 versions, for Left or Right foot forward. Fast forward to 2021 - as an outsider trying to start over in M9 in a few months, I have the impression that sandpaper, saws, resin and files are no longer part of breaking in a new slalom ski. I just spent $1200 on a blank ski, where would I start with carpenters tools? But Finally, it looks like manufacturers have figured out that all the older skis were too narrow under the front foot. Now the top 66-67" skis (such as D3 EVO and ION) are 3/16 to 5/16" wider than the universal 6 9/16 width from the past.