swbca

On 11/14/2023 at 10:45 AM, r_maniak said:

I'm perhaps one of the most "seasoned" OffCourse users, having fired through approximately 17,000 markers so far (just 2 users - my ski partner and I).   When I'm skiing good, OffCourse fires somewhere in the early stages of my pre-turn when there is no load on the rope.

As Horton mentioned in his review, on very short Line Lengths, "the markers come up fast".  This happens because the skier advances on the boat with short roap, so the guns shoot the marker very close in front of the skier.  The shorter the rope, the closer the splash occurs relative to the position of the skier, providing no visual guide to setup the turn.  I find the the marks appear early enough to ski around them at 22 off, but my useful practice is at 32 and 35off.  If I am skiing at the correct pace and width for 35off, I am completing my turns before the splashes happen a few feet ahead of me.

In spite of that deficiency, OffCourse is still useful for short line practice because it lets you know if you are late, early, wide or narrow.  Its a great product for improving and measuring your performance when a conventional course is not available.  Like @r_maniak , I have gone through a few thousand balls in the last two years.

QUESTION for r_maniak . . At what rope lengths do the splash marks occur early enough for you to consistently ski around them ?   

I bought mine from from NVN Marine.   $257.91 including shipping at the time

Two parts, Mirror and Bracket below - Search their site for these two part numbers

First find the Jurisdiction that issues permits.  State laws may govern the use of slalom courses, but they may have delegated permitting and enforcement to Counties or Cities.  It some areas a course that is not on the surface at night does not require a permit.  This means a portable course setup for the day would not require a permit.  It may also mean you can have a submersible course without a permit provided it is submerged at night.

With or without the need for a permit, a submersible course is the easiest thing to live with.  You can be skiing within a few minutes of anytime you see conditions are good for skiing.  There are a few ways to build a submersible course.  They all require a bit of work to get them installed and calibrated, but once done can provide decades of skiing whenever you want.

@dw @ScottScott  I didn't say "my average girlfriend".  "Your average girlfriend" is referring to any person who has normal skill levels at learning and a normal understanding of spatial relationships at speed.   As I said kids, spouse etc.  Who ever is interested and willing.  I don't have a girlfriend, but I do have a wife who loves to be around skiing and is good driver so far. 

This question has nothing to do with gender and the same question applies to having your children or spouse learn to drive in the slalom course.  

With decades of competing,  I rarely drove except for one son because there were no other skiers in our community.  
Recently I drove a 235 pound skier for a couple of sets behind my 2004 Prostar 197.   At 34mph, he started at 22 off and skied into 3 or 4 at 35off.   I was OK at the boat guides but not so great between the gates.  Reminded that it takes a lot of skill to drive well in the course. 

This 16 year old daughter pulled me several times per week in the 80's when this photo was taken. Same with my wife and son.  Stop watch and steering with one hand and throttle with the other.  They just learned somehow.   I have been told the 1986 Prostar was terrible at tracking.    So how should I start with a driver who has done years of driving for free skiing but not in the course ?

In any relationship you get back what you put into it.  That ski should love you

So the consensus is  . .  the driver put it reverse.

What generation of ski boats have transmissions that will actually successful reverse rotation of the prop at skiing speed. 

I have a 2004 ProStar and its has happened twice by having the wrong driver in my boat.  I our case the engine stops all rotation instantly with the internal impact of the crashbox transmisson in the 2004 ProStar.  I don't know why the transmission or damper plate didn't break.

The moral to the story is in this case, don't have guys that drive their modern dual clutch Porsches on the track drive your boat.  On the race track, they pull the shift handle backwards several times while breaking for every turn.  That habit can carry over to your boat if they aren't thinking.  Both of these guys are instructors for the Porsche club that made this mistake even after a careful discussion about not touching the release button when stopping to drop the skier at the end of the course. 

The SKI used to be the principal setup component a long time ago

In the 70's and 80" skiers used sand paper, files, saws, and sometimes resin on their skis, sometimes right out of the box.  When I got a new Kidder ski Carl Roberge used sandpaper to reshape the bevels before I ever skied on it.  Same with Dave Saucier on a new Saucier ski I wanted to try.  They both had learned how to get a better starting point than the stock ski. 

So binding placement mattered back then but fin tuning was non existent.  The greatest setup effort in the 70's and 80' was the ski. 

Slicing and re-laminating  new skis . . . .

Modern skis have more rocker on the front half of the ski than the old skis.   In the 80's I sliced a Saucier and an EP slalom ski with a bandsaw so the front half of the top and bottom of the skis were separated from each other.  Then I used suitable resin to glue them back together with rocker similar to today's skis. 

Then I cut a Maharajah slalom ski down the middle and widened it from the heal of the front foot to the tip.  

Its sad that we just put our boat away for the winter.

On days like this we sometimes run Rodics OffCourse in "Infinity Mode" running 22 consecutive "balls" down the length of our lake. Saturday was a perfect warm-quiet day on BayLake in Minnesota.

Which familiar BOS members are on the start list.   Looking at the start list for  @Horton

On 10/10/2023 at 11:39 AM, UWSkier said:

Short of a gyro, there's no real solution to the "rocking the boat" problem other than to be a smoother, better skier. 🤪

OffCourse is a remarkably well built product. If there could be a next-generation that could self level independently of the boat it would be a break-through that could greatly expand its market.  I have a great appreciation of what they have done but don't know if their return on effort can encourage them to push forward given the niche market.  I am rooting for them.  Anyone have any insight about their future development prospects ?

On 5/13/2021 at 10:42 PM, Bruce_Butterfield said:

The unfortunate reality is that for most of us old codgers, its much easier to spend $2k on a new ski than it is to drop 10 lbs. The new ski would probably not get anymore buoys. 10lbs might get another buoy or 2. But its REALLY hard to give the up the adult beverages at the end of the ski set:)

Last spring I found I can enjoy adult beverages at the end of a ski set and eat without intentional moderation of what or how much I eat.  With one 14oz. daily serving of 26gram CORE POWER protein drink, my weight is down almost 10 pounds over the last 5 months with no dieting effort.  This is known affect of protein supplements.

Something that might help if you want to stay ready for the summer of 2024.

I ski on a 66" Titanium.   Using one of the preset holes on the front T-Factor plate, the boot measurement is 29" to the rubber on the heel.   How much difference might be caused when measuring to some of the release boots ?    

I had a neck injury from trying to catch too much slack.  I thought I had a 6 foot loop in my hand when I said hit-it while sitting on the edge of the dock with a dual boot slalom ski.  Turns out their was 10 more feet of slack I didn't see  At first my left arm was useless for weeks.  After years of pain and inflammation drugs I had surgery at the Mayo Clinic.  That helped and then it continued to improve over the next 15 years.  Now I can do almost anything except activities that create a compression shock for the neck.  I can ski, waterski, roller blade but I can't run, jog, use an ax or sledge hammer without causing a problem that takes a week to recover from.  No running includes tennis or other sports that involve running.

Not saying surgery is for you, but that's what happened here.

Thanks to TWBC for bringing world-class production quality to all Series-Groupings at the World tournament.  Their timing of live, double replays and back to live is perfect every time and Toni's observations and commentary are better every year. 

8 hours ago, KRoundy said:

@swbca What boat? That angle sounds really similar to what we measured for my SN 200. I only purchased one of those digital angle gauges, but putting three on there seems like a great solution to me! Well done. 👍🏻 

A 2004 Prostar 197.  We also have a 24" long carpenter level mounted on top of the dashboard just behind the windshield.  As you have seen the digital levels don't work well with the vibration of a boat at speed.   The 24" level works pretty well to see if the boat is level while underway.   The 24" level also provides a flat surface to fasten the third digital level which we use to get the boat leveled with the boat standing still with the current driver.   The final verification of this calibration method is to drive the boat through an actual course at speed.   Another skier has a course on our lake about 10 days each summer.      

On 10/9/2023 at 7:09 AM, coach3 said:

Also, on boat level, do you have a "level" mounted to OffCourse when moving weights and balancing the boat?

Following another Baller's example . . We have digital levels fastened to both OffCourse guns.  We calibrate both guns with our boat tied to our dock and with no waves on the lake.  With a third digital level on the boat, reading 0.0 degrees and with each level on the guns at 6.8 degrees from level, our guns are calibrated for regulation width.

By chance, if we have our boat balanced to read 0.0 degrees with driver and weights standing still, the boat will still be at 0.0 at 32mph.  When we remove and reattach OffCourse from the boat, we can reset the calibration in minutes with the boat tied to the dock.

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OffCourse is calibrated when we have the boat parked on quiet water balanced at 0.0 degrees and have set the guns angles at 6.8 degrees.

This setup requires three of these levels.  We have verified this setup by driving our boat through a cable course setup on our lake occasionally.  

Message me if you want details on fastening these levels to your guns and your boat.  

The 6.8 degree value will not directly transfer to other boats because the height of OffCourse above the lake surface will vary with other boats. 

In Horton's review he pointed out he had to recalibrate while testing OffCourse because he changed drivers.

I know some owners have worked out a way to re-balance the boat when you have different drivers, rather than recalibrating OffCourse multiple times in a morning of skiing.  So the actual calibration is permanent.

We have four 10 pound rubber coated dumbells in the side pockets of the boat.  Because our three usual drivers have 20 pound differences in weight we can shift dumbbells from one side to the other the balance the boat.  With the heaviest driver we have 3 on left and 1 on right.  With the lightest driver 1 on left and 3 on right.  The medium weight driver we have 2 dumbbells on each side.

Moving one 10 pound dumbbell from left to right is a 20 pound shift in weight. With our ProStar 197,  forgetting to move a dumbbell causes the boat to be 20 pounds out of balance and shifts the position of the OffCourse splashes about 4 feet on each side.  This will vary with boats and with boat speed.   If we have a second person in the boat on rare occasions they have to sit in line with the pylon. 

We only have trouble seeing the splashes if there is a lot of wind chop.  I love OffCourse and use it almost every ski session.

@Hortontested and reviewed OffCourse. 

https://ballofspray.com/articles.html/offcourse-by-rodics-innovation-review-r3386/

13 hours ago, thager said:

From the prices I see quoted above the difference is $10. ($70 - $60 = $10)

Both of those prices were for Radar,  the low priced ropes.   When guys I ski with bring their $180 ropes apparently most of the cost was in their handle.   I just found the S-Line rope I should get without handle for $70. 

https://slinesusa.com/products/competition-series-slalom-line?variant=42469961367800

Not worried about the wasps, I was thinking more about life span difference making a better rope worth the addition price.  Maybe good for an additional season of skiing.  My current 2 year old rope is wearing were the loops are in contact with the pylon, even though there is a plastic sleeve on the MasterCraft 196 pylon that rotates with the rope. 

One of the top three pro-tour ski manufacturers sells 10 segment slalom ropes under their own label for $60.00.   If they expect buyers to use the 43 off loop what kind of skier to the expect to be their customer ?   I weigh 165 pounds and have PP Stargazer boat and I don't go to tournaments any more.  Do I need a higher end rope ?   I do use all the short rope loops because very short rope geometry is fun - trying to ski wide and at a quick pace without slack.    

20 minutes ago, Scott Russell said:

Sorry for my confusion, but you are saying I can upload an image (properly sized) straight from my computer to BOS? and not have to post it through a host site? Just want to make sure I understand what your saying. 

You can drag your files from your computer into your post as shown below.

11 hours ago, Scott Russell said:

I tried to post pics but it appears I can't upload, only hyperlink? All mine are posted on FB and it wouldn't accept the URL.

Go to Facebook, right-click on your photo and select "save-as" and then browse to your desktop to save your photo to your desktop.  Then rename it to a short normal file name because Facebook creates a huge file name for your photo.  Keep the .jpg file extension when you rename. Then it's possible your photo is too big for BOS.  

If you already have your photos on your PC or get them from Facebook, if they are too big for BOS, Follow the steps below to resize an image in Photos on Windows 10 or 11:    Best quality is to resize to 600 pixels wide because that the max size displayed by BOS.

Step 1: Right-click on the image and select Open with followed by Photos. 
Step 2: Select the Three dots icon located in the app's top-right corner. 
Step 3: Select Resize on the drop-down menu.

3 hours ago, ScottScott said:

"Next skier?"......NEW DRIVER!!!!

The comment "Next Skier" is just friends messing with each other.  Back when a large group of Midwest skiers with a short season were highly focused on being fully prepared for the National Tournament, the worst nightmare would be to get to the Nationals and then miss a deep water start.  The official running the starting dock would say "Next Skier" or "whose on deck" 

So when practicing now, even when not competing, not having 100% confidence in your start can really get into your head.   So when one of us misses a start we might remind them that they can't do that in a tournament just to be annoying.