eleeski

That's your wife's trick setup? Spousal abuse! If you want her trick skiing to improve, get a modern trick ski with a hardshell. Eric

Masterline makes very good toe harnesses. They have a solid grip that does require a careful fitting. For best results, you will need to get the right size harness. Masterline harnesses are also quite durable. That makes them a bit harder to work on. It's secured quite well to the bridle. I wouldn't be able to adjust it without changing too many things which could change the feel and function of the toe harness. And it is a rather complicated process. If your kid has outgrown the harness, a new one is in order. The Toe Link is an interesting option. A different design and approach. The one we tried had some foot size adjustability. It required a super commitment to toe tricks as it didn't fit well in a handle bridle. Toes only with that rope. And the pull was a bit different - which helped some tricks and hurt others. The release person was critical as it wasn't supposed to pop off - ever. Personally, I like a softer bear trap style harness. These are not particularly sensitive to foot size. Under load, they squeeze the grip harder. Without a heel strap, a shake of the foot on slack rope will kick them off. A huge harness that is easy to kick into in the middle of a run will still grip well enough for the basics - wonderful for developing trick runs. Except, I don't know where you can buy one. AWSA used to sell them - decades ago. I build my own but I won't sell them. Maybe a barefoot harness? You can't go wrong with a new, properly fitted, Masterline. Eric

Slalom ski flex is measured in millimeters. Loads are smooth on and off compared to almost every other sporting product. Snow skis have impact and huge flexing displacements at a much higher rate - even for a non competitive bump skier. And racers load their skis enough that they have to sharpen the edges after every run. Watch Mikaela Shiffrin running slalom gates to really see equipment get worked. Tennis raquets smash the ball on every hit. Bicycles get every road defect directly transmitted as load. Waterskis have it easy. Water is so much softer than ice, a smashed tennis ball, or pavement. Water damps vibtations nicely. Water spreads out the load across a lot of the ski. Structurally it is about as easy as it gets. I make my skis as stiff as possible (for my weight constraints - I'm a total believer in weight reduction). Rebound has never been relevant to any ski I've built - not compared to weight and stiffness. So why do skis suck as they age? Testing doesn't show any measurable degradation. Rocker changes? Flipcore skis (wooden core snow skis with the cores pre loaded by the molding process) lose a lot of the livelyness that makes them fun as the skis age. But I'm not sure of any wood core waterskis. However, pre loads are possible in the molding process for waterskis and a ski might move over time (and heat). Some skis don't get all the mold release removed before sale. A quick wash with Ajax cleanser will take care of that. Usually that improves the ski's performance - your results may vary. But nobody waxes their waterskis and skis better. Any mold release will be gone quickly - before most complaints of a ski "breaking down". Some skis come with a carefully chosen texture on the bottom. This texture can wear and change the "feel". I like a 40 grit scratching across the ski. It needs to be renewed a couple times per season for me. Note that many (most) skis have very smooth bottoms and 40 grit textures might not work. 400 grit? Other skis have a sandblast texture molded in. Not sure how to refresh that except by buying a new ski. Edges do wear. Travel rash, handle dings, rope abrasion of the side from getting up, binding movement, fin movement - there are so many factors that one can actually feel. I'm not sure that it "ruins" a ski. A lot of it is mental. I struggled in my last few slalom rides. Frustrated, I examined my ski. I found that my travels had damaged my wing. Between rounds of the tournament, I found visegrips and straightened the bent wing. Solid round next round and back home had the best practice set of the year. Sometimes it really is an equipment problem. But not a broken down ski. I pulled out a ski that I gave up on a few years ago and loved it. It is my first string ski now. Too often we blame the equipment when that's not the issue. Buy a new ski if you want it. Not often can we buy buoys so temper your expectations. Eric

Wood skis and early urethane core skis do structurally degrade with time and use. Modern skis, not so much. Waterskis are not designed for huge flexing displacements - the flex is very subtle. An overloaded ski is likely to break, not get soft. This is quite different from an alpine ski. Resins can harden with time. An old ski might get stiffer as it ages. Maybe more brittle and weaker but most skis have a pretty good margin built in so that old ski still won't break on you. Certainly not go soft as it ages. Any event that overloads a ski can degrade a ski. I've seen skis get run over by cars - despite looking OK, they might be suspect. I've seen black skis left in full desert sun. Resins, cores and even the rocker can be affected by the heat (we kicked off some carbon prepreg just by leaving it in the sun - it got to 170f! Enough to melt anything.). Don't leave your skis in the sun! If your ski is not abused, it will give you years of good service. With that said, new skis rock! New designs incrementally chase performance improvements. Old skis do undergo slight changes. The bottom texture wears down. Edges soften slightly - including the rope wear on the top edge which has a subtle but real performance effect. Most importantly, a ski grows stale. Those quirky tendencies that kept you really engaged are now accepted and no longer helping you. You get too comfortable on the ski and quit pushing the edgy limits that score those extra couple of buoys. A new ski will force your skiing to improve. Ski design has improved over time. A modern ski will score more buoys than an older ski. It will turn quicker with more stability than an older design. The new ski is worth it! Eric PS New trick skis offer even more performance benefits. Definitely upgrade your trick ski with a new one.

My old ZO 79 American Skier [a way better boat than an old 196] also has a throttle cable. The conversion was no problem as the DBW unit is mounted on the engine. My ZO engine was out of an old SN200. I actually broke the DBW unit fitting the engine cover and salvaged a backup off another similar engine instead of $125 [at the time] for a new one. The cable doesn't move once ZO is engaged so a new cable might not be necessary as long as the old one is safe. My 2011 Prostar197 [awesome boat!] has the DBW at the driver's throttle. It was interesting when something went wrong and the throttle got really loose. Scary! A quick cleaning and tightening of the screws solved that. Do inspect and maintain your boats. DBW in the throttle has its issues as well. Either works well as designed. Eric

Always contrarian, I'd take it for a ride. For liability reasons I won't recommend that for you. I have mounted holes through the ski like that. I was still able to ski them. Note that on my experimental skis I know exactly what my layup is and if such a mistake is through a critical stringer or just cosmetic in a thin spot on the skin that breaks easily. Note that older Goodes have a reputation for breaking. Not sure if it is real or deserved. Possibly related to overheating from leaving a black ski in the sun which can certainly get hot enough to damage the layup. The only one I personally saw was a delamination of the tail that did not see the ski fall apart during use. Caution is called for with any older ski. I've broken several skis in the process of building skis. A couple injuries from funky equipment (I can't remember any injuries from clean breaks) but lots more injuries on skis that didn't break and worked perfectly (even if I didn't). There are risks associated with skiing. If you really love the ski and push the ski (and yourself) to the limit, that might be a really dangerous ski. There are lots of really good reasons to field a new modern ski. Eric

One more thought. Play on the ski! Go out two at a time and have spray wars. Screw around jumping the wake with flair. Do some silly ballet. Slash surf cuts. Just drilling backs and fronts gets old. Certainly play with the drills but make sure the whole ride is fun. Eric

I'll disagree with Bruce on this one. The modern skis are designed differently (better!). Also the larger sizes are more popular in modern skis so you might find a used late model ski in your size. I've noticed that the learning curve on the current skis is much better. The falls are less common and easier on your body. There is a reason everybody is on a modern ski at Nationals. D3 Custom X or Aria, Quantum, Radar (latest generation Joel Poland), KD (latest generation Pato Font), or Goode are all great choices. The oversize Goode is a very different ski which makes the basics easy. Of course, you could pull the fins off a wakeboard and simulate trick skiing on that for some fun. With how much boats, gas and skiing in general cost nowadays, a couple bucks extra on the right ski is worth it. Eric

Ideally, hands and the rope should not move much doing any tricks. Your focus should be on your edges, body position and balance - not on the handle (except to keep it quiet). That picture is a very stilted handle position. No way can my arthritic shoulders get in that position. Nor do I have time between tricks to contort my hands (and recover) smoothly and rapidly. It's not a completely worthless drill (nor is the more conventional learning tool of pushing the rope down by your knees) but if you can hold that position, bend your knees a bit more and set a hard cutting edge and relax your hands to make the position comfortable. Soon you will wean yourself of needing weird handle positions. Note that reverse backwrap is a dynamic position. There's no reason to hold it and track straight. Get there and come back for BB. Set a strong edge and attack angle to cut at the wake for WBB. Land the W7BB and pop front. No points for sticking and holding a static position. Reverse backwrap requires a lot of flexibility spread throughout your body. From the ankles, knees, hips, back to the shoulders - everything twists. Off water stretching and dry land practice will develop the needed flexibility. Keep working to improve the trick. Eric

Loving the tips! It does make me think about how to approach this part of the season - where I have to relearn everything. Thanks. Eric

#16.2 Oops. Always underturn a wake trick! Overturning the trick carries you down the wake and way out in the flat wasting time and tipping your shoulders away from the boat (locking you in a tough and time consuming lean). Underturning the wake brings you back up the wake right away so you are ready for the next trick. Also it is easier to find a strong edge carving back in than edging out. Wake tricks are controlled by your edge, land on the strongest edge. Sorry to nitpick but underturning wake tricks (to a strong edge) is one of my basic coaching points. If I could do it better I'd be able to fit in a couple more tricks in my run. Eric

Remove the cuff and clips of a hardshell boot. Cut down the back and use a heat gun to open up the back even a little more. Replace the clip with an elastic strap (old binding rubber). Put your liner on your back foot and wrap it on your foot with a rubber band (old racing bike innertube). It takes some effort to kick in but feels great when in. My front boot releases easily so I'm a "both out" skier now. One foot starts aren't magic - I missed one of three starts yesterday and barely made the other two (but that's not bad for my first slalom ride on the new hip). Eric

Note: If you are working on surface Os, the same rule about leading with your ski applies! The shoulders should be the last thing around on almost any trick. If you must look, look with imaginary eyes placed in your hips. Magic sight that gives you tricks! Eric

If you lead with your ski or hips, you will not hook an edge on TO wrap-in. If you lead with your shoulders or eyes, you are at huge risk of a nasty fall. Both scenarios are regardless of whether you have slack. Note how Cory and other top skiers never get their shoulders all the way to the boat. For us mortals, never reach to grab the rope until everything is settled. As I have aged and lost strength, your smooth long pull is the only way I can get the tension off the rope when I finish the TO wrap-in. To get that I key in on pulling through the TS portion of the trick (Kistler tip #6!). I long for the days when I could just snap my ankle to generate the pull! Careful of the rope release. If it is wrapped around the pylon it won't release fast enough for our old tendons. Pinch the rope to the pylon or use a Robbins release when you are trying new stuff. Even a split pin with a very attentive operator can get the immediate release. With the right release setup and operator, even the worst toe falls should not hurt you. Eric

Regarding advancing on the boat, the ski attitude is more important than the pull. A flat trick ski generates a lot less drag than a tracking ski. So keeping the ski flat while aiming for a finishing point closer to the pylon will allow you to advance on the boat without extra pulling. Unfortunately, a flat ski is less stable. And you don't have that rope to lean on for an extra balance point. So we try to settle back into that comfortable tracking position as quickly as possible - instead of riding a squirrely low drag attitude to the advance we need. Stay on that flat ski until you are where you want to be. Another place for advancing on the boat is at the start of a trick. If you are extremely strong and have a lot of fast twitch muscles, you can pull at the start of the trick and use that power to advance on the boat. While the pull is there, by the time you are actually advancing on the boat in your final position, no extra pull is needed. Advance is mostly a target for your position at the end of a trick. You should strive to be in your desired body position, desired handle position, desired spot off the wake or in the table, as well as being where you want to be relative to the pylon. For example with a WO from in to out, I aim for a spot in the flat well ahead of my starting point. My legs do a lot of that work on my wake approach to take me there - not my hands. Eric

Bruce, great to see trick tips encouraging skiers! At the risk of getting you to improve your point total out of my reach, I have a drill for you. With the toe harness on, pull as hard as you can. Get on the front of the ski to generate some slack. If you can get the rope to dip in the water, even better. After you get comfortable generating slack, try turning to back on the dead rope. Repeat the process from the toe back position - warning, it's a lot tougher. Especially the turn to front on a dead rope! But there's no better simulation for recoveries from those weird positions that can happen in toes. Do have a skilled release person who will let you be a bit out of sorts but release you immediately if you hook something (that is more likely if you aren't leading with the ski or your hips). Note that pulls like this and landings on a dead rope are necessary for toe steps and other big toe wake tricks. These drills are useful for hand tricks too. Rope control is not always a smooth even pressure on the rope! Eric

Goode snow skis rock! I'm skiing them (Goode 74) and they rock in the bumps. Magically light and the rest of the performance is solid. The best bump skis I've used! Ski with me and you will see Goode skis in the wild. Goode poles are great as well. I haven't broken them yet and they are easy to plant. Poles are a minor factor - unless they break or bend (which Goode poles don't do). Goode waterskis were groundbreaking. Maybe you don't ride a Goode but the ski you ride was influenced by a Goode design. I miss Dave and his creativity. Eric

It certainly is not the awesome wake of my old American Skier. The trick wake is reasonably good. I do need to adjust things slightly from my MC (rope length, speed and balance) to optimize my run but there is no reason that the boat could not pull me to my best runs. Same with slalom. Ski it - don't avoid it! Eric

The new Nautique wake is absolutely not defective! It is so much better than the wakes of the past. A lot of thought and engineering went into the boat and it works! This is an excellent boat which should not be a limiting factor for any skier reading this. It's OK to have favorite boats. Maybe that's not a Nautique, fine. Just don't let it get into your head and affect your performances when you must ski behind something other than your favorite. Eric

NEVER reef down on your binding screws! The torque setting is 17 inch pounds for an 8-32 screw (lubricated - you are using anti seize!). That's not a lot of torque. Overtorquing will damage the threads. If you are lucky, only the screw will be damaged. More likely you will ruin the insert. That can be a difficult repair. If your binding moves in the grooves despite proper torque, cut some scrap plastic (a pen cap?) and fill the space on either side of the gap with that. Use a stainless fender washer or that stock horseshoe to cover the gap completely. This trick will prevent your binding from twisting away from your desired angle while preserving your inserts. Check the torque on your screws regularly. Eric

@swbca Fair enough. Put the front boot exactly where you want it. The rear boot should be able to move by drilling new holes in the plate. At least the rearmost screws should be good with the inserts and a new hole in the plate (this is structurally most critical so do not drill new holes in the ski there). If you miss on the front inserts, it's a bit more of an issue. Silicone seal can glue the plate down effectively (it's a bit of a pain to remove but possible with a razor). Goode velcro as well. If you try these tricks, do get a washer or strap over both plates from the insert (which should be at the back of your front boot plate - another hole in the plate?) and keep the rear plate from peeling up. Kind of an easy makeshift adapter but it is in addition to the glue or velcro. Putting a stainless sheetmetal screw for the front screw might be easier. Holes in the binding plate are OK. I Nascar drill lightening holes all over my plates. Use a fender washer if your new holes are too close to old holes. Drilling in the plate is usually fine. Note that I like a fairly tight front/rear spacing. If you do drill a front (of rear) screw, build in some adjustability. The main thing is to get a ski and binding setup you like - not the resale value. Eric

Decades ago, every binding was mounted with #8 stainless sheetmetal screws. I always test my mount position on a new design with sheetmetal screws. There is nothing wrong with stainless sheetmetal screws, performance wise - especially for a short time. With that said, modern skis are designed with reinforcements in specific places. It is best to use the factory inserts. An option is the Goode style velcro. Not for a release system but it works great as an attachment if you have a couple screws to hold it in place. If you can find some G10 material or some blank aluminum, you could build a custom plate that would place the binding exactly where you want it using the factory holes. Or redrill the existing plate to move it on those. I've also often had to grind down the ends of the plates to get the clearance or spacing I want. Working on the plates is often the best and easiest way to place your bindings. You end up with a system that can migrate to another ski as an added benefit. One last consideration, with large feet, moving bindings back might work against the performance of the ski. The 30" number probably came from someone with smaller feet. I'd certainly ski a few sets at whatever setting fits your bindings on the ski before drilling new holes back of stock. Take this with a grain of salt - I like my bindings an inch in front of stock (and I have sheetmetal screw mounted bindings on factory skis forward). Eric

Thanks to the Surdejs, their crew, and all the people who put on Nationals. A superbly run event! The Open was fun and well attended. The video was excellent. Fun event! Thanks! Eric

@Cnewbert Ski boat engines are not turbocharged. A turbocharged engine has vastly different operating parameters from a normally aspirated engine. High octane is critical for a turbocharged engine it's actually intriguing that the F150 engine did that well on regular. 375hp losing only 20hp (5%loss). Engines are tested at "standard temperature and pressure". Lots of "standards" but typically 60F. Colder temperatures will give higher atmospheric density and a normally aspirated engine will develop more power and be more subject to knocking. Hotter temperatures will have less density and the engines will develop less power while being less prone to knocking. At Horton's test site in Bako, it's pretty hot right now, probably a bit humid with thunderstorms over the mountains and there's always a thermal low when I fly over this time of year. Plugging that into the density altitude calculator (99F, 70F dewpoint, 29.85 inches pressure) gives a density altitude of 3000 feet. Since normally aspirated engines lose about 3% of their power every thousand feet of altitude gain, Horton's boat is down close to 10% power (twice the loss in the turbocharged F150!). My old Datsun 2000 tuned for Tahoe would quit knocking by the time I got to 3000 feet so a knock sensor would be reacting quite differently on a hot Bako day than on its standard day. Lower octane fuel burns faster (and often lower energy density alcohol is added to improve octane) so regular gas could deliver more power in a rarified air situation - like what we normally experience waterskiing. Whatever premium power effect that is claimed is thermodynamically lost in the background of real world conditions. Will we now have to run slalom events in the early morning to take advantage of our expensive gas? At least the kids and trickers won't be sacrificed to the early morning cold! Eric

Direct sunlight IS a real risk for skis. Too many skis are black and black surfaces get HOT in direct sunlight. We cured high temperature carbon prepreg just by putting it in the direct sun. It got to 190F! That is plenty hot to soften resin or affect foam cores. It gets worse from direct sunlight. The part of the ski in the sun gets very hot while the shaded side stays cool. This causes stress from the differences in thermal expansion. Add in a heat softened core and bad things can happen. I had a ski delaminate completely - the bottom skin peeled off the honeycomb core - from driving for a couple hours with it in the back seat of a convertible (that was the last ski I painted black!). Early Goodes had longevity issues - quite likely related to overheating. I have intentionally warped several skis with a heat gun. After an extended time in the sun (stupid storage spot) I've had a (factory) ski develop bubbles in the tunnel. KEEP YOUR SKIS OUT OF DIRECT SUNLIGHT! With that said, the voice of reason must surface. High temperature resins exist and most manufacturers are a long ways from using old room temperature curing heat intolerant materials. Core materials are also much better at handling heat than in the old days. It has been years since I've seen damage that is clearly from leaving a ski in the sun. And that damage is immediately obvious upon visual inspection and a tap test (tap the ski all around and listen for changes in sound to identify delaminations). If everything looks, sounds and flexes OK, a sun exposed ski is not a problem. So @cbiski555 your ski should be fine. A couple days of sun will not UV light degrade a ski - or even bleach its graphics (much). The shape is unlikely to change unless the boat trailer was parked on your ski so as to load it. Structurally, I'd have no concerns skiing that ski -especially if Terry thought it was OK. Believe in your ski and focus on your style. But keep your ski out of direct sun from now on! Eric