eleeski

Last night I saw an impressive display in the sky. My lake is pretty dark sky so satellite watching is an evening entertainment. I always wish upon a satellite - good luck from our wonderful tech on display. Last night, it was weird. I saw a satellite, then another following it. OK, that was interesting. Then another? 20 seconds later, another. Another! This went on for half an hour. An amazing show. Elon Musk's Spacex is deploying the Starlink constellation of satellites to provide internet to the world where reception is otherwise unavailable. A lofty and worthwhile goal but creating problems for astronomers. Pretty for the casual observer. Eric

The horseshoe on the front of the Reflex can cause problems. A few alternative horseshoes are out there. The best might be the FM style adjustable horseshoe. I've fixed some horseshoe issues with a big washer to stiffen up the horseshoe on early versions. Flexing in the plate/horseshoe made for interesting releases and the washer helped. I've adjusted some horseshoes with vertical play by adding some split tubing or just some wraps of duct tape to the top of the horseshoe. Note that if you add a washer, you will generate some clearance that needs to be addressed. Adding shims under the toe might work as well but I haven't done that fix. Reflex has done a good job recently with the fit and function of their setups. At least I haven't had to fix any for a while. It sounds like you have an issue with your front horseshoe (wrong size?). They should be able to fix it for you if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself. Eric

@Bruce_Butterfield The inward twist of the back foot is scary for me as that injured my hip. I've seen and tried weirder setups. Eric

I started my kids on a wakeboard with no fins. It taught them the basics of turning, handle control and balance. Once they have mastered the basic surface turns, transition to a trick ski. A 43" ski is fine to start with. Swap out bindings from the inserts and you can share the ski. Note that you might need to swap out rear toes as well but with rear plates that's easy. Older skis might need inserts added for the rear foot. The college kids swap bindings all the time. Keep the anti seize in those inserts! One caveat, if your Graviton is the older model, it is a difficult ski for beginners. The early skis tend to catch edges a lot more than a D3 or Quantum. An upgrade is worth it. The new Radar trick ski is fantastic for learning so if you have that one, you are set! Set the speed and rope length for her. On your 43", try 15mph. The wake should be about 3 ski lengths wide when the rope is the right length (do a sideslide in the middle and have a ski length to the wake on both sides). She should fall as often by catching edges as by slipping out. Speed up for too many edge catchers, slow down if she slips out more. Eric

While @vic has a good point, resins are a fraction of a ski's strength. Depending on the materials chosen and the design and quality of the layup, the loads will be carried primarily by the fibers not the resins. So whether the resin stiffens or softens, the properties of the ski won't change much. Graphite tends to fail catastrophically. It's fine until it breaks. It doesn't behave like other common materials (especially plastics) that weaken and soften before failure. Whether the resin stiffness over time or softens with loading, it won't substantially affect the graphite's properties - and the feel of the ski. I would have said that once everyone moved away from Clark foam's polyurethane cores, that core failure was not a factor. The success of Goode's carbon core suggests that perhaps improvements in the cores are possible but my PVC cores have yet to cycle to failure or noticeable change. "Wisdom" that is based on wood skis or old resin rich glass skis with urethane cores does not apply to modern skis. After a few hundred thousand hard turns, a modern ski might fail - but it will be obvious. Eric

I like to slalom with a flexible cuff. I ground mine down to give more forward capability. I used a fairly soft shell as well. I couldn't get up or run passes on the stiff versions. Trying some Fogmans that had been cut in the forefoot to soften them got me back on track to enjoy slalom hardshells as I loved that feel. I pinned the cuffs on my trick ski. I still used the softer shell but having it a bit stiffer was helpful. As my supply of the soft shells dwindled, I tried some stiffer shells. I really didn't like those shells - for either slalom or trick. I've tried a couple Reflex shells that seemed to have a lot of backward mobility. While I never felt like going out the back, I didn't like the feel overall. I probably would have figured out some filler or block to force some forward lean into the shell. I did try adding a foam filler inside the shell by the cuff to both stiffen and add forward lean - but that's a standard item for all my bindings. It's a very personal thing to get your binding feel right. Demo or borrow as many bindings as you can. Note that you will likely be on a different ski so separating the feel of the binding from the feel of the ski is a challenge - don't measure by buoy count. Eric

There are quite a few of those cables hiding out there among the driver geeks. Thanks @Not_The_Pug for loaning yours to me and @Jody_Seal for the offer - the first people I contacted. The kit isn't terribly expensive and was readily available from ZO. Not worth building your own. ZO was great in supporting the upgrade. Quick return of my call and solved my issue (I bought two upgrades at once and it was confusing to get both properly loaded). Easy program to upload out at the lake. The mount of the new antenna was non trivial. Lots of time under hard to reach places. It would have been easier if I just clipped the wires but I tried to salvage the one puck that seemed to still work (Stan's boat has a bad puck so it might help him). I just left the other puck in place. Once the puck was out the rewire was straightforward. Finding the plug on the back of the engines was the hardest part of the job - they are well hidden. I did custom make a wiring harness for the American Skier. The harness that came with the kit had a bunch of extra plugs and complexity (compatibility with both the new antenna and the old pucks and some extra instrument adaptability?). Mouser had the standard automotive plugs and I was able to really clean up the wiring. Spent a lot of time (and money) building it. Eric

April fools is cancelled because too many ridiculous things are going on in real life right now. Eric

Be aware that the top edge is surprisingly important for the ski's turning characteristics. Whatever refinishing you do, make sure your finished top edges are very similar to what you started with. Unless you want to use the top edge to fine tune the ski. Black is a horrible color for a ski. It gets hot as well as showing everything. Your ski should always be in a storage rack or a bag. Kid proof and no solar overheating. Eric

While I like Roberts 80 something Advance, my 79 is FANTASTIC! Maybe too much spray at deep slalom shortline. Best trick wake - EVER! Eric

The rudder box can wear causing both tightness of the steering and looseness (rattling and heading instability). If you're cheap, rotate the rudder box 90 degrees and you can get a bit more life out of it. A new rudder and box is the proper fix. Grease can get hard and stiff. WD40 or Automatic Transmission Fluid will temporarily loosen things. Pull the rudder out and clean it with any solvent (WD40 works) if it's really gummed up. The clean shaft will show the wear if it's there. Before you try any hard work, milk it with WD40 and try it. Maybe you have to squirt it every couple weeks. OK. Good luck, Eric

@mfjaegersr My mother. She's likely got a 50% chance of coming out of covid19 fine but now a certainty that she will not get to see her kids and grandchildren at her 94th birthday. Those family moments mean everything to her now. She lost something critical and fleeting in her short time left. Protecting her life cost her what she lives for. These are her feelings, not made up by me. I might feel quite different if the kids were at high risk from Covid19. There is risk for everyone, for sure. The younger people have other more pressing risks though - some of which are exacerbated by how society is reacting to this one disease. The ethics are VERY complicated. Avoiding chaos in the medical industry might be a better justification for draconian measures than body counts. Eric

The worst case projections are for over 1 million American deaths from Covid19. The best case is zero more Covid19 deaths and about 2 million deaths from other causes in the year. Data is missing to know how many of the background deaths would be part of the Covid19 deaths. Conflicting data from Italy shows the average age of death around 80 years old but much higher numbers filling the local obituaries. Regardless, a lot of Italians are surviving. And most Americans will as well. @The_MS is voicing a valid ethical dilemma. The worst case for the pandemic is a death level somewhat close to what we are used to. Flu, cancer, heart disease, accidents, suicide and other factors take a toll that we have been unable to change - so we accept it. What should we not accept? And how much are we willing to pay to affect the death rate? This pandemic has panicked us to a severe reaction. Perhaps it is appropriate. Perhaps something somewhat less severe can work (Japan?). Doing nothing has led to some dire consequences (NY?) and an accompanying very severe reaction. The panic will end when a treatment is devised and a vaccine is created (even if it's not perfect - like the flu). When the damage to the economy will be repaired is vague but people and businesses are pretty resilient. Hopefully society will recover and the bitterness between people with different views on how to react will fade (I'm seeing too much of that now - please get along - and I'm trying not to say things I might regret). Eric

Replace the zip ties with shoelace. Easy, durable and soft. A good project while on lockdown. Eric

Or you can just splice a cross line to block the open space in the Vee. Cheap and easy. Maybe not as safe as a full guard but surprisingly effective at keeping arms and heads out of the handle. Eric

The terror of exponential growth drives doomsday scenarios. But Malthus and Erlich were not right. Note, I knew Paul Erlich and went to school with his daughter as a close friend, my dad was a close friend and we had many dinner table discussions. Time proved him wrong. Real life has a way of interfering with nice theoretical curves. The exponential Population Bomb did not explode. Stan was just in Hawaii. The Pathogen Star (or whatever the name of the ship that discharged its Covid19 victims in Oakland over a week ago) stopped in Hilo and interacted with the locals 2 weeks ago on its way to Oakland. Zero transmission traced to that. Norway is exponentially overwhelmed by a handful of known vectors (snow skiers at a specific bar). It's a real crisis in Europe. There are so many variables we don't understand. One thing that is known is the effect on workers in the tourist industry. I was stuck in Tahoe. Ski resorts were abruptly shut down on Sunday. Best snow of the year! Enough to last well into spring. Nope, no employment and no money in the economy. And no warning. Real human tragedies going on right now. Nobody (including me) knows where this is going. If it goes away, the draconian measures fans will claim the measures worked - regardless of the other factors. If not, it's the fault of the horrible people who cheated the lockdown. Hmmm. We don't know enough. One thing we are certain of is that a huge fraction of the population has been hurt severely economically. While an extremely small percentage of the population has become Ill. People in the medical profession are (justly) terrified. Not only are they at massive risk of the infection, they will be forced to make the tough life and death triage decisions. California is on lockdown. I am terrified by the response to the crisis. My Canadian ski buddy took his fancy motorhome and self deported. I was miserably stuck in bad weather in Tahoe (would have been awesome if the lifts were spinning) until the hoarded rice and TP ran out. I live off rent - but nobody will be paying rent now. I still have to pay properly tax though. I'm a pariah because I look at the long term welfare of society and I'm willing to let people die and have hospitals overwhelmed to make (preserve) a better world. Is flattening the curve of this one disease really worth the damage to the people who can't work or get the enjoyment from playing or being with friends (mental health matters too!)? The Italians that are dying average age is around 80 years old. That's older than the average age in Italy (or the US). Old people die. It happens. Usually by pneumonia of some sorts (like this). Sad but inevitable. My mom had a 94th birthday bash planned. She was going to see most of her family. Now she's isolated and no one can visit. Something will get her soon. But she is denied one of her late in life pleasurable experiences. She says the protection from Covid19 isn't worth what she's missing while she could still enjoy it. I'm old enough that I won't have too many more chances to ski 3 feet of light powder again. That was taken away from me by the abrupt closing of all skiing last Sunday. If Worlds are cancelled, my arthritic body is unlikely to hold up for another chance. Putting life on lockdown has the strongest adverse effect on the very demographic that it's trying to save. The cops chased everyone off the beach in San Diego today. Walks for exercise are probably the best thing to improve immune response - but not allowed by our government. The security guards (who we used to have a great friendly relationship with) hassled our tenant in Hawaii for walking on the beach - not sure if they called the cops on him but it's scary how weird people are getting over this. Some kids were playing volleyball on the beach last night. This morning the nets had been ripped off - not weird, flat out scary. Locking up people who have done nothing wrong, destroying the economy and forcing people out of their jobs is destroying the fabric of our society. We drove past Manzanar (WW2 Japanese internment camp) on our way back from Tahoe. People, even Americans, are capable of awful things. George Orwell got the date wrong by 36 years (I have to reread 1984 since I'm not allowed to do anything else). Sorry for the long rant. Eric

Every turn at deep shortline is hard to judge. Perhaps @Horton is a senior judge. Perhaps @matthewbrown is a senior judge. They gave no credit to the ball (which has influenced the direction of this thread). I am a senior judge. So are the judges that reviewed this performance. We scored it 1/2. This defines what should score. Accept it and judge accordingly. Integrity comes with accepting the judgements. Believe me, there are so many tricks I don't put in my run because the judges won't score me, but I still play the game. I might complain a bit so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on John and Matt. But I'd like to see this thread die. Eric

My Datsun roadster 2000 was regularly drafted to launch my friend's old Nautique because his Econoline van didn't have enough traction. The manual transmission helped even if the clutch smelled a bit. We didn't tow it far with the little sports car but it worked. We took delivery of a Prostar 197 behind a F150 and a crappy trailer. The truck was plenty adequate but the trailer was wrong. At 53 mph the trailer would start to wag. Any slower and we'd be hit from behind. We drove out to the lake with speed tolerances tighter than a slalom pull. Actually made my son drive a leg - he had just gotten his learners permit and he learned a lot from that experience. A good trailer is important regardless of your tow vehicle. I've towed too many overloaded trailers with too small a vehicle too many times. Always got away with it but also I was always very careful and aware. Realize that you are doing something quite dangerous and minimize those risks. I wouldn't recommend it, but I'd occasionally tow with the Subaru. Eric

Get constipated so you "flatten the curve". Eric

@HMan66 I'm not sure. I've been lucky and am still on the stock prop that came with the boat. Nice trick wake but a little weak out of the hole. Sorry I'm not more helpful. Eric

@S1Pitts Wouldn't it be easier to just go fly inverted in your Pitts? Lots of ways to get the same effect. Yoga, certain PT moves and the table are ways to get your feet above your head and enhance circulation. Flying aerobatics might be the most fun! Eric

I'm not a pay to play lake and I'm planning to be gone a lot in March but if things work out, you might catch a ride with me. Eric

@BraceMaker Due to the virus's high mortality rate in older people, @MichaelWiebe 's input has validity. People that the virus kills are typically older people with underlying issues - exactly the people dying from the other causes. While their lives are cut short, the virus does not seem to strike to take away a bright long future. The virus doesn't really directly add much to the overall total. My healthy 94 year old mom is at risk from this virus. Even if she survives this scare, something is likely to get her before the next decade. (Of course, when we bought her new car last year, the dealer said "see you in 10 years!" ) My son might be at more risk from the reaction to the threat. He works for Universal Studios in Japan. But they closed. At a time of high productivity in his life, he's stalled. Very few his age get seriously ill from the disease. Japan has the oldest population in the world. So the government level of concern perhaps should be more cautious with this disease. This is a complex problem with many reasonable options. Time will determine which actions are optimal. In the meantime, I'm going to live and enjoy my life - realizing that there are lots of risks to manage. No one gets out of life alive. Eric

Corona beer is the only vaccine available currently. It tastes like - medicine - even. The lime you must add to make it palatable has vitamin C. Proven efficacy. Of course if you take too much of the Corona medicine, you will get the "Corona flu". Won't kill you but... Eric

No!!! Who will I b.s. with about tricks, rules, judging, boats, skis, lake developments, local rules, local food, planes - just about anything you can share with a friend who puts you totally at ease? Whose scores will I chase (always bettering my efforts)? Gordon made me better in so many ways. Thank you for being a great part of my life. Best wishes to his friends and family. We'll all cherish his impact on us. Eric