Ed_Obermeier

The green ones are gonna be getting real cheap now. Make a killer deal on a low mileage and still exceptional ski especially for us under-38-off skiers (not that it won't do 41 off - it will) come this winter, after the blue goes away and this one comes out. More ski than the majority of us will ever be skier, and still tons easier to ski than anything I've tried to date. Admittedly I haven't been on the blue one yet. Yeah it'll be a 2 year old ski, blah blah... Like buying a 4-5 year old low mileage Corvette. Still kicks serious ass but at a seriously discounted price. I'm good with green.

Been there done that with both shoulders, both have been surgically rebuilt. Rehab, rehab, rehab, and don't push it too hard too soon. Keep her doing the rehab exercises and add in additional shoulder strengthening exercises to build the muscles as she's able to do that.

Got a buddy I ski with regularly that has a '95 with LT1 and Powerslot, one of my all time favorite boats to ski and drive. Can't imagine that thing isn't already gone at that price, especially with a tandem trailer?? @Wish you maybe thinking of the '98, the infamous DeathStar?

@Waternut wrote "Moral of the story...you can make it worth it, you can love it, and you can enjoy building it BUT you will always wish you had something else either a little nicer, little more reliable, little prettier, etc, etc." True enough. But you gotta start somewhere, and if that is the point you're forced (for whatever reasons) to start at, that's better than not skiing at all IMO. It's normal I suppose to want to better yourself. Common sense dictates that you do what you can afford NOW and build from there. I'm sure a lot of us got started that way. @Horton my 2 cents worth. A very worthwhile project if the goal is to prove for all to see that it's within reach financially for the average newbie with desire and a small budget, say $10 - 15K? Just saw it done locally recently with a late '80s Ski Supreme, turned out really nice for under $10K. I say go for it! Ed

The only issues I've ever had with Clincher-type gloves, which I've used pretty much since I started skiing a LONG time ago, is with handles that don't have some sort of a covering on the side ropes of the triangle. I've gotten slight hangups in the corners of the handle using that type handle so I make sure the handles I buy/use have covering on the side ropes. Otherwise never had a hangup issue. @Wish did the same exact thing - tried to hold onto too much slack and yanked something loose in my left shoulder. I (should have) knew better but it was only the 3rd set of the season and was already running deep 32. Way early at 4 ball, got excited, cranked the turn and got a bunch of slack. Rather than just let it go I tried to hold on to finish the pass and yanked the crap out of my left shoulder. That was 5 weeks ago (damn crappy Midwest weather), haven't skied since... Been in full rehab mode since, think I might be able to go this weekend. So agreed, they can allow you to hang onto way more than you should sometimes so you have to learn when to just let it go. I knew better, just got excited.

IMO they are probably about equal holding wise @A_B. They're easier to work with and quicker to attach though.

Ditto what @Andre said. Use copper. Aluminum crimps on SS cable will galvanically corrode and fail WAY sooner.

Everyone I know who has an oil bath hub setup loves them (most are MasterCraft trailers though). I've got the older Boatmate setup that takes the 50 wt oil. The boat/trailer are 2005 and there have never been any issues to date with the oil bath setup on my trailer. I change the oil every other season, no big deal. Maybe it's good maintenance, or maybe I'm just lucky?

I use a mesh laundry bag. Jacket goes in first, upside down, everything else (gloves, heater shirt, rope and handle, knee brace...) goes inside that. Works great. Low cost and no case, backpack etc to store in the boat.

Several years ago I shipped a slalom course to Cyprus, to a guy in a helicopter wing of the RAF stationed on Cyprus. He made the connections for me to ship it to a US Air Force base on the East Coast, from there the USAF took it to a base in England (forgot the name), transferred it to the RAF, who put it on a C-130 to Cyprus. Absolutely no help to you I'm sure but a pretty cool, low shipping cost solution for the purchaser.

At the gym rehabbing a left shoulder I cranked taking a slack hit coming off the 4 ball 32 off weekend before last... Might be able to ski again this coming weekend. Maybe...

Yes. If SG isn't engaging a few hundred RPM below the baseline setpoint it needs to be reset to a lower baseline.

@brody If the anchor leads are stainless steel cable I'd be kind of surprised if the cable stretched much, but maybe after 15 years... An easy passive slack adjuster for a floating course is to hang a counterweight of some sort at the center point of one of the anchor leads between the anchor and the end of the mainline. Start with 15 lbs and add more if necessary. The counterweight system works well for courses in fluctuating water levels and I would think would work for your situation as well. Rule Of Thumb for a floating course is that you want to maintain a minimum 4:1 ratio of anchor lead to water depth. If you go say 6:1 on one end and use the counterweight settup on it that gives the CW a bit more leverage. It works.

Buoys getting sticky with age and/or high sun exposure is a known problem to Polyform. It's a quality control issue. As @DUskier stated, sometimes they don't get something right at the factory. I've complained to Polyform US (the importer/supplier) as have other of their customers, PF-US has complained to the manufacturer, it still happens. In my experience with it, it's a very low percentage of PF buoys that ever have that issue and it's not confined to any one color. But if you happen to be the guy who gets a bad batch it sucks. They're a cheap mass produced rubber ball made in the Far East. Go figure... Despite that Polyform still seems to have the least issues of any brand of ordinary inflatable rubber buoy balls. Had a customer in South Africa a few years ago who had the same problem with something causing small holes in their buoys below the water line. After investigation turned out to be some sort of weird African insect boring holes in the balls. FWIW.

Brass, which is at least part copper, and stainless steel get along quite well in regards to any galvanic corrosion issues. Shouldn't be an issue. Copper on stainless not generally an issue.

Clincher/pro-lock/vice style gloves with Overton's palm pads underneath, I hardly even get a callus much less blisters. But (unfortunately) I don't get to ski as much as most here either.

Simpler repair method. Go to an electrical supply place and buy a couple split bolt connectors like the ones in the attached photos. Relatively inexpensive and attach with basic hand tools. Most slalom course mainline cable is about the same size as #12 electrical wire so get them sized accordingly. If necessary add a piece of copper wire to fill out the connector enough that it clamps down properly, no big deal to do.

@kstateskier Hmmm... Always wondered why you showed up at the park lake late about half the time... B)

Same here in the KC area. It has rained here every single weekend since mid March. Haven't even brought my boat home from storage yet.

Agreement with @oldjeep. The ones I'm familiar with were not the least bit sluggish. Pullout, acceleration etc same as anything else I've driven, my own current RLXI included. The one I used to drive/ski all the time had the same engine as my previous Supra Legacy, the 330hp Indmar Assault. Definitely no sluggard. Moomba's seem to get a lot of IMO undeserved negative knocks, as do Gekko's to a lesser extent. Both are acceptable used ski tugs, especially if you're a beginner on a budget. Assuming you can find one at a decent price of course.

Ditto what @andjules said above. Considering your stated conditions and usage IMO a Sunsetter with PP would be an excellent choice and well within your budget to boot. I've skied behind them and they ski just fine, huge improvement over an IO and well within the realm of acceptability as far as DD's go wake wise etc. I'll ski behind one any time, throw me a rope. Lots of hair splitting above on ZO vs PP, wake quality etc. When you're a dedicated course skier pushing 32 off and above, the above comments might carry some weight. Where you are now, and older WELL KEPT DD with PP will do the job quite well and well within budget.

No problem Jody. See Glorsen's post above.

I have a fair amount of time driving/skiing an Outback so I'm very familiar with the Outback. Decent enough ski boat (very plain jane interior though) but as many have stated above for that kind of money IMO an '03 - '05 LXI or a slightly older Nautique would be money much better spent.

The real world issue with all of that additional tech stuff is, as usual, the cost to the average course owner/user/maintainer as @mwetskier correctly stated above. For 99.85% of the target audience it is, as usual, a non starter due to 1) cost and 2) hassle to maintain. Impossible to ever get anywhere close to making the investment back to develop. Fun to Blue Sky but in the real world it simply ain't gonna happen. Yawn....

You guys who say teak is no maintenance please explain that to me. IMO no maintainence = looks like crap. I've had both. Love the look of well maintained teak like on my '05 LXI but liked the functionality of the padded FG platform I had on my '00 Supra Legacy a whole lot more. Like @thompjs said just keep some Watco teak oil on it (after sanding it down to bare wood once) and it looks like new regardless of age.