boarditup

Depending upon where you are, there may be an experienced skier on the board willing to help you out. I am in West Michigan and have taught many people to ski the course over the past decade.

On the Senate, the only time I have an OTF fall is when I break at the waist and move my hips back. The ski then stops in the trough of the wake.

Check both rack (under dash) and linkage (to rudder). Both could produce those symptoms. Rudder linkage could be loose, rack could be loose, or bent. Sounds mechanical, so a fix should be a few turns of a wrench - even if it is the cable.

Sunday was an INT day and they did what they do best - 3-4 new tournament slalom skiers wove their way through the course for the first time. Perfect conditions - mid-70's water, mid-80's air, less than 5 mph wind. It was a good day with a few PBs and quite a few within a buoy or two.

I got to know Dana and his daughter during the Global Invitationals at Placid Waters. He was one of the most hard working, down-to-earth, and all around great people I have met. He is missed and I will be praying for comfort for his family.

Today we had the INT on lakes 1&2 and the West Shore ski club on Lake 3. It was cold and windy at the start, but the sun shone starting about 10 am. From what I heard, a good time was had by all. Of course, I spent the day driving wakeboarders, but that was fun as well. I don't think the two groups got together as much as I would have liked, but it was still a worthwhile day and experiment.

Perhaps Nationals should be restricted to only those who have a reasonable chance at a medal. Then Nationals could be held in a day or two. Far fewer would be able to ski there, but it would be a more compact event and only the very best would be eligible to compete. This would be a very significant shift, but it is worth consideration.

Go to 15-off now. Many kids find 15-off easier than long line. In the INT, 15-off is the same as long line.

I have not experienced a problem with the gloves on newer handles. I do, however, hit my handles with a wire brush to roughen them up and make them tacky every once in a while. Keep the gloves the way they are and roughen the rubber on the handle.

We are in a class 1 wind area - very little wind, primarily from the West. Lakes oriented N/S. Perfect conditions with the exception of a strong due North or South wind.

Boat in water in mid-April and haul out the day after Thanksgiving. Snowboarding the rest of the year.

Placid Waters is near the Medical Mile in Grand Rapids, MI. Spectrum Health, Metro Health, MSU Medical School, and a host of surgical practices in the area. Low cost of living, great schools, good quality of life.

OK - Get some Never-Dull polish from the hardware store and polish until your OCD is scratched enough. Sheeesh - I would have never thought to polish the prop.

Insufficient from the description, but here is how I diagnose: Replace in-line fuel filter. Clean out fuel filter on carb. Clean out fuel tank - you may have water and sediment in the tank. 1986 boats don't like alcohol - you may need a carb rebuild and a fuel line replacement. The older lines will collapse with decay from both age and alcohol laden fuels. I had a similar boat and needed to replace all of the rubber goods in the fuel system and the steel fuel tank to get it to run reliability on post MTBE gasoline. Ignition problems can seem like fuel starvation. Cap and rotor should be checked for wear and arcing.

Always 2-minutes before starting. Always while idling more than 2-minutes. Always at idle speed. Check your marine insurance policy and see if you are covered if you don't have a blower installed and the boat goes up - the fine print is worth reading. There is much greater risk of a sudden leak with the GM FI systems that run on high pressure than the old low pressure carb systems. If you have an in-tank fuel pump, beware and use the blower. Gasoline vapors sink in the air. Simply opening the engine cover may not evacuate the vapors. Blower hoses have to be on the bottom for this reason. Avoid vapor lock: 1. Use the blower as I do above. You will avoid the alcohol from vaporizing due to high temps. 2. Avoid alcohol in gasoline, if possible. 3. Use Marine Sta-Bil if the boat will set several days or every fillup with alcohol laden fuels.

Course cred.... That is why I own 3 Radars.

Why not? Use what resources you have.

Being one of the show skiing types - I have a release on my boat all of the time. I have slalomed on the release and had a couple pre-planned "surprise" releases to test out the concept. I have been released once in an OTF fall. If you have a diligent observer, you can be released from the boat at the starting stages of a fall. Of course, you may have been able to pull it out and ski away from the trouble, but once the rope is released from the boat, you are done. If you have a full load, you may have some recoil from the load being released. The bitter end of the rope has not reached the skier in my few scenarios and experiments. So, is it safer every time? No. Are you less likely to suffer severe head, arm, or other contact trauma with the rope/handle? Yes. Could you strike your own face with the handle in certain circumstances? Plausible, but I have not seen this, yet. So, there is no perfect solution. I tend to use the release whenever possible with beginners as they sometimes forget to let go and to have body parts in weird combinations with the handle. On the tower, 100% of the time as handle passes are problematic with handle injuries - especially for beginners and those learning a 540 or more. Karl

Yes, I still have and use the release. I have one on my tower for wakeboarding and towing a tube. In actual use, I have used the release more for tubing (kid's parties) than anything else. However, it has saved more than a few people in slalom as well. It does make shortening the rope much quicker. It have it listed on e-bay right now, if you want one.

I think of ski design like a bunch of overlapping circles. Some design features have characteristics that do one thing more than anything else, when looked at in isolation. As soon as you have other factors - such as stiffness or dampening - the overlap changes. So, you cannot look at this mathematically at all. So, ski design is more of an art with a whole lot of science backing it up. What I find really interesting is two identical skis may feel different enough to influence your scores. So, a lot of effort is spent to make manufactured skis consistent ski-to-ski. That is tough with the very fine differences that can be felt.

Jody - that sounds like a solid deal for a new long block. Here in MI, we are lousy with motor shops, so rebuilds are cheap. Of course, you still have your same block with other potential issues and you don't have a warranty, like you said. So, a great option. Can you add modern electronics to an older block and head combo?

What you are describing is cavitation providing slippage until pressure shears off the trailing bubbles. It may feel better, but the engineer in me cringes at the thought. CC just went through a lot of prop testing with Acme and the new prop selections for 2012 should provide better ski-ability versus the older selections. The newer props will run at lower rpms, also.

Remove all grounds, clean, and cover with anti-corrosion coating. Same with ignition connections. Use PB Blaster on the connectoins every month or so. This is often just a loose or corroded connection. It could also be in the distributor system. Wires do require replacement every 5-years or so.

Install the green INT inner turn buoys and half-fill the orange turn buoy with water. The INT buoy will prevent the arm from dropping too much if the orange buoy is hit. Half filling the orange buoy with water will make them much more durable from incidental hits.

There was a push to get all the molds to ride and ski identically. From what I heard from some of the development team, they wanted to hit a home-run the first model year.