boarditup

Ty Oppenlander, a pro who lived close by to me, has a similar technique. Talking to Rossi last summer, he did not contradict Jodi's advice to me. It works for me.

I think Nate is Correct Craft.

Rip rap will sink into the clay over time. You need to support it with some kind of a fabric. If you want the shore walkable, you can use a heavy woven or non-woven fabric, covered with a geo-cellular structure, and then filled with rock. That will have a 50-plus year life span and will assist in filtering some of the water as the clay settles into the void spaces. Rock about 1" is walkable and will stay in place even with wakeboard boats running by. You also can make an artificial sandbar of rock in about 2' of water depth to break up the rollers in both directions. That requires the least amount of materials, but looks funky to the average slalom skier. I will be using the design on my next lake project - too bad I cannot make money from a patent on the design. Stone conveyors can move stone about 120' from the truck location. They are not expensive and can go wherever a concrete truck could travel. Please let me know if you need details.

Horton wrote up a article on the "Basic Relaxed Skiing Position." Find it, read it, and practice it. You are working really had and you will make it with Horton's article. The rest of the advice is also dead on. You need to relax and let your ski and leverage work for you. Much easier on the back and arms!

On Monday, I will be in Houston with my stick and will meet up with some fellow ballers that graciously offered to throw me a rope. This on-line community makes that possible. It is great to be able to make friends so easily. Thanks, John.

Perhaps a "carbon baller" from the old days....

I just read the editorial and the thread at the other site. As owner/operator of Placid Waters I invite any responsible organizer to put together an event to their liking. The Grand Rapids area is very supportive of waterskiing and will pay to watch if the event is properly marketed and produced. Action Watersports, a local MasterCraft dealer, is incredible in the support they have given to many events to promote waterskiing. Dana Reed is producing a high-quality event that he believes meets the needs of the athletes and the local spectators. If you want to do something different or better, I will be happy to be a host site. However, it is hard to put on a better event than Dana. He is the standard of the industry right now. For the MM and all other skiers coming to Grand Rapids for the first time - welcome. Put on a great show!

Assuming a 1" bore, the Acme 422. 12.5X15.5 RH .105 cup seems to work the best overall.

I don't see the issue with the 69" Senate not turning quick enough.... That has never been an issue - especially with the new design. "Do you have sufficient surface area to support the skier in the pre-turn and acceleration phases" is the real question. I always hoped for a 70" Senate at my weight. Radar designs handle speed through the turn very well.

Been there, done that. The numbers don't really matter. What worked for me was to have people come to a nearby lake and host a picnic. I had a boat traveling back and forth through the slalom course while the picnic was going on. When it was appropriate, I called the meeting to order and asked the crowd if anyone was bothered by the boat passing nearby. Since they all had been talking and visiting with each other for the first 20-minutes, they had nothing to say. I had 3-zoning commission meetings and went over the numbers many times, but the picnic is what worked. For the record, at 150-feet, the passing boat is less than 70db - less than a quiet conversation, but more than a whisper. 150-feet being on the shoreline in the average ski lake width. Going further up the shore, the sound dies out very quickly, depending upon landscaping.

I have used the EZ-Slalom in 90 feet of water depth. I used a fairly large boat anchor (25-lbs or so fluke type) with a 12 foot section of very heavy anchor chain. Additionally, I attached a rope and buoy to the other end of the anchor. This was to tension the course with the anchor as close to the bottom as possible - keeping the course tight. You need 4:1 for that rope, as well. We then coiled the rope, secured it with a zip tie under the buoy, and avoided the buoy on the set-up run. It was far enough away that it did not interfere with boat setup for the 55s. The tension rope an buoy made course removal a snap.

Thanks! I would like to meet as many people as I can. It is great to put a face with a screen name. Waterskiing is a fairly dispersed community and Michigan and Texas don't get together all that much. Needless to say, if anyone gets near Grand Rapids, MI, contact me. I travel a lot, but if I am home, I enjoy skiing with as many traveling people as possible.

Thanks! How do I contact you? I can be reached at info@placidwaters.com.

I have a business trip and should have some down-time the evening of the 20th. Anyone willing to pull a novice?

According to Radar, the new Senate is from the Strada rocker. The 2010 Senate is from the RS-1 rocker. The new Senate, according to Grant, their rep, is a bit more forgiving and smoother out of the completion of the turn. As ice still covers my lake, I do not know from personal experience. I have the older Senate design and love it.

As with any potential law, the lawmakers respond well to multiple contacts, information, and solid efforts. If there is silence, then there is consent. Anyone who lives in the state or travels to the state for skiing should make as much noise as possible. E-mail, letters, phone calls, and visits to the reps and senators are the key to making this happen. E-mails to the visitor's bureau or tourism department also help. Just say you will not visit the state for your favorite sport if this law passes.

You have to establish a culture out of the gate. I keep a lid on whiners and sea lawyers. If you are not a happy person, find another place to ski. I don't believe that skiing is dying, but evolving. Some of the old, crusty skiers that have scared off most of the younger skiers need to leave the sport and are a little at a time. Where those people are scarce, waterskiing does well because it is a lot of fun for kids and families. Of course, I lump wake sports in with waterskiing. If you look at total participation numbers, we are not dying but are fragmenting. The goal of the rules should be safety first, fun second, and organization third. Most people will get along if they know they cannot inflict themselves on others. As soon as that is tolerated, all bets are off. Happy people want to be with happy people. Get rid of the unhappy people and you are left with happy people. Just be sure to tell them exactly why they are no longer included. You are doing them a favor - although they will be mad about it.

Real men jog home....

Karel Wolters, a friend and fellow skier, is the inventor of the twin rig. It does pull like a freight train. However, you can downsize the motor to get a good pull. For his twin rig, he has a 340 hp motor that has pulled over 20 show skiers from a deep water start. Aside from the traction, the tracking is laser precise and the boat backs up like a stern drive. I have slalomed behind it without an issue - it performs well. He as a transmission on the table right now ready to install in a boat. Send me an e mail if you are interested. Figure about $15k for parts and labor.

I figured on boots/utes. I think I'll pass on the rest of the 782 gear.... I still have the hair cut though.

I think I'll be taking one Saturday off of skiing this summer. This looks like a blast. The last time I did this was on MAB Tustin and it was called the Volkslaave (or something like that). Then, it was 6-man teams, slowest time was the team time. This is individual. Anyone want to take on an aging, former Marine? www.warriordash.com

Look what Dana did right in Milwaukee: 1. Marketing - Park and Rec poured incredible resources into marketing. 2. Demographics - the actual demographics were good - the crowd was largely suburban based and relatively affluent. 3. Location - within 20 miles of a large population in an easy to find location. 4. Entertainment - the event was entertaining for the crowd. Momentum had been built up with previous events. 5. Media - Dana and crew managed the media very well for a week ahead of the event. 6. Crossover - there were several other things in the general area for people and families to do. I have long proposed a 3-ring circus approach to waterski and wakeboard events. The more total entertainment value, the better the event will be. Most families don't want to watch endless sets of slalom on a hot shore for hours at a time. At the same time, if the major draw is a food festival and a waterski tournament just happens to break out - who will sponsor the wateskiing? They get their return from the food festival. Milwaukee was successful because of the pre-planning and execution by Dana. People are entertained by a few things: 1. I can identify with that - played backyard football, overweight, can drive a car fast, skateboarding, etc. 2. Beyond the reach - skydiving, inverted motorcycle jumps, inverted wakeboarding, I can't imagine doing that, etc. 3. I want that - athletic bodies, first place, attention from the crowd, I want to be famous, etc. 4. Train wreck - crime TV, Snookie, drama, you can't believe people live that way, crashes, etc.  Waterskiing can give all 4. Packaged right, like Dana had in Milwaukee and in the '80's, it works well. Without marketing money and the wrong message, we have the same results all the time - small crowds and little interest. It takes resources and hard work. Dana is probably the hardest working man in waterskiing and has my respect.

"Based on the comments on this website, I would think the hard core audience will attend either venue. Maybe the key question is how to maximize the entertainment value for the paying customer rather than how to maximize the value for the sponsor/promoter to end up in a win-win for both."  Exactly right! Sponsors follow crowds with the right demographics.Â

Exposure to who? The '80's crowds were part of the "beach culture" that was a solid demographic and marketing group. We now have much greater market segmentation and the fad has faded. The real lesson of the '80's was that content and the show - the entertainment - was the critical component. The crowd followed the entertainment. Read the article - the crowd is following football due to the entertainment value. They generate the crowds - you don't stage a football game at a downtown food festival. No sport is successful with a rent-a-crowd - at least I cannot find an example. Street performers, yes. Sports, no.  We are a participation activity that is also a competitive sport. We need to package ourselves more like skateboarding, motorcycle racing, and NASCAR than a street performer at a festival downtown. Targeted marketing by demographics with a solid entertainment value is the key. Ball of Spray is a major component of the targeted marketing. John attracts a virtual crowd that will attract sponsor dollars - if the crowd is big and affluent enough.

The rent-a-crowd mentality really does not get us where we need to be. If you are spending your scarce business advertising budget, would you spend it on a secondary crowd of people or on your target demographic? For example - holding a tournament at a crowded park with low-income people will not sell boats, skis, or boat insurance. You will get some impressions and the soft drink and beer vendors like it, but it does not get money into the core of the sport - the athletes, sport specific equipment vendors and dealers. If the rent-a-crowd is the target demographic, then it makes sense. Camping is a decent cross-over to waterskiing - depending upon the site. Other good demographics - small business owners, executives, professionals. The trick is to sort people out or have then sort themselves out. Ball of Spray has people sort themselves out - they navigate to it. Lists of boat owners is an example of sorting people out. IF we can get enough people here - sorting themselves out - we can parlay that into getting more money into the sport's core. John needs some more sport specific content that will draw more people in - that is where we come in. Help John out and help the sport out. More hits equals more outside the sport dollars.