boarditup

One of our best events had the tournament on one lake and a "demo day" on the adjacent lake. We had both a slalom boat and a wakeboat available and we pulled the non-tournament skiers (and the tournament skiers during off times) up and down the lake. We kept to a 4-pass rule so we could cycle more people though and keep waiting lines short. Waterskiing is a partcipant sport, not a spectator sport. So, when everyone skis, everyone is happy.

The Radar Theory is a wide ski that is very stable. I use on for the Wide Ride division in the INT. It turns reasonably well and can be skied in the course up to about 32 mph, but is best at 28 or 30 mph. Since it is wider, it is less "work" to ski as it glides fairly well. So, for heavier skiers, it is a good choice. If your goal is shortline skiing at 34 or 36 mph you would be better served with a Senate (my other ski) or a Vapor (very fast and a lot of fun). Radar skis are almost universally stable and easy to ski, but that depends upon speed. A Vapor does not react well at speeds less than 32 mph.

Murray skied 3-event before professional wakeboarding. He was an accomplished tricker. Both Murray and Durham are also gymnasts. Murray has incredible upper body strength.

Rip rap installation can occur from the water side. Any marine contractor can do it. It is barge duty. As for permitting - it depends upon jurisdiction - state, federal, or both. On a public lake, there will be some issues. Most of the time that kind of work is restricted during the summer months - so a post Labor day start.

Kids think in literal terms. They also tend to focus on what they see. So, they ski to the buoy not thinking about it as the finish of the turn, but the target of the pull. I have put in a pre-buoy as a visual target about 10-feet up course so they know where the visual target is. It makes timing a lot easier. Typically I use a noodle on a cement block.

Can be done. Accuracy is difficult due to lack of visual reference points. It goes a lot slower - consequently more expensive. If you outlet to a stream, you may have turbidity issues - that makes water discharge difficult.

Mussels need water movement. Also, the iron block reacts with the water to virtually eliminate oxygen in the water. Other than bacteria, nothing big really survives in such a small area. Ballast tanks, yes. Engine block, not likely. Personally, I like a bleach flush.

Concentrate more on the off-the-water activities. Keep them busy and occupied with organized games and other activities. If they get bored, they don't like the skiing. We found it best to have a few "baby sitters" for the various ages keeping things moving ashore. On the water - allow for a "practice run" before it "counts." A couple of warm-up passes really settle the nerves down.

Got a photo? If it were an animal you would see a bite pattern. If insects, just random holes.

Try an experiment. Within easy reach of your dock have some buoys out and see if you have a similar issue. If so, fill a sample buoy part way with bleach and see if that helps. Some animals do have a taste for the buoy - some animals seem to avoid those with some bleach in them.

Is there a ratio between hair and spray?

Praying for your healing.

@jody_seal to the rescue, again. Great guy.

I've been involved in blasting millions of yards of rock. Depending upon the rock and the local market, you may have enough material to sell to make it revenue-neutral. It is worth a few phone calls to local contractors and material handlers to be certain.

The Michigan Ability Series is outstanding. If this were coupled with "F" scores being accepted for qualifications for Regionals, you would have enough incentive for more LOC to get going - the staffing of the tournaments would be much easier. It would allow for older boats - even PP boats - to be used again. It would also allow beginners to compete against other beginners and progress rapidly. That is something the INT always did well. @Jody_Seal is dead on right, as is the others who have commented on how the casual skier, the recreational skier, and the politically incorrect (sport internal politics) gets marginalized. In any sport or activity - grow or die. You cannot successfully "manage" a decline.

The ends are typically shredded, so soft.

The cobweb duster is on the right track. I was thinking of bristles about a foot long and rather stiff, like a broom. They would be mounted in some dense foam or softer rubber that was flat. So you have a "dot" of bristles sticking out of the water. The cobweb duster has a central "stick" that the bristles are mounted to that would cause problems if hit - although it is a much smaller target. As for cleaning, I had a broom head floating the the lake for a few weeks to test the idea, it took just a few seconds of hand cleaning to get it clear. The build-up will make the buoy's mass go up, so regular maintenance would be required. I have not tested it, but I think it would be a lot safer to hit. I am not sure if this is the solution, but it is one possibility. As the cost of a broom head is less than $10, it should be farily cheap to produce. As it cannot pop, you likely have a much greater life span.

I floated the concept of using colored nylon bristles mounted in floating foam. Think of long broom bristles. For a concept of this, look in the toy isle for a "cush" ball. Very little displacement, cleans the ski as you hit it, should be fairly cheap to manufacture, and compatible with current systems. No more popping the buoys.

Spray it with PB Blaster, let it soak for 15-minutes will keeping it wet with the Blaster. Hit with brass wire brush.

How about this: On a previously measured course, a class F with one boat judge and a trained driver can post a score that "counts" toward the rankings and qualification for State and Regionals. This gives a lot of flexability to run tournaments with little overhead requirements but keeps the potential inflated scores in check. If the participants can use their experience to qualify for other official qualifications, even better.

The Prato Principle states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Applied to cheaters and rules: The vast majority of people will follow simple rules and expectations without any issue. A further minority will require an increasing level of specifics as they will argue the finer points to their own advantage - call them the Sea Lawyers. The rules for the final .3% is what we have now - the overboard rules and officiating for the very few that "ruin it" for everyone else. It is always interesting that everyone in the sport for even a few years has a few common names and events. From an organizational perspective - if you have to write down your ethics rules you already have lost the culture. Our people will police themselves. Those that are "over competitive" or cheating will find themselves isolated from the rest of the sport - people will vote with their feet and move on or away from them. Simply allow the LOCs to say "no" to entrants that create hostile environments and cheaters. That personality type will move on to something else - hopefully MMA fighting. They have a creative and great way of policing the cheats.

The INT is essentially a marketing tool for the various sponsors. As a former State Coordinator, I can attest that I never made any money - I broke even once. The INT is well produced and has a different "feel" with the announcing, background music, and banners - so it is more expensive than an AWSA local tournament. It was designed to be more novice-friendly and require far fewer officials. It is not as Type-A competitive satisifying as an ELR tournament. But, because of the marketing structure, it is much more controlled and it requires a more controlled State Coordinator. So, you don't have a bunch of distributed LOCs putting on the tournaments. It is just a different model. That said, it would be nice to have the AWSA more user-friendly for the new skier or the new site. If you are growing an area from scratch, it takes longer to get your Senior Judge in slalom than it does an MBA - and not too much less time and effort. With kids in school, a full time career that involves a lot of travel, and the demands of homeownership it is no suprise that fewer people are involved. You need several people, an expensive boat, expensive personal equipment, lots of time, extreme levels of patience, and confluence of various people's schedules, and a very supportive and flexible family to make it all work. It just doesn't happen like it did in the '70s and '80s anymore. If we restructure to reduce the demands and keep the fun, we can stop the contraction and perhaps grow again. Evolve or go extinct. It is not the strongest that survive, but the most adaptable.

With the advent of Google Glass and the up coming VR sets, coupled with Garmin GPS pucks and Google Earth, and a few other technology advances, we may be able to have Virtual Reality slalom courses. The course would appear in the glasses of the skier and the driver could also have a display. While this may not be immediately acceptable for tournaments, it would solve the problem of skiing in open water where slalom courses do not exist. Michigan, for example, makes portable courses illegal without a Marine Event Permit. With the technology, you could ski in any suitable water and even have electronic playback. Great for practice. As for eventual tournament use, still several things to work out even conceptually. However, this would eliminate the multiple judges and officials. The feedback lets you know immediately your score. Imagine, no more site surveys, etc. I still don't have any hope for virtual jump, however... With all the talk about the difficulty of tournament skiing the advancement of technology may give us an answer to slalom course access and broken ankles from hitting the ball.

There are two things going on here - stretch and creep. Stretch recovers - that elastic sensation you have while loading and unloading the rope. You can have a bit of a sling-shot effect if your release after the second wake is right. Creep is the elongation of the rope - sometimes referred to as a "set" - that you get when a rope has been under tension a long time. The rope length goes up and the diameter goes down. You also loose some individual fiber because it has been abraded away. At this point the rope is down on strength and stretch. Throw in UV degradation and you have a more brittle rope. The poly ropes for slalom have a specific amount of stretch in the specification. Wakeboard and trick ropes that are made from spectra or dynema do not stretch but will creep quite a bit until "set." The spectra rope does not suffer from taking the initial "set" until it is well UV aged. They all feel very stiff and make slalom very difficult. A fresh, just broken-in rope is a great thing.

I've never had to use a torch. I typically use PB Blaster and let it soak in for a while. Use several applications. Typically, the issue is metal binding, so the lubricant does not help all that much. What does work is tension and a 2 or 5 lbs hand sledge hammer. The vibration releases the metal. Be sure to follow the advice to leave the prop nut threaded - you only need to back it off about 1/4" or so from prop contact. Replace the nut with a new one - do not reuse. No, you will not damage the boat if you strike directly in line with the prop shaft. You may have to hit it really hard several times.