Same here, free ski at one length shorter than I can consistently run. I also slow the boat down to 34 when I free ski. Not sure why, but 36 feels a lot faster on the cold clean water lakes. Last year I was forced to free ski quite a bit because of a weed problem at our site and my tournament scores improved by 3 bouys. It definately helped me, takes a little while to figure out the timing and rythm, but when you do it's a lot of fun.