HO 410

Lake Arcadia in Oklahoma has a designated PWC zone. That certainly helps. I know it could hurt vacation rentals, but some kind of compulsory education for all ages would probably help. It seems that a lot of these tragedies are hard earned, a little but of knowledge could go a long way to keep people a little further from the ragged edge. Giving these machines a slower top end wouldn't hurt either.

How is your rhythm behind the boat? You want to focus more on having an even, smooth rhythm. Making space between yourself and the wakes should not be your primary focus. Seth Stisher has a great video called the "whip drill". It's somewhere at waterskitraimer.com. I'll add the specific link when I get the chance to search for it.

Do you get up with both palms down? On a bent handle I could see that stressing the outside fingers pretty hard.

I think Fogman uses a 2" piece on each side of the plate, between the front and back boot.

Yeah, probably best not to subvert a science class with sociology/psychology inspired design. Similar conclusions, but almost completely different data sets.

If you don't have to measure drag in terms of weight simplify the tests and just go ski. Do some sweet math to help form a hypothesis, define your testing scenarios, and write up a skier response card with scaled response questions (1-5 with 3 being about normal). Ask lots of questions about skier effort and fatigue over the course of a set. Once the ski is on the turning edge, wing angle will affect the ski's attitude in the water so you might as well ask questions about how the ski turns. You won't be able to find out that X degrees of wing makes Y pound of drag, but you should be able to show trends in what various setting do to the ski.

I'd go Wiley's over Animals. The closed-toe really makes a difference. The Wiley's gets the same level of support using much less squeeze than an Animal would use. By feel, the Vectors are about 3/4 of the way to being a Strada. I've tried them on but not tested on the water. It feels like most of the fit and performance will come from the sides fitting close to your foot. It also felt like the laces do more to control heel-lift, and would have a much smaller impact on performance. That may be totally different in practice.

Youngman, I'll go out on a limb and say that you in the minority there. Keep in mind that it is not impossible for you front foot to come out without the back foot moving, so don't expect a tight rear boot to percent a 1 in 1 out crash. Because you can't prerelease during normal skiing, your best bet is to keep loosening the bungee on your rear boot untill heel-lift is an issue. Tighten a pinch and the make your front boot match. For me, the only boots that release easier are the velcro overlays on low-end slalom skis.

If you're measuring length with jaws, you won't be remotely close to factory settings. All modern skis turn as long as their settings aren't too far off the reservation. For pre 2011 Senates Rini #'s Front Boot: 29 1/2 Length: 6.85 Depth: 2.505 DFT: 0.75 Rossi #'s Front Boot: 29 1/2 Length: 6.84 Depth: 2.495 DFT: 0.77

Either the the thread got burried, nobody has the equipment you're asking about, or a little bit of both. I can't keep tract of Radar boot names. If the Rails were 1 step below the RS-1's, the Vectors are the equivalent product. The Sectors look similar, but you can't always tell. Radar boots are a known quantity to you. If you can't see or try a pair before buying, I'd stick with what I know.

It's kind of a bummer to crush the mini-course and find yourself poking the ski at 2 like you're about to set a record. I don't feel like there's much you have to do with technique or fitness to take the ski out that extra couple of feet on each side. I'm thinking back and there are probably three concepts that eventually helped me get around the orange buoys. 1. Give yourself a chance at having a strong start. Whatever works, being a righty, I could never drop in at 1 like everyone wanted. The key is giving yourself some good pace to start the pass. 2. Stay engaged on both sides. You want to try and keep maintain that pace you started with. 3. Don't chop your turns short. Doesn't quite matter if your technique is perfect when you don't let it ride out. Part three was my stumped me for longer than I thought it should. You're so used to seeing the course from a certain geometry that it takes quite a bit to forget that and just let the ski go a little farther out. It never really set in my mind until breaking for the winter. It felt a lot more normal with some time away from slalom.

That's the one. We had an exchange about segmenting the panel like that. The initial plan for that hinge was to make it easier on boat crews, according to TW it turned out the hinge helps the handle deflect hands even better. All I really know is that it was a pretty solid jump forward in design and they kept the pricing the same. Just a note on my experience as a customer. TW took a day longer (than he wanted, not a day longer than I expected) to get my order out. He sent it out with overnight at his expense. I also needed a second set of the ty-wraps that he included in the kit. I expected him to mail a standard letter envelope. No, he sent another overnight package. Up to the point that I ordered that segmented arm-guard for my dads handle, I think he'd spend more shipping arm-guards to me than I had spent on arm-guards.

I've had both revisions that have been available through Thomas Wayne. The Arm-guard on my Masterline Custom is one of the older style full triangle panels. I think this is its 4th season now. My dad's hand now has one of the new, segmented panel. It's definitely much nicer, especially on his bigger 13" ARS handle. I've slapped at mine a couple of times, definitely keeps your hand out.

A lot of these tournament sites are too small to hold a pickup boat. At a large site like River Bend in Oklahoma, there is space for a second boat, and it really helps to keep the round moving along if a skier falls on the north side of the course. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=oklahoma+city,+ok&hl=en&ll=35.523477,-97.385516&spn=0.004925,0.010568&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.826758,86.572266&t=h&z=17

Mouthguards are useful in preventing injury (I think Parrish skis with one). A concussion is all about inertia, I can't imagine that a mouthguard by itself would prevent any kind of closed skull injury. A helmet is all about absorbing as much energy as possible and then slowing down your skull over the longest period of time possible.

If you like what Radar is making, the Vector (previously called Rail) fits size 7 to 11. The hurdle you'll run into with a shoe style binding is that they need to fit. Call Radar for details or maybe h2osmosis, there might be enough space in a size 9 shell that you could track down a second liner to heat mold enough space for a size 10 foot.

Before you tie up money on the second Approach, survey what other options you have. It's not that double Approaches is a bad way to go, but you've got a chance to go another direction if you like the idea of another approach (pardon the pun). New designs have come to market since the Approaches were designed. Newer isn't always better, but its the same advice I'd give to someone trying to replace older tech like a Monza.

I think that the most important thing is that your ski and bindings are not an obstacle to you skiing well. If you are comfortable and confident in what you have, I'd say run with it.

There are definitely other and arguably better options, but I feel it is more important that you be confident in your equipment. One option would be to do some wheeling-and-dealing. Trade out of the Strada for a Vice and use the difference to redo your decision on the front boot. There are enough skiers that don't like their purchase as much as they expected that ski-it-again.com is littered with lightly used and steeply discounted gear.

When I bought my RPM's they had little ridges out at the finger tips. Wouldn't seem like much of a difference but the 41Tails just never had the same feel. I'll probably just have to call in a pair of Ergo's and see what Radar means by "fingertip bumps"

Anyone tried the Radar Ergo gloves? I've been looking unsuccessfuly for a glove that has the same fingertip feel as the original RPM's.

The idea of a split sanction is appealing. If you want a traditional ranked round, ski the C-class portion of the tournament. If you want to ski a more relaxed event, choose the alternative side of the sanction. I think that you can and should integrate the two styles in one event. I won't qualify for regionals any time soon, but I'd hate if the elite skiers skipped the beginner friendly event.

They work about the same dry as wet. On dry ground, test out different tightness and try to step out of the boot. If it feels acceptable in your test, it will probably be okay when it is inertia that pulls you up and out.

Having some kind of event mentor or mentors would be a good idea in general. You want an on site resource that can help set new skiers up with clubs and good people to hang out with for the day. You want the new skiers leaving the event knowing that there are people that will be disappointed if they miss the next event. Ideally, you'd pair that new skier with a veteran that wants to help nurture their involvement in the sport.

My understanding is that the release concept is going to be most similar to the Fluid Motion e-series. Similar in concept, but different in execution, would be the Radar Strada and Obrien Prodigy.