HO 410

Jeff, I think I understand, but could you expound a little bit on how you use the vest as an "insurance policy"? As long as you're at it, could you give some insight on what you were able to run when you had the vest setup to ski 20+ passes.

bxroads: you aren't getting in over your head, not by a long shot. The Senate and Strada's have a high performance ceiling but they are both remarkably balanced. The Senate can rip, no doubt, but it is also very stable. Pro skiers are taking bone stock Strada boots and running -41', but yet they are not usually overwhelming to a -15' skier. You are really going to enjoy this new setup.

Unless I am mistaken, Zero Off does not cross reference it's speed against magnet triggers. My understanding is that the sample rate is high enough, and speed accurate enough, that distance (and therefore time) can be calculated with a high degree of accuracy. If you used single-magnet timing, Stargazer works in a similar manner.Â

I don't think the effects on endurance are insignificant, but it does not seem that it would provide the same kind of increase in performance that something like a bench press shirt would. (This might not be a great example because I think the unassisted bench record is something like 40% lighter)

I think I've asked before. Anyone know of a glove in production that has the finger bumps that the original RPM's had?

Clearly, I have not looked closely enough at video capabilities recently enough. 60 fps at 1280x720 is not an unreasonable feature to look for. That Samsung looks pretty nice. Worth noting, the T1i is fairly limited in terms of video: at most it can do 30fps at 720p (I think that's 1280x720). The T2i will do 60fps at 1280x720, and if you care at all the T2i supports SDXC memory.

I think the Rebel T2i was used to shoot the last couple of episodes of House. The image quality is pretty impressive, but if it does not have video stabilization, it might not be watchable even with a very soft hand. With a small arsenal of lenses, you may want to upgrade even if it's not ideal for your video application. If you plan to use a Tracker mount you may be better off going the other direction and getting a Flip, or similar, mini camera. The Image is good enough, they are cheap, and quick resilient. Just on a side note, if you're looking for frame rates faster than the TV: 30fps or Film: 24fps, you are going to be looking at very, very expensive cameras.

bko: I believe so, but I don't recall hearing the triple beep. Could be fuzzy math in my brain, or I might have found a magic zone where ZO thinks it can still work. At any rate, the moral of the story is that if you work the throttle like you did when you drove Perfect Pass Classic, you might not get the system a chance to work to its potential.

You don't necessarily have to bury the throttle, but you should push it an inch or two past the point that Zero Off engages. If you do not, ZO may no have enough throttle to work with and the boat will never get off the skier. I've forgotten this once or twice and difference in the pull is very noticeable.

When you start skiing with a new speed control, there is a period of adjustment where the new system skis and feels vastly inferior to the previous. My understanding is that there was a lot of chafing going on during the transition from hand-driving to Perfect Pass. In terms of understanding, I find it best to frame A,B,C with loading the rope instead of in reference to the location of the buoy. Try A, even if just for one pass. You won't know if it's better unless you try. That said, it seems that there are certain motor and prop combinations that are more or less accommodating. As I recall, one of the early Zero Off MC's was nicknamed, "The Humbler."

Two sets is definitely not enough time to break in the liner or get used to the boots. Where are you feeling the hotspots? I know that as I was adjusting to the boots, I had the bungees much tighter than I do now: for reference I now have between 1" and 1.5" pulled out north of the cinch.

Is duct tape not effive at holding down that piece of fabric?

Is that really very different than any other kind of boot? If you tear out an overlay or strip an insert, in that moment you are screwed unless you've got a backup ready to go. With the Exo the price to backup will be higher but a pair of Approaches is also on the pricey side.

Bruce. From what I've seen, if you don't use I.E. or Firefox, you will not get access to the advanced text editing window. In fact any formatting you try to do in the text box will just be compacted down to a solid block of text. You might have been able to enter the html directly, but I don't think that would work either. All's well that ends well. That's a good procedure for getting into the boot.

I'm sure the nylon washers aren't critical, but they are darned convenient. The ones I have grip the screw threads so you can put the whole screw, washer, and standoff assembly together and then hold it together with the nylon washer. It really speeds assembly.

You can very often rebuild a boot like an Animal for much less than the cost of a new boot: unless you really want to buy new bindings, then obviously price is not as much an object. Wileyski.com, they can help you figure out if it will be economical to rebuild.

The outer shell is permanently attached to the ski. The shell has a separate boot liner that slips in. Instead of having a solid buckle, the collar (ankle) of the shell is closed with a heavy-duty elastic cord. When you fall forward, or the ski stops, the collar will expand and the foot/liner combination slips out. I did not realize the youtube clip I linked to yesterday did not demonstrate that.

From what I've been hearing and seeing, the level of performance is about the same between the two, but the Strada will let you get away with a lot of crap and still continue the pass.

It's a pretty simple design that is very effictive. Test the release on dry land, they will release similar if not a little smoother when you ski.

Is it impractical to put some double-stick tape underneath?

It's likely that 99% of boaters would leave your course alone. Europe or North America, it sounds like that 1% came by quickly and exacted revenge against your evil buoys. Your evil obstructive buoys that get out of the way when you get close. It really sounds like your vandal went out of his or her way to wreck your course. I can't imagine how disappointing that outing was, and you have my deepest sympathies. Definitely file a report with the lake patrol, you never know what they already know or what they might be able to find out.

No. The E-series uses a break-away cuff. The tension to release the cuff is not related to the buckles that close up the shell. I'll believe it is worth repeating, one the best feature of this style of boot is that you can easily dry test on land and expect the same release on the water.

X-ray maybe. I can't say that we inspected the prop closely after every set, but it was very much a without warning thing. It didn't happen to the first skier of the day. It didn't happen on the first pass. Coming through the gates, the boat began to vibrate severely. After limping back to the dock, the 4-blade prop had transformed into a 3-blade.

We've had it happen twice. Similar to Bill it happened with a couple hundred hours on the boat. I thought they were OJ props but I could be mistaken. The MC dealer didn't quite know how to handle it. As in they said we hit something and they would not submit a warranty claim (let's just say they don't have a firm grasp on how a promo boat is used) Dealing directly with the prop manufacturer was much easier.

I've got an armguard on my handle. The one, very effective method, that we have discovered for dock starters is to grab the handle line and wrap it around the bar, using the friction to hold it all rolled up. So far so good, fingers crossed that this method won't wreck the panel in the 3rd full season. I haven't fiddled around with a US Gear handle but I have a hard time believing that a US Gear handle is stiffer than my Masterline with Armguard. That said, having a large loop on your mainline is a revelation. I can't believe that ML or SL don't make at least their record ropes with larger loops at the end.