Alberto Soares

@Ral - I´m a small dawg but looking forward going to Chile, will arrive 29th afternoon. See you there!

I prefer 1/2 loops, I think the ski dynamic behavior changes too much with different speeds.

I would bet a few bucks on the impeller, "hot temperature on idle" have been there a few times...

Alberto Soares, 47, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, civil engineer, married, 2 daughters (12 and 4). CB Nautique 2010, 6.0 lt (Thank you Jody Seal for the numerous tech help) Skiing since 7, in the course since 20 at www.clubeserradamoeda.com.br , have skied every other day for the last 15 years (+/- 350 sets/year), but only had the opportunity of being coached last 2 years. Currently on a 65 Nano One (best ski ever - 6.799/2.51/0.758 needle/8.5 and 28") with Reflex/R-Style. 38´s are coming often with new ski, looking forward next year results, might be the best of my life...

Always wing down, recently changed to up for a while and noticed it adds drag at the same angle. I would say it adds something from 0.5 to 1.0 compared to wing down.

Usually 8.5 in my fast water lake, when I go to slower sites 8

@Bdecker - English is not my mother language, but for me is clear that this clause is about racing, your agent understands nothing about course slalom.

I straighten mine using a 15lb piece of wood, it´s fine now.

@Zman - I have been on Reflex / R-Style for about 1 year now. Do not worry about releasing, the system works great, specialy in your case with RTP. Just relax and enjoy, by the way, it took me a couple o months to get used to it.

I have been using the reflex front and r-style back for the last year. Before that skied with double goode PS for many years. Needed a couple months to adapt as it feels harder than PS, but after many hard falls and OTFs I am very happy with them. I would like to say also that the double PS in my opinion is a fine and safe system, at least for me, the problem is the dual lock, you never know how it will release.

Rupert, I dont know the size, but would bet they are not metric. Try send the factory an email.

@Mr. Jones - I have been using it since November/2011 with the strap all loose, about 1 month ago I took it back to the center hole, I did noticed some difference, but really cant tell yet if it is better of worse. Next time I ski I will restrict even more the movement to get a better feeling and will inform you.

I skied many years with Goode Double Powershells (PS4 and PS5) - since Goode started selling them. Had some pre-release, but ended finding the right amount of dual lock, never hurt myself skiing about 400 sets a year. It is not like that with everybody, one of my best friends ruptured his back foot aquiles while I was driving him, it took to long to his PS5 release. It is a fact also that the dual lock gets old and you have to replace it at least once a year.

 

I got tired of the repairing my PS system and changing the dual lock frequently, so 2 years ago I bought a Reflex front with R-style (half boot) in the back. I love the setup and feel very safe with it. Once in a while when I finish skiing I pull the tip of my ski to release the system in the water and check if the releasing pressure is ok.

Marco, I am hitting my head at 38 since I slowed to 55k (about 6 years ago). Right now I almost dont miss a 35, even with the bad wind conditions we get here frequently, but cant complete a single 38.

 

About 1.5 year ago I found a way of skiing that made me get many 38`s and man, that felt easy... I was skiing with less angle in my turns and a soft pulling until the second spray, as I was not spending much energy my sets jumped from 6/8 passes to 10/12 passes. Unfortunately I lost that timing and have not completed a 38 in quite a while.

 

In the last months I have slowed the boat to 54.4, even to 54, but I dont feel it has helped much, in fact I feel that at lower speeds I tend to attack the bouys harder, get the slack, get back to position and still have time to get to the next bouy, but thats not what I feel I should do.

 

Anyways, what Razorskier1 said is exactly what I think we all should try to do.

I ski so much (5x/week - all year round), that I dont find much time to do other sports. Try to jog at least 4x/week (50min) just to keep my heart healthy and my weight down.

About 16C (+/- 60F) at Lagoa dos Ingleses, Belo Horizonte, Brazil - it is as cold as it gets now in the winter - www.clubeserradamoeda.com.br

Latin American Championship in Argentina, the site was 30 min from Buenos Aires so we shared a taxi. A friend from Peru had just arrived and was taking his ski to the site on the top of the car. The driver was about 60 mph when the ski flew away from the car in the highway, a car behind ran over the bag and it got stucked bellow the car. We passed the car waving but the old driver did not noticed he was dragging something bellow his car. When he finally stopped we had to lift the car to get the ski out of there. Luckly the worst damage was made to the bag and vest and Gonzalo won the +35 with a badly scratched ski.

2 cases that happened with me:

 

1 - I was driving for a friend who took the new girlfriend watch him ski, handle hit the nose of the girl and broke it really bad. Imagine him taking the girl back home and telling her father the bad news...

 

2 - I was also driving and the rope engaged reverse at 36mph, the transmission did not break, at least not that day...

 

 

My 200 with 6.0 runs 3800@34 with the 422, used to run about 3900 with the original 668, our lake is about 1500m (4500´) high and the only gasoline available is 20% ethanol.

done, uff...

Ral, it looks great, can´t wait for the next oportunity of visiting you, hopefully with my ski gear with me.

To remove the BONDPLATE you will need to use a hot hair dryer, if you want to use it in another ski you will have to buy a strong 3M double face tape

I have been using Reflex front and R-style rear for the last 3 months, I like the back R-style because it lets me lift my back foot easily. Before that I skied with double goode powershells for many years and really like the back foot lifting.

I like to keep 1" apart for my 2 hard shells, may be thats the reason I have been fighting with 38 for years...

I have a Reflex ski without inserts, it came with the Bondplate (see Reflex quote bellow), it works great. I have also 2 ski friends that use it on their Goodes.

 

http://www.reflexworld.com/shop.shtml

 

"The Bondplate is a new mounting system for skis without inserts. the "Bondplate" is an adhesive plate in "G10" material. Screws are positioned according to international standard and allow easy assembly and disassembly of your waterski bindings. (HO, D3, Connelly, Radar, Wiley...). The plate is placed on your ski within 5 minutes, without technical expertise. The "bondplate" does not change the flex of the skis but contributes to their longevity."