A_B

I go both ways (WSF and here) and sometimes pro ski coach, but stopped looking at Skifly a long time ago. I was on WSF way back since inception, there has been some trouble makers that have come and gone over time, and agree with Chief. Aside from the RJM thing, it is pretty tame. I have enjoyed sharing ideas with a lot of good people over the years, and am thankful guys like John and Kent go through the trouble of providing a hangout for us. I have not skied much the last two seasons, so having a place to talk about my favorite sport is great! Ay least I can keep my head in the game for when I come off the bench.

Drilled for HO. Bottom excellent, top a few minor scratches. $350 plus shipping from NW Ohio. Â amjbishop at yahoo dot com

KTM, So you leave the boots on the original plates and bolt the plates to the new plate? I was thinking of bolting the boots to a new plate and not musing the separate plates.

Looking to move my Animal bindings to a single plate. Have a Radar universal metal plate and some funky white G10 I bought a while back. Any thoughts on stiffness of each effecting ski flex? I am a "heavier" skier, so a stiff ski is not necessarily a bad thing. My favorite all time ski was a 9100 240amp.

Try this on land just hanging onto the handle and then imagine 700lbs of resistance. Open hips to the boat might be the way to go, but I would-be in traction most of the time. I skied with Brandon Bucher years ago and he was teaching the open and compressed style and I did manage to run a nice 35 off, but all the twisting hurt my back for days. My knees are so bad, ain't no way I can compress like some of those wc guys. My group has always said to point with your pee pee in the direction you want to go and stand tall behind the boat. Seemed to work for us. kristi overton skied open to the boat and didn't she quit due to back problems? And she was a brute skier.

My friend has a tester and he went through 3 Sixams and they were all different by quite a bit. He liked the softer tail as well. He did crack it though, so maybe learn to ski on a stiffer one! I think manufacturers are afraid to punish the specs as they would be scrapping too many skis that the average weekend Wally would find perfectly acceptable, but out of spec. When the numbers are put in with the ski, you have no idea what you are buying until you get it. Then, compare it to what?

Shne, it could be ZO!! :)

Shorten fin length, less DFT, add a fuzz of depth, or move bindings back. These would all free up your ski. My money would be on take out tip or less dft.

Wouldn't that be an important # to publish about a ski, as well as the flex #'s? When you get a ski, some have the flex #'s on a card, some don't. I would like to see the range for these measures for each ski PRIOR to buying. I understand that nit every ski will be the exact measures, but it should be in a range, sort of like published horsepower of a car engine. Thoughts?

Shane, Is Guadalupe the private site I was thinking of? You had to buy a lot to ski there, but no houses were built.

Does anyone know how torsional flex is measured? Is this something that manufacturers measure and have specs on? Can it change over time? Just trying to find out more about it, but knowledge seems pretty limited on it.

Wasn't there a place just east of SA called Frameswitch? I was looking to ,ove there about 15 years ago and it was an undeveloped site that was used for wild boar hunting. Aquaplex up in Austin was the other spot I looked at.

You can fix just about anything with JB Weld. I have popped the front off a couple skis, including Senate C, but from a deepwater start gone bad. Hauling 250 lbs out of the water in double boots probably hits the load cell pretty hard. I would patch it or leave it alone, and wait for the 2011 Senate C. Major overhaul. Will probably turn better with tip out of the water, especially if you are a stay back skier.

I sent an email to Goode's only email address several days ago asking if they were ever making a mid in 67" length, and I haven't received a response either. I think hay would be a great length to add.z

Depeds on your weight, but you sound like you have it covered. Most heavier skiers run two strips down the sides the full length of the plate. There is a totally non-scientific table on the Internet somewhere, based on weight. Try googling it.

They don't deflate like Goode buoys, so be very careful with them to avoid injury.

I think it isn't that hard to tell full buoys when you see 'em.

They usually have clear end caps so you can see fraying, but I think the design is such that it won't fray. I usually replace when the end loop is frayed or rubber is worn off or slippery.

Al Bishop, 51, live near Toledo, OH. Bought a borrow pit in 1982 with two friends and converted it to a slalom lake. Grew up skiing in the Maumee River, bare footing, skiing in tennis shoes to protect feet from the river crud, trick skiing, skiing in a disc or anything fun. Started course skiing in 1978 with a 2 handle line and quickly converted to a single for fear of looking odd. Have lived and skied in Pennsylvania and New York, met some nice folks along the way. Probably peaked in skiing about 10 years ago, running 1@39.5 in practice and finishing 3rd in Ohio State champs. Probably averaged mid 38 on most good days in practice. Qualified but never went to Nationals, one regret. The last few years have been on the downhill slope with too much work and too many nagging injuries. Still enjoy getting in the boat and helping my buds and newcomers at our lake. I enjoy the technical side of the sport and would be considered a tinkerer by any definition.

Deep normally describes my starts. Head just barely above water at onset, disappears initially, then appears with a strained look on my face if I don't roll left (RFF).

I didn't want to jack the broken handle thread, so posted as continued discussion here. It was noted that ARS handles don't do anything because you grab the handle with both hands opposing each other. I use to think sonar well, until I started using them. The benefit I feel is that the handle does not roll when you have just one hand on it and you return your other hand to grab. It isn't that noticeable until you ski with them and then try to use a standard handle. I have done this when I forget my handle or trying a new handle (as the ARS radius is getting harder to find). There is a slight straightening out of the handle in my hand when I use regular handles and it just messes with your concentration, sort of like when you pull out of the water and the loop slips on the pylon. Is it a big deal? No. But there is a difference.

My first ski boat was a 14' aluminum Starcraft with 33 hp evinrude, then upgraded to a 50hp Merc. Talk about no wake.

I use 13" ARS radius handles and weigh more than most, never had one break. Had at least 3 or 4 regular 12" handles break years ago, of course, at first wake. One handle broke and cracked my thumb knuckle so hard I thought it was shattered, blood was coming out of my glove, but it just was a large gash and very bruised. I've broke my share of ropes too, but that's another story.

The tail is the same width as a normal ski so with the wider middle, that would seem to put more pressure on the tail to sit deeper and not blowout, unless you jump on the front and go past the balance point and pivot on the front. I think he was riding it down to 2.440 and it was holding. His offside was very good, just seemed to have the issue with onside rollup and then rollback. He made up incredible time on it though, so it is defimetly a "fast" ski.

Not finishing a turn usually comes from trying to steer the ski around with reaching forward and chest closed and it puts weight on the front of the ski which digs into the water and stops. At least that is what happens to me. Keeping your chest pointed outward and reaching to the boat (think high and back) will allow the ski to finish. Knees just can't be locked out. The hips coming through the turn to the handle are more important to me than knees. On really short line, you need max extension (sometimes on long line too) and that won't be with bent knees. The thing I always think of for flexing is to keep knees together and drive your front knee over your front ankle. That just puts your hips in the right place going into a turn.