skibrain

@jimbrake where are you at with binding ?

How do skiers typically define “warm water”? In MN we go from mid 40’s (not a lot of skiing at this extreme) to lots of summer skiing in mid 70’s. Occasionally a week of water in the 82-84 range if we’ve had a week of 90 degree air.

Boom. Right there is what you’d call a professional opinion.

I’ve read the website. I’d like to hear feedback on skiers who have been on both, or have made the switch to ION. I’m a longtime D3 skier. Does this feel like a pretty subtle evolution or a significant change?

I’m not going to answer your question, but I’ve found that trying new skis requires significant time for me. A few binding and fin set ups a little over a few weeks...sometimes moving things more dramatically, adjusting my technique to work better with the ski I am trying.... Going back to my old ski for a week.... switching back again to the test ski.... It can be fun or frustrating. I try to focus on free skiing during this time. sometimes I’ve bought and tried (highly endorsed) skis for an entire season before selling and moving on.

@markn what you say seems intuitive, but take a look at this: https://finwhispering.com/adjusting-water-ski-binding-setup/ “Moving forward gives the ski a longer tail so it will smear less and turn more slowly. If the bindings too far forward, the ski will resist finishing turns and cause the skier to fall back into wheelies.”

We ski 150 acre public water and have found that few Surfers or wakeboarders are early risers. 95% of the time we are off the water by 7 a.m. and while not addressing erosion it mostly solves for flat water for skiing. But any power boating requires being a good neighbor. We’ve added FA exhaust to the boat, when skiing the course we modify our turn at one end to throw less sound at a nearby residence. When there are fishermen on the lake we try to give them space. And pretty frequently we motor over and actually talk to a fisherman or wakeboarder - express understanding of their right and desire to be on the water, explain the pattern we’re running, that we are skiing for an hour and then will be gone. Then we stay out of their way or drop early if someone moves. Yeah sometimes a pain, but frequently people honestly don’t get that we’re after flat water. And most of the time it works. Since at this point you are talking about 5 wakeboats, some face to face conversations seem possible. Get to know them. Try to enlist the wakeboat owners in an effort to be good lake users so there isn’t a clamp down on everyone. Allies instead of enemies is honestly not my first emotion when they show up, but it’s a start before it escalates to lake rules that are at odds with skiing. Good luck.

@dchristman Perfect. Not much surface for a deepwater! Thanks so much. That’s a really pretty spot to ski.

I would like video of someone riding one. It’s about like a canoe paddle with a fin, right? Or a slightly-evolved version of @dchristman plank.

Agree. Foiling blades could both resist roll and provide a bunch of lateral stability. In application to a dedicated ski boat running on flat water, foils could be much shorter. Trick wake TBD. Maybe boat doesn’t fly until 20 mph. ?

@SlalomSteve for me the amara palm gloves have slightly better traction/grip on a rubber handle, but they last only 1/3 what a Kevlar does. Kevlar gloves on the other hand wear out even quality handles. But the Kevlar glove durability wins out for me. That said, almost Any glove I use gets shoe goo cement patching once palms burn through for last month of its life.

$240,000 50 Nautical Miles of range at 22 knots 100% Electric 30 Knots top speed Obviously the foils and prop would foul in a course. But still fun to see someone thinking differently.

Looks like long-line, and who knows what kind of a draft for the underwater gear, but isn’t no wake what we all dream about?

I loved mine when it was new in 1979. Smooth, fast, turned great and was decent in rough water. I tried it again 5 yrs ago and was scared shitless. Hats off to @Horton

Every boat is a little bit different. I spend some time free skiing each summer behind a very average-looking 18’ Glastron with a 150hp outboard. At 34-35 mph and 28’ off there is a low, narrow table that is pretty skiable. I don’t use a different ski behind that boat.

0-113 mph in 4 sec. ?

I’ve used WindAlert for years. Not much detail on precip. But the rapid horizontal scroll feature makes it my favorite.

Out of my dry suit now. I’ve won my Stokes shorty three times this past week. 60-62 degree water. 58-62 air. Early morning overcast. It’s cold of course when I first hop into the lake, but I find the smooth-skin design sheds water and keeps me warm once out of the water and skiing, and I don’t need to throw on my parka while driving. ?

Wiley used to state CBO stands for “cant bend over” and thus the softer fit and lower effort required to pull them on/off.

How is that three-phase bottom texture working for you?

@BTheis love it. Do you squeeze the bulb on the black coax cable before you turn things on?

Photos? model name? condition? Could be $25. Could be $100.

@nikandsteve call and ask for a size recommendation. I’m 5-9” 170 42” chest - a typical medium in most apparel. Thomas recommended a large. Just arrived and it feels just right. (Didn’t ski yet, still in dry suit)

I ordered one yesterday. ?

I see they sell Superflex 2mm and Superflex Pro 1.5mm. For anyone wearing Stokes, what do you recommend between the two?