skibrain

Even in a direct drive, we take the back seat out for less weight and run at 1/4 tank of gas. 

Driver and spotter. Trim down a bit to push the nose down and stern up. Yes the outboard is at the back, buts it’s a lighter power plant than than an inboard or I/O.  I added transom wedges to an outboard powered boat I had. ($30 aluminum shim plate between transom and motor brackets) it allowed maybe 4-5 degrees more negative trim when running. Also gave me better nose-down planning at low speed( 13-14 mph) in yrs I was pulling small kids on skis and kneeboard. 

sometimes a switch to 4 or 5 blade  prop will change the shape of the wake. I can’t comment from experience there.

Fun link with boat guide. Man there were a lot of companies with a ski-focused offering.

@bananaron Banana Ron likes green things. Get the R1.

A little bit more info on Ski Ray

I ski 3-5x a week behind a direct drive ski boat. I love it. And I still ski a bunch behind an 18’ Glastron with an outboard. the typical mid-size outboard boat weighs about 600 lb less than an I/O. Less weight, less wake, better hole shot AND more interior room as the motor isn’t pushed into the boat. 7-8 people in the boat on an evening cruise and everyone is happy.  Like any boat, when skiing, two in the boat is best.
 

Getting a ski on and into the water from the boat is not as easy, but if you can ski off a dock, no problem. We’ve got a carbed 150hp V6 2-stroke OMC and it’s quiet, trouble free and requires no winterization. None. We added  hydraulic steering which I’d recommend on a bigger outboard - much less muscle required to drive.
 

It is not a sexy looking boat, but if you’re never skiing a course it will track just fine, pull you out of the water just fine (we’ve had 8 skiers pulled up behind the lowly Glastron) and with line shortened to 22 or 28 off, I get into a reasonable part of the wake that I can rip right through. Oh and if you care, it’s waaaay faster than any DD tournament boat you’re going to find.  And it will trailer behind a minivan. 

Wake pic below has all skiers at 15’ off. Wake flattens a bit closer to boat, but very skiable. 

It’s perfect conditions in MN this week. 

When I was about 12 years old I was at the Minneapolis Boat Show and saw a display with the full line of Saucier skis.  
 

As a kid using 1/2 a pair of Montgomery Wards jr wood combos with white vinyl binding as a slalom ski, the Saucier graphics, bright colors, and color bindings made me feel like I was looking at something from outer space.  And they had this cut out indent running along the length of the bottom.
 

I never did see anyone ski on one. 

Forum threads from iPhone are looking wonky this evening. 
 

Interesting, but the thru-hub exhaust design is irrelevant to the inboard tow boat market. 

Barely qualified to engage here, but what I notice with the pros, is that instead of just establishing lean against the boat - even in a strong, aligned stack - they are able to move their center of mass slightly ahead of their feet.

We know that falling back behind your feet and just leveraging against the boat is a losing tug of war and not effective in generating speed.

It’s a subtle move, but THAT to me creates speed.

Get a feel of it by looping the handle over the pylon, get your balance stack, keep your feet planted and then move forward an inch or two. It doesn’t take a lot.

Look at pros like Dane M. Watch where the rope lines up across his ski as he hooks up and goes. They ski iNTO this stack, rope pull slightly ahead of and leading their feet. Zoom.

Can I do it? Working on it. But when I nail it, I’m much faster into the wakes and have new outbound speed.

I had ski dreams in the week after I first skied a course. (After 20 years of growing up slalom free skiing).  It was a long time ago now, but I felt like I was visualizing the transition from a blank sheet of paper to graph paper.  A little bit of Tron Lightcycle thrown in there. Definitely the grid part of it.

Update looks great.

How about an “About” in the nav. that provides a new visitor a little info regarding what this site is?

@PatM I still have a Comp X2... irrationally holding onto it because of how awesome it was when I got it in 1979.
I did hop on it for a free ski about 6 years ago. Original bindings so maybe not fair, but it scared the crap out of me. 

I used to own the Wade video - fun to see this again. On his glide, water is breaking behind his front binding.

Shipped MN to FL in Sept.ski box w/ blank ski 6x8x70” 7lbsAbout $80 FedEx ground

Checked UPS and USPS and accorrding to their online calculators were $120+

6.9 lbs $82.69 to be exact.$15-20 more than I was expecting, but fuel and inflation I guess.

@Wish. cVX-20 Sprint is one of my favs.

Max hp of 200 but who’s counting?

@jayski Any thoughts on NEO size for a demo? I am 5-8 176# -32/34 and always kind of the border between 66 and 67”. Have typically been on 66” D3 but on a 67” EVo currently.

On the website, the NEO and ION share sizing, the R2 (I guess because it’s slightly wider) sizes slightly shorter.

Sunrise skiing a couple weeks ago. Sorry for the blur, not enough light for great cell phone pics.

My advice is from your list, try to demo/try each. Demo program from a retailer. direct from ski company. Or buying used and reselling if doesn’t work.

I spent a season on a highly rated, recommended ski 5 yrs ago. Really tried to make it work with various binding position and set up input. Happiest day of my skiing year was when I admitted it just wasn’t for me.

Here is a ski review on the Jobe Rogue

https://www.ballofspray.com/jobe-rogue-review

@ScarletArrow

Good POV.

“ My conclusion is that we are marketing skiing all wrong.” could you offer either a critique of current ski marketing or suggest an alternate/better approach? Or both?

Thx