Thomas Wayne

Put the gray one inside the black one and hope for the best. TWÂÂ

Looks like a good idea; being the proud owner of more than half-a-dozen digital calipers I would might mention, however, that you'll want to maintain some new, unopened batteries in your toolbox and you'll also want keep it away from water. The only thing more useless than an unloaded gun is a digital caliper with a dead battery. Next spring we'll be releasing a device that allows for easy, perfect, repeatable measurements of all three fin dimensions using ANY type of caliper and eliminating the need to remove the wing (for depth measurements). TW

But as a subset of "do not" there is also "die trying". TWÂÂ

In all my dealings with Tadd at H2Oz I have experienced only stellar response and service. Not only is he extremely knowledgeable about the products he represents, but he is also brutally honest as well. If something you think you want isn't the right choice he'll let you know, even if it means losing a sale. With all of the not-so-goode customer treatment that some companies foist off on the buying public, service such as Tadd's is definitely a welcome difference - which is why it will be unlikely any other equipment supplier will get my personal business. Your mileage may vary... but I doubt it. TW

Why in the world would you ever ask a question that you didn't expect to be answered? Oh, wait... I think I know.  My first wife was hard of hearing, so every night I'd ask: "So do you wanna go to sleep, or what...? And she'd say: "What?" http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/EarHorn.jpg TWÂÂ

The only thing I see on the Reflex site so far are graphical representations of skis they may (or may not) be currently producing. I think it's kinda of hard to judge what the "bottom profile" might be like from the information they've offered so far. They're not shy about the price, but I do like the concept of turning the top edge with the hull layup. Hopefully they'll throw in a little something extra in the binding area to sink inserts into. TWÂÂ

scoke, What's that floating in the water directly opposite the 1/6-ball?  TW

The new tax on movies will only affect those who buy more than 250 movies per year, so you can probably relax. TWÂÂ

Two words: Bon Do TWÂÂ

trs1,  I tried to call you starting Wed. of last week, and I'll be trying again starting tomorrow, bro. Either my timing sucks or you were playing hookie. I'm gonna need two copies - one for me and one for a friend. You should keep my cc on file - then I wouldn't have to call at all... TW

My only complaint is that you are using Google Pay (or whatever) and not PayPal. Since I have a certified PayPal account I much prefer that to signing up for some new service that I will rarely (if ever) use. So direct purchase is out for me. TWÂÂ

If I spent $1500.00 on anything (ANYTHING) and it broke after only a short bit of use, I would be seriously pissed off. If I then contacted the manufacturer and got the BS and run-around that virtually every dissatisfied Goode customer reports, I would be looking to shove the remains of that ski right up Dave Goode's exhaust pipe - and I don't say that in a metaphorical sense. I won't ever buy a Goode ski because I don't want to be put in the position. I think a reasonable life expectancy for a high-end composite ski should be - at a minimum - 3 or 4 years. Hell, I've still got perfectly sound top-end skis dating back as far as the early 90's! 3 months - 6 months doesn't cut it by anyone's standards. Goode customers who rush to their support [on these forums] always point out that all brands of skis will break now and again. I've never broken a ski, but those who have almost always report reasonable customer service response from every company except Goode. O'Brien, HO, Radar, Connelly and any company Denny Kidder has ever owned are all known to be quick and reasonable in dealing with broken skis. Only Goode has the terrible reputation that is so widely know in the industry, and until they decide to change how they treat their customers they deserve to be "thrown under the bus" on public forums, IMO. Consumer pressure in the marketplace is the only thing that will encourage them to change their questionable practices - otherwise Dave will just keep cashing those checks and ignoring the righteously indignant. TW

I'm thinking if you store it under the front end of a steamroller all winter you might be able to end up with a Wide Ride by next spring. Just a thought... TWÂÂ

Incidentally, converting Cox's boat path and ski path [from the overhead] to vectors and analyzing those vectors in CAD reveals that his angle to the boat path, mid-wake, is between 60 and 62 degrees. BTW, based on the skiing, I assume a rope length of -35', but the accuracy of that assumption does not affect the angular analysis.  TW

Pull out to 2-4-6 width, turn in when the left hand gate ball aligns with the 1-ball (from the skier's POV). If I remember correctly, he has a specific point to begin your pullout as well - something like "coast along at the edge of the foam and begin your pullout when the left gate ball aligns with the 5-ball". It's imperfect, IMO, but can be used with minor tweaks to produce a consistent gate. I don't personally think it's an optimum gate, but it will be consistent. TWÂÂ

Excerpted from W.E.B. Griffin's MEN AT WAR: "Last Weak I Cudn't Even Spell 'Enginnear' And Now I Are One." WT

A few years after graduating college my best buddy's wife had her first child, and she mentioned that is was more pain than any man would ever have to bear. Being the cocky bast*rd that I am, I responded: "Oh, I don't know... I've taken some pretty painful sh*ts in my day." She looked at me with her typical steely gaze and said: "Try sh*tting a watermelon." 'Nuff said, as far as I was concerned.  TW (PS: to JTH - delete this if deemed too graphic)ÂÂ

Jack Horton, et al (at Horton Lakes) used to have an instructional phrase they would chant: "Bend your knees, look up at the trees, give me a hundred dollars please." Of course they said that in jest (and probably not to the people paying the "hundred dollars"), but the idea exemplifies what most skiers need in order to learn new techniques: simplicity. Give us a conceptual tool, a neumonic device or even just a simple rule - such as "Consciously read the logo on the back of the boat until your edge change", or "look down the buoy line until you hook up to the handle", or "Counter, crank, load!". You know, something the average fifth grader can sink his/her teeth into. When you start talking "roll angles" and "Fy/slip... Fz/ planing" I think you lose a lot of your target audience. As they say in sales and in show business, "Presentation is everything". That said, I find it interesting; but then, I've always been a bit geeky about practical applied physics. Which reminds me, have you got an extra pocket protector I could borrow? TW

Um...yeah, that's the real story. See, the original photo had the transplant guy sandwiched between his two doctors at a news conference. I cropped out one doctor and then used a software package called "PhotoShop" to digitally replace the other doctor's head with Dave Goode's head. Dave Goode is the the owner of Goode Skis, who recently introduced a new product to the water ski market called the "Powervest". This item is a ski vest that has a rigid internal structure and external nylon straps that run from the skier's shoulder region to his wrists, where they are attached securely to the skier's gloves. The stated purpose of this device is to transfer some of the load on the skier's hands and arms to the vest, and ultimately to the skier's hips. The device is also designed to transfer a good amount of money from the skier's pocket to Dave Goode's pocket. In the above photo, the double-arm-transplant patient is wearing some sort of shoulder harness with straps to support his newly attached donor arms. There is enough of a resemblance to the Powervest principle that I thought it would be amusing to suggest that this was a photo of the latest iteration of that device. But - consistent with an important underlying principle of comedy - it's not as funny if I have to explain it. TW

That's why he's opting for the new Powervest. Without it his arms might come off right at the shoulders, which would not be a goode thing. TWÂÂ

Found this photo on the internet - I think it's the newest version of the Goode Powervest, being modeled by some European slalom skier. I understand he had to give an arm... and another arm for it. I'm not sure who the guy in the suit is... TWhttp://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/LatestGoodePowervestdesign.jpg

Isn't that just about exactly what StarGazer does? TWÂÂ

"Get wide" is how it's commonly said, but I think the real goal is to ski up on the boat in your pullout (and all subsequent buoys). So if the rope is at -35', then just about as wide as 2-4-6 may be enough. But if the rope is -28' you need to think more in terms of being up alongside the platform (at the very least), or even up to the motor box. In my opinion there's no such thing as starting from too wide. It's very evident that your rhythm for the entire run is often determined by your pullout and gate. If you start behind you finish behind - if you finish at all. Of course, this is not true for every single skier - Andy Mapple, for example, can easily start from very narrow and still finish well. But why handicap yourself if you don't have to? I personally think that most skiers neglect skiing way up on the boat because their instincts tell them they need to shut down the pullout and get ready for the turn toward the gate. The real irony of that thinking is that the farther up on the boat you are when you turn in, the greater angle and speed you can develop - and with less effort, too. TW (PS: My thinking on this subject has been greatly influenced by the writings of Bruce Butterfield, and in applying the advice he has offered over the years I have found great benefit - I'm sure if he weighs in here he can do a better job of explaining the concept than I.)

That photo reminds me of the old joke: "How do you tell a happy motorcyclist? Count the bugs in his teeth."  TW

The PP Slalom Switch is strictly an on/off system that triggers at a preset load. The "predictive algorithm" system I proposed early in this thread would presumably be - as JohnN suggests - a starting point. By trial and error the system would learn how a skier is skiing in a sort of "artificial intelligence" manner, and could refine how and when it should adjust the throttle based on the skier profile as it is developing. I realize "trial and error" sounds questionable, as if the skier is some sort of guinea pig, but given that the current system can make many hundred checks and corrections per second it shouldn't be as noticeable to the skier as it sounds. The existing speed controls make all the necessary corrections anyway, it's just that they do it in a reactive fashion only. My proposal is simply to create software that is "proactive", in that it begins by following a known standard load-and-release pattern, but very early on it "edits" that pattern to more accurately reflect how the skier is actually loading and releasing. Surely we can take a cross-section of skiers and determine some sample load-and-release patterns. If nothing else, we've got great footage of Marcus Brown and Terry Winter skiing various line lengths while being tracked with a strain gauge. How hard could it be to gather a few more samples and build 3 to 5 basic profiles, which the system could refine based on data developed during the skier's actual performance? In a sense the system I'm proposing is both reactive AND proactive, in that it adds and removes throttle based on a predetermined algorithm (proactive), but it constantly adjusts that algorithm to match how the skier is affecting the boat speed (reactive). Instead of putting in a skier's weight before his set you would put in his choice of starting algorithm (have "A", "B" and "C" been spoken for yet?) and an identifier, such as "Bruce". Thereafter the boat will develop and use it's most recent "Bruce" algorithm until a new skier identity is input, or the "Bruce" identity has been cleared or reset. That way "Bruce" could ski a later set with the same modified algorithm, which remains in memory until cleared. Of course, this "Bruce" algorithm would continue to evolve during every run. Perhaps, much like a Concept II rowing machine, the speed control could accept a "smartcard" that would already have "Bruce's" proven and preferred algorithm stored on it. So now when it's your turn to ski you hand the boat crew your handle section and your PP/ZO smartcard and you're ready to go. Just a little futuristic thinking. TW