Thomas Wayne

Go with the Skier-to-Skier PolyForm balls, and let 'em fade the first season. Then, in the off season, buy some Fluorescent Red spraypaint (Krylon) at Wal-Mart and paint the top 5/8 of the ball. Bright as hell and much cheaper than buying new balls. TWÂÂÂ

If you find any Talons let me know, I'd be in for a group buy - I can use large or extra-large (the larges are too tight, but I can live with that). I have the pair I'm currently using and an old backup set. Among my many tools and machines I have an industrial sewing machine, so if I can't find a suitable replacement someday, I'll just rob the various parts from all my worn out Talons and retrofit some pairs of Masterline Curves. TW

The purpose of the center attachment member is to reduce or eliminate the chance of the safety panel bowing excessively under pressure and forming a sort of "funnel" that could guide a skier's hand/wrist/arm into the handle opening. In reality, such a scenario is highly unlikely - as the skier's hand would have to be going kind of backwards toward the handle - but we have to think the possibility does exist. The attachment member we use is urethane (not rubber), and has great strength and a very limited ability to stretch - becoming fairly rigid at full extension. These qualities allow the panel to flex and move somewhat during the load/unload cycles of skiing while still maintaining an effective blockage for most of the handle opening. We experimented with panel materials that would be rigid across the opening - allowing for no center member - but ultimately consider such a design to be too dangerous. Forgetting for the moment the extra weight and potential impact issues, anything rigid enough to not flex when a hand tries to go into the opening is also likely to not flex when a hand is trying to get out of the opening. That's kind of a "Catch-22" that is pretty well resolved with the center member. As for some sort of "tournament" requirement John M. is correct; I would never be in favor of any such AWSA mandate requiring any kind of handle safety panel. Fortunately the chances of that are zero - just consider how long it took them to require the use of a helmet while jumping (!). Personal safety is, first and foremost, the responsibility of the individual. I think for the most part the AWSA recognizes that and is unikely to require newly introduced safety devices of ANY kind without years of field use and general skier acceptance first. That said, I do think it would be a good idea for the AWSA to require safety panels on the standard tournament-supplied handles that are made available to tourney entrants. Granted, no one who is serious about their skiing these days is going to be using a generic "group handle", but such a safety requirement would serve two purposes: first, it would create an opportunity to introduce the safety panel idea to skiers who might otherwise not know about it. Second, it would offer greater liability protection [for the tourney sponsors, AWSA, et al] against a skier who might get his arm into the bridle opening during a fall - by greatly reducing the chance of such an accident in the first place, and also by demonstrating a conscious effort to take all possible precautions against such an accident.  TW

Kent - over at the other waterski forum - apparently didn't like a photo I posted, so he deleted it from the forum. Whatever. Eventually it will be the opening page for the ARM-GUARD website - once we slow down enough to learn how to build a website - lol. I include it here for your perusal. TW (PS: Also attached is a picture of the reason I will never ski without one either.)ÂÂÂ

I just heard from an ARM-GUARD customer in the UK that in a practice run at the Princess Pro-Am event a skier got his arm into the handle opening during a fall and suffered a serious injury. Happened yesterday. No further details, except that the poor guy spent a reported 5 hours in surgery last night. TW

Slotfin is sold.ÂÂÂ

Canoe paddle. TWÂÂÂ

I don't know if you've got mud in your water but - with this post - you've certainly put plenty of salt in your mine - lol. TW http://confusionofideas.blogspot.com/2005/08/salting-mine.htmlÂÂÂ

A Fischer, maybe?

I just want to know if they're shipping it in the 68.75 size yet.  TW

Very new condition - maybe six sets on this one. $95 including shipping to any USA address.

And at that end of the spectrum (Men 10) there may be a very lucrative Viagra sponsorship available! TWÂÂÂ

Just to be clear, when we use the salutation "Master Chick Magnet", this is what we are referring to: http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/HortonChickMagnet.jpgÂÂÂ

Just a quick note to anyone wanting to order an ARM-GUARDâ„¢ set. We willbe out of the studio beginning Tuesday afternoon, July 1, and will notbe back at it for at least one week, possibly two.Any orders received by Monday evening (June 30) will be processed and shipped out before we shut down on Tuesday. Thomas Wayne http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/ARM-GUARDBanner.jpg

Or, if you can't find the time to go to a physiotherapist and have them "message it out for you", maybe you can just text them and they'll instant message it out for you. TWÂÂÂ

When I originally decided to try putting water into the skier buoys (years ago) I used a simple hand pump and just held everything under water until I had pumped as much into the buoy as I thought would do the job. It was pretty hard work, since that type of air pump isn’t really meant for fluids, and eventually the seals inside the pump failed. That prompted me to built the fluid delivery system I explained posted about (much to the criticism of some individuals). So a couple of days ago I built a device that should be within the skill set of just about any guy who can handle a knife without cutting himself. The parts are READILY available, and the entire project took about two minutes from start to finish. The end result is a unit that injects water and/or air into a standard slalom buoy, without the need for an outside air source or garden hose – meaning that it can be done in the middle of the lake, from a canoe (if you like). REQUIRED: 1 FLO-MASTER hand-held garden sprayer, model 1998wb – I bought mine at Wal-Mart for $5.87 1 standard sports ball inflation needle 1 pocketknife, fishing knife or equivalent edged tool Photo 1 shows the Flo-Master sprayer partially disassembled, along with the inflation needle. Two modifications will need to be made; first, everything beyond the threaded stem of the inner nozzle component must to be removed [shown within dotted box]. Second, the threaded end that is left must be chamfered out so that the back end of the inflation needle will “seat†into it slightly, ensuring a more air/water tight fit. Photo 2 shows the inner nozzle component after it has been trimmed down to only the thread stem. This is easily accomplished by running your knife around the base of the nozzle stem (directly beyond the threaded part shown), progressively cutting into the plastic until it parts off. Photo 3 shows the opening in the threaded stem after it has been chamfered out with the tip of the knife. Photo 4 shows how the very end of the inflation needle should “seat†into the end of the threaded stem. Photo 5 shows the only other modification necessary; the hole in the outer nozzle needs to be enlarged just enough to allow the inflation needle to be pushed through. I used the knife point to accomplish this. Reassemble the outer nozzle onto the inner nozzle’s threaded stem with the inflation needle in place - to ensure a good seal you may have to tighten this with pliers, but don’t over-tighten to the point of stripping the threads. Photo 6 shows the device after is has been half-filled with water and pressurized. I filled the chamber up to the top of the FLO-MASTER logo, and found that 50 or 60 pumps was more than enough to empty the water out. Pumping requires virtually no effort at all, even when the pressure is quite high, and the thumb trigger may be locked on so you can just sit back and watch your buoy fill up. The same device is excellent for pumping air into the buoys as well. $6 dollars and two minutes, meant to be used to pump liquid – which bicycle pumps are not - and I guarantee you’ll feel like “McGyver†when you’re done (I know I did). http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/FLOMASSA1.jpg http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/FLOMASSA2.jpg http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/FLOMASSA3.jpg http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/FLOMASSA4.jpg http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/FLOMASSA5.jpg http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n293/ThomasWayne_2006/FLOMASSA6.jpg Thomas Wayne (PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGyver)

I thought about machining a small thrust washer to go on top of the standoff, but I didn't want to add any height between the plate and the ski. Also, Teflon on such a small surface area would wear too fast to do much good, I suspect. The bronze will also wear - though it should be much more durable than aluminum. I considered using a good stainless, but the worry there is that the plate will wear out instead - REALLY don't want that to happen. I currently have a couple hundred pounds of bronze rod in stock, but it's all 1 1/4" diameter; removing that much stock for a small handful of standoffs for myself was fine, but to offer them as a product I would have to bring in some smaller rod... say 1/2" or so. Can't think of much compelling reason to that. TWÂÂÂ

I also noticed the wear on my standoffs (and also laughed at how this disproves what the Sproat Lake expert claims). Instead of replacing the soft aluminum parts with more soft aluminum parts I just machined a set of standoffs out of bearing-grade bronze. While I was at it I made the base area a bit larger, to increase the bearing surface. I would expect the plate to wear out before these do. TWÂÂÂ

It's very easy to add tapped holes on top for adjustment screws, and the "Line Lock" block already has a tapped hole at the back (into which you can insert a stainless set screw).  If you don't have the tools handy in your own garage, go buy 10 minutes from a friendly machinist. TWÂÂÂ

Highlighted the entire link, just as you've posted it; copied and pasted it into the URL bar and it played just fine for me. TWÂÂÂ

Marco, We had a major delay last week and weren't able to ship any orders out until this week. As usual, we sent all the delayed orders out Express Mail at our additional expense. I just checked your tracking number, and got this result: Label/Receipt Number: EB26 2018 XXX US (I'll email you the full tracking number) Status: Processed Your item was processed and left our GRAND JUNCTION, CO 81505 facilityon June 12, 2008. Information, if available, is updated every evening.Please check again later. If they haven't delivered it by this afternoon I have to assume it will get there tomorrow. If not, let me know immediately and I will resolve it one way or another as soon as humanly possible. TWÂÂÂ

There is one other advantage to the hair dryer gizmo; you can re-heat your liner while the shell is mounted on the ski and then cool your liner with your feet (one at a time) in the actual skiing position that you'll be using. Hard to do that with the Intuition heater. BTW, Edmund, your setup looks a lot better than mine did - very nice indeed. If I do it again, however, I think I will incorporate a 45 deg. elbow about 4" from the business end, just to get the heat a little more directly into the toe area of the boot. TWÂÂÂ

This will work fine if you cannot access an official Intuition heater. Get a hair dryer ("blow dryer") that is rated at 1250 watts (or higher). Using a piece of white plumbing pipe, make an extension that will keep the hair dryer at least 8 inches away from the mouth of the boot - just sticking the hair dryer deep into the boot can result in melting the dryer's housing and ruining it (I know, 'cause I did exactly that). If you want to you can pre-heat the liner for 3 - 4 minutes in an oven set to 200 degrees. Insert the liner into the boot, stick the nozzle extension into the boot almost to the toe and blast away at the hottest setting for around 3 minutes. Stick your stocking covered, toe-cap-bearing foot inside and let it cool for 5 minutes (minimum). It's crude, and it's not as simple and handy as the real deal, but it does work. TWÂÂÂ

Chuck, I see from your photo that you can expect a sunny day with some cloudiness. Also that your install looks pretty good. For your daughter's handle, measure the space between the edge of the safety panel and the handle - that is, the opening - on your existing install. Email me that value, and also what you would prefer that distance to be on your daughter's handle, and I'll morph the design to match the one you've got, but leaving the smaller gap that you want. I'll also leave a little bit wider solid edge, so that you can trim it down as she grows - or if the fit turns out to be too tight (you can trim the panel very easily with heavy-duty kitchen shears, and deburr with a file - or even an emery board).  Thomas

Marco, Our mail service called today and, along with a couple of packages, mentioned that a letter had arrived from you. We'll get it tomorrow, and I'll try my best to process your order and ship it out Wednesday. TW