Bruce_Butterfield

IMO, as a rule, the closer you can get your feet to the ski, the better (and barring something really unusual, they should both be the same height). Andy cutting out the footbed is obviously the extreme example, but shows how important he thought it was. The basic idea is that less material between your foot and the ski improves your "connection" and ability to control the ski. With any binding setup, there are trade-offs, so Andy moving to a Reflex was an improvement at the expense of raising the foot. Many skiers have done well with the old HO Animals that raised the foot considerably, and the Goode Powershells, that raise the foot approx 3/8" over a similar Reflex setup. If someone got creative and designed a realistic way to reduce the material thickness of a hardshell setup, I will wager the performance improvement will be quite noticeable.

@scoke nice to see you are still trying to weasel out of YOUR original bet that Caldwell won’t run 41 in 2022. Are you really that averse to buying good scotch?

@Horton I don't believe that could be @thager. It would imply he had a pretty good level of talent 30 years and 200lbs ago. That really looks more like @scoke in present day.

@Horton yeah between a 0.095 and 0.085, most likely. But a 0.100 and 0.095? Call me skeptical. But then we are talking about a 38off skier vs a 22/28 off skier.

@disland the prior posters are all correct, but at your level I seriously doubt you will be able to tell a difference between those 2 in a fully blind test. Maybe if it was 0.102 to 0.080 or 0.070 you would be able to tell a difference, but it would be subtle. Pick the one that fits your fin block best and go ski. I suspect I would have a hard time telling a difference between 0.102 and 0.095" in a fully blind test. That goes double for Horton!

@scoke I'm confused. You marked "Awesome" on both Horton's and my posts that Trophy Lakes has to be a valid site, just like any other L/R tournament. Are you just relieved you found a way to weasel out of the wager you initiated? Your first post was "LOL. Adam Caldwell won’t be the first in 2022 nor will he run it in 2022 in a Record tournament." Then you attempted to walk it back with the completely unreasonable stipulation that a well qualified senior driver and a world class site don't count. On the other hand, I can't say I blame your effort. You would be buying alot of expensive Scotch.

@scoke there is absolutely no reason to disallow trophy lakes. Its the home of several approved world records and is one of the best sites in the country. Is Trophy Lakes somehow "cheating" or illegitimate? If you don't agree to that, I'm out as well.

@scoke I’m in! Caldwell will knock out 41 in ELR this year, But same as Horton, no stipulation on site or driver. At least there is a quantifiable criteria for this wager?

:D @AdamCord maybe you should have consulted your wife before stirring the pot?

Wow. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that skiers had to live with whatever rope the host had on hand that complied with AWSA/iwwf rope specs? Now there are options and some skiers aren’t happy? Sorry but I’m with Jody that the analites are taking over. Yes, ropes make a difference, but at some point you have to suck it up and ski. @AdamCord its a good thing you weren’t around in the ‘80’s and 90’s before there were little if any rope specs. It was frequently a surprise, and not a good one. For any given skier, If the deciding factor to go to a tournament is what rope they are using I doubt that skier will be missed.

From your description you are doing the right things. Try to see a PT in person. Most are pretty good at pinpointing weak spots if they can evaluate you and recommend specific exercises. Chiros are like many other professions - if you are a carpenter, you are going to use a hammer.....

@jeidmann I don't think you will find many fans of dual lock on this board or in the wider waterski community. It is an extremely poor release mechanism as you have found out the hard way. When the dual lock concept first came out, I had the heel come up on me at 1 ball in a tournament. After that, I screwed the plate to the ski. If you not comfortable screwing the plate to the ski, I would strongly recommend you go to a Reflex or MOB configuration as soon as you can. Oh yeah, that is an awesome video!

Its a Mastercraft. No one can keep those things straight!

I distinctly remember watching Jason Parades in open division at nationals circa 2000 and thinking that he had the “best dialed in” ski I have ever seen. To this day I have not seen a more perfectly working ski. (Yeah the skier had something to do with it) For current day, Cord’s list is hard to argue with. But Leigh Sheldrake????!!!! C’mon man! What are you smoking??

@lpskier you’re no fun! That’s a cool hot dog trick if you can get away with it. I have seen a few skiers try that and get bit in the ass :o

@jgills88 as others have mentioned there is no way you are going to fit all a 3 eventer’s gear in 1 bag regardless of weight. Your best option is to use a 3 event bag for jumpers and slalom, then use a sport tube for your trick skis. You can experiment with what auxiliary equipment goes in each to see what works for you. In my experience jumpers, jump gear, slalom ski and slalom gear will be pretty close or a little over the airline 50lb mark. You will need to allow extra room for padding if you ever intend to fly. IMO having 6 or more inches of extra room is not an issue. Easy to add towels etc to fill space and keep the extra room opposite the wheel end. So don’t cut the size too close. If you fly it will be important protect the edges of the jumpers. A really cool idea I saw Freddy use is to get pool noodles from Walmart ( get the hollow ones), cut a slot and use them in a U shape around the tip and tail of each ski. Use duct tape as necessary to hold shape. Simple, cheap and damn good protection. We have both a stokes and ML bag but both are fairly old. I’m sure materials and suppliers have changed since I bought them. Both have pros and cons and honestly I think it’s a coin toss between them.

@swbca 2 more factors to consider for your specific situation. First is the "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" issue :) While most kids can transition from rubber to hardshell in a set or 2, you may not have an easy time. I know I attempted to switch from rear hardshell to RTP and finally gave up after about 20 sets. Way too many years of engrained habits to feel comfortable. Second is the "you marry your bindings, but date your ski" saying. Once you get comfortable with a given binding setup, it can be very difficult to make a change, even from one type of rubber to another.

I only know of 2 skiers who have used dual release reflex setup. Both are very advanced (39 and shorter) skiers who have a history of tinkering with bindings to find the best setup for them. For that caliber of skier, performance is primary and safety is secondary. That setup isn’t something that should be attempted by a lesser experienced skier. Most ankle injuries happen with how violently a foot comes out during a fall and is a risk for pretty much any type of rubber binding. If both feet stay snuggly in, the risk of an ankle injury is very low. Obviously the one foot in one foot out fall is the most dangerous and what we all want to avoid. If you are comfortable that you will stay both feet in with your tfactors that is a very reasonable setup IMO.

Here's another perspective from someone who is not exactly a climate denying oil company exec. Its 2 years old, but still valid.

All injuries are different, but I've had my share also with left elbow. Started with a radial head fracture in 1990 with a hairline fracture right at the head of the radius. It progressively got worse and had it scoped in 2001 and got a 90 % improvement, but still needed lots of PT and slowly continued to get worse. Somewhere around 10 years ago it got so bad that I was worried about not being able to ski anymore. I don't remember why, but I switched to a backward grip and the severe pain during skiing immediately dropped to a minor annoyance. Its amazing how the orientation of the joint makes a difference under stress. But..... it continued to degrade and had a second surgery in 2019 and probably got an 80% improvement. The surgeries were "debriedment" which is basically running a medical grade dremmel tool and smoothing out all the rough surfaces in the joint. Both surgeries were not fun, but nowhere near as bad a recovery as rotator cuff. Stretching and movement started within a few days of the surgeries. The good news is elbow (and almost all other) surgeries have improved immensely. In 2001, there was basically 1 Doc in the Dallas area capable of that type of orthoscopic elbow operation. In 2019 there was a plethora of qualified docs, as well as alternate treatments like RPK and some stem cell stuff, but low rates of success. Exercise can make a huge difference. Wrist curls in 4 directions and wrist rotation using a heavy hammer or other weight on the end of a bar. It won't do much for torn tendons, but strengthening all the supporting muscles and keeping the blood flowing is important. Just for grins, try switching your grip. No idea if it will help like it did mine, but nothing to loose. You don't need me to tell you that having a few less pounds dragging behind the boat will reduce elbow stress. Don't be afraid to get 2 or 3 opinions from different docs. Good luck.

@LK_skier it is much better to start kids on 1 ski and go straight to a hardshell. Too much downside with 2 skis, especially for kids. At the beginning stage, time riding the ski and jumping the wakes is just as important as learning tricks. If they each have a ski, its lots of fun to double ski and spray each other and screw around. Progression should be: Sideslide and reverse Backwrap Full back - learn to ride the ski backwards for a long time and cross the wakes backwards O and reverse Wake front starting outside the wake in backwrap and landing inside the wakes Wake back starting outside the wake, landing inside the wake in backwrap Then wake back going outside the wake landing in backwrap Toes, toes toes. Little kids learn toe tricks very quickly. If you don't have a rope release, you can just hold the rope in your hand for 8-10 yo. Spend time riding and crossing the wakes with the toestrap on, then toe back (TB) and toe front (TF), the toe wake back TWB and TWF, then Toe side and reverse Balance on the ski is critical for slalom and even more so for tricks. The balance they learn in tricks will absolutely improve their slalom.

Yeah when you get to an elite level and start nitpicking, its opens a huge can of worms! What I see is that the ski is behind the COM, just by a tiny bit, but that is important at high levels. "too much ski in the water" is not the problem, its the symptom.

In my mind "wide" and "high on the boat" are the same thing, so @Horton is right for the second time in his life. IMO the goal of "getting wide" is to get even with the motor box. That's only because getting even with the pylon is ridiculously hard, but that should be the perception of the skier. 90 degrees with the boat is the ideal, but its like speed - there is no such thing as too much width. The problem is most skiers misunderstand what is really going on. We/you are trying to get a "good start". That is to set up ourselves as best we can for the inevitable mistakes and give as much margin for error as we can. In other words, getting wide on the gate can make up for a multitude of sins. Maybe a few times in a lifetime a skier will get the perfect gate. We have to deal with the rest. FWIW I have been in the boat when a elite level skier actually went past (wider) the pylon at shortline.

Andy had a video years ago where he ran 39 starting barely outside the white water for his gate. Certainly not ideal, but it emphasized that when you can get leverage and speed, you can get away with narrow gates. As a rule, I'm a firm believer that wider gates is better. The problem is that many skiers, me included, don't take proper advantage of the width to generate speed at the optimum spots.

I thought for a minute Horton had gotten some sense! Wishful thinking