jlittle

Similar to what Razor said. Chet R. told me once you must never quit skiing. In context with this thread... if you load hard, change edges and release out bound but are just standing on the ski gliding out to the bouy becasue you are so early... essentially you have stopped skiing and then have to start skiing again when you reach your time to turn. Stop skiing, start skiing = no no. Or that's how it was explained to me. Easier said than done. Mostly because I love the feeling of loading hard, the accelreation and gliding outbound real early with no worries. However, it always catches up to me as the line gets shorter.

I skied 15 complete passes behind ZO last year. Not on each setting... total.

RCX... the one ski I've kept over the last few years. I actually skied it last fall while I was "between skis". I still like it and may end up riding it if the current ski doesn't work out.

@MS and that's the problem. They're pretty protective of the trout in MT. @JP when it gets down to turn islands, if you are going to put them in, going clock-wise around them is better and off-setting them so you don't have to "turn back" , or wiggle the boat straight should be considered.

@Wish yes, idle flare on the '97. Love my boat but that part still aggravates me to this day. When you start the boat the engine will run up to ~1500-1800 rpm (or something like that) and then settle in to idle. It takes about 10+ seconds. Which is forever when you need to get it in gear. From what I remember you could have it "fixed" but the reprogramming fee was outragous $ when I check into it in '98 or '99. And for what it's worth, when they changed over to the white dash, at times there was a lot of glare (reflection) off the inside glass that disturbed your view out the windshiled. Well compared to the black.

Yes X, I know MS in a round about way through forum here. The guys around here don't seem to cut him much slack but if push came to shove I'm sure they'd let him hold the camera to video their set :-) MS may not remember but we shared the starting dock a couple of times at a tourney in '08 as shown in the pic below. He's sitting down in the red shorts and I'm getting ready to ski. It was a long haul for me being from the PNW but the whole weekend was a great time. The conversation was pretty casual, however, mostly centered around him admiring my binding setup being an Approach front with a highwrap in the rear. Which I still run today by the way. Well that and he was just coming off the '07 ski he was pretty fond of. Seriously though, he's been up and down the lake a few times and would get you pointed in the correct direction if you wanted to learn more about course skiing. http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg274/sixat38/08ranch.jpg

X if you want a proper introduction to course skiing go hook up with MS. I belive he might share your passion for quality beer also.

36 long line... a pretty darn hard pass. It been a few years but a couple times a summer, after a day at the lake, we would have 36LL challenge. No warm up, off the dock, 2 passes down the lake & back, spinning at 36LL to see how many buoys you could get. You'd be amazed to watch some very good shortline skiers flail at this pass. If you try it make sure to fire up the video camera as it can get quite comical.

Burrrr. Lets get back on topic.

JP - those were rides 4 - 6 on the Fusion. Rides 5 - 7 behind ZO this year (sorry, couldn't resist). Ride 1 was a test ride. Rides 2 & 3 were actual sets two days before the tourney. So far liking what I feel but it will have to continue next year. Strada was a good ski and I skied it for 2 full seasons. I did have some consistant off side issues but it is the first Herb design (I guess Rossi & camp) I could ski on decent. That ski actully has made a big difference performance wise for many people I know. Anyway, looking forward to seeing, & possibly skiing, with you next year. Take care.

@jipster43 - sold my Strada after riding the Fusion.

Did I miss... how big are they? Also, white only or other colors?

Right now here's where I'm at for settings on the 66 - 6.915, 2.495, .735 flat, 7 degrees (screws up) and bindings are 29.5. I think this is pretty much stock except for depth. I shallowed it up for the tournament. From the feed back I got I have a little tip rise on both sides. It's interesting to me Darwin is talking about moving the fin longer as that's what I'm thinking about doing doing next. Or maybe moe it back a little. Or bindings forward one hole. Or ride the 65. I'm going to give the 66 another ride or two with someone watching. I'm open to suggestions. ? The water temp we're skiing now is in the low 70's and where I ski high 70's is the norm at the hottest. That said the tournament sites I ski will be hotter (80's) in the summer. The 66 will be more managable at these sites and the reason I think I'll stick with it. What I'm feeling with this ski is... if your up over the ski approaching the turn, and through the turn, it carves evenly on both sides and is effortless to ride. I ran a ridiculously easy 35 the first time on it. Also ran one in the tourney and had another going. If I came through my edge change and approacehd the turn more on the tail I struggled. Things are winding down for us rapidly in the next couple weeks so I may be waiting 'til next year to seriously dial it in but right now it's a keeper.

@ral, starting line length is -28. Goofed up my first post. I run a fair amount of 35's. Been hurt most of this year but this ski feels good. I'm on a 66 but have skied the 65 once. I'm thinking I'll be sticking with it, however, I will be skiing the 65 again in the next week to be sure. I've had a grand total of 6 rides on the ski with 3 of them being tournament rounds.

General question... the guys that are riding them and liking them... are they riding the size (length) recommended from D3. I weight 150, ski 34mph and run 32 off pretty regular. I've always skied a 66 but D3 is say 65 for this ski. ??

For the way ZO was introduced, and evolved, into our sport will make me hate for that reason alone. And all of us should hate it for that reason. Since that’s water under the bridge, how different it skis from person to person and boat to boat is a disservice a further hurts our sport. Regardless if you co-own a boat with a few people it still has divided our dwindling sport into the haves & the have-nots.

I'll echo what ktm300 said, however, mines a 66 (2010). I've had a love hate relationship with this ski for almost two years now. The offside will not finish with anyones stock binding/fin settings. What it feels like is, the tip slides down course at the finish of the turn and I'm left with no angle. Or rather the tip doesn't stay engaged through the entire turn. Right now, I'm 2.495, 6.861, .765, 9 degrees and my bindings are a full inch forward of stock. It seems this binding forward is a common theme in our area. I question whether this may be related to our water temp. I have never skied this ski in anything warmer than about 75 degree water. I also wonder if the ski is too stiff for my weight and causing it to act the way it does. I weigh 150lbs and was told 66 was definitely the ski for me. I'd really like to try a 65. The good review for this ski is, it has helped me cure a few flaws in my skiing because of the longer turn radius. And that's why I've stuck with it. In this two year period I have tried my other/older ski on occasion and did not feel it would benifit me, or be worth switching back to.

John, di you make a #116 fin? I bought it for my D3 RC back in the day. It has barely been used but I can't find/remember the number. I think it is a fairly stiff fin IIRC. It's about .010" thick. Maybe it's a 106. Could you venture a guess?

What Roger said. ZO is virtual timing. Unlike magnet timing which would be somewhat more "actual" as far as timing goes. That said, and this was beat to death a while ago, ZO runs very accurate speeds. So your boat is going 34.2 (55K). Another thing I've heard about stopwatch timing is it's only reliable to +/- .24 seconds. Or at one time that's what I was told from a track & field runner. My personal opinion is you can get it slightly better when timing your boat but just an FYI. Do you have another boat that has been "timed in" on your course. Meaning, you had, or still have, magnets in the course. You could run your ZO boat against that boat for a side by side comparision. If that's doable and the other boat has PP Classic you'll need it to actually run through the boat gates to get a good comparison. And you along side.

Jody, I'll take a steering cable/set also. '97 Nautique. Shipping to the NW. Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Kalispell, Whitefish, Conrad, Great Falls, Helena... get it dropped in here somewhere close and I should be able to find it. Seriously, how can I get ahold of you to work this & a couple other items out? Jim

47 Wisdom seldom comes with age, but it never comes with youth. Hope you're not offended by that...

? Zippy is more of a girls name isn't it ? :)

Big Fork eh. Heading over to C Falls later this week to see a buddy then on to Conrad to pick up a winter time play toy from a another friend. Bought my boat in the late 90's from a guy out of Great Falls (Pete S) back when he was a SN promo guy. You know him? Can't believe you'd rather live in FLA than up here in God's country http://www.ballofspray.com/vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-wink.gif

4-5 "key" officals maybe. Key meaning most would have to ski in different divisons. If they are skiers I suppose. Most of our officals are skiers. When I show up at a tourney my help doesn't mean much. At small tournaments as a M4 skier they are working around that division the most. Sure I can score, judge & drive but it doesn't greatly help the overall cause. We usually end up with 2-3 "groups" as OB stated. And even then I won't get a credit for one discipline becasue I have to be at a certain place (judges tower or scoring) every given round.

I believe that would be it Justin. About 9 miles SW of Three Forks. BTW, a couple weeks ago Frank told me there is another lake down around Ennis. True? Maybe he was mistaken and meant Willow Creek. Jim