Killer

@Horton interesting about ski size, width, etc, thanks! What is the difference in shape of the different sizes? miniscule or closer to that 1" size difference? Also, did you feel the same way about the A2 as you do the S2?

the radar sequence plate allows for 1/2 hole (maybe less) movements as well.

@MattP The Monster handles are aluminum core AFAIK. I didn't even know they made the higher end ones with Titanium, good to know as I just ordered a custom handle through @jdarwin and if its anything like previous masterline products I'm not concerned

I moved away from the RTP years ago because of safety; my rear foot would come out if I got out of position, nothing less safe than a 1 foot in 1 foot out fall IMO. Maybe my toe piece wasn't fit properly, but I never trusted them after a few OTFs I can pull out of with double boots. With that said, my RS1s have been nothing short of perfect. I had the Rail bindings for a season which twisted my ankle a few times. I contribute the large size range of those boots and the fixed liner to the problem; my foot would half stay in in some falls, where the RS1 liners pop right out or not at all. nothings completely safe

on the 2nd year RS1s and they fit great. I'm an 8.5-9mens and went with teh size 9. the 10s were HUGE on me. Like any liner, they will pack out over time and use. anyone with context on the difference in sizing between the RS1 and new stradas?

get at least as wide of the buoy line, if you're narrow at the gate, you'll be narrow the whole pass!! progressive lean into the wakes, with hardest pull between the white water is the right idea.

if its got good compression and otherwise runs well, I would doubt its the motor. as has been stated the engines are good for 2500+ hrs of hard use, if maintained well. could be a bad lifter or valve sticking. you are also generally going to go through a tranny before the engine, especially a club boat that has 2 speeds and lots of use. so it could be any number of things not related to the motor. have the drive line checked from the prop up to the tranny. hose leaks, including the exhaust, throttle cable, etc.

the invisible ski

Stay away from any vdrive for the skiers sake.. Im sure the sport 200 is a decent ski boat but its still a vdrive! X7 would make the wakeboarders happier and imo simply because its marketed as a wake boat, yet still a 3 event ski boat.

start with the basics. battery terminals/cables, spark plug wires (replace if they are older, distributor cap/rotor, other wires/connections, neutral safety switch... Frist thing I do with any machine I get is go over all the electrical connecations with a wire brush, electical contact cleaner and my tube of dielectric grease. corrosion is a killer!

@Horton I tried :)

@Horton How do you think it compares to some of the other skis youve been on recently? Ie A2 & Vice/strada? I just bought the vice you demod off Ron... On an A1 currently and love/hate it not sure In a strong enough skier for it but its helped me improve quite a bit...

@chef23 Thanks same to you! It did go well, only 2 sets 1 friday 1 saturday. Friday night I went out at 32/22 and then 34/22 and only had 1 nice pass in that & only ran 34/22 once. There was a fair bit of glare and I was thinking about too much. Saturday was a different story. I went out at 34/22 and ran 2 nice 22s back to back. Wide and early. Shortened to 28 at 33ish mph and on my 3rd try ran all 6. Bumped the speed up to a soft 34 (17.04) and ran that one wide and early as well. I agree with having good body position in easier passes sets up the harder ones. For me its a balance between challenging myself and preparing for my harder passes. Starting his season differetly has also helped, I wasnt running 28 until late July last year and Im not sure I skied it that easy, wide or early before. By actually skiing 28off more early this season has helped, whether it was a combo of shadowing or simply attacking the course and learning what doesnt work, Im not sure but I feel like Im in a much better place now than any season before. That could all change if I dont getto ski again soon!!! May e it was a fluke? Im pretty sure I know what I did right so hopefully I can continue on this momentum. Will be going out at 34/22 next set and lowering the speed a bit for my 28 to start. Hope I can get into 32 again soon. Thanks for your help!!!

@shaneh so what is the "something else" I'm chastising people about? did I not add a reponse to the question? you can disagree with it, as I'm sure many do, btut I'd rather hear your reasoning than trying to belittle me and my posts.

@webdawg I'm starting to think what I'm saying is becoming overly redundant now, like I'm walking on egg shells.. oh well, at least I got some people's attention... I'm sure there are many here that think skiing is fine because they can ski whenever they want on some amazing water, but the reality for the sport is the exact opposite. Did you read MB's post about freeskiing yet? I know he's been on this board today and to me, he has by far the best perspective on waterskiing than anyone. pretty qualified guy yes? http://marcusbrown.net/free-skier-trash from your original post: "One group wants to avoid the lake when occupied by other members, and the other group wants to be there when there are other members present." the most astonishing thing to me, and I've seen it at ski schools many times before is where an unknown person shows up and ends up walking away because A) nobody talked with them & B) the regular skiers were too self-absorbed to help the newbie get out there. Maybe I was taking sides on the 2 different groups you mention, obvious which side I took, and the reason is to try and grow the sport. This isn't about what YOU'VE done or what I'VE done, its about what WE can do. Hence my collective "buoy chasers", which I hope after my last post is more clear I'm a part of. you wanted people's opinions on how to handle the ski club problem, and my opinion is be more open minded, social and accepting of people that just want to ski. It might mean somebody has to wait an extra 1/2 hour, and if they get in a tizzy because of it I'd rather see that person who drove so far hoping someone would be ablet o pull them, ski, then letting the selfish member(s) who don't like people to ski all by themselves.. I'm not going to dignify your question about what I do for the sport because its becoming personal, and that was NOT my intention at all. I'm sure I offended some people, but they are the people that are in skiing regardless of what I say, and maybe they need a little dose of reality/a wake up call... no pun intended. we can argue about wakeboarding, I disagree in the broad sense that its easier; skiing is easier in many respects, its different, its cool and its social. Funny because skiing is all those too... different, cool and social. somehow we get away from the cool and social part which to me is the biggest problem. wakeboarding is 1 disipline of towed watersports, and really has carried the sport of waterskiing for the last while, even though it was the death of skiing as well; ironic. if wakeboarding goes down now, we all go down. @shaneH, I hope the above post answered your question..

@Webdawg. I posted quite clearly originally that I am a member of a club; I AM a buoy chaser & My avatar is of me rounding a buoy... I never mentioned anyone or any club in my post did I? You need to back up, no reason to get offended, what I state is simply the cold hard truth. I am referring to managing a club, and its my opinion that anything that contributes to a more elite, private, anti-social atmosphere should be avoided at ALL costs. Edit: in reference to Wakeboarding, theres a hell of a lot most skiers need to recognize and embrace about wakeboarding. Te biggest reason its popular is because its social...

@webdawg, you missed the point entirely and you firing off ignorant comments like me picking up wakeboarding help nobody in this sport, yourself included. You have become no better than our friend Taelan in this regard. That is the same elitist attitude that has/is making tournament skiing a niche activity, enjoyed by a limited few & that is decreasin in numbers exponentially yer over year. If you enjoy skiing at a nice site youd rehink your persoective and goals in waterskiing. The averag age at my club is likely inthe 50s. Im 32 and other than a handful of kids who come with their parents Im the youngest member.. Do the math on that. Im sure there are tou ger clubs out there but the aging demographic of skiing is a universal fact. The more hidden and private skiing is, the harder it becomes to ski. Most of the pros in Florida ski on public lakes, including many of the ski schools...

Waterskiing is far more than running buoys, and I think the biggest disconnect or divide in this sport, and its biggest detriment has been the advent of private sites. Ya, I am a member at a private site now, but for 20+ years I was 100% a public water skier (with a slalom course for maybe 1/2 that) & my shift is largly because I no longer have the ability to manage a boat & the closest place to go skiing is a private lake. Marcus Brown had a great blog about freeskiing earlier this year, if anyone hasn't read it, do. Buoy chasers need to get their heads out of their Arses IMO, as MOST of the waterskiers out there have rarely if ever run the course. This sport will be dead if we continue to progress to more a more elitest state. Some of its inevitable with government intervention, population growth and fuel prices, which to me means we have to do more to "socialize" our sport. If you want time to yourself, when nobody's around dig or buy your own lake, to me those are the skiers nobody should pander to; anti-social and self-centred skiers will only hurt our sport. JMO

totally agree @Laz on going from 32off to 15 in the course. I really dont feel like I can work on my leverage/pull through the wakes at -15off. I'm traditionally an aggressive, but lazy skier (if that makes sense) I'll take a shortcut if I think I can, and skiing the harder passes prevents me or maybe teaches me I can't cheat. had a decent set yesterday evening and a tired 2nd set, it was MINT! started at -22/32mph and bumped up to 34mph and eventually -28. the next set I went out at -22/34mph which was my opener for most of last season, but thinking I might start going out at 32mph right now and maybe 33 if 32 gets really easy. I need to challenge myself, but also needed to get around all 6 for my confidence. 22 isn't all that different from -28, but for me I really have to work on be patient completing the turn and try to stay countered, esspecially on my offside. hope to get back out friday and/or saturday AM

@Than Bogan Try to keep an open mind, don't forget you are only reading a few words on this forum, don't see me ski, or here anything else that goes on. You are also NOT a professional coach, correct? There is no 1 way to learn or to ski. I'm not a new skier either, with plenty of time in the sport, I actually am a certified waterski coach from years ago & have rounded all the buoys at -32off when I was young, but no speed control or tournament boat at that time... 1 of the reason this coach thinks its good to shadow or freeski is you have to create the muscle memory on how to ski properly and when you add teh buoys most often skiers end up scrambling in someway. I'm going against the advice of the coach and trying to round buoys without hammering the fundamentals. I agree about shadowing, think of it more as free skiing though. This is why on passes 3 or 4 thru 6 I will add the gates, 1-2 and eventually try to run the pass. Not trying to ski narrow, but with freeskiing I think skiing narrow is somewhat natural - there's nothing to gauge the extra few feet it takes to get wide around the buoy. I think we've come up with a few problems here with how to train. 1. you aren't going to learn a harder pass if you only ski the easier passes. 2. you aren't going to learn a harder pass if you can't ski the easier passes. for me I think I have to find a balance somewhere in between. Thanks to your advice I am going to start out at -15off tonight for my first set and see how it goes, will advise. thanks for you help than and chef!!!

@Laz will likely miss you tomorrow, should be there around 6 though. Paul would rather see me shadow at -28 and -32 only, but I can't help to try and run buoys after a few shadow passes. trying something different can't hurt too much right? when I get more comfortable out there running up the line not just drills, I'll add my -22 pass back as a warm up, maybe 32mph to start, but I dont think I'll be going back to -15, its just too different, too much rope... @Than @Chef23 have been told I have good technique shadowing/open water, add the buoys and a lot of what I do well goes to hell. I pull too early, need to be more patient completing my turns and better transition/handle control, which IMO is all part of the same concept of progressively loading the rope. When I'm patient and progressive I'm wide, early and slingshotted to the next buoy. I don't find this concept as easy to work on at longer lines & its (swing effect) the difference between longline and shortline skiing. So although my approach isn't the norm, I'm not heading out at my max speed and rope length right off the bat trying to get around all 6, I am shadowing passes at -28 and even -32, practicing my gate, and if I miss a buoy continue to shadow the rest of the balls. I think its hard to improve on technique when youre consistently getting all 6 at longer lines. For me it reinforces bad habits because I tell myself "I just made all 6, 5 times in a row" and am not as aware of what I did wrong, because whatever I did, I just made the pass. If that makes sense? all the help and advice is appreciated, and sometimes its tough explaining in a few words everything thats going on.

@chef23 I think you misunderstood, but Id like to hear from you again on this revised version: Last season I could run 22off in just about any condition at 34.2mph, And its my 28off pass I run about 5% of the time. I wasnt really getting better at -28 while still skiin at -22, there are a lot of things you can get away with at longer lines and run all 6. I traditionally pull too early, maybe not too long, and definitelytoo hard too early. The advice that has been given to me is -28 has much more whip effect and is so much different than the longer lines. It would be nuts to try and run a shorter line length without being very consistent at the previous length. Your thoughts?

I stopped skiing at -22/34 this season, a pass I would make 98% of the time last year because I was making -28/34 5% of the time. Only skiing at 28off this year, free skiing -28&-32 on advice from the coach at the club. It really is so different, when Ive gone back to -22 I ski like crap, pulling too long, hard and in the wrong places. Not convinced its the right move, but its different and im never going to learn -28 unless I ski it, been a long line skier for too long...

@richarddoane LOL I was going to ask how much smack talk the guy in the drysuit heard! been that guy b4.... nice lake, looks like a fun time!

TRX and Mountain Bike