Than_Bogan

Guess I should come out from under my rock now, huh? (Hey, I have two young kids, a day job, my own startup, and my water ski addiction. It's only because I'm hurt that I even have time to be posting on this forum!) Anyhow, awesome work by Karina and I wish her the best of luck in the future.

golf has plenty of acceleration if you're the ball...

So how come I've never heard of her? Surely she must be one of the top 10 female skiers in the world if she can run -38 like that?

Oh man ... Now I gotta go watch The Incredibles again...

I think I just found my Halloween Costume. Chick Magnet for the win! (My employer takes Halloween extremely seriously -- some folks spend $100's on their costume. But Ridiculously Bad Pun costumes are always a good choice when surrounded by computer geeks.) Collin, I add my thanks. Every day I am happy that real men like you allow wusses like me to goof off at home!

Syndrome! Man, I've been trying to remember that character's name since the day I joined this forum, but kept forgetting to search it up. I feel so much better now... Well, except my back.

Unfortunately, I am fairly knowledgeable on milfoil treatments (though I'm not so good at spelling them). The main herbicide options you have are: Floridone (brand names include SONAR). This is a "systemic" herbicide: you must treat the entire lake with it and reach a certain concentration throughout. For a dug-out waterski pond, this probably makes no difference, but in a larger lake it can mean WAY more chemical introduced into the environment in total. Diquat Dibromide (brand names include Reward). This is a "contact" herbicide -- it only kills the weeds it actually lands on. Anything that misses on the way down bonds to sediments in such a way that it is biologically unavailable. (This means you could eat that sediment and none of the bad things that resulted would be caused by Diquat Dibromide.) In my opinion, the safety characteristics on Diquat are BY FAR the best, but it can't really be used to treat a true infestation on any but the smallest ponds. 2,4D (brand names include Aquacide). This is also more of a systemic herbicide, but I know a lot less about it because it is illegal to deploy into water here in Massachusetts (as are Sterile Grass Carp, btw). However, I know some lakes in Vermont had great success with it. The fundamental issues with herbicides are safety and frequency of treatment. Most likely you'll have to do it again about every two years. And of course, you are pouring toxic substances into your water, although if applied by an expert the safety characteristics on all three of these are as good as could possibly be hoped for. I believe all three are approved near well heads and in irrigation water, though usually there are "blackout" periods after application where certain uses must be avoided. There are all sorts of other "interesting" treatments for milfoil, some of which have had great success in a handful of spots, but haven't proven consistently effective. These include milfoil weevils and water circulators (NOT aerators: circulators). And in a small pond, just plain chopping it down on a regular basis can work. (Don't try that on a new infestation in a larger pond -- the fragments become new plants and you spread it orders of magnitude faster!) Unfortunately it's VERY hard to get reliable, unbaised information on milfoil treatment. So many parties have vested interests or agendas, and all sorts of "whack jobs" are more than happy to exaggerate the potential downsides of any given treatment. GOOD LUCK! (And welcome to the fraternity...)

Yeah, the Fischer "demo program" is you buy one used and figure if you don't lke it you can resell it for the same price! /vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif So much so that I'm tempted to pick up this ski so that I can compare 66" orange to 68" yellow; then resell whichever one I don't like as much! But with my short season up here in MA, I don't really try out a lot of skis. If I find something I like -- and I do seem to like the 68" yellow -- then I go with it. This is especially true since my back injury may mean I'm not skiing at all until 2009. /vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-cry.gif

I have an "International Tour" slalom bag that I paid $15 for about 10 years ago, and it has finally died. I was going to replace it with the same model, but SOMEHOW bringing in $1.50 per year per customer didn't keep them in business... Anyhow, I don't wanna pay $50 (or $90!) for a ski bag if I can avoid it. My only requirements are enough space for double boots and a pocket to hold gloves and a few other small items. Any recommendations?

Ugh. Change of plan. I finished off my back this AM and my chiropractor diagnoses an "acutely" bulging disc. NO SKIING FOR ME! :( Ultimately decided I can't even sit on a plane for 3 hours, so I won't make it. Good luck to all! Ironically, I think I got my ski pretty darn close to tuned up. -28 and -32 felt great and I was right on -35 when I felt something important give way. Man am I bummed that it'll be at least a few weeks before I get to try -38 on it! Could be next season actually.

Great info! Thanks again. I just sent whisper with real name. For tomorrow's practice I'm going to go a little less radical than that, taking out about 0.07" tip and not (yet!) pushing the fin forward. I'm also moving the boots relative to my first set on it (it does work out that it's one hole back), so I don't want to make large changes to everything all at once. If this feels good I may try taking it further. Uh, for my Nationals run, I guess that would be...  Anyhow, the ski was half-decent with the setup far from optimal. I'm really looking forward to getting it tuned up and seeing what it can do!

KG - My dad has an older Goode (9300 I think), and it skis great for him at 28 and 30 mph. He went one size bigger and one flex softer than would be recomended for a 36 mph skier. Up to you if you wanna break the bank, though :)

ok folks, I've got my 68" Yellow! I did one set on it last night, and saw some positives - notably speed and stability -- but I don't think I have it set up quite right. Here are my questions: 1) Boot position. fisherwaterskis.com seems to suggest I should mount rubber boots (mine are D3s) one hole back from center. You guys agree? What is the performance difference vs. center position? I saw this note after I set mine up, so I was on the center hole for that first set. 2) Fin length. The "Raley settings" seem to me to be quite a lot shorter fin than fisherwaterskis.com. About 1/10", which corresponds to taking out a lot of tip. I often take out tip to match my skiing style -- I feel it enables me to turn a lot sharper and I don't mind giving up a touch of tracking. But 1/10" seems like a lot. Am I misunderstanding, or does this ski just need a shorter fin in the water to perform its best? As far as the wing, I think I'll be fine with my usual 7. I started at 8 because this ski is so much longer than my 9600, but I think I'm just a 7 kinda guy. The ski felt like it was stalling just a little, especially into off-side turn. I prefer to carry the speed (and I stand too far forward much of the time...) If anybody's going to be at Nationals on Saturday, I'll be the guy in Men III with the Yellow Fisher with black D3 boots and a dark brown beard. For some reason I decided to grow one in August... I'd love to discuss this ski with you! (I'm going to go ahead and ski on it because my season has been so messed up that I really have no expectations with any ski; might as well start getting this one figured out right away.)

Just bought that ski Schnitz had. Looking forward to trying it out. Normally I start with factory settings before I adjust anything, except I've always been a 7 degree wing guy on every ski I've owned. Do you guys think the factory fin settings are so far off of ideal that I shouldn't do that in this case? Start from Chet's settings, maybe?

Alright! THANKS guys. I've actually seen a couple of used 68" yellows floating around on the internet, so hopefully I can get my hands on one. I ski in Massachusetts. I believe I've seen two actual Fishers in my life -- the second one being Sam Ingram's 66" Orange at Eastern Regionals last weekend. I have to say seeing that ski probably convinced me to [try to] get one. It's not that it's beautiful (even though it is), it's that after most of 2 seasons on it, it looks like it just arrived from the factory! He said he doesn't do anything special and he's never had it refinished. Wow. That is the kind of engineering quality I've been lacking on my various Goodes (even though they've skied great). It also alleviates my worries of getting a lightly used ski. About Schnitz's ski: What the heck is Dual-Lock? Is that that velcro-like stuff? I thought with a Fisher I could just mount my D3 boots directly?

Thanks, ice. Every little bit of experience helps. Did anybody else have a clue about availability? I can't even get a response sending to the orders email on the Fisher web site. Unfortunately, if the 68" Yellow feels similar to a 185 amp [66.25"/Medium], that leaves me even more confused! That sure seems like the Yellow ski I'd need [165 amp equivalent] would be right between the two Fisher sizes! That suggests considering the 66" Orange, but quite a few comments are scaring me off the Orange, including Fisher's own claim that Orange is meant for extreme short line at 36 mph. Although I still hold out hope for challenging -39 someday, that will be at 34 mph even if it does happen. Anybody in the ballpark of 6'2"/175lbs found a Fisher they like??

So what's the deal on availability this season? I have to replace my Goode 9600 (structural problems) and I'm seriously considering a Fisher. Can I actually get one for this season? Anyone tried to figure out how Goode's AMP setting map to Fisher models? I run the 160 AMP [65.5" Medium] even though the chart says I should be 175 AMP (weight = 175 lbs / height = 6'2"). That maps to a stiffer and shorter ski than recommended, so I was considering a 66" Orange as opposed to what the website puts me in (68" Yellow). But this thread is kinda giving me the impression that the Orange is VERY stiff - more like the "hard" flex that Goode doesn't even make any more I don't think. That makes me consider the 66" Yellow, which seems most directly comparable to what I have in term of length and flex, but I have no clue if Fisher and Goode skis can be compared in that way. It may be that Fisher skis are supposed to be longer for similar performance. Anyone want to make a recommendation for me? More info: I run 34/-35 a lot of the time, but not all the time. I've run 34/-38 twice in my life, both times in practice. I have kind of a "light on the ski" style, which is a nice way of saying I'm not very strong. This is one reason I haven't tended to use longer skis. And one more piece of data: I have to change my input values a LOT to get the website to recommend anything BUT the 68" Yellow. This seems to suggest I'm right in the center of that range, so maybe I shouldn't overthink and just go with it!? (Ha, me not overthink. I'm funny.)