JohnN

Thanks everyone! I'll take a look at the weather and reach out to folks. In the middle of Oregon - so far great driving weather and hoping for continued sunshine. John

Awesome, thanks Kevin!

Getting ready to head out on a fairly lengthy road-trip and hoping to get in a little skiing while I'm at it. I'm going as far west and north as possible - dropping off my youngest at Western Washington Univ. in Bellingham, Washington this weekend where he'll be waterskiing. My schedule isn't super tight - Sunday I'll be heading south on I-5 and need to be near Reno Tuesday - Thurs for work. The following Sat/Sun planning on going to Collegiate western regionals at Bell Aqua before heading home. I'm not familiar with the lakes along I-5, but I'd love to do some skiing Sunday and/or Monday somewhere between Seattle and Chico, and maybe in Sacramento Friday. I can provide gas, beer, driving, etc, and am looking forward to exploring on the west coast. Recommendations are welcome, and PM me if something might work. Thanks! John Oh, I also have a mountain bike with me if anyone has good ride recommendations along I-5, Hwy 70 or I-80.

The Elite was a beautiful ski, but judging from the comments here maybe it should be named "Christine". Mine left me with 2 layers of stitches and a season of more downs than ups.

What @thager said. Have her drive the pattern you need slow, then at full speed, without a skier. When that's comfortable, ride in the boat while she pulls a skier (15 or 22 off) and let her know what's good and what needs work. When that's good, work into shorter lengths, with an experienced observer giving feedback. It takes time and focus, and learning to be proactive in the right way probably takes the most time.

Had the same problem with a chop top, re-glued it, drilled and put in 4 aluminum t nuts (pretty short, maybe 1/8th", with flat screw heads) through the outer and the base plate. So far, so good.

That was awesome! Great webcast tonight!

Heat molding the short liner made all the difference for me with the R-type. Only drawback I've found is the heel wears quickly from going in and out, or lifting while skiing or something.

I run into this with snow skiers. The first thing is to feel the balls of both of your feet when you're standing up. Then feel them when pulling out, and so on. If you're feeling pressure in the balls of your feet you're hips and weight will be moving forward. But the first step is being aware of the pressure on the bottom of your feet.

Happy to pull you at Cottonwood, fairly near the airport, shoot me a pm with more specifics. John

Kyle is great at speed (won U19 Nationals DH, 3rd in SG in 2016), but with the change in US focus to tech he's been charging down the tech path this year. He's had some strong NORAM results in GS SG and Alpine Combined this season and skiing some fast slalom in local races. It's pretty cool that half of the US contingent are Colorado boys we've known since they were tiny.

Thanks @jimbrake I'll pass this along to Kyle - it's great to see his hard work paying off! @Drago yep, I'm just glad they got it from somewhere! See you this weekend at Sunlight.

@Drago any idea what happened to #16?

Your 96 likely skis better than the 05 at those lengths with a softer wake. If it was my money I'd go to a 08 or later and get ZO (better yet a 14 and up if it's affordable). I ski regularly behind a 97, an 05 PP Classic, and an 07/Zbox and everyone seems to prefer the 97 for skiing. FWIW, the best Zbox boat I've skied behind is an Infinity.

C'mon @Drago get with the times. Everywhere has an abbreviation - FoCo, LoDo, RiNo, LoHi, LoCo and on and on...

@dchristman got me curious. Still wrapped up in snow skiing and feeling like something is getting missed, I'm sensing that most of us are looking at this from a M3/4/5 perspective without looking at the other divisions. I checked my home state of Colorado and there are zero L9 or 10 skiers yet somehow L8 CO skiers seem to end up on a few podiums at Natls. Should we keep them from competing in Nationals to make room for L9 skiers? How many places do we want to fill - 1, 3, 10? L8 may not win, but there's definitely a shot at podiums or top 10 finishes.

I'm with the senior statesman quoted above - the skier with the most buoys wins. I like that a skier has the option of increasing speed or shortening the rope depending on conditions, etc, and getting scored at what they run. When I entered M3 (and even M4) I probably would have run 36mph at several sites. Now, at the end of M4 I'm just as likely to run 32mph in some sites, and being able to get scored in either direction is great. Keep MM at 34 and let them set records if that's what drives them, and let everyone else have some fun. 2 additional thoughts - If we wanted a level playing field the southern guys would only set records in 70deg water, right? And, when it sounds like many of the top 34mph guys train at 36, is it really that unsafe for the rest of us poor mid-packers (who may run 36 on occasion anyway)? Let the new challenge begin!

Give Tommy's a call and ask about Bergen. Just south of Soda. There's a couple of lakes down by Larkspur that are housing developments, not clubs.

@mmosley899 Thanks for the tip, I may use that for fine tuning. Another R-style user recommended adding a buckle into the unused holes a little higher toward the ankle. I did that (loosely) and it added quite a bit of stability. 32s were feeling much better and consistent until 35. Haven't crashed on it yet to test release, and I can still pull my foot out easily at the end of the set. Feeling better each set...

Feeling your pain, @Than_Bogan! I'm in the process of switching to Supershell/R-style after a couple of decades in double Animals/HO high wraps. The switch to the Supershell was painless and loving it, the switch to the R-style had me struggling to make any kind of pass. After about 6-8 sets on it I'm hitting about 50% great feeling passes and 50% can't make 28. Seems like there's hope, but it's not there yet. On the plus side the comfort and release from the Reflex system is incredible compared to the Animals.

+1 to @Deanoski. Thinking about it from the feet up, the more ramp angle you have the further forward your COM must be to put pressure on the ball of the foot which in turn affects how quickly you can pressure the ball of the foot. Many times this puts a skier in an uncomfortably forward position to be able to pressure the front of the ski, counterintuitively leading to a net back position to feel secure. Finding the right ramp angle makes a huge difference, and is different for each person's physique and possibly for different skis. The skimoves.me guy has it pegged at around 2.7 degrees for snow skiers, I wonder what it is for water skiers (front boot)?

@gavski Tape will definitely work. I first noticed this on my slalom in about 2006, and everyone said that's just the way skis are. I noticed it because when I made a change it would be exaggerated on one side when the fin wasn't true. So, it bugged me, and made a difference in how the ski felt. With that ski, and each ski since then, I measure both sides and add metal tape (for heat ducts) under one side between the fin block and the top sheet to get the fin to match, or to do what I want it to do. Never really messed with changing it other than making it true so I would have predictable results when making adjustments.

@jimbrake I'm guessing @Drago reads ski racing :) . The author of the article, Dr. Taylor (www.drjimtaylor.com), has some great insights on competition in general, applicable to more than just ski racing if anyone is interested in the mental aspects of competing.

That's great news and it will be good to see Malibu at the tournaments. Big thanks to Tommy's and to Bryan for all his support of the juniors and the sport!

That's great news and it will be good to see Malibu at the tournaments. Big thanks to Tommy's and to Bryan for all his support of the juniors and the sport!