Craig

I have a cautious 5 year old that is currently in a similar place but had a breakthrough this summer and is now getting up independently behind the boat. I echo a lot of advice to not push your son into it. I struggle with this and have to remind myself constantly not too; it has to be his idea. I feel pretty confident this has helped keep my son coming back, not strictly his success on skis. He got excited about it partially by going to tournaments and seeing a few other kids ski. There aren't a ton around us but there are a couple that go to some local tournaments that are a year or two ahead of him that he sees do quite a bit more and that is exciting. Plus then give trophy's at the tournament and that gets him really excited to try and ski in the tournament. What has also helped us so far is finding lots of baby steps. We started with an inflatable trainer in the grass, then in the water, then behind the boat. Then we moved to regular trainer skis that are strapped together and pulled through the grass, then played in the water with skis on to practice putting them on and off and just floating with them on. Playing in the water helped a ton with my son to relieve anxiety of being in the water with skis on. Then pulled him on the boom with my help in the water, then without. Then the handle section on the boom with my help, then without. By then he didn't need my help so we went behind the boat without my help and that is where he is now.

Interested

Our main lake is E-W. The short answer is, you get used to it. The window of time that it is unskiable is very small. It doesn't even occur to me anymore and I don't plan around it at all. If you want some mitigation, I purchased a set of SeaSpecs four years ago and it helps a ton when the glare if bad. www.seaspecs.com. If I think the glare may be a problem I'll throw them in the boat and have the boat crew pass them to me if I need them.

It might not be exactly as described in the poll, but zero percent chance I run the pass and nearly zero percent chance I get out to the next buoy.

This is awesome. Keep skiing, having fun, and making great videos!

That is Whitestone; I lived near there and skied there for a few years. We had occasional issues with beavers in the colder months. For whatever reason they liked to chew through the anchor lines. Can't trust a beaver... Great place, wish I could visit more often. I assure you the ramp is normally pointing in the appropriate direction and it is a very nice place to jump, I have seen at least one state record set on that ramp. :smiley: If you want to own the property adjacent to that jump, let me know. https://www.ski-it-again.com/php/skiitagain.php?endless=summer&topic=Search&category=Real_Estate&postid=52718

13 mo. Old here. Infant life vest and a woven nylon belt strapped around the OB seat to keep him from sliding about. He loves to watch.

Rick Ahmad at Baton Rouge Orthopedic clinic. He is a hand/wrist specialist and a water skier. http://www.brortho.com/physician/rick-i-ahmad-md-1

Bought a pair of polarized SeaSpecs JetSpecs recently; been pretty pleased so far. I only wear them when glare is an issue (E-W lake). Strap is very secure, vision is good, haven't had an issue with fogging yet. https://www.seaspecs.com/ I wear floating bombers as my regular glasses but these are much more secure, by comparison.

@mach1 I'm not certain and I don't own the truck anymore. It was a factory tow package, whatever transmission comes with that. Mine had a tow/haul button. When you kicked it on it would reduce the number of gear shifts as an attempt to reduce wear on the transmission.

I towed a 94 MC Prostar 190 with that exact setup. Launched on a pretty steep dirt ramp for two years with zero problems. Towed very easily down the highway. Normal fuel efficiency was about 15 mpg, towing it was about 10-11 mpg.

Not sure if you have read this book, but I highly recommend: http://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-Classic-Performance/dp/0679778314/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444912561&sr=1-1&keywords=inner+game+of+tennis There is a big difference between working hard and letting your mind get in the way of your body. When you mind gets in the way it is often perceived as 'trying' which is compensated by more 'trying' which makes things worse. At the end, you feel like you are trying really hard and generally getting worse the harder you try. I know I ski the best with a clear head, observing what I am doing without actively trying to change things. Maybe that is what is going on and it will help you too, maybe not, but something to consider.

+1 for Whitestone

@akale15 Thank you! P.S. I am also from Northern IN, my wife and I spent a year in middle TN after school as well. Come down and ski! @gginco Most people seem to ski from beginning of March to Thanksgiving.

Come on down to Whitestone, in Talking Rock, GA. In the North Georgia mountains with lots of outdoor activities and only an hour to Atlanta when you want a fix of city excitement. Climate is outstanding, you are able to see the fall beauty without the bitter cold winters and the summers are nice and long. We have lots of property for sale too! http://www.whitestoneskiclub.com/RealEstate.aspx

Polycarbonate, also known as Lexan, is what I would use. I believe that is what the ArmGuard is made of, not certain what exact blend.

http://twistedconservative.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/keep-calm-and-don-t-feed-the-troll-48.png

My initial reaction to this modification is the same as @SkiJay. Steps causing reduced drag on the modified side of the fin causing a bit more tail rise out of 2/4. For all intents and purposes air can be modeled as incompressible at the speeds you are talking about. The only caveat would be if there is enough change in pressure on the modified side of the fin to cause the local pressure to fall below the vapor pressure. Then, things get interesting.

Great skiing, Matt, I was glad to be behind the wheel. Come on blue loop!

I suspect the peak in M1 is artificial. My guess is that it corresponds to collegiate skiing. A good portion of that population will not continue skiing after college. This is further supported by looking at the women. W1 ~140 skiers, W2 ~70 skiers. Lots of women who will not continue into W2.

My hypothesis is that this problem just manifests more often in beginners but has less to due with line length and more to do with how to approach a ski set. I think it is a common problem for people to over-ski their harder passes at ANY line length. It doesn't matter if your hard pass is 38off or 28mph if you are not used to running the pass you are going to feel like you need to try harder which often leads to over-skiing. I also think it is a common problem for people learning the course to not have enough passes in their arsenal so pass 1 or 2 is the hard pass for them. The result a proportionally higher amount of over-skiing in beginners. I can remember when a good day was 3-4 buoys at 32mph, but my starting speed was 30 mph and I typically would only run it once and move on. In retrospect, I should have spent more time at 28 and 30mph and tried to work on specific goals with my body position (volume sets). I also would have spent more time asking for specific feedback. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, and at the time I didn't know what I didn't know. My point is, as a beginner you tend to not know how to approach skiing and tend to fight for more buoys. As you improve, and discover the value in more systematic ski sets this tends to naturally reduce the amount of over-skiing.

Anytime! Great skiing!

That is great, the Brock's are a great family! Also, Irish Bog Snorkeling...that is one I had never heard of.

@Than_Bogan‌ , a very hard problem with no market, exactly the point I was alluding to. I agree, it is not impossible. @gator1, yes, fixed speed. What the first versions of ZO were attempting to do, and almost certainly did better than the current versions.

First, ZO is fantastic and has helped my skiing enormously, I cannot imagine going back. I also tend to follow the 'shut up and ski' philosophy but I am a geek as well and enjoy thinking about some of this. The voodoo parameters @Than_Bogan‌ speaks of are a result of all the complaining about the original ZO versions. They represent what we cannot quantify about how to couple the 'feel' of the pull to a consistent speed. If I recall correctly, the original (perhaps just he prototype versions) of ZO had no parameters at all, just set a speed and go. As an engineer this was beautiful, and just what some of you are saying you would like. Of course, everyone hated it, so much so that the ABC was introduced, then ABC/123, now ABC/123+/-. To eliminate ABC/123+/-, or generally simplify the software, would require a way to predict how the pull would 'feel' for every individual, in advance without an input to the software. ZO has to do this on some level for the engine (the software has to predict what an engine will do when it gives it a signal to go faster), I presume they use an empirical study to characterize an engine or series of engines and have hard programmed that information into the software. So how do you do that for each individual skier with respect to feel? I don't know, but it is interesting to think about. Personally, I think asking the user for a preference is a fine compromise. However, I may be biased as I don't think ZO is an issue anyway.