Craig

Saw whitestone too, that one is also 60+ min away from work. That is a very tough timeline through the week for a set. The goal is to avoid becoming a weekend warrior; it is too hard to improve that way. I appreciate the input. I realize Lanier may not work but I thought someone on here would know for certain.

My wife and I are moving to the Alpharetta/Cumming area toward the end of summer. I am aware of Waterski Atlanta near the airport and Atlanta Waterski Club in Ackworth. The trouble is both of those sites will be pretty far from work so I am looking for a place to run some buoys during the week without a 60 minute commute. Long story short, anyone have the skinny on slalom skiing on Lanier? Is there much up there and Is it worth it or am I better off biting the bullet and commuting to a more established site to do some buoy chasing? Thanks for your input.

OB, I did not get your email. I sent you one earlier this morning. Let me know if you got it.

Matt, thanks. Edit: I'm can't read.

Sitting in the airport on my way to ATL. Ski is coming with me and I am looking for some pulls. This trip is two weeks and I will be back at least one other time this summer for a multi-week visit to Alpharetta. Any skiing less than an hour from Alpharetta? Thanks. Email: craig.r.bradshaw@gmail.com

I learned to slalom on an old Cypress Gardens ski, it now hangs on our wall. The camp I worked at used Dick Pope skis for years. I skied on a number of those growing up. However, I have no idea if Dick Pope ever made tournament skis.

If these devices (balance bands, magnetic bracelets, etc.) did what they claimed to, for $20, why would these companies need to spend so much to market them?

Ball of Skis Ball of Gear

David, Would you be willing to share your analysis with me? Thanks.

Nothing like water-skiing and slamming beers! http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/50392_2200997219_7718_n.jpg http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2200997219

David, Can you post the math? Thanks.

"Aren't students always looking for extra credit?" In grad school that just means your advisor says, "we have decided to push back your graduation date so you can do more cheap labor for us". I am also very interested in your progress. I have wanted to pursue this type of project for quite some time. I tool like you are proposing would be massively useful particularly to companies who can nill afford to over-spend on hull R&D. This is probably a step for much further down the line, but you may also want consider air entrainment into the wake profile. I know I mentioned this already, and how prohibitively difficult it may be to model, but I think this would have a massive impact on how a wake 'feels'. Perhaps this is a topic for another project all together but I thought I would throw it out there. I wish you the best of luck and keep us posted!

late October-late March are the worst. Dec, Jan, and Feb there is almost no reason to go outside. Midwest winters......dislike.

I think am desensitized to complicated software. All of my CAD experience is in ProE, which is far from simple. Come to think of it, I may be a bad person to give advice to anyone looking for anything that is either fast or simple. Well, some other options......maybe Google SketchUp? There is an animation plugin available, it looks like: http://sketchup.google.com/  There also appears to be other projects on Sourceforge that would be worth looking into: http://sourceforge.net/search/?q=3d+animation

Ok, I admit, I hardly looked at the software. Compared with some CAD software out there it doesn't seem THAT bad, but a lot of non-intuitive things going on there, for certain. It was free, did 3D, and animations.  What are you using now? Do you need 3D?

Check this out http://www.k-3d.org/ Â I have no idea if it is any good or not, I found it on a search of sourceforge.net

Horton, Engineers and skiing are like...(insert analogy)... I actually wanted to work on a project that sounds similar to something that MCskiFreak is doing when I started doing research as an undergrad. I went far enough as to get an internship at a boat company, Skiers Choice. Worked there for a summer and was even featured all over the 2007 boat catalog! It was an interesting and fun experience but motivated me look at other options. I now work on thermal systems; my dissertation is about a unique type of refrigeration compressor called a linear compressor. I digress. I am always looking for ways that my expertise can help skiing in some way. Wait a minute, you aren't an engineer? Don't be modest, you can't develop rocket boots, zero-point energy beams, and a giant steel ball that attacks cities without being an engineer (degree or not). MCskiFreak, I'm interested in your CFD project. You using commerical software or developing your own code? What is your project objective? I have used CFX a bit and may be able to help.

Alright, I will contribute to this thread...:) Craig Bradshaw, 28, 4th year PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University Grew up camping and skiing around Indiana, never knew a thing about competitive skiing until college. During my second week of classes as a Freshman, I accidentially found myself in a callout for the Purdue Water-ski Team and was immediately intriqued. Joined the club, was immediately hooked, and spent five years running around with the team. I met my wife during undergrad, taught her to ski, and got her to run around with the team for a couple of years as well. My wife (then girlfriend) and I bought a 94 MC 190 together about 2.5 years ago. Both families did not understand why we would spend money on a boat when I had not even put a ring on her finger yet, they still probably don't. Alas, all's well that ends well, and I put a ring on her finger INSIDE the boat we bought together :) We were then married last March at Levee's Edge in Baton Rouge (scoke and jfox in attendance). This was another decision that the families probably still do not understand. We still ski all summer and hope to return to competitions when life settles in and we make at least enough to put us above the proverty line. My goal has always been to try and help those who want exposure to our sport. Sadly, there are a good number of people I have run into over the years who want very little to do with 'new blood' on their lakes which has made it difficult, at times, to get on the water. However, there are some fantastic people I have met who have helped me greatly over the years and I hope to return the favor to anyone who is enthusiastic about skiing. If I can improve my own skills in the process, that is a bonus.

Not to be a negative Nancy but...  I work with a lot of people who specialize in different aspects of nanotechnology. Nano seems to be the latest buzzword of choice. If you put a 'nano' somewhere in the title of your proposal someone, and probably lots of someones, will at least listen. Nanotubes, nanowires, nanomachines, etc.,...a lot of marketing.  I am no composites expert but I have no idea what 'Nano carbon fiber/resin' is. My gut tells me it is the same old carbon fiber/resin as before. The assymetric rockers sound like an interesting idea, and I do like the look of that ski.

Sounds like my kind of place. I would expect nothing less from the volunteer state.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

My wife is working down there for the next several weeks and tipped me off to a nice looking site right of I-24. Anyone know the story of this lake? Thanks!

I can think of another company that also has a recent history of innovation. http://wakeboardingmag.com/features/2010/01/26/first-look-epic-21se-first-electric-wakeboard-boat/ 23e.epicboats.com/

Cool stuff. As Adam mentioned, Li-ion batteries do not like the full charge cycles like Ni-Cd batteries do. Clearly, this is all about battery R&D and cost. That is going to take a bit more time but prototype machines like this help by generating exposure for what could-be. This has a catalyzing effect within the industries that supply technology to make these machines possible. I would really like to see more R&D into ultracapacitors, these could be a game changer if the energy density got high enough. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_double-layer_capacitor I will say this though, I think a machine like this will generally be energy negative compared with a regular gas machine for most consumers. Li-ion batteries take A LOT of energy to produce. So you need to put a lot of hours on a boat like this to offset production energy. I think the idea does have a good number of merits though. Â

1) Fund your company with some other product aside from ski boat sales. The trouble with a good ski boat is that you will not sell enough of them to keep your company floating (no pun intended). That part of the reason why the other inboard ski boat companies have 'improved' their 'ski' boats into 3000lb OB ski/wake machines.  The only advantage to a larger machine, aside from some creature comforts, is that they drive/track better (not all, but in general). I will admit that the creature comforts in new boats make them look sharp. The wake on my 94 MC 190 is better than anything you can buy new, but a new SN 200 could probably take a dump and it would look almost as good. Not that the 190 is ugly, but the 200 would probably have some good looking dumps. If you made a line of runabouts, or something similar, you could sell to regular boaters (lots of them) for a nice profit margin you could use this to fund ski boat development (very few of them). 2) Keep it simple, sell it cheap.  It amazes me when I read about people on the MC forum dropping $90k on a brand new x-star only to spend half the summer with it in the shop to get little BS fixed that should have never left the factory like that. If they didn't have to add all the junk to the boat to justify the price, that is a non-issue, so keep it simple.