chris carter

my daughter has, we have no fin settings but guessing and worked my way into where she is happy, running mid to deep 38 on it. it is slower and more stable, getting good starts at 38. the wide front works if you keep it in the water.

i have a 64 inch Z7, fantastic ski crc.coach@yahoo.com 8657555588

Saw the t factor bindings at nationals and they look great. much thought has been put in to make a front lace up safe. the heel cup is rubber with slots so when your heel starts to go on an otf the boot will release. they were much more comfortable than a standard rubber boot.....i am going that way for one of my daughters.

anyone heard when the new A2 is coming out?

I am on the MC tournament team and I have a heavily cupped prop which is from 80 thousands to 130 thousands and I get a similar soft wake, but slow out of the hole. It b rings the rpm about 200 down from stock and makes the zero off beast tame. I love the hole and aeration idea, .....got me thinking. chris crc.coach@yahoo.com

yea, my daughter is on the womens verstion of the ST using the Reflex boot that we got from Tadd. all works great and she is a shallow 38 skier.

Brie and I are skiing the ST and are running longer and further back and the ski seems better balanced, ie less tip up or more wetted surface. 7.93 and .724. just trying at yellow, green, and some blue line, nothing more yet. ski finishes nicely. caryout does not seem to be compromised with the added tip, but the Z7 would not handle that much tip, it would carve too quickly. I am actually also running a Z7 with one of Horton's carbon fin and a mini wing. seems to be a good combo for carry out and turning. the ST's we are skiing have stock fins and wings.

ski is almost perfect, only half a season, great ski.

forgot to add email on the Z7 for sale: crc.coach@yahoo.com

got a 65" Z7 for sale, only $750, ski is almost perfect and skis great.

we are not pulling many tournaments this year, more static displays, and special events....so the boat will be in top condition and available before regionals.... call me 865-755-5588

yes , it is a tournament team boat, blue metal flake is sharp. could be ready late july just before regionals.

check outwww. onlyinboards.com. I have a blue metal flake 197 for sale, best looking boat MasterCraft has put out in a while, with continued tweaks of improvement. what I have in it for $40,900. ready in July!

why did you not like the carbon fin on the RCX? ...I have mounted one on the Z7 at the same settings I had, but water is cold and it is hard to tell a difference. might find some warm weather soon and experiment.

If you watched D3's stock settings change for the Z7 this year, and the "longest thread" on Z7 review, length did get shorter, shallower, and farther back. I have always liked a very long fin and forward to help get tip in the water and short to keep it close to my bindings, which was ony a bandaid fix for my crummy turns. Horton you are right, it did not work with the Z. I am now skiing the Z shorter, and farther back, with bingings a bit back. It is completely different than how I have set up skis before.......yet it took all summer bit by bit,...ugh.

TW, when you half fill a bouy with water, I assume it floats much deeper than half mast. Sounds good to me, but does this need a rule change?

Eric, I just mounted a carbon fin on the a 65 Z7, then broke my ankle a few weeks ago, missed lots of good fall skiing but.....should be back in a couple of weeks, ..........anyone tried one of Horton's fins on the Z?.... for set up the ski seems to be balanced with a bit back on bindings, 1/2 a hole for me. I have been all over the map and pretty close to the new stock fin settings., 2.85, 6.87, .735 flat, 7 deg wing. That is what I have now with the carbon fin, a med flex fin I think, but dont have much time on it as per the ankle injury. Does the carbon fin work on this type of ski?

Dave hit a bouy and then the ski skipped sideways, possibly a side/down load and broke his tibia just above the boot. The xrays revealed a separated bone with a crack coming on down to the ankle. He will get surgery likely today. It was painful. I do not think the boot released in this case with a side and downward load.  Dual lock really would work better in a dual boot one plate application, but Dave is RTP so there is only one leg on. One of my girls did a science experiment a couple of years ago, and we tested "release" properties as a function of temperature, since waterskiers ski in a wide array of temps. It was almost linear as the temperature increased the release requirement decreased, by almost 30% from 50 deg to 90 deg. With the temperature variation, load differences, (ie side, heal first, twist, ) one has almost no idea on how much dual lock to use. I believe it could go anywhere from pre release to not at all with the same square inches of velcro. ....but how would you measure release in rubber or other mechanical releases. Hard problem.  Having pre released several times and not releasing once (front powershell and rtp), I have gone to very supple rubber and orthotics to assist in edge control, hoping it will release in almost every case; but most dont want to reduce the competitive edge. I wonder if we really need these high boots if balance on a ski and something low could actually help athletic balance. This all may sound a bit out, but I like to think at the edge of the envelope sometimes.  It it very cool that Dave and Dawn., makers of some great skis, actually ski, and compete with all of us. Hope he can be back on the dock soon, but looks like a long road from what I saw. My best to him.

just another note on wing angle: when a ski goes through the wakes, the attitude of the ski is slightly raised, so ideally, if the wing angle closely matches that angle, then the drag through the wakes will be minimal, or just the mounting and surfaces, ....when the ski is the the preturn/turn phase, the attutude of the ski lowers or is more parallel to the water and the wing has more affect to assist in turning the ski and that drag/lift relationship has precedence on the turn and lift characteristics of the ski. ski design would be optimized keeping these angles in mind. ...with of course many many more variables. the amount of speed here is important, too much speed and your radius of turn is increased, and too slow and the boat runs away. add in the skier to all of this and we are back to an art and not just science.

in another life i was a fighter pilot and engineer, so lots of time studing aerodynamics and practiciing it.....so the viscosity theory is correct in my view. but on the wing it is not quite that straigtforward:  when you add lift you also add drag on any air foil and since water is many times more viscous than air, a small adjustment is mulitplied. a fin wing is similar to the elevator on an airplane and it intuitively adds downward "lift" to the tail of the ski, raising the nose, which is opposite to what the ski industry says. actually with a small amount of wing angle it does bring the tail of the ski down, and raise the nose of the ski, until you add more wing angle and then the drag of the wing overcomes the lift of the wing and it creates the opposite affect. i dont know where that wing angle may be and it likely changes from ski to ski or when the water temp changes, but for discussion sake, if the wing angle starts to be positive, or hold the tail down at say 5 deg it may actually lift the nose of the ski at that shallow setting, but........when we increase it say an arbritary 10 deg , drag is likely more than the lift it provides and the wing  will "put more tip" or ski in the water because of the torque affect. the distance from the center of drag of the wing to the center of lift of the ski, (maybe about 2 inches times the amount of drag force) less the wing lift will be the net force on the ski  .......so as we discussed, somewhere between 5 deg and 10 deg the opposite affect occurs from a wing because the net forces of lift and drag changes, thus the confusion in the ski industry and what people feel, not knowing the different affects a wing can have on a ski....also the size of the wing can obviously change the whole equation, as in the difference of a mini wing, or one of the big ones that is used on Goode skis, as well as, the amount of drag just the mounting hardware provides. ski speed will also change this drag/lift relationship, as the Reynolds numbers will change quite a bit from 32 mph to 36 mph. You could actually have a wing at the same angle lifting the nose of the ski at 32 and lowering it at 36 if the angle was just at the "breaking point" Bottom line: I think in most cases 4 to 5 deg of wing actually raises the tip of the ski, and 7 and greater lowers the tip of the ski affectively adding "tip". sorry to ramble, but hope it makes sense.

yes your right on one level, one of the most elite athletes in the world, doing what he does best and there is not tv, sponsors, bucks and banners,.....but those of us that were there, and knew what was happening, were in awe of every move.

the girls and i tried both the wr and have been on the z7, the Z got much more angle and had a much much tighter turn than the wr........but the wr was forgiving, especially up through 32 for the girls and me....just school bus turns.....but this was the 62" with some different rails, ...and it did chatter in the turn for the 3 skiers I saw....the Z almost got too much angle, and I may be tuning it down a bit.

Goode skis can be quite "good" or not, depending on what you get. my 3 girls have used several, and each of the same model can vary.....but if you get one you like, hang on to it......for the Z7, it is a new ski as ScarletArrow reminded us, now after a season, the fin settings are coming in....having 2 of them, i have worked with the Z7 fin quite a bit. ...now after a season, the ski is performing well for many. ....i am not sure, but we may be ordering another one for my current national champ...btw, the july updated factory settings are pretty close for everyone, some like the bindings one hole back. if y ou had to pick without trying, it would be a great choice, other skis have more personality, they may work a bit better, or.....not.

Marco, as i posted above, i am had wileys build me a special soft boot with an orthotic. after ankle surgery, and a recent break, i used to ski about the same many years ago with soft rubber, and i am too old for more injuries especially what you guys are going through.

Brad, so sorry to hear of such an ordeal.....what kind of boot did you have and type of crash....I had slick gloves let go into the first wake and did 3 back flips, got ribs and small ankle crack, nothing like yours. ..I am going to a loose fitting wileys, had them build in soft rubber and glue in a custom orthotic to help the edge control, but know I will realease. your thoughts?