clemsondave

Love their vests! I'm 5'10" 175 41-42" chest and wear an XL which is reasonably tight. The L was toooo tight.

RIC - Richmond International Airport

There is a ton around here to do for a family vacation. Especially if you are a history buff or have kids in school. Within an hour's drive you have Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, etc. Three large amusement parks - Paramount's Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens and Water Country USA. The mountains are about 1.5 hours away. Va Beach which is pretty nice these days is about 2 hours away. Most of us around here also peak in Sept. Good solid year of skiing and the water temp starts getting back in that sweet range. Yea, it may be too late for everyone to make plans and have a big turnout. Maybe we can put something on for next year. However, I welcome anyone that wants to come to our Little Dawg to get a taste of our site. If you are interested, let me know and I'll make sure you are invited and have transportation to/from the airport.

With the success of the tournaments at our lake, one thing we are missing is a bunch of out of region skiers. We’d like to gain some recognition as the great site that I believe it is. We’ve even had some discussions about bidding for a Big Dawg event. It’s a perfect lake only about 8 miles from a nice part of Richmond. Our Little Dawg is Sept 11-12, but I would not be opposed to creating another tournament just for ya’ll. So, what would it take to get you to Va for a tournament? We can put something together pretty quickly, have a killer lake and some of the best driver’s around. I have a 200, but could probably get a MC and a Bu. Some ideas (please share yours): Simple 6 round/2 tournament weekend Head to head for elite skiers (have a minimal qualification) Team head to head Any dates that jump out at you? As you know weather can be all over the place, but I’d say we’re good at least though end of Sept. Dave Richmond Water Ski Club Put this into Google Maps 37.748933,-77.675357

Skiing inured, but signed up anyway. See, I am a real skier. Coming up with excuses before I even hit the water!

Yes, we go pass for pass. I could go against someone with an average at 15off. We start 3 passes back from our average. Example: Me: average is 5 @ 38 so I start at 32 off. Skier X: average is 5 at 15off 34mph. They start at 15off 30mph. Two boats in the water. First skier makes a pass and waits at the other end. Second skier makes a pass and joins skier 1 at the end of the lake. This continues until someone falls. Second skier has to beat the first. So, let's say I got 4 at 38. Skier 2 would have to get 4 1/4 at 15off.

NOPS points doesn't work very well. If you have one outstanding older or younger skier, they will win. Example, we have a M8 skier that can get mid 38. NOPS points are through the roof for him. We have been running a handicapped head to head series in Va for a couple years. Called it the Va Little Dawg Series. It has been a huge success. See the 'rules' page here: http://www.skilittledawg.com

Going back to the Z7 for now. After tournaments are over, I may try the 65" Mid and/or an A1. I agree with scoke that the 63 was probably too small for me. Seemed like the better gate I got at 38, the more it stalled at the end of the 1 ball turn (on-side). Off side was friggin amazing. I could rip the turn and it would still accelerate. The absolutely impressed me, but might have been a little too small for my size and aggressive style.

Now ya tell me. I went by the Goode amp chart. 5'10" 175 = 168amp 63.75". Any other Goode owners on here? Seems like everything that touches this ski leaves a mark. Even my fin protector left a mark. I got it on ski-it-again and it had the black/white DL on it. I removed it with the 3M citrus remover and it bubbled up the top of the ski. Did a good job of smoothing it out, but wondering if this is normal.... My Z7 is just about indestructible.

Honeymoon is over. Never got past 4 @ 38 ball and it was breaking me in half at that line length. It's got a ton of potential, but its not the right time of year to mess with it. I bought it on ski-it-again, so I'll need to sell it.

Anyone want to buy a Mid Ride?

How does the size compare to others? I use small goode and stretch the hell out of them

I could be off base, but I seem to recall the manufacturers had to stop using the name Kevlar for trademark infringement. I've been searching for new gloves as well. Been using the Goode gloves, but they don't have my size in stock and don't plan on making any more this year. :-/

I actually feel ZO helps me more than PP when I'm late. The key (and hard part), is getting into the correct position and not panic at the turn. When you do those things, ZO will give you a great pull to the next buoy. I agree though, if you are in a bad position, it can hurt you. I would encourage you, when you're running late, to take a deep breath, make a good turn and get into position before you start to pull.

You will never make a 310hp boat (even with ZO) feel like a 343 or higher (6L) boat. IMHO, the HP difference is greater than the ZO/PP issue, especially now. I remember a couple years ago, during the winter I skied after taking a couple months off. It was behind an older Malibu with PP. Easily ran right through 35 and mid 38. Next day I put in my '08 196 - tried ZO and could barely got mid 35. I then tried SG (had both in that boat) and barely got mid 35. Guy I was skiing with had the same experience. After I got back into shape, I didn't have a problem. It's not up to USAWS as to which cruise control gets put in boats.

The other variable is the driver. How hard and when they counter-steer.

Clemsontigerdave at yahoo

Here is my description, copied from Schnitz's website. Goes with my chart above (one with the bell curves). For RevQ. Here are my thoughts. It is much more complicated than the below, but in it's simplest terms, here is how I interpret the ZO descriptions. The boat is constantly trying to stay at a steady speed, but for this discussion, I am keeping it simple. The problem I have with ZO's descriptions is that they reference 'when the skier rounds the buoy.' Well, we all round the buoy at different times and usually different times at each turn. We also all load the boat at different times. Some load right out of the turn, some don't load until behind the boat. For this reason, I reference the 'moment of load.' The boat does not know to do anything until it senses it's speed slowing down. This 'moment' could be right out of the buoy, behind the boat, or free skiing. It's just when you start to slow the boat down. Once that moment of load occurs, the boat must compensate by increasing RPMs. How it does that is where we get the ABC123. The letters (A, B, C) are the difference in time where the boat starts to increase RPM. 'A' will have the most delay and 'C' will have the least. This means at the moment of load, C will start increasing RPMs the quickest, while 'A' will have the largest delay. The numbers (1, 2, 3) are the intensity and duration of the RPM increase. '1' will have the smallest amount of RPM increase, but for the longest duration (long and soft). '3' will have the highest RPM increase, but for a short duration (short and hard). Some examples: A1: Will have a delay after you start pulling. It will have a long soft pull. A3: Will have a delay after you start pulling. It will have a short hard pull. C1: Will start pulling right after you do. It will have a long soft pull. C3: Will start pulling right after you do. It will have a short hard pull. Please note that this is my theory from my experience and talking with others, which has not been confirmed by ZO. I welcome input from everyone. I have not pulled enough skiers to recommend one setting for a certain style yet. We are all experimenting at the moment. I can tell you that as a 'new school' skier, I do not get wide enough with the 'C' settings. I seem to get the earliest and widest with A3, but I am not in good enough shape to hold the pull sometimes so I usually end up on A2. Another case we ran into yesterday. Skier (on A2) was making a good turn, pausing, giving up some angle, then accelerating. It looked like what would happen with the ski turning too hard, but it wasn't. We moved him to C2 and it completely went away. C2 picked him up earlier, which for him, eliminated the pause. Below is a graphical representation. (see chart above) The vertial plane for each curve is the amount of RPM increase. You can see that the '1s' will have the least RPM increase and the '3s' will have the most. The horizontal plane is the duration of the RPM increase. This is not representing any buoys. Remeber, different people pull at different times, intensity and duration. It is a general time representation from the moment you start pulling.

Avg is around 80 air, upper 70s water.

DFW to Richmond (RIC) is around $240 right now without shopping too much. I can pick anyone up at the airport and have space in the house for a few. How about first three from this site are invited... Guess I should start a new thread. Does OB post on here? I think he's sold on our site.

This might not take off ink, but I've been impressed with Exquisite vinyl cleaner. It's only sold on ebay. Comes with a brush. I've used all the big cleaners and this will still take off more after I'm done with those.

Any way you draw it, I believe they need to be smooth curves. RPM's cannot ramp up or cut off immediately. Too bad we cannot get ZO to comment on these. They are the two most popular theories I've seen.

How do I get ya'll over here for one of my tournaments? We've been doing some really cool tournaments over the past couple years. Killer site as well. Our Little Dawg tournament is in mid Sept. Handicapped h2h. Maybe more night skiing?

I'd say A1 and B3 are very different. A1 would be a delayed, soft and long pull. B3 would come on a little earlier, be harder and shorter. If you want the pull to come on sooner go from A --> C If you want the pull to be harder go from 1 --> 3 I'm on C2, except on the MC I go C3 since I feel it is a softer pulling boat.

Steal MS's ski Fri night and use dual lock on his boots. I hear he really likes the DL system. A few of us in Va have been talking about getting down to La for a tournament. Sounds like a good time.