jipster43

This is kind of a companion thread to Scot Chipman's "Waterski companies of the world". How many waterski companies are now defunct but hold a place in your heart? For me it's these three: 1.) EP - First real slalom ski my brothers and I had. 2.) Excel - Somehow my family received a prototype for free. My dad knew someone I guess, 'cause my oldest brother had only skied in one tournament. 3.) Cut 'N Jump - I learned to ski on a set of 67" Cut 'N Jumps. I weighed about 40lbs, had to wear shoes to fit into the bindings, and could stand up as soon as the boat went into gear. I'm also going to include KIDDER even though D3 lives on. I grew up on Lake Tapps (Sumner, WA - home of Denny Kidder). If you skied Lake Tapps in the 80's you were either on a KIDDER or an HO. The KIDDER crew was way more obnoxious and dominant. The HO crowd were usually the folks that wished they lived in Redmond or on Lake Sammamish. JP :)

Awesome! Gotta' love the Corgi! JP :)

I'm 44 and Randy Couture is my hero. When I was 16 my friend Gwen and I pulled her grandpa through the course on his 71st birthday - 22' off at 34mph. I'm not worried about aging. I'm just concerned at how fast time seems to be flying. JP :)

We're not on the water yet. I checked out the lake a little over a week ago and it was still iced over, and we had snow every day last week so.... I'm trying to wait patiently, but we were planning on April 2 as an opening day. Every day that passes now is painful. Ed - I certainly meant no offense. And I certainly don't have the breadth of experience that most of you fellas have. I was just offering up more of a layman's perspective. This board is kind of in its own little bubble of pretty elite skiers/boaters, and I feel it's my job to dummy down the conversation. JP :)

I just shoveled eight inches of heavy snow off my driveway and walks this morning. It's been snowing here since Tuesday and the forecast shows another four days of snow. Mantucky (Montana) is probably one week away from opening day... if we're lucky. JP :)

I ski at 30 mph @ 15' off and weigh a buck-thirty-five, and I have a hard time telling the difference between my '93 S&S w/ppsg, and any of the other current three event boats (except for style points). I'm concentrating on my technique far more than the wake. However, I find it interesting that the folks on this forum buy open bows for their resale value. When I was looking for a new boat, I was looking for a closed bow and found it very difficult to find one. The 196's and 190's were far more scarce than any open bow option and seemed to sell quicker when they hit the market. Three event boats simply aren't made for public water. Especially since the inception of wakeboard/wakesurfing boats. Open bow boats increase the chances your boat will swamp in open water. The only time you can take a true slalom boat out in open water is at the crack of dawn or maybe twilight. When I buy my next boat, it will be a closed bow, because I find them safer, more macho, and I'm fairly certain it will sell faster than the open bow. Of course, my gut is my barometer and it's often wildly flawed! JP :)

I wear black underwear from time to time.

It's a good day to be irish.

Again. Utah rules. Our lakes (Montana) are still frozen... but thawing.

I tried on a pair of Prodigy's in a size nine and they crushed my very narrow size 7 feet.

Man... I cross-check Bozeman's weather with SLC's every day and you folks are ALWAYS at least 10 degrees warmer - yet you get more snow! Tell me the air quality is poor! Please!

All logos and drivers are properly oriented in my issue. Weird.

MCL tears suck!  Sometimes living 15 minutes from the slopes is no blessing either. I've been injured or sick for every powder day this year - including today's whispery white blessings. Oh well! At least I still get to shovel the driveway. Yay. JP :)

I like the idea of surfing and not soiling my wetsuit every time my leash brushes up against my leg.

Thanks again everyone for all the information. It's much appreciated. JP :)

I hear ya' Kona. Skiing without poles is less than optimal, but when a wave that size comes down on top of you, the last thing yer' gonna' want to contend with is something resembling a skewer. Falling on hard pack wouldn't be an apt comparison. Falling in an avalanche would be more accurate. JP :)

Bogus?! That Chuck Patterson clip is crazed. If you have ever surfed and skied big mountains, you know what he is doing is far from lame. The only thing I find ridiculous is his use of poles. I would not want to be maytagged while holding something that could pierce my unmentionables (or other parts for that matter). JP :)

For those of you who do use time slots, how did you determine who got which time slots? Y'all are gonna' make me look good at our next club meeting. JP :)

Again, thanks for all the input! It is duly noted. How do you resolve issues of preferred ski times? I'm assuming early morning before work and late afternoon after work will be high demand hours. Horton, the S&S is pictured at Lake Cushman, Washington - due west of Seattle and across Puget Sound nestled in the Olympic Mtns. It's about an hour's drive from anywhere of consequence, so it doesn't get bad except for weekends. Sometimes not even then. It was magical when I was growing up, but now I live in Bozeman - 12 hours away, so we only make it out there one week out of the summer. JP :)

Thanks again for all the great advice fellas!  Let me be clear - if it were up to me there would definitely be an open door to all Ballers, and it very well may be a policy that Matt adopts. I'm just not in a position to make that call. However, at our last meeting it sounded like it had been agreed upon that you could host non-members behind your own boat, so in that case I'll be very stoked to give any of y'all a pull!  JP :)

Thanks for the valuable info Horton! We haven't even started taking money and folks are already trying to figure out how they can pay less 'cause they "will be vacationing, working, parenting, etc..." We're looking to make things as simple and concrete as possible, so there's no room for headaches. That's why we really want to hear what systems other lakes have used and try to do it correctly from the get-go. "Can Ballers ski anytime? That is also important." The fella' who owns the lake (Matt) is pretty laid back and wants to develop a cool scene which includes inviting folks with more experience to ski with us - possibly putting them up in the historical Sacajawea Inn (incredible steaks), take 'em to Yellowstone, and generally show 'em a good time. I don't have the authority to greenlight guests, but if you are skiing into 38 off and shorter Matt will probably want you there. Heck, I've never heard Matt discourage anyone from coming out, but this year he's really trying to figure out how to organize the schedule so everything runs slick with no hassles and no hurt feelings. I believe he's willing to allow non-members to ski anytime, but not behind the club boat - if this proves to be true I'm more than happy to give folks pulls behind my '93 Stars & Stripes with Stargazer.  http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu45/jipster43/DSCN4765.jpg JP :)

I believe that blue Centurion on boat trader has the 409 in it though. Â JP :)

I'm lucky enough to be a charter member of a new ski club with our own ski lake and Malibu promo boat. The owners of the ski lake want to keep the membership at 10 for the first year so we can work all the wrinkles out, and then the membership will be capped at 20. How do y'all work the time slots at your clubs so that everything is equitable and folks remain happy? We are planning on having a day a week available for non-members, but the rest of the week will be reserved strictly for the 20 members and their paid family members, realistically most of those 20 members will be skiing with at least one other member during each set. I appreciate yer help!  JP :)

When I was going to film school, one of my professors claimed that practical applications for computers were probably 10 years out. Toy Story was out a year later. Technology has a way of hitting warp speed when the creative team meets the $$$ team. I'm glad to see a North American firm developing battery technology. Everything I've heard of previously was that the Chinese were way ahead in this field. JP :)

'91-'94 Mastercraft 190 would be a super cool boat to repower for ZO - especially a '93 Stars & Stripes. JP :)