Jody_Seal

Not imprssed with 32 mph slalom skiing and with the idea that going slower requires a longer fatter ski. wakes at 30-32 mph are substantially bigger then 34/36 mph.. today's modern ski boats are heavier boats and make bigger holes the slower they go.. my contention is length of ski along with a more narrow full profile benifits slower speed with wake impact lessened in slalom. ski on left is a late 90's pretty much off the rack Mapple.. Ski on Right is not off the shelf but hand laid with carbon. both measure out 68.5" . had these rat holed away for 17 years.going to experiment with the carbon ski.

last weekends format: simple! medal divisions.. women: over 18-55k/34 max speed. women Over 45 -52k/55k women over 65 any speed. Men : over 18 36 mph men over 35 55k/34 mph men over 65 52k/max new 55k lake record 2.5 at 39... 3rds of slalom and trick $50......where were ya????

@HortonI gave you laugh because from time to time i get the opportunity to ski with that chick from SRB that has the WR... That has been her main coaching tip!! I just call it hold on to your ass cause 450HP/500fpt is about to light it up!!

it's funny , just got off the phone with a fella in Canada with an 03 and a naff mefi controller. either looking for a replacement or updating to E control. any one out that has done the conversion and still have their mefi controller hit me up I may have a home for it.. E control requires complete engine wire harness replacement as well as a few mounting brackets and ecm and sending units.

Getting people in? 20 entry's! that's all we have for a class C&E three round ,3 day slalom/trick tournament in Florida on a pristine man made lake, cost ? $30 ............? 20 entries that's all!!! No! slalom skiing is flourishing, USAWS/AWSA On life support..

@The_MS

@Hortonson you are missing one thing!! important thing!! The Masters is a professional athletic event ! they awward money to the winners of the event!!! they The US Masters/ Nautique and Callaway write the checks!!! IWWF DOES NOT! "The Masters Waits for no one."

@Hortonthe fuse is lit!!

@UWSkierthanks for the link!

here's my take. I can tell all that the decisions pertaining to a one year sit out was not taken lightly by the officials and title sponsors of the US Masters. these officials are some of the best in the world. these officials take pride in the work they do so somewhere there is merit to their decision in their assessment and final decision as well as recommendations by the title sponsors. most of you have never been to Robin lake so your Chrystal palace anal ideology about how tournaments are run as well as playing field acutraments are far from your glass house tournament site that many of you live in. where the slalom course is on Robin lake resides in nearly 30 foot of water. bottom anchored. the site only allows for a static gate camera on one side of the course. due to the distance to the far bank a human has to sit in a floating judges tower and videos manually the entrance gate, keeping that person awake in 100 degree Georgia spring can be a true chore. rock walls and rip wrap encircle nearly 2/3 thirds of the lake Making it a very rolling dicey encounter for both drivers and skiers. The US Masters is a professionally run towed water sports event. every one involved in the production and site personnel ( judges, drivers, secondary personal on down to the safety personnel) are paid or employed by callaway and Nautique Boats. this might be hard for many of you but Mr Lightfoot has been the announcer for the masters a number years ago. bottom line he did not do a good job and was not and has not been asked to come back. the video production crew at the masters do a very hard job and imop have a very successful track record for the Masters. I retired from working almost 30 masters and have seen the event change, morph or whatever one wants to call it into a well oiled machine. Roni has done an excellent job of putting all of it together. hats off to all the masters crew. keep up the great work! on another note I do think that the sit down athlete should still have the opportunity to ski and post scores in any off masters site lcq record tournaments . who knows he might break the world record! I think Liquid-D has the best response.

I think if you already have a great running and skiing ZO boat why repower? if your SBC has hi hours, long block base engines are still available through many outlets except Pleasure craft marine. as far as 6.0 in the 196 model. we'll! they ski pretty sweet! use a 668 ACME.... I am finishing up a 196 rebuild and had both a small block Excalibur and a zr6 on crates. I chose thr Excalibur due to the fact I ski 32 mph now, my wife 30 mph, my daughter a small women 2 overall skier and stephen,,,, well he seems to be able to ski behind anything and do well... we just did not need the 6.0 for what we do... I picked up a 89 Master craft that the 6.0 is going in...... more on that project next month...

That's what a good shortstop does!

@LeonL the GD Germans got nothing to do with it!

the struggle is real when it comes to getting parts and components in a timely manor. ordering engines one has to pay up front the cost of the engine, wait 10-14 weeks for delivery only to have significant shipping damage that it backs you up another 4-5 weeks for replacement parts or replacement all together. right now there is a steering cable shortage affecting all the manufacturers. Chinese made crap that has a hi failure and potential for catastrophic damage as well as potential for bodily harm.. wonder why you can't get your new boat?

Bullying and intimidating chief judge and officials can not go unpunished, wait! did It not happen in Miami too last year. the guy is lucky a safe sport complaint was not filed along with the 1 year suspension from Callaway. he is not the first skier or rider to not be invited to the Masters due to unsavory action.

amazing as it was... relics from the past!

what we are doing today..

@rockdog sold boat as I actually had two 196's, a race boat, an old american skier as well as a center console salt water boat. Also we needed a new washer, dryer as well as we are still rebuilding property stuff from hurricane Michael as well as medical bills from hip replacement. I did buy a real cheap unmolested old mastercraft though ...it is getting the 6.0 repower treatment as we speak! As far as tournament skiers "wont" train behind a 196 or other older boat is not true. There is a reason why repower has become popular as well as affordable in comparison to purchasing new or newer used. I know of a number of three event national champions as well as slalom skiers that train nearly exclusively behind 196's and bubble butt nautiques. For many years KLP ran a Re-powered 04 or 05 Master Craft, if you signed up for practice at the southern regional s last year you practiced behind a PCM powered 05 197 mastercraft. in the last 5 years i think about half of the rounds i slalomed in were behind other then newer towboats with the oldest a 98 E-controlled bubble butt at the Alabama State Championships. Early in my career with Correct Craft i was informed by one of my mentors Mr. Snook that waterskiers are and can be easily influenced in their heads with BS preconceived ideas and they are like a sewing circle... I dont know how many times I either took a boat to one tournament to have skiers complain about something then take it to another tournament two weeks later and its the best boat they ever skied behind??!!?? and nothing has changed in that regard. some of you are still living in a bubble, Central Florida is not the only place that skiers compete. central California is not the only place where skiers compete yet thats were a lot of the rules and policy's are coming out of. I am glad that at least they opened up the door for older boat use in tournaments. We are having our second tournament in 5 years at our lake mid May. as I cant get any "Promo" (sic) boats or at least can not secure any guarantee of a current boat, we will have available a 08 196 and a 17 200. it is a invitational competition and in the invitations that went out competitors were notified and they were offered the opportunity to bring their own boats if they wanted too. We will put them in the mix provided they have correct insurance and ZO. I have two that are interested..

What? a non elite/open Real competition??? well that's unheard of ! Kudos's to the organizers !

I think that overall its not so much the cost of the boats that is the burr under the saddle. But the continued pushing of the idea that a skier can not be competitive unless they are skiing behind the latest greatest $100K. gimmick machine. I would wager better then 90% of skiers today that have been in the sport for 30 or more years are not skiing any better then they did behind boats 30 years ago. Many are not due to the extreme amount of torque and hp to make these gimmick machines plow through the water. young skiers dont know the difference as ZO now has been in use for over 15 years. AWSA refuses to get away from the rankings ideology and weekend competition is non exsistant at the less then open elite level. I had a good laugh a couple weeks ago while doing the live online judges clinic when the facilitator stated the overall goal was to make the sport the same conditions from site to site , tournament to tournament. Anal Rankings ideology for sure! Do we really need that $130K tug to run 35 off? you did it with the $45K tug! You did it with the neighbors old PP boat! New Gimmick machines have piss poor 22 off wakes!!! herd that 30 years ago! heard that in the early 80's nothings changed there. in reality these new boats are really not all that they are cracked up to be. They are very problematic and replacement parts costs are obscene. The needs to ski are not$100K plus boat.

this is what I use..

probably had a number of concussions through out my life. played baseball/softball as a third base and catcher, 25 years worth. High school football 4 years. wrestled a number of years at a open level. the biggest hit though was waterskiing. however the incident would not have happened had the fools testing foam/noodle entry gates not done so. word to the wise to anyone out there thinking foam noodle entry gates are good ideas....Its not! I digress: I know my son suffered two pretty severe concussions. one wrestling the other a 200' plus crash at The night jam a number of years ago. yes concussions can leave one in danger of down the road complications. these happen in all sports though. Sad thing is our culture and society is fastly becoming a nanny state ideology, it wont be long till we have it in our sport...Oh wait! "Safe Sport"!! Never mind!

found it..