santangelo

Some coverage of the event: http://www.waterskimag.com/nautique-big-dawg-world-tour-stop-1-results http://cbs12.com/sports/content/best-in-the-world-compete-at-the-big-dawg-at-okeeheelee-park http://nautiquebigdawg.com/photos/?album=1&gallery=39

Correct @klindy , only the first 2 prelim rounds were scored under Class L. The dual boat Sweet 16 and Elite 8 at night were Class F.

Hi Pat. If you're doing any gym work, just work unilaterally for the upper body. A process known as cross transference triggers the body to maintain/build muscle on one side of the body when working the other. Also, take advantage of the downtime on the upper body to make increases on the lower body. And as much as I dislike aerobic training, that's always an option. I've had way to much experience with this the past two years.

Echo @Jody_Seal . In S.Florida, 95% of our ELR's have waiting lists and we have about a dozen tournaments a year. The last few years we've tried to organize class C's but could not get enough attendance. This year we've had several new skiers and were able to put together a great Class C event that everyone really enjoyed. If we have the support, we will continue to host a few class C's a year.

@MISkier, are you saying you skied behind a MasterCraft with a single puck? I wasn't aware that MC went to the single puck system. Do you know if it is a production head unit or one that's being tested with custom settings?

Wakeye is nice, but not durable enough for our needs.

@Jordan I rode a 67" ARC for about 4 weeks and did very well on it...by far my favorite D3 ski. I switched to the S version a week ago and I'm going to stick with that ski for a while. Regarding the difference, I didn't notice any change in speed behind the boat, only in the turn, and mostly at the finish of the turn. As you'd expect, it feels like it gives a bit more and I had in increase sense of control at the finish of the turn. It sets in very nicely. I'm 165 lbs and prefer to ride a larger ski, so it makes sense considering I'm at the lower end of the weight range for the ski. If your considering the ski, keep the weight ranges in mind and your personal skiing characteristics. I came off the Quest 45 and found transitioning to the ARC very easy. I used same numbers for everything, with the exception of less depth on the ARC. FWIW, I tried the H2. My skiing style did not suit the H2 so I would suspect those on the H2 would have a slightly longer transition time. Regarding Nate, or any athlete for that matter, changing equipment takes time. The more you're in-tune with your equipment, the longer it will take to transition. When it's time to compete, you go with what you know best and he's been on the Quest quite some time. I know he likes the ARC, but difficult to find time to figure it out mid season.

Does anyone have a source for buying these Trakker video camera mounts? Need a few of them. Will consider buying used, but prefer new.

I'm more than a little surprised this ski is as good as it is considering it's not a revision of of an existing model. I've been on the ARC for 4 weeks and am skiing better than ever with tournament scores better than all of last year already. What's more reassuring is that I'm hearing similar stories from others. Just started on the ARC S this week to gauge the difference. D3 will sell many of these ski's. If in South Florida and you want to try one, let me know as I have several demo models available. @Horton - KD skis...nice blooper.

Found it...

At the Okee tournament a few weekends ago, we had a 5.3 and 6.2 Nautique 200 and both boats performed great. I skied both of them, same day, and they felt very similar. I didn't hear a single complaint about the boats. If there is an issue with the pull not feeling correct, its not a horsepower issue as these are very adequate engines and Nautique has done a nice job fine tuning the prop and software for the new configuration.

Been on the ARC for a total of about 10 sets in the past few weeks, coming off of a Q45, that I said I'd never sell. I've only skied a total of 20 sets this year, but after the tournament this past weekend, the Q45 is going on Ski It Again soon. Main difference for me was increased ability to hold angle off the buoy and a little better at decelerating. Size for size, there's more surface area under the ARC than the Q45, which I assume accounts for the shallow stock fin setting and it's ability to slow down better. It maintains typical D3 characteristics which I describe as 'difficult to fall off of' as it's very stable and doesn't do anything unexpected.

Helix 2, more aggressive and faster. Grabbed angle very early. Q45 is much more stable and a bit slower, but is not considered a slow ski. Turns are super smooth. Helix 1, in my and a few other skiers opinion, was more similar to the Q45 than the Helix 2. Had stability near the Q45, but was a bit quicker. Still one of my favorites.

Nice. Love that (lack of) color scheme.

@Higleyskier, the ARC is not an evolution of the Quest. @drewski32, currently, this is an addition to their ski line, not a replacement. I know the D3 team is crazy excited about this new ski. Looking forward to trying it soon.

It's likely a responsive template thing...if you scale your window, the interface will change to accommodate the screen size..

Apologies if some of the below is redundant from other posts. This seems to be a popular topic and I’ve not had time to read all the posts. Corey (@h2oSkiJunkie) seems to have a lot of energy for this as well as other pro athletes. As mentioned, there doesn’t appear to be a formal ‘business’ in place for the pro skiers. Having that group in place seems necessary for any progress to be made in this space. I don’t have a business degree but the highly successful models (think big 4 sports such as NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA) have a governing body that is very profitable and the athletes have a union they work for (think NFLPA) that makes money for the union and their governing body. The athletes are basically contractors and spectators pay a lot of money to see these contractors perform. This isn’t the model the pro skiers can take at this time as the sport obviously isn’t marketable enough. The point is, there’s a plan and a structure in place. I have no idea how to build either of these. I attended design school in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. In design school, we occasionally worked with businesses to get hands on experience working with real business problems. They would come to us with a business case for a new product and we would have design charrette’s to find possible options. We get a valuable experience, they get potential products to explore. I think this same concept could be applied to this topic. Just about all Universities have business department’s that could be approached for a similar engagement. If pro skiers need a business plan/plan for growth, it should be explored by professional business people and this is a very inexpensive way to go about doing just that. I’d also recommend that Universities that have Marketing schools also be targeted and work towards a multi-disciplinary approach to the problem. Now the problem becomes, how do we find these Universities that would be willing to work with us? The good news is, collegiate skiers are a very active/passionate group of individuals that would love to help out with such a project. Imagine being a college student and getting a call from Corey saying ‘hey, I need your help’. These collegiate skiers are the first step in finding the points of contacts (Deans, Chairs, Professors) in the Business and Marketing schools to start a conversation. Once the ‘Pro Skier Group’ group has a point of contact at the University, then I can see phone conversations with the Dean/Professors to determine if this is an acceptable project for them to undertake…this is where the skiers need to have a well prepared and detailed business problem documented for them to discuss. Having an organized and prepared body of skiers is essential as they will need to present themselves as an entity to department chairs/professors before they could be accepted. Skiers would likely have to attend sessions to work with the students to develop the business and marketing plans. With the amount of sports and reality shows on TV/Cable, and with the quality of video’s that @MarcusBrown and others turn out, I find it hard to believe that this sport isn’t marketable on some level. It may never get to the level of surfing, Crossfit, etc, but we’ll never know if there isn’t a clearly defined approach to get there. This is the lowest budget way I can think of to get to a roadmap for success in helping the professional skier make a living in the sport.

Agree with @Roger . I am testing some custom settings....between 2 settings I tested this weekend, the results were 'much improved' over what I had at the Oct. 31 tournament with the Carbon Pro. 3 different skiers, each at different letter settings, and all agreed the pull was considerably better. As @scoke said after several test passes, it's now back in the ballpark of where the 2 puck system was. I have two different settings to test next weekend before the next level of refining our software configuration will take place. I will test these with the same skiers I tested with last weekend to get consistent feedback. I typically get great feedback about my boat, and when that didn't happen with the new single puck, Centurion immediately stepped up to figure the issue out. They are committed to getting the pull back to where it should be. As I said in an earlier post, I think the concerns are premature. Each manufacturer can customize their software configuration for their hull/engine/prop combinations. Upgrading to the single puck may not be necessary to get the same feel, but testing/refining the software takes time and this is the time of year when the change should be made so we're confident of our boats come the spring tournament season. If you want to ski the Centurion, and you're in the West Palm Beach area, let me know. I'd be glad to pull you and let you judge yourself. -Paul

Interesting thoughts. With the BD tournament not filling all 40 positions in the finals (so I heard) it appears to be on the decline like pro events in the early 90's. Have they lost perspective on what got them to the point they were a few years ago? How will they respond?

Personally, if I had the old two puck system and I couldn't afford it/think it isn't worth the money I would not upgrade now, for a few reasons. 1. Currently the single puck does feel different to SOME skiers, but it may not in the future with software changes that the manufacturers are currently working on. It may not be an issue in the spring for those concerned about a different pull in a tournament. 2. You need to ski it first. As mentioned by several on the forum, it may feel fine to you. I'm assuming the majority of people on this forum haven't skied it yet so give it a chance before you complain about the change, it may be inconsequential or even beneficial too. How is this any different than the pull we feel behind different boat manufacturers? No one is petitioning for all the manufactures to use the same hull and engine to 'level' the playing field. I've even felt considerable differences in boats of the same model/same year, so I get that we're a sensitive group. ZO being the same on all boats, I personally like the pull of the Centurion and MasterCraft and know I'll need to adjust for the CC and Malibu. We also need to adjust for various weather conditions when we're skiing...it's part of our sport and has many variables. For me, what makes slalom so fun is that it's the most challenging sport mentally and physically that I've ever done. If not for this, I would have quit a long time ago. Also, I have yet to see the new speed control change skier placement at tournaments. There's no indication there's an advantage for any specific skier type. It still comes down to skill and ability to adapt. As @slow said, just go ski and have fun with it. You don't have to upgrade.

Change is inevitable. The reasons for the puck change have been discussed and was necessary. Software is complex. The more it's used and feedback provided, the better it gets. Will Bush and Paul Crawford are awesome. Spent time on the phone with them yesterday and have a new head unit to test on the way. The end of the world will wait for another day.

I've had 3 Carbon Pro's to date. No issues with them. Current boat has 200+ hours on it. It's a PCM 6.0L , same engine used in the Correct Craft boats, so there should be no concerns for reliability from that perspective. Yes, they are priced considerably less, mostly because they don't have all the bells and whistles of the other boats...a workhorse as you say. No compromises on the pull. I get the most positive feedback from the skiers at longer line and slower speeds regarding wake characteristics. Anything inside of 32 off and they're all very similar. The other great thing is the floor being all SeaDek...can't beat it for daily use and ease of cleaning. I'm the promo rep in South Florida and have one available to drive/ski if you're interested.

WPB, FL Air:87 Water: 87 Not much will change before early Nov.

With the discussion of the ‘beer’ leagues, I thought I’d offer up this mobile web application I built about 3 years ago. The screen layout is optimized for mobile devices but will function on a standard browser. The premise was to build an app that allowed skiers to compete against each other in a handicapped fashion. It doesn’t restrict you from competing straight up, but the ‘default’ structure is handicapped. Future releases planned to allow various competing formats. An ideal use case for this would be a group a people that ski together on a regular basis and want to compete against each other during a typical practice session where you ski up the rope. The app keeps track of the scores and placement until completed. Currently leagues are configurable by: - start date - end date - # of scores per skier - skiers in league - (future option would allow by league type (ie. handicapped, no handicap, team based, etc) You can also add a note during league creation that will go to your ski league members in an email with the invitation. Let them know any specific details…such as how much $$$,beer,etc. that’s on the line. Anyone can create a league that is in the system, so if you create an account you may get invited to a league in which case you’ll receive an email stating as such and it will show up on your list. Future releases would be more of a ‘Facebook’ type setup where you have to be ‘invited’ to be seen by other skiers to select and be added to their league. During the registration process, I request users AWSA membership number. This allows the league creator to easily access the skiers 12 month rolling average which will be used for the handicapping process (USAWS does not offer a web service to retrieve this info). If you don’t have a number, you’ll have to make one up as it’s a required field. After registration, you’ll receive an email that will require you to click on a link to ‘activate’ the account which ensures the email account you signed up with is accurate. Use/play with it as you like with. There’s an ‘email Feedback’ link on the homepage to provide suggestions to improve. I don’t know if I will continue to develop this, but if someone does, I can provide them your feedback for a better application. http://skileague.paulsantangelo.com/ Below are some sample screenshots.

Year?