JackQ

I have an handle that has one side orange and one blue, as it should be for a Florida Gator. Today I had the blue side up and kept missing 39, but I turned the Orange side up and ran 39 and got back in the boat. So everyone should keep the orange side up!

@skiinxs I do not think you fully understand how the ECM works, it is in a constant loop, if it detected detonation, it reduces timing, if on the next engine revolution or within that revolution (depending on ECU) on the next cylinder to fire it looks for detonation, if observed, it again incrementally reduces the advance. It keeps doing so until no detonations is observed, then it will start to advance the timing until either detonation is observed or "full advance" is reached. Essentially the ECU will always constantly work to be just on the edge of detonation. If you do not have high enough cylinder pressure to cause detonation, does not make a difference what octane fuel you use.

You’re ECM does not need to relearn the map, any detonation will retard the ignition advance within 10-15m/s without any intervention. Keep in mind the higher octane fuel has no more energy than regular only allows higher cylinder pressure before detonation, other than than zero, zip, no increased energy or power.

The critical parameter is to monitor spark advance under load, and if you can knock sensor activity. Premium fuel has no more energy to 87, only reduces the tenancy to detonation (knock) under high cylinder pressure. So IF (not likely) high load conditions (high cylinder pressure) the ECU detects the knocking and reduces spark advance until the detonation ceases, then increases, monitors for knock, are repeats every 10 m/s or so. Only when spark advanced is reduced is there ANY possibility of losing HP. If you observer throttle position in the course you will see that high loads are not occurring. You all are nuts

I think too many lose sight that in the 1980's there was a large demographic anomaly, the baby boom. When I was in Men's 1, it was the biggest divisions, same for MENs 2,3,4,5 and I believe Men's 6. Now in Men's 7, there are more in the division at the Nationals other than Men's 5. Yes, there are many issues that need to be addressed, but having 100+ skiers in one division is not likely to happen again. It was an issue of itself, different lakes, numerous different drivers, significant different conditions. Phil Adam's had the best solution, take top 5 from each lake and have ten in a "finals", same lake, driver, conditions

All ECU's make correct to knocking if experienced by lower octane fuel, if you have sufficient cylinder pressure to cause knocking (not likely to occur in slalom) within a few crank revolutions (less than 10-15m/s) I think you will find more correlation to the moon phases than octane.

@MichaelGoodman I totally agree. It would have taken days to do with a surveyor what ShurPath allowed. I was able to do a few buoys at day, as it takes multiple dives to get exactly where I want, vice close enough. I have the entrance gates within 1cm or less (most within a few Millimeters) of perfect and the boat guides +/- 2cm. Our course was surveyed and within record tolerance previously, but it is much more accurate now, thanks to Sure Path.

If you aren’t comfortable on your old ski and binder how can you evaluate something new? I wait to I can ski my norm before I try anything different. To easy to chase your tail and go down a dead end.

Upside and backwards, was the result of being in a rush to go back to “my old ski” after a dalliance with a new model. I didn’t know until it was noticed by Kieth Albritton on the starting dock as I was getting ready for my 2nd round of a 3 round tournament.

I have been fairly successful transitioning to 32 from 34 (last year) although I have not picked up the mystical/bogus "6 buoys." I tried a larger ski (same ski model) without success, but I was on ski that was according to Goode to large for me at 34mph. If you are on the high end of the weight range of your ski, it may mitigate your issue, but not solve them. In addition to @Bruce_Butterfield has commented on, holding on to the handle as long as you can to the apex of the turn is critical. 32mph will penalize any coasting, IE flat ski or letting out the handle until absolutely necessary. The old school drill of running 28 (and 32 if you can) with two hands on the handle may pay you dividends.

There are really two parts to this discussion. 1. Do you get more HP with higher octane fuel, as @matthewbrown correctly states that at high cylinder pressure, modern high compression engines can produce more HP as the ECU will allow the timing to be advanced to/and back from the point of detonation. All true! 2. When slalom skiing does a engine ever have sufficient load that would result in sufficient high cylinder pressure would require spark retardation the would result in lower HP, not likely (with the possible exception of high altitude), No it would not. High cylinder pressure occurs with high throttle opening, high load and high RPM, in jumping much more likely. Mfg recommend high octane as they want to be risk adverse to minimize failure for those, who would run to max rpm, slam the throttle, and a myriad of other abuses that boats commonly experience It would not be hard to record the advance curves experienced pulling a skier on 87 and 93 octane, and prove the point.

Using high octane will help your scores about as much as flipping a coin before you ski. Sometimes you ski better when it is heads, other time tails. You have a better chance to ski better with your lucky shorts, than expecting the octane of the your fuel to do so.

@skibug, you can run 34.1. When I skied in saltwater I would typically go to 34.0 or 33.9 on my hardest pass. Just go to rec mode, set you pull desired before hand, then you can go and save those setting, and in future select skier X, or whatever you saved the setting at.

Sam Ingram (Mens5) skies there regularly. I do not have his contact information, he typically skis early morning.

There seems to be much confusion of the benefits of high octane fuel are. Higher octane fuel has greater resistance to knocking/detonation, nothing else, not more power or energy. Using a higher octane fuel than your engine requires is just throwing money away. If you use a lower octane fuel than recommend, your engine may retard the ignition to prevent knock, which will reduce max hp, particularly at high rpm, and high load situations. Neither of which applies significantly to slalom skiing, if your monitor the TPS on a engine pulling slalom, rarely does it even approach 50% . Auto magazines have tested the loss of HP due to ECM retardation for knocking and have typically shown for non boosted engines a 2-7% loss of HP in those situations. If you want to learn more, suggest you watch the following link.

I treat the steering cable (and the mount to stringer, which adds play when worn) as an consumable item. I replace every 3-4 years as soon as any play can be detected in the system. As that will likely effect the ability of the driver to give me a consistent pull. I also replace my impeller and both fuel filters every year. I prefer to perform preventative maintenance than have the boat crap out when want to ski.

The only benefit of Octane is knock reduction, it is better, it does not have more energy, it is not cleaner! If your engine has high enough compression to require, and run lower octane the ECU and sensors will reduce the timing accordingly, it may cost you 10-30hp that you are not using anyway unless you a a jumper i the 200s or at high altitude.

Both tower judges and boat judge, called 2 1/2, the replay official (me) reviewed the TWBC higher resolution slow motion from three different cameras, and there wasn’t definitive evidence to overturn. But a valid debate.

@MISkier ,He is not perfectly perpendicular to the boat, he was close but not there at the apex of the turn, but 10 feet later he is bleeding off speed but the boat is not and therefore narrower.

Like Horton, I was former jumper with what I though was a required set of crutches. I still have scars from a lost battle with the side curtain, but that is a long story. I do say if you learn to jump properly your much less likely to get hurt, unfortunately I did not.

The issue at hand at Jacksonville is that the owner does not want any new members, and is encouraging existing member to leave to reduce the total member numbers. That may or may not change in the future but that is our reality.

Because if I am in Men 3, and ski at 34mph and run .5 @41 the other skier has a higher score and at Regionals, Nationals, etc will be seeded higher. Running a full pass at 39@34 is harder that 38@36; running 39@32 is harder (considerably)than running 38@34, as the rope gets shorter, the advantage of the 2mph difference diminishes. I have experience it going to 34 and then 32. During the year I slowed down to 32 mph, I ran 38@34 over 60% of the time in tournaments (more in practice), ran 39 a few times a month with a best tournament score of 5@39 and won the division at Nationals. After the Nationals I went to 32mph, and according to the ZBS handicap I should be running 39 most of the time and 41 occasionally. But I can only run 39 occasionally, and 2@41 and on rare occasion 3@41. Typically when I ran 39@34mph, I could get 2@41, it is not a 6 buoy difference, the max speed should be the max speed.

No it does not, the pulled 6 buoy out of their ^&%, because it is an easy number. Go look at the scores for those going from Men2 to Men’s 3, and Men’s 6 to 7. I went all compared the scores for skier the year before and the year they went to the slower speeds. I dont know if I kept my notes, but it was about 4 buoys, more surprising to me was those going to 32 to 34, where it ranged from losing buoys to gaining a pass, with the average only 2-3 buoys. As a general trend those skiing less than 32 off, gained more than those at 35 off and shorter. My option if you are going to build a handicapped formula, which what ZBS is, spend a little time and research to make it accurate, it ain’t 6 buoys

I usually loosen the laces, (just pull up the plastic clincher) but sometimes, I forget. And on occasion I just pull my feet out immediately in frustration of a crappy pass/fall. I consider the laces (actually 4mm bungee) as consumable, and replace 3-4 times a year.

@swbca Releasing on OTF the T-factors excel. One advantage of most rubber binders are, that the give before they release, where many hardshell type binders is there is limited give until they release, the give on the rubber binders in the process of releasing is especially needed when you “stuff the tip” and crush forward putting significant stress on your Achilles. All binder systems have pros and cons.