Dusty

Separated/cracked three ribs a while back. Hurt a lot and they 'clicked' when I breathed. Doc said they would heal in 6 weeks- (without reinjury...). I asked when they would stop clicking and he just said- "in about 6 weeks". I'd say given them a couple weeks and then you be the judge of how your pain threshold is 'coping' with movement and exercize. That'swhat I did. YMMV

IMHO, I see using video ONLY if for some (exceptional, AND excusable) reason the judge did not see the gate. Then THAT judge ought to get ONE look at real time speed- AND a caution to pay better attention. (Maybe also if the site has some defect that prevents proper judge tower placement- again, ONE look at real time speed.) Record tournaments have requirements for judge qualifications- it is not their first rodeo, and they are supposed to picked from the "most qualified available", absent conflict of interest... In a perfect world...

The speed read by a radar gun is always lower than or equal to the actual speed- due the angles involved. Target 'noise' also influences the reading. It's best to ensure that whatever you are reading has the striongest signal as well. The units read "closest, biggest, fastest" in priority to 'other' reflections- like spray, background etc.

It'll work fine. Pink is the new green... In fact, if anyone gives you grief- tell them it looks green to you because you're red/green colorblind. Or if you're in a hurry, just tell them to go pound sand!

In Sweden they call them elk- not sure their spelling (elg?). I think the North American settlers had no idea what to call "wapiti' but it was too long and too hard to pronounce- so 'elk' it was! :-) (I think "wapiti" means "big deer" or something really insightful like that.) :-) Mousse is of course a delicious custard-style dessert... But they weren't making a lot of it in the 1600's so when the pioneers first saw one of the beasts, they said- "let's call it a moose- no one will know, as long as we change the spelling a bit- it's a great one-syllable word, and it's not being used anyhow"... I think I need more, (or less?) coffee.

I can no way recall the necessary math, but as mentioned, I am not sure the skier path is a lot different unless deliberately skiing very wide at longer lines. What I can say for sure from watching a bunch of really good short line skiers from the boat and from towers- the work they do at -38 and shorter occurs in a much more compressed area, and the accelleration required in the restricted distance accounts for the increase in speed and effort expended. In physics, max tension equals max accelleration to a given constant mass. One skier described it as requiring more patience at 38 than 35- he says "there is no boat there for you" right off the ball. When driving them, I can feel where they are, but coming off the ball, there is not much tension in the line. The load builds progressively to max around the first wake...

If you keep shortening the line, eventually you will be narrow, whether you're early or not... From what I see, at 35 off and shorter, if you find that your eyes are much outside the buoy line, you are already in trouble on that pass- and the rodeo begins...

Some coaches argue that you can really only optimally tune your ski for 3 or 4 passes. If you tune for -35, 22 off is going to feel pretty doggy, and not so much like the other passes. YMMV- Then again, your opener should be a rock-solid/never miss money pass...

Most everyone here has posted some great stuff. I'll add- that at 15/22 you can 'get away with' pulling a little longer/less eficiently. At 28 and shorter, pulling after the second wake makes you faster and narrower at the ball, with less hope to manage a uselful turn.

With PP Classic, (after the gate factor was 'installed- 1999?)- if the system doesn't "see" a one ball, it wont add that 28% back in. As I recall, hitting the hand timer can trigger the rpm ramp up, to full speed.

I haven't been in the lake Sammammish course for a long time- I don't know if there are magnets in that course. Without magnets or without a sensor, or a 'smart timer' (borrow mine if you want!), you can still get a baseline calibration with a handheld GPS. Put in crew weight but do the calibrate without a skier. Get the boat straight line to steady speed at 34.2 or 32.3 or whatever you want. Write down/use the system's rpm numbers. Go to idle. Go to slalom mode calibrate, adjust the rpm to the correct speed/rpm, and you are done. When you pull a skier, add skier weight. The system senses rpm dropgain and adds/subtracts throttle, much smoother than paddle wheel mode.

I think you will find as LFF (especially), that unless you are moving forward on the boat (a little faster) in your pre-gate glide, there will be tension in the line and you are losing width. If you are maintaining width by staying on a turning/cutting edge, you are delaying your turn-in even more and sacrificing potential angle. To paraphrase one coach- "you can turn or you can lean but you really can't do both at the same time". Skis turn better when there is minimal line tension (not slack...)

The old timers have explained to me that at one time the gates were the same distance away from one ball as the two ball. When they shortened the course to its current configuration, they made empirical observation s of where (most/best?) skiers were crossing the centerline and placed the gates there? As Eric said- try watching the left gate ball, put your ski against it on the upcourse side and I bet you turn the one ball just fine. Adjust from there, due LFF or RFF. Great gates make easier skiing. A friend explains it like this- "you can run 15 off with 35 off gates, but you probably aren't going to run 35 off with 15 off gates"... unless your name is Andy Mapple of course...!

How about- "There is ONE skiing position, and a turn on each side."

Turn and burn may work with ZO- but not for me any more. I also know long pulling (past centerline) makes me fast and narrow at the ball- neither helps me turn better-

Hey John- What effect/influence do you see the sponsored Pro skiers having with the "best" ski? In a lot of conversations over the years- I have often heard words to the effect of "I know it's a great ski, but I have never been able to ride a ski that 'so and so' prefers or helped design" or whatever. Due style or technique or whatever, some "best" may not work for "the best"?

I have seen folks miss the gates every way they can be missed- espeically on the exit (6, no continuation, for up course of right hand gate ball))- even by some pretty good skiers on occasion (usually in trouble at six ball.) I have missed that one too when sun glare made one or both invisible. What it might boil down to is changing the rule could create another tier of records- old way v. the new way or some such. Since the World rules seem to govern these days, it would probably take a whole lot of people on board to accomplish any such change.

How about keep the right hand entrance gate and the left hand exit gate- anything left (entry) or right (exit) counts. It is not an adavantage to the skier to be down course of the entry and up course of the exit. Or maybe make the gates 'vertical ' in the course and about 5 meters wide? Or...

When I ride a motorcycle or bike, before i lean into a right turn I move my COM left. I think it's kind of the same theory. Th kinesiologists (spelling?) understand it, I just know it works out best that way.

My coaches get after me about not seeing the next buoy out in front of the boat as I finish the turn (cures head tipping too!), once turned, the buoy is 'behind' the boat- I (try to) look at a specific point on the boat- pylon, lift eye, near/far corner, whatever works, until I have croseed centerline. (Aim small, concentrate...) But mostly, when the line goes tight, my mind goes blank. There is hope though, I read that Pavlov's dogs did not salivate at the bell when they were not hungry- whatever that means!

I've had pretty good luck with Starbrite products, and have stopped sanding finer than 120 grit. One thing I have been doing is power washing before starting the chemical attacks on the algae etc. Teak isn't particularly hard, and aggresive sanding WILL find the screws that hold the step together. The you end up shortening the screws, filling the gaps etc- makes a two hour job a two day job at least.

Kudos to Chef23- my thoughts exactly! Dropping wrestling will also open up room for some great events like competitive Zumba, or maybe roller skate pole dancing, In Winter they could drop one of those boring ski races and add a neat event akin to curling or ice dancing... The IOC really has their act together these days. USAWS (and others) keeps sending money and they keep serving up more great stuff! And nope, I don't really care and I wont be watching either.

My hard wake 'detectors'- ankles, knees, hips and back tell me that of the boats I have skied behind at 15 and 22 off, from 28 to 34 mph, rank this way in wake size/softness... SN200; 1997-2000 SN 196; Malibu Sportster; 92-94 MC; Malibu LX. Many others seem fine if balanced properly too. Open bows have not really mattered. Installing showers, heaters and PP is not difficult even for me! Carb boats have run fine for me and the nice thing about them is a 'rebuild' costs about $30 in parts. EFI is great, but when it wont run you will probably not be limping back to the dock- and I have found skis make really crappy paddles... Beware- there ARE some boats out there that have rightfully earned the moniker "Widowmaker". If you can, try before you buy!

Some of you are waaay tougher than I. 72 degrees combined- 35F. air, and 37F. water. We were 'training' for an early tournament. Ice cream face was epic... My partner that day regaled me with his coldest, where he and the others broke out a boat and skier path and shoved the 1/4" slabs under the ice outside the course. I was really glad I was not part of that.

Hmmm. Off-topic- Just for the novelty, and not that it is even logistically possible- What if you had 3 toureys in each of two or three Regions? Would they go back to the Region you reside in? Not that I will ever qualify, but I WILL be retired in about 3 years 4 months and 15 days... Oops- after midnight now. make that 14 days...