Razorskier1

poor @MS - with no @thager he doesn't have an ability to transport 6 cases of sweetwater back to MN!

I will be there and endeavoring to do what I can to have some fun, along with brother Dave and son Mitch. This is an annual for us.

He's 71 -- there's still hope for me after all!

Always love the reviews . . . and I suspect that Horton is a better skier than he gets credit for!

@BrennanKMN - I'd contact Matt Keuseman. He was at Midwest MC, now with MN Inboard. He's worked on boats for me for 15 years and often can do dockside service so you don't have to take the boat in. He has also done work for a number of family and friends, and it is always top notch. While he works for a dealer, he has experience with all brands of boats.

Just had a new sender installed and mine is now working properly. It was under warranty.

From where that spray is and where the line is, I'm wondering if you are pulling too long/getting stuck pulling. If so, try to start coming up from your lean at the center of the wakes. Then just keep two hands on and ride out to buoy width. This is, of course, limited in value without video (which I'm sure was spectacular).

Seems like pros have two kinds of tournaments. Record tournaments on great sites where world records are set, and Open Events like the Worlds where it isn't about setting records, but about beating everyone else. It would be cool if big events were held at places that could also allow for world record type scores, but it's probably fine to have the two different types of events.

Agreed. Requires some adjustment on the front end but confidence at the buoy is high. In my testing I never overturned, never took a slack hit, and the ski never stalled coming out of the buoy. I wish I had more season left to tinker.

@RichardDoane is way more skilled than me! Maybe I can pay him to fly to MN and install a drain system for me! I have never frozen a block, but did freeze a heater core once - darn near sunk the boat!

Put in a mechanics light bulb under rhe motor box when it is on the lift.

No smirk intended! I took a lot of hard falls when I was learning and working my way first up to speed, then up the rope. I think if I had gotten some good coaching earlier I would have been better sooner, and been hurt less. As Lucky Lowe said to me once when I hung onto a bunch of slack and got killed "what the hell are you doing?" My response, "trying to run the pass". Lucky, "you're going to hurt yourself - stop it!"

quit falling so hard

I considered an unboxing video but that's really Hortons thing

Badal will win

Nah, but it sure is fun

@UWSkier - one more piece of that puzzle is to quit pulling on the line as hard as we sometimes do. As I was once told, let the boat pull you. You don't create speed by pulling on the boat. You create speed by the boat pulling you through the water with an appropriate angle on the ski. For me, sometimes the connection is lost because I got all aggressive and just plain pulled hard, and in the wrong place behind the boat. I try really hard to think about just putting direction on the ski, resisting (rather than pulling), and letting the boat create my speed.

@matthewbrown - that's so true -- very easy after a couple of sets or days to go back to "just pulling hard and trying to run buoys". Counterproductive, but tough to get yourself to stop doing it! Been 5 days now of very disciplined sets. Gotta keep it going.

@Chet - if I can ever get a break in my calendar I'd love to come ski with you again this fall!

The hardest thing about watching other skiers videos is often what we think we see is a result, not an action. In other words, doing a bunch of other things right results in "x", which is what we see in the video. This sport sucks! Why is it so hard?

Great vid. You can really see him moving forward into the handle when he hooks up, and the ski is "light" at the wakes, rather than loaded, allowing him to move through the edge and up on top of the ski consistently and seemlessly.

Mark, try to get the ski flat by the second wake. What Cord is talking about is the process of moving from leaning edge to flat to inside edge over the course of your "work zone". This has a lot to do with handle path. For example, if I lean hard at turn in (not recommending this!), the handle path is still coming back to you, so the load you perceive can be relatively low. However, if you want to maintain a constant load, you will have to start coming up, because the handle path is turning away from your ski direction. Holding on the pulling edge will cause separation. At the same time, transitioning to the inside edge too soon will diminish width (height) and will create an arc that, once set, is what it is. By controlling the change and holding your ski more flat as you exit the second wake, you allow the handle path to determine your direction (you are just a weight at the end of the line). This is the place you want to go. Make sense? BTW, all that we were always taught about not riding a flat ski is hokey, particularly with ZO.

@AdamCord - the speed building part needs more clarity for people too. For example, I'm a big guy. If I turn in and lean away, there is a tendency to push the ski deeper in the water, with more weight back on the ski. This DOES NOT generate speed, only load. However, if I turn in and MOVE FORWARD into the handle, without leaning hard, the ski stays higher, my weight is in the right place, and I get tons of speed with less physical exertion. Point being, I think a lot of us associate gaining speed with leaning hard (irrespective of forward/backward weight distribution), whereas it is really about moving forward. Once you are moving forward (as I've seen with @adamhcaldwell, you can then lean as hard as needed, generating great speed without undue load.

@AdamCord - the trick for me on shorter lines is exactly that - convincing myself to do it. Sometimes I get hung up on "running the pass" anyway possible. Then I pull hard, try to get wide early, and power my way out. It can be done, but it sucks!!! Last fall I got very good at doing it the right way, and 38 was almost automatic. Funny thing is doing it right is just plain easier, and so I had to get used to the idea that I didn't have to get all amped up to run the short passes.