bishop8950

Lex popped the handle going out the gate at 39. I had a 6a38 in MM because I missed my 39 entrance gates by an inch, flat light, couldn't see. Too bad, the 39 was nice. But the big news in case no one heard Todd ran 5a41 to win MM

Got a close look tonight, right before he kicked my butt, it was a N1

Thanks @skidawg, thats right on Harolds ski, I remember now. @bhs, didnt see Chets ski, he was on the other lake all day, but I will get a good look at it tonight Miller is on "old faithful" mid

No worries, ski well!

It is split, running order is posted http://www.usawaterski.org/nationals/nationals/Saturday.pdf

Added what I know and some of what was above Greg Badal - HO A2 Todd Ristorcelli - Goode Ben Favret - Goode Matt Brown -HO A2 Andy Mapple -AM Chad Scott - Goode N1? David Miller - Goode Mid Kevin Bishop - D3 X7 Chet Raley - Goode Harald Hintringer - "Monte Carlo" I think Scott Larson - D3 X5 Kris LaPoint - HO S2? Todd Kuykendall - Goode Seth Stisher - D3 Fusion Mike Baldwin - Goode Todd Johnson - Goode N1

I heard all the 200s in Okee are 6.0s, Nats and Big Dawg.

Thanks Than, I needed to step up after the first round and it felt good to do so. I get to ski against Chet tomorrow and that will be fun.

@Tski - I have a 2000 LX and have the same problems, surging and segment times that are +/- 0.1-0.5. I worked a lot with PP but never got it sorted. They gave up and offered to refund. I have played with all the settings and run "inverted" which helped but still isn't working acceptably. Strangely when I run in Classic I can hear the Zbox engage under load, which I don't think its supposed to do, and I get good times. So I am running classic+Zbox and quit investigating. My module is old but PP says it shouldn't be the problem. If I did anything else I would get a new module but I don't ski behind my boat that much and no matter what I do it will never be ZO.

The fresh concepts in this thread are Horton raising USAWS Nationals ability vs age and the "level 10" concept. We need more new idea/challenges. @Double7s: My choice is clear, I don't have single M3 score in the last few years. Forcing the skier to choose wouldn't have what I think is your desired impact. They could work backwards from whatever event they wanted in the Nationals and ski that all season (ex M3), and still ski the BigDawg. Forcing choice or something close was proposed and didn't stick. Forcing skiers up by score ("level 10") would have an impact as long as skiers didn't tank scores to keep from qualifying for level 10, which would be sad. There were scheduling issues in the past, maybe not this year.

I only saw the qualifying, but Rossi's 39 was so sweet. Looked like 32 off. Keep it up Rossco!

Hortons question is good wrt ability vs age based competition in the Nationals. If we did remove ability based so everything was clear wrt age divisions, would the M3 guys be happier? I don’t think any of us expect MM or OM/OW to disappear from Nationals so I assume we will continue to have the format of age and ability based. As long as we have elite divisions, I think skiers should have the choice, period. No forcing up. One part of a recent proposal was that if you CHOSE to ski MM (not qualified), you stayed there for the rest of the ski year. Similar how you have to choose your division before Regionals and ski the same at Nationals. Personally I am happy to ski MM and stay there vs M3, but what if I want to ski one round as OM for fun? I don’t want to be forced to stay there. I don’t think there is enough abuse of the current system, or a superior rules proposal that will lead to change (mostly the latter). I think the options for those that don’t like it are A) fly to Okee and heckle and/or B) propose change to the rules committee. I haven’t seen a proposal I would vote for over the current situation, and I have no better ideas. The sport is better off as we passionately challenge it and want it to improve, but part of me is just happy we have a rules committee/Nationals at all.

Pull in your rope like rock climbers do. Hard to explain in text, but coil once to your knuckles and once to your palm and repeat in loops as big as you can (your wingspan). It puts big loops in the rope rather than small ones and therefore less coils. I dont get much of a twist in my ropes and when I do I just unwind it on the dock once a week.

I ski with Brian a good bit, he can pull off some heroics but this is insane. My favorite pic is the one loaded up behind the boat. Based on the last pic he joins the "Badal wardrobe malfunction club"! Kip ripping BFD and good luck at Malibu!!!

If you dont like the "sandbagging" show up to Okee and give them a hard time. Maybe they will tell you why they choose to ski M3 vs MM. I think for the most part the system works, there are exceptions. This said no matter how you modify the rules, I think someone will always have something to complain about. When I was fortunate enough to find myself at the crossover point between M3 and MM I chose MM. I thought of it as a choice between a chance for M3 gold or top 10 MM and personally I choose the latter. It is personal and I am not criticizing others for looking at it differently.

skiing Friday afternoon

I love watching guys with that much experience. He has seen 38/39 so many times, he knows exactly how much room he has and how not to panic. Similar watching KLP, seen it a million times so a hitch her and there, no worries. Very cool. Keep ripping Jeff

Cheers Steve, see you in Okee. Does anyone have the results/bracket for Sunday? How did it all go down?

Thanks LagoLydia and JayG80, I wanted to know how it went. Schroder, good to see you in the final!

I ski most of my rides at these three places: The first is "The Pond" on a normal afternoon (San Jose CA) Second is Lakeside Ranch (Patterson CA) Third is Shortline Lake, Wilbers dock (Elk Groove CA)

yep, front is exactly the same and the back is either also exact or very close. Boots will fit on both

I agree with DanE. I use blue Loctite and screws stay in unless I want to take them out, and then its no problem. I dont use a lot and I dribble it on the screw, not pour it down the insert.

Sorry to hear about your injuries, been there. There are lots of binding opinions out there so everyone needs to come to their own conclusions. I personally don't like any single plate setup because I want my front heal to lift no matter what. I run reflex front, animal rear. I think it skis great and I trust the release. It has never pre-released and never not come off when it should have. I also have had no problem with single release. I should have counted at the big dawg but think the majority of skiers ran front reflex, and most of the balance ran power shells. Good luck with your recovery and getting your equipment dialed in

Thanks Shane, it was fun to run a decent 39 down there. Now I just have to figure out how to do it every round like the Bigest Dawgs!

Most dedicated to waterskiing (~100 days/yr). Love to snow ski (~25 days/yr), even more than waterskiing. Then mountain biking and rock climbing when I can.