EricKelley

Was a fantastic ski. I still have one in my ski room. The later ones black, pink and yellow were the ones that broke. I had one that broke in half and an attorney friend of mine bought it from me and took a deposition. He was representing a client in a lawsuit who had a very bad fracture of his leg due to a break of a Stilletto. I think the ones that were black with red and yellow were okay. I bought three of them back in the day from Lucky Lowe.

Let the cat out of the bag already.

No certain qualifications to enter. You will ski 2 rounds of record qualification. The top 16 skiers in qualifications will go to the head to head portion. The fun part of this format is that you never know what is going to happen. I have seen 1 seeds get there gates called and number 16 advance. No skier is ever "safe." It is a great format to watch and learn and meet some great people.

See kentuckywaterski.org for details.

Tournament drivers will be pulling practice on Friday and Most of Friday night.

The north lake is a very cool place to watch slalom at night. There is a point for an electrical transmission tower that is only several feet away from the boat path near the entrance gates. It looks like the boat is flying at night and the skiers can really hear the crowd.

There will be an included banquet on the lake shore Saturday after the 34 qualifications for all the skiers competing in the tournament. We will have Tshirts and "door" prizes as well. Auctions to benefit IHS will be held. One of the great features of the tournament will be that the competitors and spectators will never have to leave the lakeshore. All the food restroom facilities, vendors, and starting docks will all be on the same side of the lake.

These cash prize tournaments will be held at the tail end of the Southern Regionals and will benefit In His Wakes Ministries. The 34 mph division will feature men and women 34 mph skiers competing against each other in 2 rounds of record qualifications and then a nighttime head to head final. Last year Regina took the top prize and she is coming back to defend her title this year.

There will be a 36 mph cash prize tournament as well. We need all participants whether you think you have a chance to win or not. We want to support In His Wakes with as big a donation as we can make.

There will be practice under the lights on Friday night for anyone who wants to give night time skiing a try. Last year we pulled skiers until 1 a.m.

Any vendors wanting to donate prizes to give out, these will be very welcome as well.

Thanks, Eric

 

One of my favorite skis a Goode 9100 flexed essentially the same as new 9 years later. I have had catastrophic failures of them months of new. I think Dave's skis will not break down much over time. There either broken or OK. The earlier generation skis, Connelly's etc definitely had a lifespan. There is no one on the planet who stresses a ski like Kyle Jones does and he has ridden an HO believe A1 for 8 years and it is still good. This is an impressive feat for a ski as he flex's the boat pylon all the way to the motor box. He even flex's the pylon out toward the buoy. My hat's off to HO on that one. In my opinion, when buoys seem wider, you may need to hop on another ski and see if yours has broken down. I keep my old 9100 for this very reason.

Thanks for the replies. Sledge I am in Kentucky. Just no dealers for this sort of thing here because all our lakes are deep. I need about 24 feet with a wider area at the end. The floe's look good. Sledge's look good. Anyone use Patriot that sell on eBay?

I need a dock soon and realize that I cannot build the custom one that I want before the ski season starts. I'm thinking that I may buy one of the aluminum docks to use temporarily while I build a custom one. I want one that is good quality. There are a bunch of them on the internet and its hard to know what is quality and what is not. This needs to be a stationary design not floating. I will probably use the dock as a starting dock for tournaments later. Thanks

Greg,

I think you are spot on. This is one of the reasons we created the IN HIS WAKES head to head. I am dismayed with the dysfuntion of USA waterski and the Southern Region. Time for new beginnings. I am in.

I run them and really like how they ski. It changes how you think at 38 and 39. If I'm late I can still try to get around the buoy with less fear. Similar to the way downhill snow skiers go right through their gates. They are definitely more maintainence and I would not use them on public water. The color fastness is not near as good as the Wally's. Like Ed said you can paint them. I flip them inside out as well. I also have to replace the underwater flotation from time to time. I just use the small size noodles from Walmart.

I'll stay with the Firkin, who wouldn't with that name and the cool Tshirts that go with it. Girls prefer men who like Firkin.

IMO the 250 is awful. My family and I had multiple injuries with the 250 and prerelease. You can go to 250/400 or 400/400.

This has been a big problem lately with all the boat manufacturers. I am into powerboats and I just replaced a Garmin puck on my DCB with a GPS receiver from Livorsi. They are a big marine guage manufacturer who got tired of the garmin units failing. They produce a nice piece that will work under the dash. When mine fail, I am going to try one on the Nautique. They are about $375 I think. You can talk to very knowledgeable tech people if you call. I do not know if they would be compatible but my bet is that they would be.

Looks like we have another tough young girl coming along with her dad. Brooke and Mike Baldwin are coming. Going to be another family grudge match. I hope Mike gets a lot of sets in. Brooke's style is amazing now. She is technically one of the best slalomers in the world. Dad is a tough competitor who is difficult to beat in the head to head format. By the way if Brooke beats you, expect her to rub it in.

Took my son to Texas to compete in Boys 3. As a sole practioner in my office, it is very expensive to take an entire week off. If you have kids, they ski at the beginning of the week you ski at the end of the week. School starts here Aug 1so Nats. can't be a vacation because the kids can't miss a whole week of school. Expense and time compounded with essentially a week at Regionals 2 weeks prior. I could have put my son on a plane and stayed, but like the others said not at all worth it for 1 ski ride.

I really like going and seeing all my good friends that I have made over a lifetime of skiing, but time, expense, and 1 ski ride not worth it some years. The Nautique Big Dawg format is much more fun. That's essentially why we are doing the IN HIS WAKES HEAD TO HEAD and expanding it to the 36ers and the JR.'s

Listen to the boat in the background pulling jumpers. It is definitely a hot rod. I don't think I've ever heard a louder boat. Sounds like an old fashioned big block with headers. Worth a listen.

@Kelvin You are correct about the LOC and the prize money. Nautique should be putting up some of the prize money. They are getting pretty good money from their other sponsors, i.e. Obrien and others.

Personally, I think the prize money is low. We are offering more than twice the prize money without any significant sponsorship. The Big Dawg has evolved into a very exclusive event for skiers at the pinnacle of their sport. The prize money is not at all, "what it's all about" but for sure it is low with all the sponsors they have.

I like the new scoring system. It will ensure high level attendance at the U.S. stops. The Big Dawg has been a great thing thing for us older slalom skiers and it continues to evolve and improve over time. Thanks to Greg Davis and Nautique for their commitment to the series. Kevin sounds like the committee came up with some good changes. I like the later October final with the Open.

If you have ever caught the tip of your ski in the trough of a 196 at 39.5 off you wouldnt be quite as much attached to it. Loved my 196 but Ill take my 200 hands down.

The winner after 6 rounds.

 

In some of the photos, it is more clear t who the Bikini pros were.