WBLskier

Thanks everyone. Ed, I wasn't clear but I was proposing for this course to use individual weights rather than a portable. Honestly, I think you are right about time. The portable is really pretty fast anyway and all the maintenance on it can be done totally dry which is nice. I guess I am wondering if anyone with a permanent type structure has tried something like what I suggested as an attachment to the buoys (i.e., a doughnut shaped subfloat that you just drop the buoy w/ line/separate small weight through. How hard is it to locate the subfloats to attach the buoys to if it is a permanent course. Anyone use GPS location marking app to assist with this?

I could use some input on some questions I have about a permanent course setup. We ski a big public lake. We move a portable course around ever couple of weeks so it is always up somewhere on the lake (helps with wind and appeases neighbors). This works pretty well, but obviously based on wind direction sometimes we have days the course is blown out. I have been thinking (assuming we can even get approval) about adding a permanent course that we would only put the buoys on every so often (the times we would have otherwise had the portable in that particular location or on days that the portable is blown out because of wind). This would not need to be perfect (keep in mind the alternative is a portable course that often isn't perfectly straight). A sinkable course is not an option (fisherman or weekend warriors will destroy it for sure). Here are my questions: 1. Do the anchors move much? 2. What is the minimum weight we could get away with? 3. Is it faster to install the buoys on a permanent course than to just install a portable? If not, then there wouldn't be any reason to consider it. 4. My thought was to have a doughnut shaped subfloat that we could just drop a weighted rope tied to the skier buoy through rather than reach down to hook it up. Has anyone tried something like this? 5. Do weeds in the area make finding the course location really hard (any solutions to this)? Weeds aren't too bad, but could be 5 or so feet down I suppose. 6. Other thoughts/issues/suggestions? Thanks.

Texski--thanks, do you know or would you check what size your 9 year old has? thanks.

Any suggestions for a kids heater top that won't break the bank? 9 year old girl. Thanks.

FYI--REI outlet store has Camaro titanium heater tops on clearance (plus additional 20% off by 9/7/15) in most sizes. $61 after discounts.

Anyone have the "Titanium" heater top? I found one on clearance for a great price, but I am wondering if the "black tec" is the better one to get...thoughts? thanks.

Does anyone use a Camaro heater top? Do you like it? Do they run true to size? I'm trying to decide between a large or medium. I am 5'9 165. Thanks.

daryl---pretty great, isn't it!

Here are my thoughts. I have a 9 year old girl who is skiing the course. I too am a bad coach and not that great a skier and I have looked to this forum for help. Here are my tips in no particular order: FWIW, my daughter is running 25mph long line now, but 10 weeks ago she was struggling at 17mph, so they can learn really fast. 1. Use a full line (15 off is harder for them) and the confidence they gain by getting all 6 regardless of the speed/length is huge. 2. Buy a kids weight rope...it doesn't drag on the wake and seems to help with slack. 3. Get him to work on making one smooth hard pull all the way through the wakes...they can actually cut right through the huge wakes without getting thrown off by them...they just need the confidence and practice to do it. This seems like the single biggest thing to me. the turns come on their own. I have my daughter stand in the back of the boat with the handle attached the pylon and practice leaning against it in a stacked position. Then I send her off to ski and tell her to feel the same way on the water. It seems to really help if she did it right before she steps into the lake. 4. Get him skiing with another kid who can run the course a little better than him. We ski with kids of similar ages and as soon as one kid pulls off a pb the others are always quick to follow (within a couple sets generally)...it helps them realize what is possible. 5. Keep it fun at all cost. It is great to see them excel, which they do so quickly, but it is easy for them to start to think a good day is a good buoy count rather than just having fun skiing. 6. Free skiing occasionally can really help to work on technique. 7. Buy good equipment. I had my daughter on my old ski until this year when I bought her a new one. The new ones are just better than the old ones. Good luck. Hope it helps.

All good suggestions...I had the same problem with my old 89 prostar. Turned out to be the kill switch was going and it was an intermittent problem. Bypassed the kill switch and problem solved. Not sure why it didn't ever turn the boat off when running, but it didn't. It only happened after the boat was up to temp and then I turned it off. Super frustrating.

I'm trying to help my daughters and other kids progress in the slalom course. I feel like I don't really know what to tell them to focus/work on as I have to think skiing long line at 25mph and under things are a whole lot different than 34mph and shorter lines. What are the top things you would tell a kid to work on or focus on (one that is already running the course successfully but not yet cutting rope)?

I am curious about whether a Wally Sinker system could work for us. We ski on a 2500 acre public lake. Lots of fishermen and people dropping anchors. Seems like a nightmare waiting to happen, but curious about others who have had experience in that kind of setting. We could basically pick the depth as we have several places to put the course with the idea being we'd have one in place permanently (the wally sinker) and just set up a separate portable course to take advantage of wind direction. also curious about using wally sinker with a portable course as opposed to permanent (right now we just have several portable courses in our possession). If it could work, what would be the ideal depth to avoid issues with it getting snagged? How about weeds? Lots of questions I know. Thanks.

Interesting timing on this topic. I was talking about this over the weekend with some people. Here is my perspective. I grew up skiing tournaments (only modestly competitively and only in Minnesota) in my late teens and early 20’s. I always kept skiing the course on a very regular basis after I stopped skiing tournaments. I always wanted to improve, and I didn’t think it made me any less of a skier. Fast forward 15 or so years and my then 8 year old little girl who had really got into skiing and begged me to sign her up for a tournament. I did and reluctantly signed myself back up too. My dad who had also not skied a tournament in 15+ years signed up as well. We are now in our second year of skiing a few tournaments a year. We skied at the Minnesota state tournament last weekend and had a blast. Here is what I noticed: The numbers are about the same as I remember from 15+ years ago. There were more than 70 slalom skiers at the state tournament and I recall that being about the same. The names (and in most cases the people) were the same. There were lots of kids with recognizable names who (like my daughter) weren’t born 15 years ago. They are all talented, gracious, and nice kids. My kids felt welcome even though they didn't know anyone to begin with. The format is largely the same. Everyone pretty much knows each other. I am a newcomer and everyone was as gracious as I could ask for. I didn’t ski well and not a single person gave me a hard time about it. Skiing at a local level seems about the same as I remember from quite a while back. The pro tour has changed for sure, but I guess I am not seeing the impact at our local level. If pro skiing goes away completely, that may be a different story. Has the local scene changed that much in other areas of the country? On another note...we have hosted a local unofficial handicap tournament for the last two years on our public lake. More than 35 people showed up. Tons of kids who had never seen a course tried it. An adult who had been through only a couple times before won the whole tournament because of the handicap system. Everyone was interested in who was in "the lead" and couldn't care less about who was winning in a given division. I think adding a handicap winner to real tournaments would get everyone really interested in what everyone else is skiing while still allowing people to win in their own divisions based on true buoy count.

I'm looking for a new slalom vest for my dad (age 68 5'10" 200 lbs). He probably wants something USCG approved but not necessarily. Any suggestions that won't break the bank?

I installed perfect pass on my Monsoon II (Malibu) and I am wondering if others have successfully set PP up on that same engine. This is the one with the throttle in the channel between the block and the fuel rails. It requires a special bracket from PP which I have and have installed. It is all installed, and everything seems to be working properly. My throttle seems much stiffer than it was in the past. The black PP cable slightly rubs against the fuel rail because of the length of the PP cable (which I'm told by PP is the right one) but really causes no friction. It sounds like there is a bit of a metal on metal sound when the throttle goes in and out though it may have always done that and I just never noticed. I do not have an external throttle return spring added yet. Does anyone with this engine have any install/set up tips for me? Thanks. I have some pictures but don't know how to post them here.

Can anyone provide a link to step by step instruction (I seem to recall an old thread) or just tips to dialing in Perfect Pass 6.5 (not upgraded to Stargazer)? 1998 Malibu Echelon. Thanks in advance.

Handicap tourney. We have held our own private handicapped slalom tournament for the last several years. We pulled more than 35 skiers in it last year. It is an absolute blast. In our handicap system we basically ask everyone to tell us their best full pass that they ran during the current season. Then we assign point values to each pass/speed. Basically, you can run at whatever line length or speed you want. Each 2mph increase in speed and each shortening of the rope gets you 6 more points. A tie goes to the person who actually skied the best. Everyone gets a minimum of 4 passes to be used however they want. Re-rides are given pretty liberally. Theoretically, whoever gets closes to or exceeds their personal best wins the tournament. Everyone has a chance. Everyone skies as hard as they probably have all year. Everyone knows who the “best” skier in the group is still, but it doesn’t matter. Normally the person who wins is someone who has not skied the course very much before, and every time that person becomes a slalom addict the next year. We anchor a few pontoons near the course and it is pretty much a half day party. Even with all of the modified rules, people try their hardest. Had plenty of other bad crashes from guys who hadn’t crashed all year. It was because they thought they could win the whole thing (which they could). Can anyone tell me what it takes to qualify as a class F tournament? The one thing we don’t have is liability coverage. Almost everyone that shows up we are friends with but it still makes me worry a little. It would be great if we could purchase some kind of coverage for that day.

Cable snapped. Then teeth on winch got bound up. It was a pretty old winch.

I have a 3600 lb cantilever vibo boat lift. the winch just failed so I need to replace it. I was planning to just buy one from Vibo, but does anyone have any good ideas on other options? I've always just had a manual winch but would be open to other options. Thanks.

I have a video in the wake eye app that I can't get to save to my camera roll...and for some reason the sound on it disappeared. Does anyone have experience with these issues? Thanks.

My sister is considering buying an '03 LXI. She has little kids (8 and 11). How are the wakes on that boat for slalom at slow speeds (20-24) as compared to something smaller like a '91 prostar 190? How would the wakes compare at 32 and 34? Thanks!

Great help, thanks. So at what speed/skier size do you think it makes sense to switch to a narrower/shorter ski? I've got two girls so I'm not against buying another ski in a couple years if/when she is ready to go to something smaller. Thanks.

Any recommendations on kids bindings (not hard shell)? 8 year old girl; 60 lbs; currently only makes course at 20mph; size 1 or 2 shoe size. wondering if smallest radar women's binding would work? Thanks.

I'm looking for a slalom for my 8 year old daughter. She is about 60 lbs and was running the full course last year at 20mph. Radar now makes a pink radar total awesomeness 63" ski, and I am trying to decide between that or a year old 63" lyric. The Radar rep told me the total awesomeness is a different shape and different flex pattern than the lyric, but I was previously told by someone else they are the same ski with different graphics. Any thoughts on what would be best now, and if she continues to progress if she would still be well served on the total awesomeness for a good while into the future if there is a reason to go that route now. Given how young and small she is, is there any reason to go to a stiffer ski (lyric) rather than the very soft total awesomeness (if it is actually softer)? Thanks!

I've been there five times over the last four years. It is awesome. There are actually 3 lakes there...one is just really tucked away. E-mail Cory's wife and ask her to get you on the schedule...although there is actually no schedule to be on. I have gone with a large group a couple times and bought a block of time and all the other times I skied one set a day first thing in the morning. Cory is great if you are there by yourself as he'll bump you up in line since the others are staying there. Regina is there every morning about 7am to train, which is pretty cool to see in person. It is very laid back...Cory always just told me to keep track of how many sets I skied during the week and pay him on the last day. I can't say enough good things about that place. My skiing improved greatly (I had a lot of room for improvement) and I can say that I ski entirely different after having gone there several times. Have a great time. Santa Rosa Beach is a really great beach town. Wish I was going again this year.