Nando

Well, I've been in two wedding parties that all skied in their tuxes between the ceremony and reception. In both cases the bride and bridesmaids went with swimsuits that coordinated with their colors, but the guys went in their tuxedos- those things are pretty much indestructible- just hang them to dry and you're good. It helped that these were casual receptions... Pretty cool

Well, I've been in two wedding parties that all skied in their tuxes between the ceremony and reception. In both cases the bride and bridesmaids went with swimsuits that coordinated with their colors, but the guys went in their tuxedos- those things are pretty much indestructible- just hang them to dry and you're good. It helped that these were casual receptions... The BOS introduction is pretty cool.

Ah, but just to fuel all the speculation of other threads, what's Adam replacing it with?

I love my permanent course permit!

@6balls, we never had a problem with hanging on- just grabbed the rope under the buoys and had the boat driver drag me to the next one. Under-inflated buoys are easier to slip under the cable and we usually dragged the guy in the water at -28 or -32. Once we had the process figured out, it took maybe 15 minutes. I hindsight, I'm wondering why I was always the guy in the water...

@6balls- exactly- the rope needs to be long enough that the cable stays below prop level. We just had buoys on it so that when we got the next diamond we could just let go while we hooked the buoys up.

For years we had to drop our course. What we did to speed up reattaching the balls was to take two buoys with about 6' or rope between them and slip them under the cable, then the guy in the water would hang on and drag between gates, attach the buoys and repeat the process. We could do that in as little as 15 minutes. We had one end of the course shallow enough that we could simply jump in and find it- if you can't do that @6balls marker buoy is the way to start. Can't tell you how glad I am that we finally got a permit to leave the course up...

At Paris they could use the same wonderful site at the '17 Worlds...

Not to go too far off topic, but to echo @liquid d, I laughed so hard when I heard about the doping in curling- isn't it just an excuse to drink beer? Local TV (MN) did a spot on the local angle of the gold medal and showed that the local club keeps the beer kegs along the side of the ice- about 50 of them- gotta love that...

IMO, during the push to get into the Olympics, too much of the AWSA's efforts were diverted to that initiative, to the detriment of their core members. I think it was a sincere effort to grow the sport and make it "big time". The issue to me was that, at that time, it was thriving and rather than promote the existing product, there was a movement to adapt it to make it coincide with what the IOC wanted their sports to be. Also IMO, there was no way at that time that the IOC would allow motorized sports to be part of their model. Also, at that time, to voice opinions contrary to the Olympic push would get you pushed out (trust me on this one). @ShererSkier, your comments on Flowpoint TV, X-Games, etc. seem to be the direction to go if we want to get the exposure needed for increased popularity. There's no way to overstate how much the sport needs guys like you to move it forward.

My greatest wish is that there could somehow be a rebirth of the pro tour. ESPN did a great job of producing the broadcasts and they were great in person. There are a few tournaments that still capture it- the Malibu Open, Moomba Masters, the Masters, for example. Even though the IOC has opened up a lot, there is no way that a motorized sport will be in the Olympics and an incredible amount of time and effort was wasted about 25 years ago. X-Games seem like the venue. The head to head slalom was a good format, but the jump competition in the pro tour was fantastic and really captivated the crowds.

NO, NO, NO!!!! This idea devastated the sport 20 years ago! Horton, shut this down! (Sorry- got a little excited there...)

Second the StarBrite- it will deal with the nastiest hull stains.

I found the tongue softened up when heat molded and really felt no difference from the Reflex thin liners when I switched last fall. I did remove the insoles for better feel and fit.

If the new, bare-bones boat had comparable fit and finish and wake, I might go new. The thing for me is (or was, as I re-boated myself recently) that for considerably less than $35K you can get a very nice used 196, ProStar or Malibu.

@DW makes good points. In my area, we used to have 3-4, sometimes more, tournaments held in the core of the metro area where they were visible and accessible. For years, all had been held an hour or more from the population center, so no one watched. The competitive core was there, but there was never a casual skier who wandered over. I live on what had been the primary tournament lake and am often asked by people why there aren't tournaments anymore. They don't think they've moved, they think there's no more competitive skiing. We hosted a tournament last year, for the first time in nine years and it was amazing how many casual observers showed up. Visibility is one key (just one, but we need it).

Trent's stuff was good, but clearly he had no resources to work with. There seemed to be a lot of content that was kind of in a "skiing is dying, get used to it" mode. Trent is a really good writer and I had hoped he'd be able to take over and run with it, but it seemed clearly doomed by a lack of commitment from above.

They were clearly just going through the motions once TR left- just a bunch of stock photos with some totally worthless articles. Sadly for me, I opted for a two-year subscription renewal a little over a year ago- oh well. It's a digital world, who needs a printed magazine when we've got BOS?

70 and 70 degrees sounds like mid-summer to some of us...

I'm brand loyal to Nautique, but recognize that all the approved boats are really exceptional. As for skis, I'm loyal to nothing and will go with whatever I get to try and like. I have had terrific support whenever I've needed it, from setup advice to warranty claims, from just about every ski company over the years.

Lake X, Thomas, because??? It was 2009 or so before they finally changed the name on the plat maps to "Burns Lake". Dave listed it as "Lake X" because there was no way he was going to put the official name, "N-word Lake", on anything going out to the public. P. Chapin and I took a wrong turn while delivering a trailer full of tournament equipment there once and asked a local how to get to "Lake Saucier". That's when I first knew the real name. Even back in those less PC times, like 1976, maybe, we couldn't believe it. I wonder what happened to the pickup boats Dave had with graphics matching the later skis...

I'm so old that I remember Dave Saucier putting a pair of jumpers across two logs and pulling his truck onto them to show how strong they were- at the euphemistically named Lake Saucier, of course.

Some of my skis have whistled, others not. As @Thager said, the old Sauciers, probably because Dave Saucier thought a drop-through fin weakened the tail, had their fins screwed onto the bottom and whistled a lot. My T3 does a little at shorter line lengths in smooth water. Years ago had a Connelly Concept that whistled all the time- that one probably because it was just before adjustable fins and I had raised my leading edge with washers which may have allowed water to flow throughout he fin slot.

This is not a new phenomenon. A friend lost his Nautique promo several years ago, after 25+ years in the program primarily because he turned it back in, rather than selling it. One of the MC promo guys, who was in their program from the beginning, lost his without warning because of too many in the area. He dropped it off at the dealer, dropped all his MC gear at Goodwill, and bought a new Nautique that day. These both were quite a few years ago.

@Horton, the point I was trying to make was what you said in your second post on this topic. Yes, they all are pretty fantastic now but IF a hull designer compromised the tracking and driving for a flat wake, it would be counter-productive.