Nando

dchristman- thanks! Now I know where I've seen those (besides in a boat)- now I've just gotta negotiate... One other thing, when I did a lot of tournament driving, I always made sure the trick boats had a full gas tank- made a big difference.

dchristman, what are those weights? I ski with a guy that has some (not nicely dipped, but after I show him those...) but he has no idea where to get more or where they came from. They're close to perfect- I need to know if they're available.

A certain trick-skiing relative of mine gave it a great review from the previous day... not that tricking is the best measure of a boat...

Allison's?

I was at a tournament and a friend of mine left his Stiletto in front of a van that was unloading tournament equipment. The guy with the van drove over the ski with no apparent damage other than the fin, which needed replacing. He skied on it for at least the rest of the season. Then a couple of weeks later my then-girlfriend was traveling and the airline snapped hers in two behind the back binding. Tough enough to get driven over, but not tough enough to withstand gate gorillas, I guess...

Well, I wouldn't use a dremel tool- or any other power tool...

No blades! Use a pumice stone or sandpaper (or a low speed Dremel- I know a dentist who uses dental buffers- went in for a cleaning once and there he was grinding away on his hands), but blades leave edges that can make things worse. Sand 'em down every day to keep from tearing. Plus, MS is right- the northern water doesn't soften callouses nearly as much- maybe just because the water is so much colder we get out and dry off quicker.

I've spliced mine- just get a cable crimping tool (you can rent them; I was able to borrow one), measure carefully, and splice in a new section. There really is not a great deal of tension on cable courses- at least not compared to industrial uses. Trim the ends carefully so you don't get a puncture wound every time you touch the splice and it will hold for years.

Durability is a bit of an issue with the thin Reflex liners- I keep a spare around. The Intuition liners are higher quality and definitely a bit more comfortable (I've tried my brother's). If you've got room in the shell (which I don't), they're probably the way to go.

I want to second Gloersen's and BRY's posts. I'm about the same foot size as Gloersen and am fortunate that the Reflex shape matches my foot really well. If your foot works with the tighter shell option and thin liner, the connection to the ski is better than anything I've ever used.

Thanks oldjeep. Maybe it's just being near MN Inboard, but Malibu seems to have the marketing nailed to survive as a publicly-held company.

What is the ownership situation at Malibu? I know Mastercraft is now owned by the Wayzata Investment Partnership, but have never known if Malibu is owned by a larger concern..

I'm surprised this discussion has been mostly about what they look like. I like the way teak looks, and it's not that big a deal to maintain, I just don't like putting my ski on on the wooden surface when there's the option of a no-scratch one. Two of the boats I regularly ski behind have fiberglass, three have teak (including mine). I just prefer to keep my ski scratchless.

OB4s? I agree- Wileys are a very well-crafted 1970s design. WIleys are super high quality and their wrap options allow pretty good customization, but it's still an old design. What percentage of jumpers use anything else, though- 10%? Less? In my jumping days, I used Connelly HPs, then HO Animals, but I wasn't any good and I was an oddball using those. D3s seem like they'd be a pretty good option.

I don't get it (okay, I don't get a lot of things, but...) I was looking on SIA and there are two of the best looking ProStars ever yet they have teak platforms. Did a quick check of the other Mastercraft listings and all but two of the new boats were teak. Having just spent a couple of hours on my CC platform to get it looking good, I can't see why anyone would go with a wood platform- I mean, it's the only piece of wood on the whole boat- they've gone to great lengths to get rid of all the other wood on boats and yet we keep this one piece. And they're hard on ski bottoms (especially if they're oiled regularly)- give me a nice piece of maintenance-free fiberglass with a nice soft SeaDek covering!

So, guys, here's an odd question, but the Google air photos of the site show a jump sitting on shore opposite the boat house. Do you know where that jump came from? (I assume it wasn't built specifically for the TL development.)

old jeep or Razorskier, want to speculate on what it would take to make the lots buildable or can you explain why they aren't now?

I tried my brother's setup- same ski, different year, and white vs. black cuff- and it seemed that the tightness of the top buckle had as much or more effect on flex than the stiffness of the black vs. white. Do most white shell users set the strap to limit forward flex or just to prevent over-flexing? (His was pretty loose.)

I switched from a Valeo to the Schiek Garn gave the link to years ago- as he mentions, the cut of the sides is much more comfortable and they seem to be more durable. It's a little heavier, but negligibly so.

I also have a Vibo and we had to replace the winch on the lift at our family place and found their price to be below anything else we could find. I ski with a guy who has their power winch and it's very slow but has lasted for years.

I've always used my ankle bone as the reference point (where Horton's vertical line crosses his ankle bone). For example, I had been skiing HO Animals at the factory setting and when switching to Reflex, I marked the point where I've got a kind of distinctive pointy bump on my ankle bone on the binding, transferred it to the ski, found the corresponding spot on the reflex shell, and mounted it there. Measuring from the back of the horseshoe on a rubber binding always seemed awfully arbitrary- does it make sense for a skier with a size 8 shoe to mount his binding in the same place as one with a size 13? No way!

MattP- of course- I clearly wasn't thinking and was thinking only of the OB4 double plate.

I've found the Reflex R-style rear binding to be a good compromise- I had been on double high wraps for years and was looking for a little more freedom of movement and flexibility for my back foot. The R-style with Reflex front took a little getting used to but has become very comfortable. I do think that using it with the OB4, there would be issues with differential release, even if you ran the R-style pretty tight.

F-R-A-G-I-L-E, it must be Italian!

So, Horton, where are you now relative to the factory settings? A micro-just move back with the bindings, or bigger? Still using the "special" fin settings?