andjules

@DynaSkiPete you're saying your slalom customers don't have any trouble putting a double boot on one of your half-platforms? Is that true for the 17' as well as the 20'?

I finally got my first sets in on Sunday (and, predictably, I'm very sore). Observation: the previous 3 or 4 winters I managed to ski at least once, if not a couple of times, over the winter, and got pretty used to skiing pretty well on my first runs of the spring season. In 2017 I only got to Florida at the end of March but got a couple at -32 on my first set, 5 @ -32 on my second and ran it on my third, which would be a pretty good day in the summer for me. This year, with a full 8 months off, I only managed running my opener (-22) a few times on the first set and didn't even try -28. My second set I got 5 at -28. A bit discouraging (but then again, I forgot to tell the driver to switch to my preferred ZO setting)

@LeonL hahaha no offense taken. The reality is pretty close... I'm in marketing.

Sounds like a great opportunity. It also sounds like you've jumped to a conclusion that "public" means a full-time, unsecure, pay-per-use sports park. Personally, I'd acknowledge their desire for the site to be 'public' and then work with/towards the most limited interpretation of 'public' possible, to start. "Public" may just mean they don't want to give you and your closest ski buddies an exclusive, restrictive lease. So, I'd start with something like: Of course, I'm not looking for a private lease. Yes, let's make it open to the public. But let's start modestly, with a pilot project to gauge interest, and figure out what access costs should be so that we're all adequately insured. Let's do a feasibility test with a water ski "club" - anyone can apply for membership, of course. And to save making a big capital outlay, let's start with members who can bring their own boat. For now, just to make sure we don't face shoreline soil erosion, let's limit it to USWA certified waterski boats. We'll get "club-based" insurance, but again, anyone can apply to be a club member, so it's still accessible to the public. We'll run a couple of "guest" evening events where non-boat-owners can come out and try waterskiing for a usage fee, and use that as a way to gauge how economically feasible it would be to (one day far, far into the future) maybe have a staffed, pay-per-use facility. I'll also try to find a passionate SUP organizer who could apply to start a similar bring-you-own equipment, insured SUP club on another pit/pond. We could start working on a proposal to put a straight-line wakeboard cable park on another pit/pond, subject to determining economic feasibility. Of course, we would need some locked equipment storage (20' shipping container?) and a locked gate to protect the facility/equipment from vandalism. Not hard to imagine getting you and a few ski buddies your semi-private paradise while maybe sharing the place with a couple of similarly-restrictive specialty clubs (if those other sports can get organized enough and meet yours-and-the-owners conditions). "Open to the public" doesn't have to mean "open to anyone at any time with no conditions whatsoever".

Breadcrumb trail: I wouldn't have twigged to the relationship if @twhisper hadn't posted a photo of the KD trick with the distinctive round tip (like the Jobe trick ski). Then I remembered some comment about Wayne Briant being involved in KD and remembered Josh Briant was a Jobe tricker. [/ski-nerd] And yes, I assumed we wouldn't be seeing the Jobes on this side of the pond... at least this year.

I don't have any details/confirmation, but if you read between the lines, I think you'll find these are two brands from the same parent company (think Chevy and Pontiac). I think Jobe is still a familiar brand in Australia, I suspect they're trying to leverage brand loyalty by re-branding (mostly) the same product(s)... which makes sense (nothing wrong with that). Jobe Edge KD Platinum Check bullet points, note the topsheet detail, etc. Same ski, same mold, same Korad base, same everything but bindings. But curious if the nuances of the layup are the same or if one's softer than the other, etc. Same goes for KD's new trick ski... looks to be a re-painted Jobe Revert.

@ozski do you know if the Jobe Edge is a KD Platinum with a different paint job? or is the layup different? Marketing specs read exactly the same.

Poor man's equipment bag room for your rope, jacket, shorty, towel

That is a very cool quest. Personally, I would get on travelzoo.com and search the forums for the bigger towns on the Caspian like Baku/Bilgah Beach, Aktau, Avaza, Ramsar. To my knowledge, every sub-forum on travelzoo have expert 'hosts'/moderators and hopefully someone-knows-someone with a suitable boat (you might need to count on bringing a ski and a rope).

@lakeaustinskier mentioned it above, but think about all the times we talk about TW being short(-er) or Chris Parrish being tall and what a huge disadvantage/advantage we imagine that represents. At 5'4", Regina is unstoppable.

I always want to see the frame before

As someone who has spent a lot of time in outboards (admittedly not in recent years) and inboards, the outboard-packaged throttle/control units were always sooo inferior to the morse throttles. I know that way, way back you could put a morse throttle on an outboard rig; don't know if anything has changed. As per @oldjeep's comment about swim platforms, I see your 20' open bow has a large sunpad over the storage trunk. I wonder if seadek would be a worthy option there for a waterskier's rig? I need somewhere comfortable/functional to put my ski on.

@jcamp the women's finals (top 4) were: Regina (1) Whitney (2T) Manon (2T) Jamie Bull (4) I think 5th in scoring would have been Brooke Baldwin

@Gar Martin Malarczuk, Argentinian skier beat out Travers and Freddie for strongest pull.

Reviving this thread just to note that Jodi Fisher skied in last weekend's Big Dawg on an SP: https://www.facebook.com/jodi.fisher1/posts/10160391264335451

I taught at a summer camp for several years, mostly teenagers; and have taught a lot of weekend adults as well. As for deep water starts: Re: #2, I found that some people did better with two-feet-in, some without. Generally speaking, I had a little more success with two-feet-in when it was women or stockier guys; and a little more success with one-foot-dragging for most guys and lanky/skinnier women. As for #5, yes to the first two things: stay in a ball and keep arms straight. As with two skis, if they fall forward it is almost always from standing up too early; if they fall back it is almost always from pulling their arms in (trying to pull themselves up, which works on land, but not when your feet are on slippery water). However, if you do teach two-feet-in, it's important to put some pressure on the back foot; you push on it, but don't actually want to succeed in straightening the leg. Also for two-feet-in: they shouldn't struggle as the rope tightens to keep the ski straight vertical; it's better to let the ski tilt 10º+ to the side — e.g. to the right for right-foot-forward skiers — but it's important that the skier's mass is directly behind the ski, obviously. It's really difficult with two feet in to balance in the water with the ski straight-up-and-down, and it's a waste of energy to try; the ski will straighten up naturally when it starts to track. As for #1, use some discretion. Neither gentle nor hard for the first second or two; you're plowing through a lot of water at 4-8mph, that part takes a lot of strength. Don't yank them but don't let them drown before their ski starts supporting their weight. As per @UWSkier's post, you should generally be teaching them to slalom initially by dropping a ski. Once they're comfortable, you can run them through a helpful drill for learning deep water starts by slowing the boat smoothly down to 15 or 10mph and then back up; it gets them ready for the instability and increased drag that comes with a deep water start.

I think I'm in love with it.

All three are great. There was a tourney last October where Neilly tricked 10,520... and came third.

@adamhcaldwell this is fascinating (and radical, and maybe a paradigm shift). In the interest of searchability, could I convince you to copy your post with Andy photos and the post with your overhead images and start a new thread, or at the very least, add it to @AdamCord's GUT gate video thread? This centreline discussion has been a fantastic thread in its own right (thank you so much for your contributions!), but this super-early-pullout seems like it needs its own discussion. Geez, I've been second guessing myself for years for pulling out a little earlier than most would coach. And yet I pull out soooo much later than what you're showing here.

@sfriis with respect to: I don't buy the "downswing" "upswing" concept What I've found extremely helpful is the upswing part: that if my ski is rolled away from the boat past the CL, I'm essentially "draining" energy that I built in the downswing, and I won't get as high on the boat, as quickly. The conceptual innovation here is that for years, a lot of coaching (understandably) has emphasized keeping your "outbound direction" in an effort to ski wide instead of narrow; while there's some truth there, the problem for me (and I suspect others), is that this emphasis tempts me to keep my ski rolled away from the boat after centreline, essentially trying to get my ski on a different path than the handle is going to take. The only way to resolve the handle going one way and the ski going another is for my body to absorb the difference (letting my arms out, getting "separated", which essentially lengthens the pendulum, losing energy/intensity/velocity). By staying "tight" (resisting with my arms) but NOT resisting with my ski (past CL), I lose/drain the least amount of upswing energy. Does that help? And @adamhcaldwell, is that a valid interpretation?

as @eleeski hinted at above, there is an important difference between (1) a stubborn scum line sitting on the gelcoat, from the last month or two on an algae-heavy lake vs (2) a stubborn scum line baked in to the gelcoat over several years. With the latter, you're going to be using acid and/or grit and will be affecting the gelcoat itself, so from there on in, you're going to need to wax and buff more often.

@horton true enough

@DynaSkiPete You've kinda hinted at the answer to your own question: What is the incentive to sell boats cheaper? Volume, hopefully. Essentially, (margin/unit) * units-sold = profit We can dream about a significant volume at a significantly lower price, but in the current market, it's perhaps more realistic to hope someone could tweak a little more volume with a little lower price. I know a lot of consultants who seem very proud that they charge $500-600/hr, but I always wonder how many hours they sell.

I agree with most of what @fu_man said above, if we (as consumers) keep believing that (even a used) MasterBuTique is better, then there really is no incentive to drive the market for a new cheaper option However, there may be some hope that the big 3 won't keep acting like a single monolith. Anecdotally (at least at the clubs I've been to), it seems like Nautique has been increasing its lead, and like Sony or Apple, it strikes me with the new MRSP that they're testing their pricing power to see how much of a premium their reputation can buy them. It makes sense in that environment for either Mastercraft or, more likely, Malibu to go the other direction and try to make at least a somewhat cheaper (and perhaps more broadly appealing, family-oriented?) boat and try to exploit a pricing opportunity? Perhaps wishful thinking, but if I was competing against the new Nautique, I'd see the MRSP as the thing to take aim at. If you're Nautique, Mastercraft or Malibu, one of your biggest competitors/barriers to growth is your own used market. The price between new vs used grew so fast (between, let's say, 2000-2010), it's driven lots of potential new buyers to used. The question is whether any manufacturer can reverse that trend.

@OSUwaterskier the Moomba Outback was around for at least 10 years, and pricing changed a lot over those years. I certainly remember in the mid-2000s neighbours being able to negotiate (regardless of MRSP) upper/mid-30s ($Canadian) for an Outback at a time when a new Nautique or Mastercraft would be > $50k out the door, and a Response might have been just shy of $50k (again, $Canadian). So, at least at some point, we we're talking a good 25%+ difference.