SpartanSki

@OB, that's what I'm struggling with, staying on edge through the 2nd wake. When I really try to hold my edge through the wakes, I think I'm going stiff legged and not absorbing any of the wake, that and I'm probably not on edge as much as I think I am. Still need to head out to @Triplett 's place and get some coaching.

Man, I feel like the guy who's candidate just lost the election. Placid Waters in 2014! I really like the team idea someone was floating around. For those of us who are novices/new to tournament skiing, it eliminates that me against the world kinda feeling. I've ridden in some "goof" style bike races as part of team and it usually creates more of a party atmosphere. Goofy team names, costumes, pro's intermingled with the amateurs, good times. Someone would have to try 39off in a cape...

So this soft knees thing is something I'm struggling with. This morning I had a gate where the ski left the water when I hit the wake and I cleared the outside gate ball. This did 3 things, 1 - caused me to nearly s@#t myself, 2 - when I actually landed i though, "that was kinda cool", but most importantly 3 - When I landed, (this was probably due to bad body position) I was already pulled over to my inside edge. So when actually hitting the wake, should I be "softening" my knees to absorb the wake? Or am I just setting my angle and holding on for the ride?

@SDNAH2OSKIER, I started a similar thread on this just last week. I own an 03 Sporty LX and would agree with you 100% on the wake. We used to have an 05 RLXI in our group and while I thought the wakes were similar in size, the Sporty is much harder. I hope someone can chime in with a prop change but I'm not too sure as I think it is ultimately down to the narrow beam of the boat. I've been experimenting with weight in the bow with mixed results because I think due to that narrow beam, the boat drops with less weight. I figure I just need to learn how to cross the wakes better...

@andjules, I completely agree with you there, I'm sure I'm not stacked/strong enough, still working on it. I'm not going to blame the boat for the low scores, but it does highlight my deficiencies quite nicely. I don't think my Sporty or my friends 205 have a bad wake nor would I ever turn down a tow, but the 05 196 wake is something else, on par with the TXI I skied behind. The 07 196 on the other hand, has a pretty rough wake, I think I would struggle through the course behind that boat.

It is pretty much agreed that someething is amiss with the 07 196, but we can't convince the owner that we need to tweak it. I already run it without the rear seat, it is a family boat so I'll have trouble gutting it too much. I'm going to start with 100ish pounds in the nose and go from there as well. I'm in Clarkston DW, I'm on Greens Lake though I don't ski it yet..., but ski on some other lakes around Waterford/White Lake

Rod, I would love it if that was the case but we've spent a lot of time messing with that hydrogate and we simply can't get the wake to change much. It really surprises me the drastic difference between the 05 and 07.

I vaguely remember someone on here stripping a wedge off a Response to improve the wake. I guess it is a fair chunk of iron hanging pretty far off the back, the socket wrench may be coming out... jhughes, It's funny, I've never really thought about how narrow the boat is in terms of the wake. That makes perfect sense though.

So I've been smacked with the fact that my friends SN does have the best wake off all the boats in my general group. A hard fact to come to terms with from a devout Malibu owner. Here is the list of boats in our ski group roster. 2003 Malibu Sportster LX (open bow) - Tower/Wedge but no speed control, I know I know, I'm a former recovering wakeboarder 1993 Prostar 205 open bow - PP no notable accoutrements 2005 SN 196 closed bow - no speed control 2007 SN 196 closed bow - PP and Hydrogate I've always skied the best off the 2005 196, at 15 and 22 off the wake is phenomenal. For awhile, my scores were so drastically different, I was insistent that the speedo was off. Well, we timed the segments the other day and both his 196 and my sporty were right on the money. The weird thing is if I were to rate the wakes, the 2005 196 is way out in front, the Prostar and the Sporty have a pretty respectable tie for second, and the 2007 is trailing way off in the distance with a wake that is hard as rock and has a huge table top plateau in the middle. Any simple tweaks I can do to my bu to get closer to that 196? I have an 80# fatsack block that I'm going to try throwing in the bow, too much? More? Less? Any thoughts?

I tried on the Vector and I did like it, haven't skied it yet though. I'm taking off the rear binding this weekend and trying out a toe plate. Bogboy, I looked on Wiley's and didn't find what you were talking about. Is it just a wedge to go in the boot?

So I've been on the Connelly Enzo's for a few years now, and in terms of a good, form fitting binding, that adds a lot of control, these are amongst the best I've tried. However, while they rank high on control, I think they're a little short on safety, I've never been ejected and I don't think I can be without breaking the binding (which I've done) or myself (which I haven't thankfully). So I'm in the market for something new and I need some suggestions. On to the second part, in doing some basement, stacked position training, I noticed my rear foot has a natural tendency to come up on the ball when I push my front/ankle knee forward. When skiing, I've cinched my rear binding tight which I think has become a crutch/hindrance to getting off the tail of the ski. I skied this morning and left the rear binding closed but the laces loose and it did seem to help, my posture was better and my turns were hooking up better as I had more pressure on the front of the ski. So should I ditch the rear boot? Is there a shorter/softer rear boot I should try? A guy at my local shop has a Reflex front, Strada rear that piqued my interested, but I don't really have that kind of coin to spend. I've skied dual Strada's and didn't like the looseness of the front, but it might be what I was looking for in the back binding.

The connection loop looks huge on those buoys, will the standard plastic clip make it through those or do they need to be tied/zip tied on?

So Triplett's site is amazing. I took my son with me to the tournament and we got to watch Nate ski as well as watch Triplett put up a 1@41. Now I just need to convince my wife on the club dues... Awesome site, great people, twas a good day. Thanks Blain

Not this weekend, but we may in the future if there is coaching time available. But it wouldn't take much to convince me to ski Sunday, is there room/time for one more?

mzito, I am at the exact level you are as are most of the guys I ski with and know myself and one or more of us would be interested in lessons so we could possibly be some of the guys to muster. triplett, I'm going to hack up my course on Saturday morning then head out to your site to check out the tournament. Thanks again for all the help, looking forward to the weekend!

Thanks @Triplett, I'd love to come check it out. When is the tournament running? Looking back at the link that crashman posted I noticed that the home is on Triplett Ln, is that the site that the you're talking about? Bummer, since I just bought my house 3 months ago... On an unrelated note, my local shop just started carrying Reflex...I never should've tried those on.

Thanks for the responses guys. I keep up a course on lotus lake but its a big open lake with seawalls on all sides, it chops up quick. Greens lake has a sinkable course in a good area but I just moved onto the lake and my boat is on lotus, apparently I need to make friends. I was hoping to find a site/club to take that next step up in practice to get up to tournament level. Nothing huge but I've Been hacking up 15/22 off for a couple years now and id like to move up. I figured skiing with tournament skiers at tournament sites couldn't hurt.

Outside of Karl's place on the west side of Michigan, I don't know of any private sites/clubs around me. I'm in the Clarkston area (1hr north of Detroit) and was wondering if anyone knew of any sites nearby. Anyone?

As someone who still struggles with 15@34, I don't see how a shortline skier could miss, maybe take away his 55's to make it more like a true hackers course? Eitherway, I'm in for $20, if you want I could post up some video of me that Horton could study on how to properly screw up 15 off.

A carbon V, perfect pass and a dry suit. Did the Polar Bear ski in my wetsuit again this year...20 degree air temp, not sure about water temp but my feet turned purple.

Thanks guys, it is a lot of fun seeing how much he gets out of the boat and skiing as a family. I may have turned him into a mild addict lately as he has been asking to watch Edged in Water 2 instead of Elmo in the mornings. I hear ya about the shoulder, we did some training on land keeping the hips up and shoulders square. http://ballofspray.static.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/d0/8274fad3d3bd396216d3620445a2fe.jpg I can't believe how fast they grow Jim, hopefully he slows down soon...

Ok so boat speed was a little slow but the boat judge didn't seem to notice. Just a couple of days after his 2nd birthday, we asked my son Trevor what he wanted to do and he said "ski, water"! Out on the lake we went with his birthday ez-ski and when we rounded the bend to the section of lake with the course he yelled "Course!". So we took him through for his first pass. He had a huge smile on his face every time he passed a buoy. All of my frustrations with running 22 were forgotten, best day on the water all season. http://ballofspray.static.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/29/690cf7c6179d0185ff52a636c31e07.jpg Check out that lean! http://ballofspray.static.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/c9/6eb435c67b2c9b1f8de8bc74f12f7e.jpg

I noticed after my set this weekend that I have a couple pretty good dings taken out of the leading edge of my fin. I think its from the metal clips we use to hold our buoys on (another discussion). Replacing the fin got me thinking if it's time to replace the old ski. I'm on a 2003 69.5" d3 cx picked up second hand. I got it when I was 45 pounds heaver than my current 170 lbs. I'm currently running 15off at 32 and can occasionally make it at 34. My PB was last weekend, 4@22 at 32 mph. I guess my question is, at my skill level should I even be worried about a new ski or should I stick with what I've got and just focus on technique? I've been eyeballing the radar senate (non c) and the connelly V, as well as a few Sixam SS that are floating around ski-it-again and this site. My local shop has no senates left and apparently can't get them so I was considering H2Ozmosis' demo program, but I obviously can't demo a used sixam ss. Thoughts? Thanks, Blain

Not at first. Things started going better on my 3rd or 4th pass and got around 4 so I mentally thought "ok, forget buoy count and just work on technique this next pass". Ran the course, funny how that works. On that pass I did use the 3 ball line up and waited just a little longer on the one ball line up for the turn in.

Well, went out this morning and gave it a try. My first attempt was...bad. I was really early on the turn in and flat out missed the gates by a mile. The problem was I didn't get far enough up on the boat. My next attempt went better and as I got more consistent with how wide I got during the pull out, things started to go better. Ran 15 @ 32mph but 34mph alluded me. Gave a shot at 22 and I honestly felt like timing the gates was easier, didn't get past 3 but maybe next time. Thanks again b