RLogan

After 21 years of Nautiques, we jumped ship to the Prostar in 2016. Bought it from Jay Bennett. Steve Crichley is the best. Buying a Ski School boat from Jay can not be bested. New boat warranty and the boats are immaculate. My wife and I are at 30 and 32 mph respectively. There is simply no better wake out there.

Ski Chaste Lake, Mobile, Alabama: 86F

You gotta get your mind right, Luke.

It's not designed to be removed. Just folded down. You can remove it. I have. But be prepared for a little fiddling getting the spacers back in place as you reinsert the retaining pins.

I saw that boat the day it arrived at Bennett's from the factory. Sweet. I was picking up my 2016!

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Depending on how much trailering you'll be doing, that $3000 or so would be better spent on a ZO conversion. I know Jody Seal has done a number of them,

Crankin' it in Mobile in spring suits. Water high 60's Air mid 70's. Azaleas and Dogwoods blooming!

Just a note regarding Royal Purple. 11 years ago I "cooked" my 2001 Nautique GT40 motor using Royal Purple. Apparently, the oil did not hold particulates in suspension. Over a period of 2 years with 50hr oil changes, the sludge in the pan built up to the point of clogging the oil pump pickup. The result was burned crank and rod bearings. I own a 2016 ProStar. MasterCraft has approved Rotella 10W-40 as a replacement for Dexron III in the transmission. It seems smoother and quieter.

You do not need a reflectorless station to use the Leon survey method. Nor do you have to hook it up to your computer. It merely simplifies the process. You can tell the Leon forms to accept Deg/Min/Sec, Deg/decimal degrees or Gons. if you choose to use Deg/Min/Sec, the entry format for 43°22'51' would be 43.2251.

Good input Ed. I was far from prepared to spend $7,000. The Miami guy is my friend Ed Finley who devised his own survey program. I bought a circa 2007 Leica TPS805 Ultra for $3900. Jerry Jackson got religion and found one for $3500 and I've, since, seen them for as cheap as $3200. Make no mistake, a new Leica Flexline will run $8500+, but, really, all you get is Bluetooth and USB capability. You are correct about the color green. whatever that wave length is, it seems to be occasionally problematical. You are also correct in regard to range for reflectorless sights. I'm good out to about 200M. For the majority of my surveys, I set up between 3 and 4 ball. I do not use the pregates for a center line. The Lion program uses the gates. It will perform no calculations until all 4 gate balls are entered. If I'm shooting reflectorless, I will shoot all 4 gate balls first which allows me to see course errors as I do the rest.

By the way, thanks for all the great feedback!

To clarify, the Leon method uses a standard surveying technique of a base reference line established between the 4 gate buoys. And, true, if the gate buoys are out of whack it will throw everything else off. But the principle is based on the absolute necessity of gate buoy accuracy. This is easily checked before a survey with a "Check Tie" (Leica term), or "MLM" (Topcon term) of the gate buoys. As far as the numbering convention mentioned by Ed Brazil, Emmanuel chose to use the same even/odd convention of the gates and boat guides to ameliorate confusion, i.e. odd to the right, looking down course, even to the left. True, the Leon sheets allow for a 3 point survey if you want to take the time. I personally feel that the accuracy of EDM Total Stations will result in the same accuracy from a single point. With a reflectorless station, a 25 minute slalom course survey is easily attainable.

Thanks for the responses everyone. That's pretty much what I have heard. Would anyone be more interested if I told you you could plug your Topcon (depending on age) or Leica directly into your computer and have the bearing and distance of each buoy directly placed into the appropriate cell? And, upon completion have a graphic printout of the course with the resulting errors compared to desired positions of the buoys. If so, checkout my PowerPoint presentation on the USA Water Ski website under 3 Event, Technical Controller Resources, Survey Program, Lion Survey Method. Any questions, my phone number is in the Officials Directory.

I don't know how many out there are even interested since this topic concerns TC's primarily. But, as a result of some recent discussions, I am interested in knowing how many TC's out there are using Emmanuel Lion's survey method and Homologation Dossier. And, if not, why not. And how many TC's know it even exists.

Been there 14 times. Our description has always been: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous add water skiing. Great hosts, service and unreal eats. A bucket list must!

How about Anna Gay busting a 3 year standing Trick record. Awesome.

My wife and I are both skiing for the first time. At 68/62.

I used HO bindings for years and loved them. Now I love my Reflex hardshell. Incomparable comfort. I could wear it all day with no cramps. The neoprene booty is a plus in cold spring and fall water. The reflex booties do not hold up that well. I now use Intuition liners. Adjust the release carefully and check it. I broke my leg in two places and tore my Achilles from a failure to release because of an improper setting.

The tolerances are a little tighter for RC. I use the Emmanuel Lion Homologation survey software for surveying. It has a "check box" for "Normal" and "Ranking List" tolerances. You can see the min/max change as you change the selection.

From Jimmy Buffett Land in Mobile, AL, Ski Chaste Lake welcomes y'all anytime. 2 Miles off I-65. Yes, we have a jump ramp. Rodger Logan

Schnikees!! Is that you Brett Schreiber?!

I lived on Oahu for 27 years. I was a member of Oahu Water Ski Club and I flew for Hawaiian Airlines. Oahu and Kauai have the only venues for water skiing and Kauai is more of a novelty. No real slalom course. The ski club on Oahu is in Honolulu Harbor adjacent to Honolulu Airport. It's a public site with a great bunch of dedicated skiers. We tried to develop a dedicated man-made lake on the North Shore of Oahu but beyond the cost of land and exorbitant construction costs, the antiquated and vision impaired zoning and political climate made it impossible. I finally threw in the towel and moved onto a beautiful ski lake in North Mobile County, Alabama. Roll Tide!!

Thanks for the info Jody. I spoke at length with, and got my upgrade from, one of the main non-ZO guys, who was involved with the development and ultimate approval of the update. He stated that Rev Q was programmed to come into the gates at .76% faster than selected. Rev R with the "+" setting comes it at 1.75% faster. The result, in my short experience with Rev R, is that a selected speed of 34.2 yields around a 34.6 - 34.8 gate. I was also told that the 1-2-3 settings are still in play. The JUMP time display, as you mentioned, is an improvement and there was some tweaking done in the 42M Segment for better RTB times. Also, the SLALOM wait time is defaulted to "0" instead of "180" seconds and your setting is retained in memory after complete electrical shutdown. In addition to Serial Number, Part Number is also necessary from the Configuration page. The Serial Number specific Password allows the "Display" software to run, but I'm told that the program also looks for an appropriate part number from the head for .mot file compatibility.

Ski Chaste Lake in North Mobile County. 45 miles "As the crow flies". Private tournament lake. Friendly folk. Call Rodger Logan 251-490-1725. FB Rodger Logan. Back-at-ya' Jody. Just put Rev R in.