fu_man

@OB wondering why you are switching your grip? A handful of really good skiers ski that way. I was under the impression that it was personal preferance.

Nah, I like it quiet when I ski....sounds of the lake. One of my buddies likes to crank 80's metal when we ski. It gets his blood pumping. However, I'm in the water, he's talking to me while facing the windshield and the music is on....."Dude, I can't hear a word you are saying to me."

@OB that clearly takes the cake for best looking ski ever. Not even fair. Normally I would consider skiing without a vest a stupid thing, but vests can be overrated. Is that an O'brien comp?

Lucky: When I get my hips replaced I'm going to win a Big Dawg and then MAYBE they'll put my picture in the magazine. My Brother: Lucky, would you really go back and compete? Lucky: If you was John C Holmes and your d!@% was broke, and then you got it fixed, wouldn't you go back to doing what you do?

@lpskier I skied one of those skis a few years ago including a Warren Witherall model. It is a miracle that anybody ran anything off on those. I included pics in this thread.... http://ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/comment/47819

Kids aren't trickers....yet. I'm suprised there aren't more trickers...you don't need a ramp. You don't need a course. All you need is a stopwatch. Essentially its got all the pieces that wakeboarding does with the obnoxious factor turned WAY down....which is a plus! As well, you can do it on public water in less than ideal conditions. Two of my kids (6 and 8) just skied their 1st tourney last fall. Working on getting them through the slalom course, but I'd be suprised if one or both don't gravitate towards it eventually.

If @mapple is a tricker, then you can be one too......

@chrisrossi I noticed you used a 2 hand gate here as opposed to the 1 hand gate you have used in the past.

Last summer Discovery had a series called "When We Left Earth". It was about the history of the NASA program. There was footage of the original Mercury 7 astronauts waterskiing.

I have the Radar Vectors which look like the same thing. I do just that...make the bottom laces snug and keep the top ones loose. My foot comes out with no problem. I only made the mistake of overtightening the top laces once...and fell. Foot did not come out and l luckily I was not injured.

15 moths old is a tough age. It's the age where they are now mobile and tend to not want to be held. However, I think a lot depends on the temperament of the child. My advice is happy kids will stay out longer. Alway have her wearing a flaotation device. Might want to have her wear the life vest around the house a bit before the season so she is used to it by summer. ALWAYS keep lots of snacks on hand: juice boxes, cherios, cheezits, whatever. Keep her warm and sunblocked, sunglasses, hat, etc. Have her help "drive" the boat and keep her involved as much as she is interested. In my mind, the sets still happened but they became more hectic and a bit more stressful. Take the time to tend to her needs and teach her between pulls because during pulls she will need to stay put. By the way, the advice on keeping them warm shaded and snacked has continued to work for way past baby/toddler age. Happy kids, happy sets.

My buddies have one on our lake (public). My experience is that you can do it with 2 but 3 is optimum. One driving the boat and two working in tandem to pull out the right peice at the right time, put the pieces together with the ropes, and maintain tension on line for the pieces that have already been deployed. The trick is to find a system so everyone knows their role. With 3 people that know what they are doing, it takes us about 20-25 minutes if we dont have any snags. Removing is a bit easier, but it is important to put the pieces away in an orderly fashion. The problem with pulling it (for us at least) is the mud and algae. Very messy and it gets that way even if only in the water for a short time. If you leave it in over night for an early morning set, for some reason the bright colored balls attract fishermen like flies to poop so be prepared to have some diplomatic conversations. As well, there have been many times that our rope has snagged lures and hooks...Wear gloves when pulling it in! It is a labor of love that we used to do a lot more on our lake up until we met a guy on the next lake who keeps his in permenantly.....a hell of a lot easier to drive 5 minutes. However, when that was our only option that is what we did.

Shouldn't the last choice be "not yet".

@klindy Well put. Don't get me wrong, I am a buoy head. Slalom is by far my favorite event. However, slalom-only is boring. Variety is good..quite frankly that is why I get more excited about women's skiing these days. A handful of Open women tend to ski multiple events as opposed to Open men who tend to be specialists. @horton I know this site tends to be slalom dominated but in light of the growth in readership, maybe forums in trick and jump should be encouraged. Because of the lack of access to trick and jump, a place to post video and ask for help would be encouraging. People do that for slalom, why not the other two?

Cool video. The reverse playback is a nice touch.

Didn't the Masters (a long long time ago) used to require skiers to compete in all 3 events? I'd like to see the pendulum swing more in that direction. Lucky was a good jumper in his day, Andy just showed his trick run is still great, Sammy was great at all 3. However, I have never seen current pro slalom guys do anything but that. CP on a trick ski would be cool to watch..... I recently started on thre trick ski and it is nice to have something else to do but just slalom even though slalom is my favotite event.

I'm in northern Illinois and have seen the Aquanuts and the Wonder Lake shows. My ski buddy used to do show skiing as well. They do some very cool stuff and put lots of time into what they do. I love taking in a sunset show with a bunch of friends and a couple of beers. Reminds me of the Tommy Bartlet/Cypress Gardens stuff I saw as a kid. It is a totally different discipline but I do like it. That picture above....are swivel skies really that wide?!?! That is one piece of equipment the my crew does not have in our arsenal at the lake. We need to get one..not for real shows...for drunken shenanegan shows (watching guys try it after drinking on the floatilla all saturday afternoon).

I would echo most of the comments here about the lack of content. I get it occasionally if my wife gets me a stocking stuffer. However, last year I raded my buddy's back catalog....used to be so much more to it. Now it is a few great pictures but little else. The articles now are what the side side story boxes used to be. The 10th anniversary issue (Sammy Duvall on the cover if I remember correctly) was THICK. Maybe close to or over 200 pages. There used to be stuff for the average joe free skier, the newbie learning the course, the shortliners, and indepth coverage of pro tournaments. I realize that things have changed since the late 80s early 90's but (with all due respect to Todd's work) I would be more interested in less pictures and more in depth (long) inteviews with current and former pros. I remember reading the article with Sammy after he won worlds (again) and he was saying how pissed he was because someone (sorry can't remember who) was walking ON his skis on the dock. Give us the shenanigans. Give us the dirt!

Can someone verify my understanding of this? USAWS is the body that governs all towed watersports(barefoot, show ski, disabled, kneeboard, ski racing, and wakeboarding), AWSA is the branch of USAWS that specifically governs 3 event, IWWF is like the international version of USAWS??? Even though USAWS has a branch for wakeboarding don't most hard core wakeboarders belong to another governing body that is separate from USAWS? What is INT? How is it different than USAWS and why was it formed? OK.....if that wasn't enough... I get that USAWS governs everything up through Nationals, including bigger tourneys such as Malibu open, etc. Who governs the Big Dawg tourneys? Those seem to have gone from a national level to an international scale with stops inother countries. Does IWWF govern the world championships that are held every 2 years? Can someone explain the World Cup and how that differs from the World championships? Who governs things like the world cup and the PAN AM championships?

No votes for pond hockey? The upper midwest crews must not have seen this poll yet.

@fatroll that is classic....I might have to copy that.

Kodak Zi6 A few years old but works like a charm. Small like a cell phone takes still shots and decent video for reviewing "film" of your sets.

Not sure what happened to the other video threads but I thought this was worth posting. My kids were watching Muppets Take Manhattan and I saw this scene...didn't remember it from my childhood. Gonzo isn't exactly a "pro" but it does make me smile. Also a good way to salute show skiing (in a humorous way) on a slalom dominated site.

Agreed!....now I have to forward this to all my friends.

I'm no authority, but I thought I remember reading that they should be measured from the stitching. Not sure about top vs bottom. Is there that much difference between the two?