VONMAN

Yesterday on Lake Weir. Water 63, air 72. My buddy Steve, first day out in the boat driving, 2 months after open heart surgery. He loved every minute of just being out in the boat and enjoying the Lake.

@Adam Caldwell I'm sure the C-95 is a improvement over the C-85. So what will a C-85 skier notice that the C-95 does better by the new design? What were your goals? What will the skier feel?

@buechsr Yes, I used to think that until I saw this on Lake Bowers a 150 acre lake max. Some how this boat was on this lake.

@DW Good point, as radius or bent handle skier my reason was always to take the load off my wrist's while in the loaded condition. For me when I skied with a straight handle my wrist's would hurt. Agree to disagree, all I know is I have no wrist or elbow pain.

Electric powered ski boat can't come close to gas engine boat in power for a gallon of gas, price of investment, time and distance on the water, performance, and ease of re-powering (adding gas to the tank). A boat is always working/under load from parasitic drag of the water. The affect we are seeing in the electric truck market when towing. So when a battery package can be designed to weight 800 lbs lighter and be charged in less then 15 minutes and have a run time of at least 2 hours under full load, you would have a ski boat. Some small electric outboards have swappable battery packs that offer power but low speed applications. I have seen Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology back around 1999/2000 for a vehicle. You would put water in a tank and there was a onboard reformer/refinery that would extract the Hydrogen from the water for fuel to the engine. Out the tail pipe was distilled water. So why did the technology stall out? Don't know and that was well over 23 years ago. (conspiracy theories here) So sadly I say the batteries you need are 20 years away to deliver a safe, light weight, long lasting punch that can equal one gallon of gas can. Sorry for the bad news.

Well surf boats just got bigger. Regal has 38 foot surf boat! Coming to a lake near you. (public). https://www.regalboats.com/model/38-surf/

@JPeckham Have you tried a 15-20 deg forward bent handle to offset the 15-20 deg off perpendicular line force direction?

@Horton Ernie here, this is something I learned from my coach Will Bush in the 90's and a short interview with Nate Smith about 9 to 10 years ago. It was reinforced when I coached a skier who on a great day run 38 off 50% of the time. When driving the boat he would slam the boat at the roll in and at the turn balls. The first thing we did was to change from a one handed start to a two handed start and progressively lean/load to centerline with 1 ball being a easy controlled turn. We worked on 38 off till I could barely feel him on the wheel. 38 off fell petty quick after that. 39.5 off brought the beast back, but after 3 weeks 39.5 fell. We kept on smoothing things out finding the perfect pickup point and progressive lean/load point. His first run we would treat as a tournament run, 28, 32, 35, 38, and 39.5 off with a 70% rate of running 39.5 off. Sig at the time was over 35 years old, had not been competing, speed 34.2 mph Zero Off. So 2 months of training and on this day in 2010 Sig is in the zone. I barely feel him on the wheel, he’s hitting his marks and Zero Off is happy. He has just stroked 39.5 off. He looks up at me and I at him. Set the rope at 41 off, and proceeds to run 4 balls at 41 off. I had to ask my spotter in the boat because I didn’t feel him on the wheel. My first student when retiring to Florida I met while me and my wife were out on Lake Weir he saw me skiing and came up and said “I want to learn how to ski like you”. Craig was 43 at the time War Veteran suffering from PTSD. So for the next 3 years I worked with him and molded him into a skier. It was all free skiing training, trying to build a good foundation. Good times with one setback but no course skiing at all. When the day came, first time in a course it paid off. With Perfect Pass set at 32.3 he ran 15 off! Coming back another 15 off. Shorten the rope to 22 off, Bingo! He runs that. To easy, shorten to 28 off and he runs that!! Just awesome day with my ski Bud. Remember that interview with Nate Smith? It was at a tournament in Michigan and I only asked him a couple of questions. I asked how do you make it look so smooth, you don’t look like you are working hard. His replay was “ When behind the boat I’m pulling my guts out”. That is the key, taking all these boats and Zero Off can offer to your advantage. This isn’t the 80’s where you could slow a boat down. Since retiring to Florida I've been teaching a lot of newbies to ski. Because of that I do a lot of free skiing and to make my time more exciting I test myself by skiing 32, 35, 38, 39.5 and 41 off with control. (maybe not the width required for the course) The big thing is as the rope angle gets higher up on the boat, you better have your s?it together if you think you will turn and burn off the ball. The wall comes for me a 43off because of the line load coming so quick wanting to pull you sideways to the boat. That's why I say get out of the course and try it. You will learn so much. That 39.5 will fall for you. A good one ball gives you Six

@Horton So your saying I might be right? A good one ball gives you Six.

@Horton See as the rope gets shorter Terry's pick-up line load moves in closer to the wakes and the work zone is moving more behind the boat. That's why it looks so smooth. He knows that to try to load the line right after the ball is bad news as the line gets shorter. So instead of a greatest Hits run, the driver and Zero Off are happy.

OK, about Kymaboats when does a Jet pump drive = Fuel economy?

Going out at 12 noon today. Lake Weir, Florida

Because as the rope gets shorter the angle increases when it exceeds 45 degrees the load on the handle starts to change from a down course load to more of a side ways to perpendicular load. That's how Will and Nate make it look so smooth. They take as much speed out to the ball and do not try connect/slam the load wide, instead with the ski moving after the ball but ahead of the boat load to a angle/load easier to manage. Then load the line behind the boat between both wakes where Zero Off can't hurt them. As much as I love to watch Rob Hazelwood ski with his explosive style off the ball it's no wonder that he struggles sometimes. His style has to be spot on for 39.5 and 41 off. My 2 cents.

Very smooth! @Horton Did you notice that as the line gets shorter, Will stays loaded longer on the handle behind the boat and to the second wake?

You have to love technology, but why reinvent it if it works? My 32 year old boat's fuel gauge still working after all these years.

@matias Try before you buy. If you do get bit by the ski bug you will be wasting time and money in the long run.

@DW Sounds cool! It could be a good for training a beginner in achieving width and timing before getting into course. I like where ski partner is going with this. Build a good foundation before crashing into buoy's.

My brother was down from Michigan so we went out on Wednesday, air 65. Water cold (no temp reading). But no neoprene!

Holy Smoke! As if boot placement and fin adjustments wasn't enough! I remember having a conversation with Will Bush many years ago and decided to let the ski designers to do their thing. Over the years I've found some articles on it but it seemed like bat wings and mirrors at least to me. @swbca Sounds like a cool project, keep use updated and good luck. @DWAbout that box with a light to measure angle. Your Serious? The only time I've seen someone sanding a ski was at the club about 11 years ago. He was in the lake with a Goode 9100 sanding the whole ski bottom to take out all of the scratches. When done he proudly held up ski to show me. I just shook my head in disbelief. They walk among us.

@HortonTime fly's when your having fun! Thank you so much!! And for Your carbon fins, I was a believer!

I have a new student (mid 40's) I'm coaching. He has a son so he has a wake board boat. Needless to say we are using my boat for slalom skiing and one day we are out on Lake Weir (public lake) and a wake board boat drives by as my student is skiing. I hit the wakes first and my student doesn't let go of the handle at first. He lets go deciding that he likes his knees and ankles. We swing around and pick him up, and I swear to God his first words were "I never knew my Wake Boat wakes could hurt other people? Now I know why you hate them so much". I've added his son to our training, he's a total beginner but he's loving it. Even heard him tell his Dad to sell the Wake Barge for a Ski boat. Two new skier's to add to the list. I'm still trying wrap my head around how you would make wake/surf boats wakes smaller/tamer? Don't see that happening without restricting displacement and the manufactures just keep making them bigger.

@HortonBack in 2008 I was struggling with my 35off pass and one of the skier's in the club who could run 38off turned me on to super sets. He had me start my next set at 32off cold off the dock. I'm thinking I never start 32off the dock but what the heck! I run the first pass, the second, the third and at the end of the fourth I drop at the end and I'm feeling winded. I focus on making a smooth 5th pass and I broke thought and found I'm in the zone now. Pass 6, 7, 8, and 9 were just as smooth. The only reason I stopped was I was getting dirty looks from people on the start dock. (our rule was 6 passes or 3 falls per set) No missed gates and all perfect end course times. Needless to say I ran more 32's that summer and 35's were now starting to fall which gave me a peek at 38off.

@Mastercrafter If I remember right the course my brother and I put up on Walled Lake, the permit was for 500 feet offshore. I thought that was a bit overkill at the time, but it was that or nothing. (1988) It looks like the lawyers have decided to control another sport. The same thing happened to using springboard diving in public schools. The pools have to 20 feet deep and you can only dive off the end of the board, no flips, no forward back flips, jack knife or swan dives. No hurdle or spring bounce off the board. That was a sport I loved and truly miss. Slowly you lose more of you freedom to enjoy life. Bit by bit they take more.

Example: you are struggling with 32 off. Go back to 28 off and run super sets (6 to 9 passes) with the emphasis on running 28 smooth and clean. Work on getting wider and earlier to the buoy line with good line load behind the boat. When it becomes slow motion and your vision see's all that's happening you are ready to run 32 off. You must be able to destroy 28 off and recover from any fumble you make. Own It!

@Kimbymon Just come to Florida. Skied Saturday and Sunday morning on Lake Weir. Always room in the boat for one more, ask Steve about last winter skiing here.