SkiJay

I like the skateboard (which is designed to be banged around on asphalt) taking up two prime slots on the ski rack while the Stradas get unceremoniously stacked like cordwood on top of each other.

@Taelan28 Wow! I felt your pain man! The problem is that our passion often DOES interfere with those around us. I used to not let anything "interfere" with my racing back when I was winning championships ... I have a new wife now. @bmiller3536 hit the nail on the head; The ski stays home. Not because I'm whipped, but because I've found a really good woman who's crazy enough to love me, and that is worth treasuring and nurturing. The over-riding lesson: Happy wife, happy life. Another good lesson worth remembering: Never piss off your boat driver =)

I actually asked Drew Ross about drilling a fifth whole in my 65.5" Elite fin a couple of months ago, and he recommended against it. Jason McClintock is using the four hole fin too.

Or you could try to make an exact duplicate Chet Raley's fin: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1530989/Waterskiing/Chet's%20Fin.JPG

You can build a ski-tuning bench that works with a couple of logs and a chainsaw too. I don't mind paying a guy for his R&D on a slick product that works well and adds a little bling to my passion.

@Horton Jim Gallagher has been building these portable “Fin Fiddler” ski tuning benchs as one-offs for friends, but is setting up to sell them in the near future. You can reach him at: jtgallagher1@cox.net or 703-573-0021. http://db.tt/sJLlttXW

Ooooooh yes she has @ShaneH. Sure it's okay that she's hot, and it's nice that she's a fabulous cook, my best friend, and all that other happy horse hooie, but the REAL ring through my nose is she's an excellent boat driver who likes driving more than skiing! I'm hooped! It's looking more and more like I'm off to Italy on a tour of "yes dear" with a healthy helping of "that sure looks good on you, honey," while my ski gear gets all dried up, crispy and horrible. Sigh .....

Maybe it can be summarized like this: "Lighter" usually contributes to "quicker," but "quicker" is often "less forgiving." "Less forgiving" can be bad for "confidence," and "confidence" is KEY to high performance. Few speed sports are less predictable or more risky than high speed on water, making confidence hard enough to come by for slalom skiers in a constant state of injury recovery. So unlike many other sports, in slalom skiing, the lightest quickest setup isn't always the "best" setup. @Horton these cradles are not commercially available. If that changes, I'll post details on BOS.

@Tank Handle size is kind of a personal preference thing. Do you hold the handle in the palm of your fist (go large circumference), or in your fingers (go small circumference)? You might like to try smaller if you use neoprene palm guards too. Will there be other people using your handle? Do you know other guys who will let you try their handles? There's no right or wrong on this one. Just what works for YOU.

@eleeski You've either got to be a test pilot or a crash test dummy at your day job! Either way, you are my hero man! I'm with @DW on the non-compressibility of water thing. The "ball of pressure" created by this wing-between-fins complex would naturally migrate towards lower pressure i.e. the surface. You'd likely overcome this issue by simply removing the wing. Lord knows there must already be enough drag to haul Frankenski down to cornering speed.

66.5" Elite with size 11 Radar Strada boots & Intuition liners (not incl. GoPro) = 8.6lbs. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1530989/Waterskiing/IMG_0453.JPG

"Fabulous," I thought! @Ham_Wallace, you are brilliant! So I let her have it wit both barrels, "No skiing no shopping!" She didn't miss a beat, coming back with how "shopping on holidays makes her horny." CRAP! I'm way out of my league!

We're going on a trip to Italy for some dumb wedding. So of course to my sweetheart, it's a perfect opportunity for a "romantic getaway." To me, what could possibly be more romantic than water skiing in springtime in the Italian Alps at the TGas family's ski utopia?! Am I missing something here?

... and if you're 5'10', a 130lbs. and a girl, you can get all the boys you want!

@eleeski, you speak the truth. A LOT can be overcome with confidence and attitude. I saw Andy Mapple run back to back 41s then 3.5 @ -43 in Mexico at his maximum retirement weight; and Bob LaPoint won tournaments at 240 pounds. But ... both of them have said they ski best when they are lighter. Why fight the physics?

@DW Great info! So assuming the car you were measuring is at least 2,000 lbs., your were finding a measurable performance improvement at a 2.5% weight reduction. That's equivalent to a 200 lb. skier losing only 5 lbs to net a measurable improvement. The same skier losing 20 lbs. is achieving a ~10% weight reduction implying an improvement in performance well beyond any white noise doubts. The only "tests of speed" where higher weight can be an advantage are gravity powered sports like bobsled, soaring, downhill skiing and the like (where penetration and momentum trump acceleration). Anything that requires energy input for acceleration or changes of direction will benefit from weight reduction. Even aerodynamics play into this. We've all felt how significantly more work a headwind is to a tailwind. All else being equal, a skinny skier in a Speedo should accelerate faster than a broad skier in boardies. But this is where I draw the line. I'll train hard and diet, but if have to wear a Speedo for one more ball, I'm happy to come in second in my ballooning boardies! Haha

I've been racing cars and superbikes for 35 years. Absolutely, positively, less weight = quicker acceleration, quicker deceleration and higher cornering speeds. What could be better for your ball-count than carrying higher cornering speed around and out of the ball, followed by quicker acceleration? Everything else being equal, it can only make you wider and earlier. Wide and early = time to shorten the rope. If a skier including gear weighs 200 lbs. then loses 20 lbs., that is a 10% weight reduction. The engine in a light formula car is about 10% of the overall weight. Make a spec race car THAT much lighter and you'd slaughter the competition ... then get disqualified cause weight is the first thing tech checks at the end of every race. Weight is THAT important to speed and cornering, and slalom sking = speed & cornering. I'm convinced weight is Nate's advantage. Sure his technique is great, but he's not the only guy with great technique. I'd bet that his advantage is the best reach-to-weigh ratio on tour.

This technique has absolutely NO effect on where the jaws hit the bevelled rear edge of the ski, or the fin, other than making it consistent. It doesn't add a variable; it removes a host of variables. You would get exactly the same measurement if you held the caliper perfectly in line with the base of the ski while measuring (the goal not quite achieved by slotted calipers as the slide dips into the concave while the stationary jaw pivots up on the ski's edges). The problem is that the tail of the ski has rocker, concave, and a rear edge that is both curved and not 90° to the base of the ski. All these curves make repeatable measurements nearly impossible. The ruler (or whatever you use to fill in the concave without lifting the caliper away from the ski's edges) provides a flat stable surface on which to lay the caliper taking most of the tail's curves out of the mix.

I discovered this handy little trick by accident, and it's such a cheap simple solution to DFT measurment issues that it must be shared:

@Stevie_Boy The stock liners that come with the Strada are flimsy, and don't last very long. Take them out of the boots and keep them new for when you sell the boots. In the meantime, put a high quality orthotic type footbead like Superfeet or Zapz between the shell and the liner then heat mold your liners. The Zapz fit in the bottom of Stradas perfectly and are totally stable giving you excellent control and comfort. They have great arch support that can be customized. They never fall out when you take off or fall off of your ski, and they don't hamper the binding's designed release characteristics if you eject OTF.

@Horton Does the whole bracket fold down below the top of the window frame so the boat can be tarped without removing the mirror bracket?

I love the fin-setting vs. water-temp debate. There seems to be as many conflicting recommendations as there are skiers, even at the elite level. Most likely the main difference in performance is cold muscles and a subconscious fear of falling at high speed on water not much softer than a skating rink.

@Horton I'd be curious to see pole results on this discussion. Something like: On my way to 1/3/5, I tend to feel most of the load: □ in my right arm □ in my left arm □ equally in both arms □ trasfer from my right arm to my left arm during the edge change

It's another ski tuning option. Moving the rear boot back can tighten the radius of your on side and widen the off side at the same time (great if that's what you need). However, most skiers need to assist their off side so feet close together has long been the default setup.

That would be cool @MattP Apparently, I'm not the only one who's a little embarassed to admit how little I know about the boy-genius in our midst.