mwetskier

the picture of jim and thelma on that 70's nautique is exactly how i see them in my memory. thanks for that reminder.

video. take video.

bear in mind that putting the ' pull point ' behind or nearly behind the propeller will still allow the boat to be pulled around by the skier. a rear hook like the one pictured above is fine for pulling a tow-able water toy but will not do a good job of resisting the sideways force of a skier loading the rope when he is out at the finish of a turn.

do a google search for ' pro ski pylon ' and ' pro deck pylon '. both are removable and leave just a small floor plate that is flush mounted as evidence. get one and install it at night when the boat owner is asleep. then if he asks about it just feign innocence until he tries it and likes it. every body's boat driving and skiing will improve and life will be good.

its possible the lean could be caused by something other than just weight distribution. being from that vintage it could have wood hull stringers and some of those were known to rot or even come loose over time so you might want to get in under the floorboards and check the stringers. if they are wood you'll want to make sure they are sound and still firmly bonded to the inside of the hull.

what nobody has mentioned is when you ski behind a boat with a massive 22 off wake and you have bad knees its better to start at 28 and lower the speed. every body says your 4th pass should be your ' wanna make ' pass but i'm pretty sure thats not an actual requirement.

wasn't that training method pioneered by some guy in Michigan many years ago and it helped him win several national titles?

you're only as old as you think you are. unless you're a woman -then you're only as old as you *say* you are.

i suffered from pf for a long time before i hit on something that no foot doc ever suggested. they taught me how to tape my foot to reduce the pain during the day, but no one ever suggested taping them at night so my arch was supported while i slept. the idea came to me out of the blue and i figured it probably wouldn't work but decided to try it. all the stretching and injections and insoles couldn't fix the problem but compressing the arch for the 6 to 8 hours every night while i slept did the trick.

@Horton -i did not know about winter in newberry sprigs i was only there in late spring and just kind of assumed it was hot and dry all the time. silly me.

@Colebrah -can't you drive an easy 2 - 3 hours east of santa monica and end up in newberry springs which is the mother land and mecca for all serious skiers? more private ski lakes than you can count without setting down your beer?

as many as possible i say. don't want to scrimp on the important stuff.

i did a term paper on atomic fusion in college in the 70s and at that time the big break through needed to make it a reality was supposedly right around the corner. now 35 plus years later i'm far more likely to think it will never happen in the life time of human kind. the sun seems to have no problem turning hydrogen into helium and exploiting the energy produced in the process but mankind has not been so fortunate.

some ski school back in the day was said to sometimes tie a skiers knees together with bungee to help over come this issue. maybe lucky lowe?

i was told the patent expired on the set screw part of an adjustable fin a couple of years ago which might be why connelly waited so long.

i do not own either system but i think in the interest of fairness no one should make nay decisions about who is right or wrong in this former partnership dispute until the latest wiki leaks release comes out.

i've been told adrenaline sports in wa state has drysuits all the way down to kids sizes.

zo requires ' throttle by wire '. if this engine has a mechanical throttle cable it can not use zo. thats probably not the only determining factor but no throttle by wire is a guaranteed deal breaker.

pregates are roughly 180 feet from the entrance gates and with a 343 hp zo 196 i can start in the middle of the pregates from a dead stop and easily get to speed by the entrance gates. thats not a guess -i actually tested it this summer. so if you can start from idle 200 feet from the pregates you would be up to speed about the time your skier pulls out -meaning 380 feet from ' hit it ' to entrance gates ought to be plenty.

just remember when a doctor answers ' depends ' he may not be talking about your chances of success -he *might* be talking about adult diapers.

@OldboyII -I don't think waves will affect your floating obstacle the way you have drawn it. a wave will want to run up the surface of the slope and that will tilt the triangle away from the wave. your drawing asks the shape to surrender its buoyancy and sink -but remain level -as it slides sideways against the force of the wave but i think it will simply tilt and allow the wave to wash over it. not saying it won't diminish the magnitude of the wave but i am quite sure it won't behave as you've pictured it.

@Wtrskior -respectfully disagree with your assessment that you "have" to stop the water from moving to ' remove the waves force ' - which is virtually impossible to do. wake attenuation is all about *redirecting* or transforming the waves force so that it can no longer move in the same direction. correctly shaped shorelines do this by forcing the waves to crest and then break which transforms the horizontal force into a vertical force -making gravity your friend. the action of washing upward on a sloping shoreline ' uses up ' the waves energy until it can no longer move toward the shore -after which it can only flow gently and harmlessly back down the shore into the lake. floating obstacles that allow a boat wake to wash smoothly over them accomplish the same thing by transforming the horizontal force into a vertical force required for the wave to wash over the obstacle and down the other side. boat wakes carry a limited amount of energy with them -redirect this energy and you reduce or eliminate the traveling wave that we refer to as ' rollers '.

first off if you use swim noodles to float any thing be aware that they will get saturated within 2 seasons and lose at least 80% of their buoyancy. within 4 years they will actually sink on their own. also if you like ed brazils idea of building a land berm you don't actually have to penetrate the surface. a smooth hump within a foot or less of the surface will cause boat wakes to become ' surf ' just like at the beach and by the time they get to the other side of the berm they will lose most or all of their energy. you still have to mark the underwater berm with some kind of floating line of fishing net buoys to prevent a boat from getting high center but those can be small and cheap. http://www.hiseamarine.com/eva-fishing-net-float-5831.html

@gregy -sounds like you may be trying to rush the turn by digging in with the tip or pushing the tail around. the shorter the rope the more patient you can be through the finish of the turn because when you *do* hook up you will accelerate faster and till get to the next ball with time to spare. mapple had a video posted on this site some time ago where he did a side by side comparison between 28 off and 38 off and the 38 turn took much longer to finish but he was still early to the next ball

on this same theme years ago there was a actual ad for straightline handles -i think -that said ' straightline gets you by the balls '. it might not have been them -it could have been a brand of glove or something similar -but i do remember the ad being in magazines at the time.