Waternut

@Ilivetoski Would you say that the 2012 Radar comp vest floats you as high as a CGA vest? I'm a skinny guy and I'm less worried about floating properly and more worried about floating if I let the air out of my lungs.

Well the Annex was the same concept as the Vice is now. Exact same design as the Strada or RS-1 at the time of the Annex but with a polyurethane core instead of PVC so slightly more forgiving, heavier, and less explosive out of the turn. One friend of mine liked it so much he bought one. Another guy said it was really fast but very difficult to get up on. On the flip side though, I've taught more people how to get up on slalom on my annex than any other ski. I've owned the ski for 1.5 years but I do think it's probably more ski than I need right now though since I'm skiing 28mph and 15 off. I like the ski a lot but I haven't ridden a lot of ski's to really give a good basis for comparison. My only complaint is that I bought the ski based on my weight and the speeds I was skiing in open water. I'm a little heavier than I was and skiing much slower in the course and the ski is a little small for me right now but I can't fault the ski for that.

Well maybe I can help you out. I have a 66" Radar Annex and just recently swapped the HO EXO's on it. The very first ride was super wierd but after loosening the cuffs, it helped my learning curve massively. It's been about a month and maybe 5-6 sets plus some free skiing but I'm pretty much back to where I was skiing before the boot swap. I originally tried to line up the ankle points between my old bindings and the new EXO's. Unfortunately, the EXO's were a little bigger and I couldn't get them in the same spot and tried to split the difference which made me WAY tail heavy. I moved the fin and bindings to the factory location and that seemed to fix everything. The bindings ended up moving up nearly a full inch from where they were when I tried to get them where my previous rubber boots were. I'll have to confirm the boot setup when I get home but the fin setup is now stock at 0.75 6.84 2.48. I'm almost positive my boots are 28.75 but I need to double check that. The Strada fin settings are within .01 of those numbers if I remember correctly.

Definitely... I'm with you 100%. I'll gain lots of confidence behind one boat and go all out into another boats wake only to be jarred back into reality on the very first crossing. Depending on how rough it was, I may give it a few more goes and try to hold my angle. Either way, I do feel you pain. It probably just the newbie in me but it's hard to get consistent when your wake keeps changing.

The Stargazer upgrade is only $500 if you already have the original perfect pass but if you've savvy with the classic perfect pass and understand all the settings, it's probably just as good if not better since you'd have to learn and figure out a new system if you switch to Stargazer. I've never used my Stargazer system in a course but I feel like the new Stargazer system cripples you a bit. I'm still learning a friends classic PP but it looks like you can adjust so much in slalom mode on the classic systems. On the Stargazer, you have no adjustability and consequently, my drivers tell me that I (a novice skier) will occasionally pull the boat down to 27mph and it'll compensate back to 32mph when the system is set to 30mph... IMO, that's a ridiculously slow response. Same thing goes with startup. A friends classic mode might overshoot 1-2mph and quickly corrects. My Stargazer will over shoot up to 10mph before it figures out it overshot and then 20 seconds later, it'll finally stabilize itself if the driver doesn't step in and assist.

Hmmm... maybe when I run 28mph a couple times, I'll try to bump up to 30 and see if that feels better or way beyond my level or not. If it's worse, another guy wants me to try his 67.5" ski so I may take him up on that as well and see if that works for me. I hate sounding like that guy that thinks equipment is the source of his short comings but after 3 months, I've made virtually no progress other than taking fewer spills and it has me questioning various things. I like your concept of 4 things to practice though. I've clearly got my work cut out for me.

I've been skiing at 28mph in the course for a while now and definitely still working on form and technique. I usually mess up my first few passes while getting warmed up and then I get a little more consistent and can run the course about half the time after that. Should I be able to run 28mph with my eyes closed before I move up to 30mph or should I go ahead and try to speed up and work on that after a couple successful passes? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a macho man but my worry is that I'm running a 66" radar annex and I'm 6' tall and weigh 175lbs. I'm starting to wonder if the ski may be a little too small for 28mph which could be hindering my learn curve. Everyone keeps telling me to slow things down but I feel like I need to pick up the load of the boat immediately or I start sinking in the turns and the load of the boat comes on too strong for me to handle.

John Woodington, 31 y/o living in Macon, GA. I'm still skiing at 28mph on a 2010 Radar Annex and can run the course at 15 off but every time I start feeling like I'm running consistent enough to tell the driver to go 30mph, I regress and forget how to run 28mph. I've been skiing recreationally for 15 years on and off but recently got more serious when I found a group of friends who enjoy skiing and wakeboarding and then found a couple slalom lakes that I had no idea existed right down the road from me. I'm an aerospace engineer by trade and a tinkerer by hobby building stand up jetski's and modifying everything else that I can from cars, boats, to my house. That said, I used to mess with my fin and boot settings because I couldn't make it work for me...then I asked Radar what a standard setup was (mine was way off when I got it) and haven't touched it since. If you guys happen to run across someone else in middle GA looking for others, feel free to send them my way. I try to go 3-4 times a week or as energy allows.

I agree and think your ski a little big but at your current speed, it's not hurting you at all. I'm no great skier but I can ski roughly the same whether I'm on a $300 ski or a $1500 ski. Guy I ski with is about 5'9", 160lbs, and ski's a 10 year old 67.5" ski at 34mph. He can get into 38 off and outski pretty much all of the people I know personally. My recommendation is to get the fundamentals down on that ski and then see if you need to change ski's.

If you end up needing anymore info, the Radar support is really good and really fast at answering questions. I went back and forth with them a good bit a month or so ago and most of my questions were answered within an hour.

I naturally gripped the handle with a baseball grip but realized after years of skiing that my hands were in the wrong position on the handle. I had to see pictures of how to hold the handle because the whole palm up/palm down thing didn't make sense to me since the only time I thought about it was when I was skiing straight and the handle was vertical. The way I think about it is if your a right foot forward guy, your right hands pinky finger will be next to the handles rope or at the end of the handle instead of the center. Even switching that was super wierd to grab but after a week or two the other way felt wierd. Just for the record, it was only wierd when I grabbed the handle or when I was getting up. Once I was up and started skiing, I didn't even notice or think about it.

I used to use the 41 Tail's but gave them up because I couldn't stand the palm strap. That stupid thing ALWAYS comes undone! Once it comes undone, your palm is completely loose and that alone will cause blisters. I've tried on the 4wake gloves and thought they were really neat and reasonably priced. I own the Radar Boa's because I liked the cinch style for the palm. The Boa's are always tight on me but I can still get blisters if I use the wrong handle or grip the handle in your palms instead of your fingertips. The only handles I can use with normal gloves are the elliptical handles. I wear medium gloves and use the 0.940 elliptical handle and even that feels too big to me. IMO you can either help eliminate blisters using a handle and gloves suited for the way you ski or get some of the clincher style gloves. To those nervous about clincher style gloves, a girl I know who uses clincher gloves can still have the rope ripped out of her hands if she gets weak. She says it helps her grip but in no way prevents her from letting go. She was very skeptical at first too.

86 Dixie Super Skier 299... Bought it in 2010 for $2800 with trailer as shown in the first two pictures. It was ugly but ran great. The guy even delivered it to my house. Cleaned it up with $600 worth of material and some elbow grease in the other pictures. Put an additional $2000 into it with Perfect Pass Stargazer, a wakeboard tower (not shown), ballast, and a hydraulic wakeplate. My boat now throws a ski wake like a friends 98 SN. Then with the ballast filled, it will throw a nice wake for the wakeboarders too so I always have someone willing to pull me.

First lesson I ever took on a slalom course, the guy recommended I either set the wing nuetral or take it off. When I took a second lesson at a different course, that guy said at below 34mph, you're only hurting yourself even with a nuetral wing. The guy I currently ski with runs into 35 off all the time at 34mph and doesn't run a wing. @sunvalleylaw I don't really know exactly where you are in terms of skill so I'll tell you where I was/am and let you decide from there. I used to ski between 32-34mph and considered myself a strong open water skier. I've skied around 15-20 sets on the course this year at 15 off and I'm still skiing 28mph inconsistently. Moving up to 30mph makes things even harder for me even though I was used to skiing a lot faster on open water. My biggest problem is maintaining enough speed to get out to the buoys on my offside and the wing makes it virtually impossible.

@Bill Gladding I've got the inconsistent skiing thing down like a champ! Will start working on some of this stuff this evening I hope.

This is the kinds of things I was hoping for. Different things to think about in order to accomplish the same goal. If you sit in a boat full of people trying to teach someone to get up on slalom, they will all have a different concept or idea of accomplishing the same goal but I struggled to find people who said anything other than hips up. I will try the chest up and lean tall and see how that goes. Not letting my knees absorb the wake sounds scary but I also hear people say if you're in the right position, you won't feel the wake so maybe that's the ticket. Keep the ideas coming.

I would love to ski an 8 buoy course for training. You faults start showing up more and more the further down the course you get. If I barely make 6, I know that there would be no way to make 7 or 8. Plus that's two additional balls you can practice your preturn, turn, and wake crossing on without having to drop, start up, go around the island, and all the other aspects that use energy but don't really matter.

Ok I've been getting advice from 4-5 different people from different lakes saying I need to get my hips up. I've heard ski to the handle, bring your hips to the handle, bring the handle down to your hips, and focus on stacking your feet. I understand what it's supposed to look like but somehow cannot seem to make any of that happen without absolutely brute forcing it. If I brute force it, I have the energy to do that about twice and then I need a full week off before I can do it again so that can't be right. If I practice on land, I go into the proper pulling position every time but as soon as I get on a ski, it goes out the window. When I pull out to the left for the gates or pull out to the right to drop, I can get my hips up but coming around the ball, I've got nothing. So is it more of pushing your hips sideways towards the boat, pushing your hips up like you're humping the sky, leaning away from the boat, leaning back, or what? I'm at a total loss here. I've done probably 15-20 sets and not really making any real progress. My guess is I'm doing something in the preturn that is messing up the pull behind the boat but I have no idea what.

Oh no... I wouldn't have commented if I knew this was a hot topic.

From Reflex's website advertising their carbon fin... "The carbon fins are more flexible and are more responsive than standard aluminium fins. The Carbon fin makes the ski feel soft in the turn and gives a lot more control than an ordinary fin, without sacrificing speed and allows the skier to get more angle into the wake." No idea on their thickness or if their statement is true but that's what they say.

I have limited experience behind a bunch of boats so my experience with wakes may not be as good as others. My experience has been at 15 off and 28-30mph. I actually have an 86 Dixie Super Skier 299. It's an open bow and since no one thinks to look at them, they are usually priced really cheap. It has a decent wake normally and a really nice wake with the $500 addition of a hydraulic wakeplate. My Dixie's wake with the wakeplate is about the same as a friends 98 closed bow Ski Nautique. As for mastercrafts, I've also ridden behind a 93-ish prostar, a stars and stripes edition, and a 2011 prostar 197. I felt like all of those wakes were massive at my speed and line length.

I'm RFF and I start in the whitewash. When I come around the buoy on my offside, I'm moderately comfortable but when I cut out for the gates, I feel totally awkward and little rollers can screw me up. If I start in the whitewash, the water level is constant and I'm not correcting for the wake trough at the beginning and therefore less likely to get out of position. I see a lot of people starting in the whitewash and I'm curious to hear why that is but that is my current strange reason for doing it.

I thought they fixed that issue with the newer models. Did you get one of the older models by chance? I would contact HO about it regardless. 2 sets and one fall is unacceptable.

A lot of ropes, straps, and laces have a very soapy/slick feel the first time they get wet. Unless ML prewashes everything prior to shipping it, I would consider it normal. I agree your first line of questioning should be here and not the manufacturer. It's very rare that I get a warm fuzzy feeling from the manufacturer when I call them. They are all very confident that what you are describing is normal but I never get the impression that really understand what I'm telling them. Unless it's a really small company, I just feel like they are trying to defend themselves rather than actually help.

DFT is distance from the tail meaning the measurement from the very back of the fin to the back of the ski. Binding measurement is the distance from the back of the boot to the back of the ski. Length is the length of the fin sticking out below the ski. Depth is the deepest point the fin sticks out of the bottom of the ski. The only one of those that is really important when changing boots is the binding measurement. You need some quality calipers to measure the other dimensions.