Waternut

Sounds like everyone already beat me to the Malibu Response option. I have a 2000 Response LX model with walk over bow and manual wedge. I thought the walk over bow would be a problem but people climb up there just as fast as if it were a walk through. I absolutely love the wedge because I typically end up switching between boarders and skiers multiple times ever outing and it's quick. No more waiting 5-10 minutes to fill bags and empty them. However, the wedge alone is not enough to surf behind. I was able to keep up with the boat at around 9.5mph and 2 people in the back corner but that's all I could do. Maybe with a couple extra people in the back, it would be possible but I haven't cared that much to try again. With your budget though, you can definitely find an LXI that's 2005 or later that has a power wedge. The power wedge may be able to dial in a bit more wedge at lower speeds to give you a casual wakesurf wake without ballast though.

I feel the "decline" in wakeboard and snowboard has more to do with the decline in sales because so many people are buying lightly used gear. I've been on a few different snowboards and a ton of different wakeboards. Although, every board tailors to a couple specific traits, any board within the last 4-5 years feels almost identical to it's counterpart from a few years ago. So $150 for a closeout board or a used board vs $600-$800 for a new board is a no brainer for everyone except for the top guys/girls who go multiple times a week. Even the guys I know who can flip and do a lot of the cool tricks on wakeboards and go out 4-5 times a week use older boards from a few years ago. Really the same goes for snow skiing and waterskiing. Even the casual skier is going to notice a difference between something made in the early 2000's vs a 2016 model but only a handful of people are going to notice the difference between a 2015 and 2016 model to justify spending $1500+. Heck I can get into 32off most days and 35off on a good day but even I can't justify forking over that much money every year for a new ski but I can justify half of that price for a lightly used ski from last year. Lastly, I think companies are realizing that the internet is a better/cheaper way to reach more customers than sponsoring athletes these days... Younger people see the cool tricks and not the brands these days. Who remembers the kickass and inspirational Radar videos from 2010-2012?

Probably get closer to $12k if you wait to sell until early-mid summer... Don't sell yourself short on hours if you've taken care of the boat. I likely wouldn't even advertise that and just explain yourself if someone asks. If someone said their boat had 2500 hours on it but provided compression numbers and told me there were no leaks and doesn't burn oil, I'd probably snatch it right up. Would take it over a boat with 600 hours but looked like it'd been left to sit in the sun for a lot of it's life too.

Thanks @eddie_roberts_jr I got a lead on one already but I really appreciate the people who have stepped up and offered to send me these.

Are they individual letters?

Odd question but does anyone know if the new Radar die cut decals are still that horrible looking single piece sticker? The first time I bought one, it was a nice die cut decal with individual letters like a registration number but the last one I bought was just a sticker with clear-ish sticker between the letters which has continued to get more and more hazey to the point where it just looks like crap now.

Not really sure how to answer that honestly... For the first time, I've been skiing maybe 1-2 times a month over the winter but it's all been open water and not course skiing. So I never quit but I do hope to hit the course before March ends. I've finally got someone else who will ski with me in the cold water and I'm really hoping this helps me pick up the season a lot faster than last year when it took me months to get back to where I left off the year before.

Didn't know you had to have authorization for something under the water. It's a fairly relaxed lake but I think someone complained that this course was in the way even though it's in an area where almost no one goes. It was approved years ago but the main users left in the pursuit of their own private lakes and abandoned it before I got here. I put it back with sub buoys and all and this last December someone complained and it was deemed a navigational hazard. The sub buoys are likely still in place since they were 4+ feet underwater and I know those guys didn't go swimming in December to remove them. In fairness, I should've asked for permission first but most stuff on this lake gets a blind eye turned to it until someone complains so that was my rationale and it worked for a while.

I'm confused @Mark_Matis. How does setting up another course in even shallower water help establish a sinker course?

This course is surveyed in and has T posts driven into the ground.

We lost the ability to have a permanent slalom course on my public lake. Thankfully I still the option to ski a friends private lake but would love the ability to ski the course whenever I want to. Was wondering how deep a sinker course really needs to be to be safe? I think the shallow end of our course is around 4-4.5 feet deep and the deep end is probably 7 feet and all a soft muck bottom.

@Kelvin It has more to do with how big the holes are right now because they wear. I stepped mine up to 3/16" and just used a stainless bolt with a locking but. McMaster Carr will definitely have what your need or maybe even your local hardware store might have something suitable.

Luckily I have a couple friends at the moment who are usually crazy enough to ski in the winter if the option is presented. Unfortunately, the nicest week in a long is next week when I'm out of town snow skiing instead.

Glad to know someone else gets water like that in the winter. We get it every winter after a big heavy rain and then it sticks around until summer. Nothing like poo brown water to entice people to get out on the water early in the spring....

If it runs off the 12v supply in the boat, it may still be cool to put it on a wake-eye or something like that. I love my JVC camera but hate how the batteries occasionally go on the fritz when it gets warm. Would also be nice to not have to recharge batteries every day.

Good looking boat IMO. I'm guessing one of the previous owners neglected it quite a bit based on everything that has been fixed. That said though, I'd say all the bad has been reversed plus some.

@oldjeep Your ski waxer looks sooo much better than my cardboard box...haha

@eleeski Although your statement sound ridiculous at first, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Yes the binding seems to get the most flak and praise for injuries and saves. However, I damaged my ankle from blowing the tail regularly on my 2012 Strada after settling on one fin setting. When I switched to a 67" 2013 Quest, most of my problems went away. Then I got a little heavier and I bumped up to a 68" 2014 Quest and started developing issues in my left shoulder from skipping out on the 1,3,5 side. Thankfully most of these issues were just nagging things that I could nurse to the end of the season and continue skiing. Here's to hoping for an injury free ski season on the Vapor!

The guy at the ski lake I go to does something like @bogboy except he used 3" pvc about 4 feet long so we almost empty the 5 gallon can before it fills up. I've debated one of those myself but realistically, I'd have to lower the boat into the water for this to work at my dock and I don't want to do that plus it's no faster than my jiggler hose.

Anyone else notice the draft on the WT-1? I'm sure it's fully loaded but 31" seems really DEEP!

Makes you wonder where all this "economy crisis" stuff is coming from when so many people can afford these boats. I live very comfortably but I can't afford anything close to the boats coming out these days.

I modified all my cans years ago but then just bought some regular caps off ebay for a couple bucks. Now I use the jiggler hose (siphon). Those trigger spouts work really well for small things like weed eaters and blowers but that's about it. The most interesting fact is the increasing number of people who have started using water cans for gas because they're basically the same as old gas cans with no restriction pouring and vent caps. Congratulations, you've engineered so much safety into something that you've forced people to do things more dangerously.

I'd put a picture of a simple waterski or a silhouette of someone going around a buoy on my car regardless of whether it said AWSA or not. I would not put something on my car where the letters AWSA are the main attraction though.

Bummer I didn't even realize Atlanta had a boat show this weekend. I probably would've gone but sounds like I only would've seen 2 boats I was interested in so maybe it's best I didn't know. I like wakeboarding and pull a lot of wakeboarders myself but the prices of wakeboarding boats continuously makes me think the same thing...

You'd never get accurate data for comparison. Skier aptitude, aggressiveness, level of consistency at different lines lengths in varying conditions, and personal drive to reach one or more extra buoys are not quantifiable and as such, the injury data is going to be a crapshoot. This sport isn't like someone trying their first backflip on a mountain bike on a homemade ramp. There is rarely a single factor in my experience that caused a bad fall. It usually starts when you're a little behind which pretty much happens 99% of passes for me, then you pull a little harder and/or longer to catch up, then you make a little harder turn and maybe get slightly out of control, now you're in a bad pulling position through the wakes and even faster and more out of control into the next buoy but you stick with it....sometimes you catch back up and make the pass, sometimes you just don't make the next buoy, sometimes you realize the gig is up and you stop there, and then sometimes you blow the tail or stuff the tip and get injured. It takes a lot to write all of that but I'm guessing we've all had tons of passes like this where these decisions are made in a split second. So in that example, is it really the bindings fault you got injured or should you maybe have exercised more caution? IMO a binding is the absolute last line of defense so if you're not setting it up right or think it's going to protect you every time, your chances of injury are going to be a lot higher.