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I was imagining the trace (or xensr) sensors would allow for a variety of placement, and are inexpensive enough to have multiple sensor for the same run (one on the ski, another on the handle, etc). I was designing my app with that in mind.

@jhughes‌, Throw a nifty 50 in there and our kits are identical! I jumped up to the 70d from an old 350d and love it, but do have occasional focus probs (on stationary targets). Time to start playing around seriously with afma it seems.

@horton, I don't have a trace yet, and was waiting for a few answers regarding the type/frequency/accuracy/etc of data before ordering one and attempting to support it in my app. They have been a little slow responding, but I'm sure they are pretty busy these days. Originally I was leaning towards using the xensr once they hit the market, but in a perfect world my app would support both. Currently I'm continuing to develop and add features with the google maps positional data (with faked speed/accel/etc data) and hope to get my hands on a trace or xensr soon. I'll keep you guys posted.

For slalom, I'll take any pull I can get. I'm just happy to be out there! For tricks, if my pin person isn't looking at me it drives me bananas! (But I'm still just happy to be out there!!)

@horton, I've been emailing with one of the founders as well, and have been working on an android app to process and plot positional/speed/acceleration/pitch,etc data and plot it all with specific focus towards slalom skiing. The hope is that one could 'map' a course simelar to zero-off and my program would process the data and split it into passes. It could plot and replay the data, as well as log it all to a database for comparison. It will store sets by date/time/skier and will store relevant pass info like a ski diary, such as rope length, boat speed, pass direction, z-off setting, ski settings, notes, etc. One day the hope is to correlate that with video data as well so you could select a spot on the pass and see the data for that point as well as the matching video frame (that part of the program isn't done yet!) Unfortunately I have been having a tough time getting any info about the API from the manufacturer. The competing product (Xensr) will be launching shortly too. My program is currently able to parse/plot fake data from google maps (I'll post a screen shot in a couple days when I have my computer) I was hoping to have the sensors integrated with it before sharing this all, but you guys are too quick for me! Unfortunately my real job gets in the way, but I am hoping to have somthing available for next summer.

I had a bit of an 'aha' moment this weekend on my first 35 attempt of the year (I used to attempt it quite regularly 25 years ago, but never got past 4ball @36. Now, fast forward 25 yrs and slow the boat 2mph!) My first crack at it I kept pulling until I thought I was going around the ball. That ended in me pulling too long and way too much speed and slack at the ball. The second try I made my edge change where I thought I should, but thought "I'll never make it around the ball". Sure enough I made it around with a tight line. Perhaps this is what @ozski is referring to?

Can't see the vid on my iPhone, but I used to go around the boat on a trick ski with a 89(?) supra comp back in the early 90s. Lots of fun!

I've tethered mine, but you need to drop immediately when the mount comes off or it will bash up your ski in a hurry.

@thager, That's me! Sitting in the water I'm going over my keys, thinking "hips (across the wake), elbows (pinned to the vest after the wake) and shoulders (level in the turn)." Once I'm on the water all I seem to remember in the pass is "woo hoo!!! I'm skiing!!!"

@OTF‌, Yes we do! And I'm amazed at your measuring precision! If I recall, 1/64th of an inch is just under .4 mm, so anything beyond that is really falling into the limits of most peoples measurement uncertainty. Perhaps you should just set your boot to 755.5 mm or 75.55 cm and we will call it good? Or .7555 meters? Isn't that easy?! Would anyone like it in km??? .0007555! Try that with imperial! :smiley: Darn Canadians causing trouble again!!

@SkiJay, what arm? Growing up we used to spend summers on Mara, skiing and footing all day on the river.

I was told the same thing. I'm on a wait list for a trick binding. Strangely enough, today the glue between the layers of my slalom bindind let go! Any ideas for a quick fix to glue it back together? I was going to try 'aqua-seal'.

I put heated seats in my 94 nautique years ago. They were marketed for use on motorcycle seats and as such they were designed for use in the elements. They have 2 heat settings and will go as hot as you would want. They came in a set of 2 for about 100$ if I remember. One pad for the back of the seat, one for the bottom. I put them in the driver and passenger seats.

Is his last name mapple?

@MattP‌, I was on an old obrien mapple years ago with double rubbers. The front binding ripped on me and I went to the local ski shop to find a replacement. (These were the old obrien advantage bindings that had your foot basically right on the ski). I was leaving for nationals the next day and the only high end binding in the shop was a different brand with a THICK foam footbed. The ski was never the same after that.... I struggled with it for the remainder of the season and finally gave up on it! Level them out! B

@AB, Shhh... Don't give them any ideas!!

Don't know if this is helpful to anyone, since I am self taught for the reverse back (and it was over 25 years ago!), but here are my tips: As others have said, handle low. But my other tips would be to turn it nice and slow. Don't try to rip it around in a hurry.... Count to 5 when you are turning. Also, I found it really helpful to slow the boat way down to the point I was plowing through the water. I found that once I had the ski backwards I could really dig it in to let me hold that edge to stay in the back position and not get unwound. Stay nice and centered on the ski when turning but once you are backwards use the toes of your front foot to dig in and hold that position. Plus, the falls don't smack so much going that speed. Again, I'm no pro, so yrmv! Good luck.

@Than_Bogan‌, I'm in the same boat as you. (Pun intended?) However... I did make sure my wife new about my plans for a pre-wedding ski with my buds the morning of! THAT is our tradition up north! (Or maybe it's just me!)

@EdBrazil, I hear you about the difficulty finding course balls back in the day. At our home lake growing up the boat guides were plastic 4ltr jugs filled with spray foam as recently as the early '90s. When you lost a turn ball and had to replace it with a boat guide it was bruised shins for everyone for weeks!!

I have all 3 in my 94 nautique and would rank them: heater, seats, shower. The seats are great on cool mornings or evenings, but not a 'must have' like the heater.

Another vote for the Canon 70 -200 f4L IS on a crop (70d). A nice range for skiing, though most people I ski with top out at 35 off or so. The 2.8 would be nice for DOF some times, but there is usually plenty of light when we are skiing so a fast lens isn't really worth the extra size/weight.

A buddy of mine named his son Connelly. I just kept thinking 'why didn't I think of that!!'

Years ago I replaced the tilt assembly on my 94 nautique. The new one is much better. It was a while ago so I don't remember much, but it was a DIY project and involved removing the steering wheel.

The dimples were also on the original hyperlite wakeboard but I don't believe I have seen them on one since. Marketing suggested they helped the board release from the water on take-off and cushion the landings. I have my old board sitting in the garage, but the board is so different from a modern wakeboard that you really can't compare. (Ie. thick sidewall with 45deg bevel more like a slalom ski; directional instead of twin tip; foot straps with fixed position instead of ducked out adjustable bindings, etc..) I'd guess that since they haven't been on a board since, they either didn't work or they had some negative trade off that wasn't desirable. Obrien used to do some funky things on the bottom of their skis back in the mid 90s. I believe it was the G3 that had the 'Venturi tunnel' - a narrow tunnel up front opening up to an edge to edge tunnel behind the rear binding.

They used them on byerly wake bindings for years. I used to love them. They were rubber bindings though, so it wasn't too bad if you over-tightened a bit. The only issue I had was that it took quite a while to tighten them up.