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@skierjp I've had it happen tricking behind a nautique. Tricking along and next thing you know I was accelerating up to 40 mph. We determined the problem must have been the gps losing signal when we went down a narrow channel between two mountains? Couldn't find any other explanation and it has never happened again... Can't remember the year of the boat, but it was one of the first years with the hydro-gate. Brad

I grew up skiing tournaments 20 years ago when it wasn't common to bring your own handle. You might see 1 or two guys at (Canadian) nationals with their own, but everyone else used the tournament handle. I took a bunch of years off of tournament skiing for university, job, family, etc. Went back to nats a few years ago when they were out west. The dock starter asked for my handle and I said, "I'll just use the tournament handle"! He said, "um... I don't know if we have one!" Fortunately the guy seeded in front of me knew me from back in the day and let me use his! These days the group of 4 or 5 guys I ski with rotate boats and most of us ski with whatever is attached to the boat. Gloves are a bit more personal, but I have a couple old pairs people can use if they forget theirs. Everyone is welcome to try my ski if they like too. Trick rope/handle on the other hand... It's gotta be mine! Length and toe hold size are just too different.

@BRY, I've been around skiing long enough to have skied through good and bad hand driving. My buddies and I experimented with making our own 'cruise controll system' back in the day, and I have had perfect pass since v2.0. My boat currently has zbox and I routinely ski behind zero off. Unfortunately I don't believe I ever had the opportunity to ski behind the first attempts of zero off, but I would be interested from an engineering standpoint. As to your question about boat path (or speed) and injuries/etc... Im not sure which side of the fence I fall on. I tend to think that if I'm not in the correct position to absorb whatever forces I'm up against, I deserve to be ripped out of my ski! If I have my head down in hockey I will get hit... People don't just let me skate all the way down the ice with the puck because I'm not looking for them... Fun argument. Again, sorry if this is re-hashed too much for some.

@Than_Bogan, Fair enough... However, if you were to design a 'boat path control system' - maybe some sort of pole sticking out of the water running on an underwater track - would you design the track straight or would you design it to curve closer to the balls but within the tolerances that were clearly intended to minimize human error because it would be easier (and therefore more fun?)

@Than_Bogan, it must be the engineer in me... How about this: Surely skiers found it easier/more fun/etc when the driver 'helped the skier' by varying side to side from the centerline of the course. Should the driver drive as straight a boat path as he can, or should he 'help' everyone (or perhaps his favorite subset of everyone) such that he is weaving all over the course but still within tolerance. The intent of the rules is to have a straight boat path... The tolerances are there to account for 'human' error, not as a way to bend the rules. No?

@toddL, My argument is "shouldn't the reaction time be as quick as possible if we now have the technology to make it more accurate?" I understand that skiers didn't like it, but why should that be a concern for upholding the 'intent' of the rule (to be traveling as close to 36 mph as we can) instead of bending them to make it easy for the Skier. Currently your boat speed might only be 36mph at 6 points in the course but you can still get "actual" times... We can do better than that now. Sorry if this has been discussed at length before. I'll go search the archives now.

@Than_Bogans thread 'is slalom too easy' got me thinking about speed controll with zero off - specifically the a-c,1-3 settings. Shouldn't it be the goal of the speed control system to maintain as close to the set speed as possible? It seems to me these settings are saying "you can drive any speed you like throughout a segment as long as you average the set speed at each ball. I know that no system will ever be perfect, but isn't the intent of the rules to have a constant boat speed? Thoughts?

@swc5150, Actually, the 2001 hull is actually desired by boarders for its wake characteristics. It is fairly narrow, so doesn't take as much weight to sink it down, and the wake is nice and peaky. Biggest drawback for a wake boat is the interior space. It's the #1 rated budget wake boat definitely for the wake.

You are really supposed to find this type of thing out BEFORE you take the job! Kidding of course.... (Well, sort of...) Good luck

Surfers right of way is 'first on the wave', or 'closest to where it is breaking', so traditional surfers hate the paddle guys because they can catch the waves further outside and snake the wave. They also paddle out faster and catch more waves as a result. Surfers have traditionally had the same hate on for kayak surfers for the same reason.

Was sorting through some old junk and came across this old obrien g3 pamphlet that came with my old ski. (Circa mid 90s?) Thought some of you might enjoy it! Didn't HO have a similar gimmick around then with metal bars behind the binding to stiffen the ski? I was told by an industry person at the time that they changed their layup to a less rigid spec, just so they could add these bars to the outside of their ski that everyone 'needed to have'! Gotta love the marketing! Cheers, Brad

Something you can do now (while the water may still be frozen) that someone else touched on is visualization. The power of the mind is an amazing thing... I'd been landing backflips on my trick ski for ~20 years, but I always did them incorrectly and 'butt checked' at the end. I've spent years trying to fix this, and devoted multiple summers to ONLY that trick (probably 15-20 per set, 4 sets a week!) I thought I was trying to fix it, but really I was just reinforcing bad habits! Then one summer about 5 years ago I couldn't ski (broken foot), but visualized the trick every day. The next spring when I hit the water, I landed the second one I tried perfectly for the first time ever!! Do some googling on visualization for a better explanation, but here are some hints: Recreate as much of the experience as you can... Try to imagine the sights, sounds, smell, feel of the wind on your face, pull of the rope, etc. Try to visualize from an 'internal' perspective. Like you are seeing the experience through your own eyes, rather than watching yourself ski from some external 'camera' view. Like anything, visualization is a skill and you get better with practice. Don't be surprised if you can't visualize yourself skiing correctly at first. Start with something easy at first like shooting free throws in basketball... Don't be surprised to see some bounce off the rim before you start to sink them! Really! Good luck.

Ive been a subscriber for ~20 years now. A few years ago I wanted to do a little something for my ski crew, so I had some fun on my computer and put together a 'waterski magazine' complete with photos of them, copies of popular adverts but subbing in their pictures, and my own 'letters to the editor' section poking a bit of fun at them all! I made each of them a cover with tag lines having a bit of fun at their expense. Then I printed them all off at a site called 'mag cloud' which lets you publish your own magazines. Here are the covers:

I agree with @h2odawg79. I spent a couple days with mapple back in the early 90s working at a boat show in Canada. As a 15year old trying to become the best skier I could I asked him what his off the water training consisted of. His answer was, 'I just ski'! Even as a 15 year old I didn't really believe that to be true! I've read a few articles since that confirmed my suspicion!

If you are serious about improving, Set short (weekly), medium (monthly) and long term (seasonal) goals. Write them down, look at them daily and re-evaluate them as the season progresses. Have a purpose for every set. It is way too easy to 'just ski' and not think! That is fun too, but not the path to more balls!

We have done this a bunch on the wakeboard. Check out the vid below @ 1:06ish for an example of what it looks like. A few points other than the obvious 'try at your own risk' disclaimer.. 1) it is really hard to hold the camera steady even just at wakeboard speed. 2) a gopro would be way too wide an angle. You would barely see the skier except for when he is right behind the boat. The example is using my normal video camera in a home made water housing. 3) I've seen a nice example of mounting the camera on a rope on one of the wake sites. I'll see if I can dig up a link later if anyone is interested, but the idea of it is to use a piece of PVC pipe with a slot in it ( so the v of the handle keeps the PVC from rotating around the rope). The PVC is then taped to the rope and the gopro is mounted to the PVC. Some other great angles for slalom include from a chase boat (off to the side, so the chase boat isn't hitting the skiers wakes; and for safety of course!) We have also got some great pics floating about 15 feet inside the slalom balls... But with the rope whizzing over your head, be careful with this one too... Be careful and use your common sense, but also don't be afraid to experiment and get out there and get some fun vids.

As with most of you, I've had many wetsuits and dry suits over the years (especially considering I hail from the frozen north where the water is solid for a good chunk of the year)... The two standouts by far in my opinion: An OS systems bag dry suit that I haven't done a thing to in almost 20 years of use!! This fall the seals finally failed on me! My next suit will have a lot to live up to! A rip curl 5/4mm suit that I use mainly for surfing. The suit started to come apart along a seam, but the tear started into the fabric. About a year out of warranty they replaced the whole suit for me! Really went above and beyond in my opinion, and a great suit all around (for anyone who needs a 5mm wetsuit for waterskiing!!) Cheers, Brad

The flow-rider in kehei is a good way to spend an afternoon too. If you are going to rent SUPs, do it in the morning before the wind comes up so you can see the turtles swimming below you!

The flow-rider in kehei is a good way to spend an afternoon too. If you are going to rent SUPs, do it in the morning before the wind comes up so you can see the turtles swimming below you!

In Maui currently on vacation. I looked into it in the past, and there was a guy doing wakeboard charters on the ocean, (wake maui if I recall. I think his name is Ryan?), but no skiing. You may be able to get a pull in Honolulu in the lagoon, or in Kauai on the wailua river if you are going to be on any of the other islands. Surfing or kiteboard lessons are my recommendations! I took some kite lessons and had a blast (kite beach just behind the airport). For beginner surf lessons, try the west side (kehei or Lahina), or for more advanced surf hit the north shore. Let me know if you have any questions. Aloha!

In Maui currently on vacation. I looked into it in the past, and there was a guy doing wakeboard charters on the ocean, (wake maui if I recall. I think his name is Ryan?), but no skiing. You may be able to get a pull in Honolulu in the lagoon, or in Kauai on the wailua river if you are going to be on any of the other islands. Surfing or kiteboard lessons are my recommendations! I took some kite lessons and had a blast (kite beach just behind the airport). For beginner surf lessons, try the west side (kehei or Lahina), or for more advanced surf hit the north shore. Let me know if you have any questions. Aloha!

@horton, my background is writing code for 3d scanning, data acquisition, and optimization algorithms. If you do ever track down the data, or take the unit for another ski, I'd love to see what data it spits out.

@phil2360, I was thinking the same thing. @horton, pass it this way too if you have a sample pass.

I knew I wasn't the only one! @eleeski, I'm actually one of the most laid back skiers you'll meet (I'm probably one of the only guys left to use the 'tournament handle'. In fact, last time @ Canadian nats I think I had to borrow one from the guy in front of me since they couldn't find the tournament one! The jumping in the water before tricking thing started off as a "always start in the water and get my hair wet" thing (even in down to 4deg Celsius water!) but a few of the tourney lakes around here had really muddy shorelines and my back foot would get slippery on my ski. One day my back foot came flying out in the middle of a wflipb. Jumping in and then getting out for a dock start was a way to simulate a water start without risking a slippery ski. I don't do it anymore, but it served its purpose to get me comfortable before tournaments. Nothing wrong with a little pre ski ritual to help you find your 'ideal performance state'!

Seems slalom skiers are a quirky bunch (at least some of the guys I've skied with!). While I won't 'out' my ski crew I'll share a few of mine. -I always face the same direction on the swim grid getting my ski on. Nothing superstitious, but I'd probably fall in the water if I tried the other way! -I always start with the rope on the left side of my ski (odd for a left foot forward?) -always squeeze the water out of and adjust the Velcro on my mitts if there is enough setup time between getting up and skiing. -up until about a year ago, I HAD to get my hair wet before trick skiing. Even when doing a dock start I'd hop in the water before getting my ski on, and then climb back onto the dock to start!! (I'm sure there are others I'm not even aware of, but you will have to ask my crew about that!) Anyone else care to share some quirks of their own or their crew? I know I'm not the only one!!