Joeprunc

I'd like to apologize in advance for a silly poll. I'm just really bored at work today. After having my boat on the water my "mild" case of OCD has started to lift. Before when I towed my boat to and from, I would spend almost as much time waxing as I did skiing (I know its embarrassing, but I had a lot of free time). Since my boat has been on the water yesterday was the first time in 2 years that I put a coat of wax on it, and vacuumed the carpeting. I guess as of lately I have been skiing a bit more. We still wipe down with a product. So how often do you care for your boat?

V drives are not going to be great for skiing, but everyone knows family first. Just about anything should be better than an I/O. V drives have a lot more storage room than a DD. Having a tower and rear ski locker helps get gear out of the way. With a family of four I'd say a DD would be just fine...its when your kids bring two friends is when it will get crowded, and a V drive will be preferable. When skiing with a DD everyone has to sit infront of the motor box, but with a V drive the pylon is behind the rear seat. With a family I'd also recommend an open bow. With that said I'd stick to a 21' boat for the extra room, I'd recommend the Malibu Sunsetter or Mastercraft 205. With skiing open water and being on a lake that can be rough you want a high freeboard (a lot of the ski specific boats do not have a high freeboard or bow), and something a little bigger to hand the rough water. You can get a Sunsetter with a v drive and a diamond hull, which might be the best balance, but won't be as good of a ski wake as the DD.

I've had a few Nikons in the past and on my second Canon Powershot. I beat the crap out of my point and shoot cameras, so they generally don't last that long. I felt like the Nikon's I've had took better quality pictures. But the interfaces were not as easy to use as the Cannons (this may be different now, but when I switched to my first Canon I liked the interface better). The Canon Powershot 800 that I now takes good video and pretty good pictures. No where near an SLR, but good for screen shots, and 5x3 or 4x6 photos. I feel like the Canons also seem to take my camera beatings better than the two previous Nikons. I think the way technology has progressed anything that gets decent reviews on Cnet.com will be a great choice.

Good looking girls in bikinis will motivate me to do anything. Love when its finally summer time and my wife wears a bikini all weekend long (I don't like using the AC at the house for this reason)! Plus bikini season means motivation to keep in shape for the both of us. Since we started skiing regularly she now owns more bikinis than shoes!

Always love your videos! Thanks!

Does your system have a manual timer/fall button. You can use this on the course instead of the smart timers to calibrate. As you go thru the course without a skier have the spotter hit the button at the entrance gates, ball 3, and exit gates. This will serve the same function as the magnets in setting up timing and speeds. One like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Perfect-Pass-Manual-Timer-Fall-Button-/370582493743

@Than_Bogan I agree that most skiers I have come across are welcoming of all skiers into their sport with open arms. Heck that's why I visit this board frequently, as I feel extremely welcomed and encouraged as a 15' off skier. And I appreciate the support and guidance that I receive here. All of my course skiing encounters have been very encouraging, except for one experience that was spot on with the "DSO" attitude. I'd rather not go into details on the incident here. Maybe the other group of skiers was having a bad day and I'd like to think they didn't mean to come across that way. Sorry for the hijack...I hope my wife can ski like that some day.

@aswinter05 That is awesome! I think you should have her continue to run those speeds for as long as she feels comfortable. Only have her go for the orange balls once she feels like she is ready to. I'm trying to get my wife to start moving from open water to the course, but she is very timid of the buoys (and a little embarrassed). A lot of the people out here don't want to share a course with people that can't run 35 off. But I think I found a local club that doesn't fall in that stereotype. @Ed_Johnson Thank you for the advice :). Still being in the "honeymoon phase" with my wife she can take criticism and corrections, but I can tell how extremely happy she is when I tell her how awesome she was doing. I want to keep my wife in the boat for as long as I can still afford to put gas in it. I will only give her words of encouragement from now on...unless she asks. Then only mention on point or area to work on.

PP suggests using RPM mode for any speeds higher than 25 mph. But in order for your RPM mode to reflect correct speeds, you must calibrate it first. Calibrating the RPM mode requires driving thru a slalom course and use a hand timer, smart magnets, or GPS locations to time each segment.

It looked like your 30 mph was one of the more difficult passes in your videos. I got this advice a week ago while doing a set at 30 mph. Ski your buoys at 30 mph wide, way wide. Ski as aggressive as you do at 34 mph. Instead of just skiing to the buoy and waiting to turn around it. Ski beyond the buoy and make your turn so you almost hit the back side of the buoy. You have an additional 23 feet of line to make it around the buoys, exercise that additional length. I've heard this comment a few times before but for some reason this time it clicked, the next six passes at 30 mph were the easiest I've ever skied (and it was my first time out of the year). Before this I would loose my rhythm when I was early, and wait to turn around the buoy, screw up a turn because I had been sitting and waiting to pass the buoy, then play catch up the last 4 buoys.

I am a huge rookie too, and still stuck on 15 off, but noticed something that may have something to do with your turns. Maybe someone that is more skilled can comment on this too (or maybe its nothing). I noticed you are not dropping a hand from the handle, I'm not sure if this was just the first pass trying to get the feel for the ski again, or if this is a norm, or if its a practice drill. But it looks like instead of dropping a hand and allowing a bit of body rotation (don't know if that is the right term to describe it) to help initiate the turn you seem to be loading the tail to get the ski to turn. It looks like the tail of the ski is extremely loaded from once you make it around 1 till the boat wash. Also take your initial cut out earlier, so you don't have to rush your gate pull. It looks like you gradually cut out off the wake, then increased your cut as you got further outside the wake, this is probably why there was more slack. Get where you want to be a little bit earlier and you can make sure there is no slack in your line before your pull thru the gates. Again I am a rookie, so I really don't know what I'm talking about, but that's what I saw, as that is how I use to look. Maybe someone else can comment on that too, or maybe its nothing. Don't worry I'll join in the 15' off video segment shortly. Oh and I don't know what speed you are at, but that SN wake looks amazing!

I love this post, as I am so sore myself that it is painful just typing this post. I found I slightly over did it this weekend: 70 mile dirt bike ride: Saturday 1 open water set: Sunday 2 course sets: Sunday (Zero working out in the past month) I now can't walk up or downstairs, but have a smile from ear to ear. Can't wait till next weekend. I have found dirt biking, especially motocross helps me the most with my skiing fitness, and vice versa. I'd much rather do my workouts outside.

I've got them for a 65" (which obviously wont help). But they are the same as the Strada.

At the Sacramento show SN had a 200 OB and a 200CB. None of the others had a DD. I asked the Malibu rep if they had a TXI back at their shop, he laughed an gave me some lip about how they haven't had a direct drive at their shop in over 4 years. The only way to see one is to buy it first....I left.

I'd suggest kettle bells and core strength. If you know anyone who has P90X, try to borrow the Core Synergistics DVD and do that two or three days. If you have kettle bells (and know how to use them) I'd suggest a workout routine with light weights and high reps. Be sure to take the day off, or do a light workout before your first ski. Check over your gear.

facetube & gmail

The user manual was pretty straight forward in the installation. It took me about 3 hours to do the install from start to finish. The hardest part was routing all the wires. Here is a link from PP on their manuals http://www.perfectpass.com/?q=manuals If you have any questions call or email PP, they will help you out.

Everything I've ordered from PP has come to my door in 2 days via FedEx. Very quick shipping out of Canada.

Yes they are fully wrapped in fiberglass. My boat has never been in a garage, but I do keep a nice cover on it never allowing water to pool, and make sure the bilge is dry after every ski. Charlie Pigeon was a head designer for Mastercraft and didn't believe that composite stringers were superior. When MC started playing with composite stringers, Charlie decided to leave MC. In 1991 he formed his own company, Tiga, (unfortunately the name was already copywrited) and renamed to Tige. I believe Tige kept wooden stringers in their boats until 2003 (I could be wrong). Charlie believed wooded stringers were stronger than the composite stringers (at that time, which can obviously be debated till the moon rises), but people found that wood would deteriorate if neglected. If you do go with a wooded stringer boat there are a few areas to check out: the motor mounts, and check the bilge areas. Also a lot of the floors were fiber glassed wood as well, so check for soft spots. If you find any soft spots I'd pass and go onto the next boat.

@rodltg2 I just sent you a PM regarding league skiing, I didn't see this thread until now.....This does actually seem like something I would enjoy doing, or trying. One thing for me is getting to the course on time, what city is the ski lake you are thinking of at?

@6balls I definitely think we have gotten our $$ and smiles out of it. Its even more fun now that I finally bit the bullet and installed PP. @rodltg2 yes it is.

$1350 = a lot of boat gas.

I have not a single complaint from anyone behind my 1995 Tige slm2000. We ski at 28-34 mph and 15' off. I also regularly ski behind a 2004 Mastercraft 197 and a 2006 Response LX. They all have slightly different wakes, and after a few sets behind each one a beginner like me cannot tell a difference. Actually our friend with the Response LX use to have a 1997 open bow Tige like mine, 1300 hours when he traded it in...he still wishes that he kept that boat instead of purchasing his new boat. My Tige is a closed bow, but they also made an open bow I believe the 1993-1998 Pre2002 and 1999-2001 20i produced the better ski wakes. In 2002 they got a lot heavier, I'm not sure why. My boat has the older wooded stringer design, but I have never had any issues with mine (no soft spots anywhere). Mine is also a carburated motor, I'm not sure when they switched to the EFI, but in 350 hours I've had one issue of a no start ("Knock on wood") the rotor was worn and needed to be replaced. I switched to an ACME 515 prop, much stronger pull, and running lower rpms at ski speeds. Also as far as a price point I paid $8k with 435 hours...here she is the day I brought her home. Ski wake at 30 mph (3 people in the boat and a full tank of gas)...There is a nice rooster tail at 22 off, but it dies way down at 34 mph. And a newer model with the TAPS plate you can probably trim the rooster tail out of the picture.

@Skoot1123 The new handle yoke I received from Radar is orange, the one I broke was yellow. Hopefully orange is stronger than yellow.

Just an update I did finally receive a new yoke under a warranty claim for my broken handle. After skiing with my old SL handle for the remainder of the season it made me appreciate how nice the Radar handle is, the width and grip of the bar are very nice. I'd recommend this handle if only their customer service had gotten me a replacement handle is a reasonable time frame...not 4 months later. But if this replacement handle (yoke section) breaks again I will not be replacing it with another one.