escmanaze

Bump... @Such_a_brett Did you make some good progress over the summer? Any updates for us?

@unksskis "Please take these conspiracy theories back to Parler or Facebook, not BOS. It’s a recreational sport, there are no given “rights”." That's literally exactly what the title of the post is. A guy saying, "hey I'm going to go ahead and leave because I don't like the way the organization is run anymore." To the extent that the organization is run with a guilty until proven innocent mantra, I highly doubt the OP will be the only one deciding not to participate in said organization. You can take the attitude of "good riddance" or "don't let the door hit you on the way out" that's fine. But I promise a lot of folks will see it as a bad thing, not a good thing, if/when membership declines significantly. Lots of folks here on BOS are interested in the long term health of the sport and would therefore be interested to hear about things that might drive away a significant number of peers.

Don't forget folks. Every single person on this site who isn't currently a USAWS member should be considered a "target customer" for USAWS. So...you may not want to just throw their opinion right in the garbage on a topic like this.

What a dang shame they don't make that boat anymore. SMDH

One thing I've noticed about slalom: No one size fits all. There are a bunch of different methods and tons is personal preference. Some, however, is basic physics and is not disputable. For the items of preference, I recommend you give a pretty significant amount of tries to different methods to find out which one you like better. The first and foremost example is whether to go easy on the gas or whether to hit it hard. My background in wakeboarding has led me to the conclusion that in todays world of modern wide skis and direct drive boats with lots of bottom end torque, way too many people are sitting here dragging in the water for 20 feet FOR NOTHING!! When you have this much ski surface area and this much engine power, it really is possible to "simply stand up" and not spend any time at all dragging through the water. Simply feel the pull of the rope, use it to pull your body up on the ski, and by the time you're up, the ski is on top of the water and you're skiing. I'm not saying it will work for everybody, but when you get the hang of it, it is the most ridiculously easy on your body thing in the world. Yes I understand, I am way outvoted on this one, but again, it's a personal preference, so I'm not necessarily wrong. Another item of preference is getting up with your back foot in or out. Give lots of tries to both ways to see which way your body prefers. Another preference is just how curled up in a ball you get. I find this to be proportional with how much gas you are going to give it. If you are going to hammer the gas, then don't curl up as much. If you are going easy on the gas, then get curled up more. Amount of pressure on front vs. back foot I also find to be a preference thing. Lots of tries both ways. V rope is a no-brainer as mentioned above. Get one. Get a hovercraft. Don't worry about how it skis once you are up. Worry about the fact that you actually got up!! Keep the horse in front of the cart. Getting up is job 1. After a year or 2 of practice getting up on it, then maybe you keep going to skinnier and skinnier skis. Skis hold their value pretty well, so don't be too afraid of buying and selling often. If you can get behind a boom, it is definitely the easiest way to learn. Second easiest is if you can get a tall pole or tower. The physics of the upward pull from the higher tow point help a lot. Here's a crazy final thought. One thing I love about drysuit weather is that the way my BARE Ultra Dry drysuit works, tons of air gets trapped in it, and I'm already halfway out of the water getting up. If desperate times call for desperate measures, this is one more tool in your belt.

Remember that while the kids are still young, a ski boat with a tower is actually the BEST scenario for them to learn wakeboarding. The tower gives them the tall tow point, and then the smaller wake is actually better for learning, especially while they are small. And in fact, all the way through intermediate, the small wake will encourage them to continue to work on fundamentals and spin tricks etc. and it will be easier for them to resist the urge to become "heelside heroes". Until they can do wake to wake 360's both heel and toeside and both regular and switch, your boat is absolutely not the constraining factor in their progression. The 200 will give them a better slow speed wakeboard wake with the hydrogate in trick mode, but the prostar will give you a better all around ski wake at all line lengths and speeds. Both are quite roomy, by ski boat standards at least, especially with the open bow. Also, for everybody but a hardcore skier, your standard tow point will be the tower, and that opens up the back seats for people to sit in as well. Also, some fat butts in the back seat will make the kids wakeboard wake bigger and rampier, so for them, you will only need fat sacks once they are intermediate AND the boat is empty. I don't like the new malibus, but if you can find one of the old designs before like about 2016 or so and get it with the wedge, and of course, a tower, then that would be a pretty good option as well. That would leave you more money to put toward an additional pontoon, or eventually a wake boat if your kids ever get to the advanced level.

@Drago That's good to know. Thanks for the info.

It does strike me as at least interesting that only members 18+ have to take the course in order to ski. I may be wrong, but haven't the most prominent waterski issues related to safesport involved under 18 teenage females? Might it be appropriate to have a course set up for them as well? If you're a hiker hiking in bear country, you take a class on what to do if bears attack. Hiking amongst mountain lions? Well then, let's catch you up on how you should react to mountain lion attacks right? 16 year old female going to a waterski tournament? Then here's a refresher course on best practice when you meet a 21 year old man. Someone on here will accuse me of "victim blaming". Fine. You can't please everybody. Nevertheless, I think it is certainly possible, while not blaming the victim, to help pre-emptively give the potential future victim every tool possible in their tool belt for how to reduce the probability of becoming a victim.

@dvskier Freaking Olympics. Maybe the worst thing to ever happen to Utah.

Please send some to Utah. We really need more water. Dang Chinese weather manipulation screwing everything up. ;)

Outsider's perspective here. It does seem like a bit much to ask every single person who wants to ski in a single tournament to take an hour long course and pay an additional fee to do so. If you're already struggling to get people to show up to an event, adding in something like this certainly doesn't help. Yikes. As a person who has often been on the fence about maybe going to a tournament and I just never have quite had enough gumption to go for it, putting this one more obstacle in the way seems to make it even less likely.

@mharper I did end up selling it on ebay. Made some half decent money on it too. Good stuff. Sorry I don't still have it for you.

I'll be in the minority here, but I really wish I could go down to my Nautique dealer today and buy the equivalent of a 2002 Air Nautique 196 with excalibur based ZO. https://www.wakeboardingmag.com/blog/boats/2002/01/01/nautique-air-nautique-196-2002/ Along with the masses, I would even be happy to see any kind of TSC1 hull offered with a ZO engine brand new at anything resembling a semi-reasonable price. And yes, I love my radar vapor boa gloves. They are about to give up the ghost and it is going to be a sad sad day.

@Moskier3ev It's tough to imagine the trick wake getting better without the slalom wake, at least at like 24 or so getting worse. Depending on just how slow and just how longline we are talking though, that tradeoff might be worth it if it gets good again around 26.

Hi Everybody, The Mastercraft marketing literature for 2021 said the wakes would be every bit as good as they had been since 2014. Are they? We now have two summers of experience on them. Let me know what you think.

I'm probably Hi-jacking this thread. Nevermind me, I will go make a new thread. Thanks

@dave2ball I have skied behind a 200. @lpskier is correct that in time, I got used to it. But it is clearly not as good as my 97 bubble or the prostar. If I didn't have a choice in the matter - sure, great, I could get used to whatever. But I do have a choice in the matter, so my plan is absolutely to make a big part of my choice be the wakes. I would much rather buy a boat with a wake I love than to buy a boat with a wake that I have to "get used to". And I don't ski tournaments, so I don't have to worry about "preparation" at all. The 200 would definitely be better for when I bust out the wakeskate or wakeboard, but I'm not putting much importance at all on that anymore.

So for long line slow speed guys like me, I already have the new malibu crossed off my list. Hated skiing behind it. Now I'm hearing I need to also cross the new Nautique off my list. That's fine, I want a tower and an open bow anyway. But what is the verdict on the new Mastercraft? Did the long line low speed wakes get ruined with their 2021 changes? We were told when it came out that they should be just as good. Is that proving to be true? I know that from 2014-2020 I skied a couple of those mastercrafts and loved both of them. Still the only boat to rival my 97 SNOB wakes that I have skied (haven't skied a cp, but see note above about tower and open bow). So does my search need to be only 2014-2020 MC? Or can it be more generically 2014+ MC?

Yes. With the cult, comes the cult prices as well. Good luck.

So...how do we submit updates to this mysterious fella? Utah has some new ones worth putting on here.

That's awesome you were able to make that work out. It is indeed an awesome lake. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm glad Scot was able to hook you up with a tow.

The answer to your question is super obvious and the answer is malibu sunsetter lxi. You mentioned trying to use the search function. If you search for sslxi, you will find all the posts and realize that the sslxi has a following that is absolutely cult-like, and it's all people in exactly your shoes. And yes, those wakes will be WAY more enjoyable than your current boat. You absolutely won't go wrong with an sslxi, but don't take my word for it, do your searches and you'll discover all the folks in the cult and they can educate you on all the nitty gritty details. P.S. sometimes a search in google renders better results than the actual BOS search bar, so consider that option as well.

Ha ha ha!! I just love that we are all such a bunch of elitist pricks around here that Horton has to make a specific post just to explain his purchase of a heretical device. I've had tons of fun tubing in my younger years, so I get it. It's just hilarious the way we all are.

@blagrata Just like wakeboarding, wakeskating, all that stuff, tubing also, is more fun from a higher tow point. So, no, you don't NEED to pull a tube from a tower, but everybody involved has more fun if you do. Additionally, it makes your back seats useable while tubing as well.

Wow, Horton bought a tube. Good for him - he's a nicer guy than I am I suppose. I have 3 kids and I encourage them to do all sports they could ever imagine behind a boat. Kneeboarding, wakeboarding, wakeskating, barefoot, trick, whatever, anything you have fun on. EXCEPT a tube. I absolutely WILL NOT pull a tube behind my boat. I even encourage my kids to go tubing behind Grandpa's sea doo, or other Grandpa's boat, or Uncles Sea Doo or Neighbors boat or whatever. Just not my boat. No way. No how.