XR6Hurricane

@jdarwin - that's interesting about LA. I lived in Mandeville for about a year and it's a shame that while they're at it they don't get some sensible statutes in place to solve the car insurance situation there that's caused by the sue crazies. I'm glad at least some states are protecting land owners...my only reason for sharing that story was to give people a heads up. Anyone who owns private lake property should be sure to look into what applies in their state.

Just wanted to bring this back up and say thanks for everyone's input. I've done 8 physical therapy sessions and have 4 more. Did a follow up with the doctor today and based on my progress so far he seems to think that I should be okay with the 4 remaining sessions, a couple more months of exercises on my own 3-4 times per week, and gradually working my way up to the activity I was at. So, just in time for the thaw...

LOL @OB.

@east tx skier - Illinois

@OB...gating and posting unfortunately no longer works. I live in a very well known lakeside town that was famous for its privately owned beaches where you could come and pay to picnic, swim, play in the sand, etc. It was the life of the town until the mid '80s. The owner of one of these beaches had a locked chain link fence around the property with a sign that said "no trespassing". A Puerto Rican lady, heavily intoxicated, climbed over the fence in the middle of the night, trespassed across the property, and waded out to a raft that was anchored in knee deep water with a sign on it that said "no diving". She dove off head first and broke her neck. The lawsuit brought about a huge judgment. The beach's insurance paid out, but then their premiums skyrocketed so they closed their doors. The neighboring beaches met the same fate as their insurance went through the roof. Anyhow, the basis for awarding the judgment was that the no trespassing and no diving signs were not in Spanish. So, unless you post signs in every language in the world including all 150 some versions of Swahili, you're on the hook. Even then someone who is illiterate will still win. It's a bunch of B.S., only in America. Like the lady who won the suit against Winnebago because she put it on cruise control and got up and went in back to make a sandwich and piled up. I don't have a dog in this fight over the background checks for drivers, but have to say that it's sad to see the way things are going from an insurance standpoint in all of our beloved hobbies. It's equally disheartening to see things become so organized that they are no longer fun...Saturday morning on the river there are no rules...

@dbski Very nice. I'm in the Antique Outboard Motor Club and a complete vintage rig is on my wish list but I'm out of storage space.

@FrankS - no, there's no show teams close to me and the time commitment would be difficult because I work an hour away. Wonder Lake is the closest team and you have to live there to be on that team. The Aquanuts are the next closest but they are about an 1 hr 40 min from work, so practice and Wednesday shows would be impossible.

@FrankS - are you on the Aquanuts? I know they do the handicap skiing. I'm a big fan of them and of Wonder Lake. @OB - you win on the interesting side for sure. To this day I can't figure out what Carmen Electra was thinking.

@thager The base is lagged into the floor with four big screws and the pylon slips down into it with a lanyard pin through a bezel in the top deck. The fit through the deck is pretty tight so once it flexes a little the deck takes part of the load. I've pulled two slalom skiers off of the pylon but I always use a bridle when pulling big loads just to be safe. The rear mounted pylon places the boat at too much of a disadvantage when coming out of the hole with a big load anyway. There's no way to really bolt the pylon base through from underneath because the floor is the fully sealed flotation chamber. @6balls Definitely on the to do list with a get together.

1995 Rapid Craft Hurricane, 2005 Mercury 150 XR6 Classic, 2012 Trailmaster trailer. All rigging done by yours truly. Idle to 60 in 10 seconds; 1000 feet in about 14. @thager Nice rig, I like the yellow.

I'll go first...our minister. The fact that I'm a skier came up in conversation and he said he'd never done it but had always been curious about trying it. So we took him out one weekday evening and got him up within about half a dozen tries. As I recall he stayed up for a few hundred feet and he seemed pretty satisfied with that result.

The metric system should have stayed in Europe, along with zebra mussels and front wheel drive cars.

@skibrain - love it. The 14' Mirrocraft was and still is a great boat. Had a '78, when it was still called the Deep Fisherman. Couldn't break it if you tried and with a 10 hp motor was the safest possible boat for my dad to turn me loose with when I was 14.

Back when I had hair (2nd from the right) about '99 or '00. Had just gotten done pulling 5 with my friend's black Checkmate with the 115 tower of power.

Mine's 15 years old and I just hang it to dry in the basement and there it hangs until it's needed again. Always kept indoors. I could say something about the title of this thread, but I won't...

I wholeheartedly agree. In the short time I have been here I have been very impressed with the way this site runs. I especially like the fact that there is no room for political discussion here.

I agree with @Ryno. I have a Rapid Craft Hurricane, which is styled very similar to a Centurion Warrior (but lighter and faster design), and it is the closest you can get to a boat that does everything. Seating for five, slalom wake that puts inboards to shame (at least at 22' off and longer), 70 mph top speed with a stock 150, can cruise at 25-30 mph all day. I wouldn't worry too much about a complete two-stroke ban because the Evinrude E-Tecs run cleaner than the four-strokes and to my knowledge are still allowed even at Tahoe. You might also want to look into Dyna-Ski; they are copies of the old Hydrodynes with some mods. The fit and finish leaves a little to be desired but I think the build quality is decent and they are priced reasonable. A Hydrostream Voyager might also be worth a look. P.S. I've been behind two Sunsetters, one '94 direct drive and one VLX v-drive that was a few years newer. Maybe the wake would flatten out decent at 36, but at 30 mph I almost died behind both boats. But I'm spoiled with the outboards so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Realistic: Get my knee problem completely resolved before spring. Unrealistic: New 65" Radar Senate, Hydrodyne 20' with twin 200s, a Nautique 200, an Allison XR2002 powered by a Merc 260, a house on the river, and a 25 year old brunette with a red bow tied around her under the tree.

Not a picture of a green ball but here's a present for @6balls to salute along with the green balls and 2-cycle smell.

@6balls The two-cycle oil smell comment officially elevates you to hero status in my mind.

The way I read it, it's 15 licenses total for both lakes and I count 65 waterfront lots. I guess you have to depend on getting along with your neighbors so they will pull you if you're not one of the lucky ones to get a permit. I wonder if the people who aren't waterfront even have a shot at a permit. Fee to be set by the developer, I wonder how much it is right now.

Looks tempting with the lots at $37,000, but with 189 lots, how do they only issue 15 boat licenses? Is that pretty much par for the course in these types of communities? I know they can't have 189 boats on the lake, but 15 is less than 10% of the people. Also, how do you build a lake community and not allow even one boat to be stored in view in a driveway?

@Brady - I wish that more of the new skis had those older style bindings like you're talking about. The Cam Adjustable front wrap on my '98 Connelly is about as dangerous as I care to live. I'm one of the 99% of skiers that will never even come close to the world records that were set in the old days on the old equipment, so the risk isn't worth it to me.

I don't see anything wrong in the third picture of the blue Nautique. Hell, that's a brand new boat yet around here. You haven't seen neglect or the effects of leaving a boat in the water until you check out what's rotting in people's yards here in the Fox Chain area.

My name is Ron. I've spent most of my life in northern Illinois and currently work in purchasing for a steel company. Occasionally I do some small outboard motor repair on the side. My dad's side of the family has been involved with boats ever since my great-great grandfather ran a tugboat business on Lake Michigan over 100 years ago. Through the years my father and I have been involved with high performance outboards, antique outboard motors, and fishing. My other interests are motorcycling, hiking, camping, and living as far from the city as is feasible with a screened porch. Finally learned to ski when I was 19 and I'm 36 now. The last few years I did very little skiing compared to when I was in my early 20s, mostly due to driver/spotter availability. Did a lot of skiing this past year and have had a lot of fun getting back into it. My father has a house with lake rights to Bangs Lake (trivia: the beach scene in the Blues Brothers was filmed there) and I'm 10 minutes from the lower Fox River.