XR6Hurricane

I'm an open water skier...in 14 years, I've never felt like my Concept reached out and bit me without warning. And I don't think I've fallen more than a dozen times on it since '99. Am I loyal to Connelly? In a sense, but I'm looking at some new skis in the spring once my shoulder is better and am going to look at Radar and H.O. as well.

I think it would be great if wakeboarding got in. Because it would mean we would have a few days of at least a few wakeboarders sitting inside watching TV instead of out on the river ruining my water.

As someone who skis recreationally for fun and couldn't care less if a certain pair of bindings gets me one more buoy, some of these newer bindings scare the hell out of me. A snowmobile boot has no place on a water ski in my humble opinion. Even the velcro high wrap binding on my '98 Connelly is tighter than I would prefer. And I'm a size 9 using a XL adjustable that is one notch below wide open! The medium and large bindings cut off my circulation! I'm getting a new ski in the spring and will be getting the most conservative bindings possible. It can happen in any binding but I'd rather put the odds in my favor.

OMC sold some Javelin slalom skis...I remember seeing them in the back of the Johnson Outboards brochure back in the '80s but I don't know if I ever saw one in person. Don't know who made them for OMC but it would probably be an unusual find today. My dad and I have a few defunct ones in our collections. mid '60s wooden Challenger slalom wood Flagg tunnel concave slalom of unknown year wood Sundash slalom (part of a combo set) from the '80s J.C. Higgins wood slalom from Sears ('60s?) Penn Craft Spray King wooden combo set Western Funnel Tunnel Western XL7 Glass Competition EP Superformer

The really bad ones I've had have always been coming off the second wake on my on-side.

That guy in the first one at the top should have taken the fair warning and quit two buoys before he crashed. When I start to get that out of shape I hang it up while there is still a chance.

This kind of thing always makes me sick. Why? Because it's always the fishermen trying to get rid of the skiers, and the family boaters trying to get rid of the performance boaters, but it's NEVER the other way around. I'm a water skier, bass fisherman, tuber, hot boat pilot, and antique outboard motor collector. I love it all and I've never seen a reason why everyone can't get along. For years I've watched the battle rage here in northern IL. My favorite is the idiots who plop down 3/4 of a million for waterfront property on the busiest boating party scene in the country (the Fox Chain) and then complain about the noise. The one piece of advice I can give to anyone battling something like this is that if it comes down to a public hearing (which I don't know if these are big enough issues for the community for that to happen), do your best to FILL the meeting hall. I don't know if you have enough advocates on your side to do it, but it would help. And then be very careful that something doesn't get rammed through behind your back during an unannounced meeting at 2 PM on a Tuesday when everyone is at work.

I don't have kids myself but agree with many of the above comments. I grew up sitting on my dad's lap steering the boat from as far back as I can remember. That's why I have a passion for it today and why I grew up as a safe driver. Don't leave them out!

@wilecoyote The problem with rear trolling motor power is that forward maneuverability is horrible in the wind in most fishing applications due to the low speed. Also, any boat that steers by rudder won't turn well at real low speeds to begin with. The transom mount trolling motors that you see are best used for A) backtrolling, or B) using as primary power on small rowboats, canoes, etc. But it really kind of depends on the type of fishing you're doing. For actual "trolling", gas power is almost always best. For sneaking along the shoreline for bass, or working a dropoff or weedline, bow mount is the way to go. Transom mounts have their place, mainly in the walleye fishing world to control drifts, or to back troll if the lake is calm.

@SkiJay or my friend's Prostar 195 with the split rear hatch cover. Whoever designed that at MC must not ski.

Need bow mount for bass fishing if that's what you're going to do with it. It's too bad it's closed bow with no grab rails. At one time someone was making a bracket that attached to the grab rails and bow eye, but it was for the clamp on stern-mount motors. And Minn Kota made a 665MX that was a clamp-on with the PowerDrive control that would have worked great (though it only had 28 lbs. of thrust). But I don't think anyone makes a motor like that now anyway.

I would think today's direct-injected two strokes could probably be installed horizontal without much of an issue, though I'm not sure if it might affect the oil routing through the rods and mains, which is where it first travels before getting re-routed back into the fuel mixture. The D.I. 2-strokes are also horribly expensive to repair and are much more temperamental and fragile than what outboards used to be. A four stroke outboard would probably need the oil reservoir and pickup reworked. I'm an outboard fanatic and there's a good reason why I grabbed one final carbureted 2-stroke Merc 150 in 2005 before they pulled the plug.

Wife? What's that? I've heard of it. Lived with a GF for a few months...as I recall I think I skied about 3 or 4 times that whole season.

LFF, right hand for everything.

@6balls I don't get it either. I think some people are going in partners with even 2 or 3 other people to buy those boats. The recession hasn't been bad enough to teach some people. There are also people who have made a LOT of money off of this recession which always happens in times like this. @Steven Haines We've had a yuppie revolution going on in our own lake neighborhood and it's going stronger than ever. $15,000 ATVs to get to the beach and back because they don't want to walk one block. One of the guys sold his pizza business and is "now retired so that he has time to raise his kids". He's probably 40 or 45. @ShaneH is right about how they can't build the boats fast enough. One of my vendors is big time into skiing and was talking to one of the honchos from Mastercraft and he said it's everything they can do to keep up with the wakeboard demand.

Don't you get it? Those speakers and that tower are worth 50 grand.

Questionable as to whether it is skiing related as I do a lot of hiking also, but just finished 6 weeks of physical therapy for runner's knee (patellofemoral syndrome) and going for a 2 mile walk put me almost right back where I started. I sit about 10 hours per day and sitting aggravates it too. Not sure what I'm going to do yet...it's not real bad but I'm getting tingling in my leg from it also. I don't understand knee doctors. Everyone I know who has had PT has wasted what could have been a couple of months of potential recovery time since some form of surgery seems inevitable anyway.

This is an interesting discussion to me because I'm a real lightweight for a guy and very close to her height and weight at 5'8" and 130 lbs. I'm 1 year older, with similar skiing habits though I do not ski the course (does she need a skiing partner? :) ). I'm getting a new ski in the spring and a Senate is at the top of my list to try based on what I've been told and read. I looked at one in the pro shop and didn't think that it was all that big compared to what a lot of people are on nowadays. In fact the tail looked more like a high end ski to me. A Connelly V, H.O. Triumph and possibly a Coefficient X are on my list to demo also. I've looked at D3's website and was intrigued by the X3. Has anyone been on one of those? Same mold as the X7/Z7 but geared more toward recreational people like me I guess. I've been on a Connelly Concept since '99.

I'm a fan of the Indian Head and also the High Tack, but for that application I would probably lean toward the Indian Head. It can be tough to clean off and re-prep the gasket surfaces the next time you have it apart though because it really hardens up. The blue sealant that @estrom is referring to is Hylomar HPF, I don't know if they make it anymore but it is awesome. It stays gooey instead of hardening. I've used that around the spaghetti seal when assembling old OMC two-piece lower units. What @DW said about running it a little bit first - true also. I had a pinhole leak on a thermostat housing on an outboard once because the gasket was reused. A few runs in the silty river and brackish water lake plugged it up.

I'd be cautious. If the motor dies and you can't get to the skier, they could be in real trouble. If the current going over the spillway is strong at all, it's near impossible to escape because it holds you down. Granted they would have a vest on, but it might be too strong even for that. A couple of very strong, young guys from EIU's wrestling team drowned in the current beneath the spillway on the Embarras River when I was a student there.

@Razorskier1 - College is a good thing, but just make sure they understand that their best shot at a high paying upper management career will be if they can't spell, read, or make decisions. Oh yeah, back to the bucket list: Just about any lake in Minnesota. Just about any river in Louisiana.

1. Get stuff done around the house, so I'm not wasting time on it during the summer. 2. Long afternoon naps. 3. Save money for next season.

Swivel skiing is done at about 12-16 mph, so the width helps with that too. @fu_man, I'm in northern IL too and we go watch both of those teams. Seeing the Crivitz Ski Cats while on a family vacation is actually what got me into skiing. I believe they compete in a different class due to their size. Which does bring up a point. Not saying that show skiing has much in common with 3-event, but the community ski show teams probably bring more people to the sport than the 3-event competitions held at private sites and on TV ever will - at least in this part of the country. Slalom courses are pretty rare here, but you're never more than 45 minutes from a free ski show once you get north of Chicago. That said, this is just one corner of the world.

@tfriess - the barefoot lines are awesome. I also have to say that watching 15-20 hotties swiveling in skin tight outfits with the northwoods pine trees in the background and a Miller Lite sticker on the side of the Hydrodyne is one of life's greatest pleasures. So is watching a twin rig come out of the hole at full trim.

As I opened my last gift my father said "This is not a joke." I opened the box and there was a scrap piece of steel duct taped to the inside of the box to make it feel heavy. Laying loose in the box was a card with a note that said, "This note is good for full payment of any slalom ski when purchased at any place of your choice. Merry Christmas! From Dad." Looks like I have some demo'ing to do come spring.