mmosley899

@blagrata if you want it to be permanent, and straight, put screw anchors in at each end about 100 feet from the end of the course. Your water is plenty shallow enough to work in but scuba gear will be needed to install. Put a loop in the anchor rope to pull tight against. Tighten by hand or with a ratchet strap then tie it off. To make it straight you need anchors that will not move. Do not leave the ratchet strap in the water.

I have that issue also...

@chrislandy I am using 3mm/.093” g10 for mounting plates. I have been testing these for over a year with no problems. You want the mounting plate to flex as much as possible with the ski. If the plate is too stiff, the ski will only flex at the ends of the plate, causing stress at those points and changing the performance characteristics of the rocker built into the ski.

@chrislandy the problem with locking your feet in on any water ski or wakeboard is eventually you are going to over stress ligaments or bones and they break! Absolutely you do not want one foot in and one out, that leads to disaster! The older you get the easier it is to break something for most people. And if you have ever had a serious injury, requiring surgery, you will want to find a way to avoid it again. Given that you are building your own trick ski, you can easily put inserts in place to accommodate your boots. However as @eleeski pointed out, performance may not be optimal. Especially as you shift weigh forward and back. But you can use a rubber wakeboard boot without the heel for the back toe plate.

@chrislandy Eric gave all the practical reasons you don’t use wakeboard boots on a trick ski, but you can use the parts. And in fact I have a release system for wakeboarding, just haven’t marketed it. If you want to use your wakeboard boots, you need one of my release systems to play with. At you own risk and shoot video! I have used my releasable trick binding on a wakeboard.

@chrislandy you are correct, the silvretta type release only releases one direction, up from the heel. That action may be sufficient to release in a majority of water skiing falls. In a more twisting or sideways fall the toe release mechanism will work better to prevent ankle or knee injuries. Unfortunately most common snow ski boot toe releases are made to work with a very thick/tall boot base. As @BraceMaker noted, excessive height off the ski is not desirable for water skiing. I have worked to eliminate as much height as possible within design parameters. I do agree that a boot with an integral boot plate and connection means would be ideal. However the reason we use skate boots as water ski boots is because of the extremely high cost of production of molded boots. That requires large quantities of production that the water skiing market does not support. That is compounded by the fact that one style boot is not comfortable and does not fit everybody’s foot. One option that has worked well with my customers is to use the Radar line of boots because they have a thin flat base upon which I can attach a thin flat boot plate. However the boots are not an injection molded hardshell and do not fit every foot. That can be adjusted somewhat with the moldable liners. I have not been offering a specific boot with my release system because of the need of so many different styles and fit. It is extremely important that a skier have a comfortable and functional boot for their particular needs. I am currently working with a boot manufacturer to produce a new hardshell boot that I think will work for a lot of skiers. I do not plan to make that an exclusive boot to the system. I still want skiers to be able choose the best boot for their needs. If you want to stay low budget, you can adapt most any hardshell or semi hardshell skate boot to my release system. Roxa Skates are readily available in Europe and make some great choices. Since you are an engineer, you can easily make your own mounting plates and boot plates from aluminum or fiberglass(g10). However the release mechanism itself is much more difficult to build and test. All my release parts are built specifically for my system and have been thoroughly tested with years of use. All the parts are built with extremely high tolerances on cnc milling machines. Even the stainless steel springs are custom made for my release system. It is not cost effective to build one or two.

@Zman I encouraged Brett to try running the slalom course on his trick ski since he tricks a lot but seldom slalomed. After a few tries he got the hang of it and has moved on to running passes on a slalom ski. Running the slalom course on a trick ski is great crossover training and helps work on technique. I use it regularly in early season training to help get in shape. And yes, I have regularly run into 41off on my trick ski...but no flips included!

@Mark Poppleton the Intuition Aqua liner works great with most hardshell boots, it is thicker than the Reflex liner. Heat molding makes a great fit. The Radar liners will not work well with the hardshell boots.

@EFW you have an older MOB mounting plate that has the old HO Exo slots which evidently fits the old Connelly Fogman inserts too. Since those skis are no longer made with those inserts, the new mounting plates have a different set of slots. The new slots fit the standard trick ski pattern or can be ordered with the new D3 insert pattern. I can still make those old insert pattern plates also if someone needs them. I like your boot setup, I used double Roxa boots on the mob release for several years. Which buckles are those? They look interesting.

@jimbrake it can be difficult to transition to a hardshell boot, especially with you having the issues you mention. Going to a hardshell boot can exaggerate any stance issues and cause undesired movement of the ski. The stiffer the boot, the more you may experience undesired movement of the ski. I like this basic shell because it flexes better in the cuff and upper portion of the lower shell. One modification I always do is to lower the height of the cuff to further reduce the adverse influence of movement of your leg, giving more control to your foot, where your balance and control originate. Smaller buckles can help if you are noticing drag, but water should not be directly hitting the boot that much.

@Rednucleus the boot itself is the one I have used for five years. The extras are basically marketing, some items may be of use to some skiers, but I have not adopted any of them. I do however make modifications to any/all boots I use to make them perform best for my needs and my skiing style. I do recommend that shell as a great option for most skiers.

@Jordan we know what could go wrong! Thankfully he is skiing again now. He could mount that boot on a MOB release and be safer!

@KRoundy the total weight of a double boot MOB system is very similar to a double high wrap rubber boot setup. There would only be a slight increase in weight to your Radar boot setup. It will in no way impact skiing performance.

@mbabiash my Supershell rear conversion

@mbabiash yes, chances are your toes are 3/4” to 1” from the end of the plastic shell anyway...

My r style rear made from a Goode boot... Btw, probably better to move or remove the top buckle or replace it with a rubber strap made from binding rubber, to insure easy release.

It’s not the shape of the fins that are new, the fins in my photo are all 30 years old. It is Adam’s technical ability to manipulate and evaluate the shapes and their effects on performance that sets his designs apart from what may have been done in the past.

Use concrete anchors, much easier to accurately adjust the position of the buoys. And also to reposition if they get moved.

@gmut I can make a custom plate that fits any boots, not just Radar. The Radar sequence plate only works with Radar boots. Email me details about what you need.

@Zman fyi I can custom cut mounting plates for any type of boot or any hole pattern from g10

I have a 67” just like it for sale... I changed to a 68”...

@jakecuz23 the Supershell boot as made by Roxa is available in sizes up to 15. They work great on the MOB system and is what I use. Email me for more info.

@Bdecker I didn’t care for the m2 buckles or their price, I just mark my standard skate buckles so I can put them at the same spot every time. I don’t know why you would need two buckles on the cuff. A lower cuff is better in my opinion. I don’t want my leg to influence forward pressure on the ski, I want my COM to control that.

@Nando check out the MOB release system, you can use the boots you currently have. The universal skate design shell that FM uses are generally heavier than some of the other hardshells in use. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the release system.

@Rpc29 glad you have been able to find a way to stay involved! I know yours is a common problem facing skiers moving from college teams into the real world. We need more public lake water ski clubs to help provide an opportunity for those skiers.