BraceMaker

I did one foot for a while when I first learned, what I found was that it was fine, so long as the driver did the expected, but I could not react to soft or hard pulls, so if my brother buried the throttle, I would be fine with 2 feet, if someone gave it a really soft tug I could wait it out. One foot in, if the boat didn't progress I would eat the lake.

@eleeski - I did notice the weight, I have a set of older Obrien Contact bindings, With the overlay off the boot is extremely light. So I am working on cutting some lighter overlays. The EVA bindings you referenced, did Wiley's punch the overlays out of EVA? Or did it still have the rubber wraps? I was asking a rep from Orthomerica about the material they use to make the "spectrum 2300 AFO" pic* - I could not tear this material, and it is light like EVA. Which makes me wonder about using this with flexible panel somewhere to give it some stretch, as this stuff is pretty static. http://www.orthomerica.com/spectrum/img/AF-2300.jpg

Ah that makes it more clear. You could just buy some vinyl self adhesive graphics material and put a square on your ski under the binding.

@doonez - screws can be a challenge in many situations, best thing I've come up with (not with exo's specifically but I use T-Nuts and such lots) Is to buy a nut in the correct screw size, clamp the nut in a vice so one of the flats is up out of your vice, and slot it with a dremel or hacksaw. Remove the nut from the vice, thread your screw in till it is exposed by the amount that it is too long plus maybe half a thread for clearance. Then grab the nut with a vice grip, the slot will let it clamp the threads with out distorting the threads, and allow you to use a belt sander, bench grinder, dremel (or even a file) to shorten the bolts. Question, the long screws which were into the ski top - were they elevating the plate off the ski? I've only seen Exo's at the shop, never ridden or dismantled them, but one thing to be aware of is that with any system if they do not seat down fully, you change the release characteristics - basically I am asking if the long screws "jacked" the plate off the ski changing your release setting unpredictably.

Who said UD? I do not recommend anyone purposefully pursue perversions nor memorize them for use in inappropriate professional situations. Is obrien the only mfg to put a flap on the fin to have different fin surface depending on pressure differential? Are there any specific rules that govern wings/fins/ventrals?

@horton - any word has a different meaning when researched on certain city dwelling language resource websites. In most cases however... there is a normal usage.

@eleeski - neat bit - feathers used in fletching arrows have different sides, birds have left and right wings, and the feathers are different from the different sides, arrows when fletched with real feather vanes are airfoils, the feathers are usually mounted in some slight helical position, the feathers are all either rights or lefts depending on if the archer is right or left handed, and they generate different flights! Not that I'm saying you need a foil wing. But knowledge is power!

I suspect he flipped the mount to move the mirror above the window, and that his mount may not swivel.

@skoot1123 - my constant issue with the same has convinced me that it is strength in legs and core that fail me. Soft and I end up in the back seat off the wake, stiff and I end up bouncing and losing direction. So I am doing lots of work this winter and seeing what happens in the spring.

For a boot what you should look at is Crepe orthopedic soling. HDPEthylene is fairly heavy in the world of 3 cm. http://soletech.com/products/Cloud-EVA.html You're looking at a material that is extremely light, and fairly dimensionally stable. I would of course use bushings to space the material to avoid crush over time. But I also probably would not recommend going much over 1/2" to begin with, you increase the distance off the deck of the ski, which I don't think is a great thing.

I also have a short front (right) from a broken femur, only 8 mm, I do not use a shim. I rather like a 10 mm lift inside my front hardshell at the heel, although I am still tracking its performace. I couldn't do 30 mm and still fit the boot.

The vision just had one buckle across the toe if I remember right, came on the F1X and F1 of the era.

@Ed_Johnson - the paddle wheels are drag, the paddle wheels for PP are small, and spin freely, so they aren't too restrictive, but the moment you couple them to get power, they're going to take more gas to push through the water, than they will regenerate in power. That's just physics, no matter how low drag the output will be lower than the drag. If you had flaps that opened/closed the flow to those, perhaps you could wrangle it, but boats decel so quickly when you chop the throttle that the amount of energy you could possibly get per pass are very low. The start stop feature - unfortunately we utilize our engines to do lots of maneuvering for skier safety, don't want the engine shutting off while you are trying to maneuver around a downed skier for instance, no brakes! And most Hybrids you have a small engine and an electric motor as you only need the electrics 90% of the time, with the gas for accelleration and highway runs at high efficiency, our boats are backwards, you'd need the combined system for everything but low speed maneuvering. What boats NEED is that system V8's in trucks have where the engine cuts compression/fuel/spark to cylinders not in need, so you could idle around on two or four cylinders, then when you pull the skier up you are on 8, when you are in the course it could cut consumption as needed, and you avoid all the extra batteries etc. Nice lightweight aluminum V8 engine with engine management software to save fuel, but I really suspect it will be primarily on V8 mode, as tow boats are super inefficient.

Problem with a shim is that you are trying to get up off your heel, and you raise the heel of the boot up making it easier to stand on it, and harder to get away from it. Ironically if you shimmed under the toes, such that you kept your muscles activated to stay up on your toes, then you'd have the weight forwards, which is like staying up off your heel. Eventually if you shim your heel up high enough you won't be able to keep your heel from pushing down on the tail of the ski. Shim the toes enough you won't be able to put weight on your heel.

@texas6 Cannot have a boat, Olympics used to have boat racing, and engine drive sports, 1905 to current sports cannot be primarily mechanically driven. Waterski is specifically prohibited from the Olympics due to the engine driven aspects. Therefore if you can eliminate the boat (Cable Park) then arguably it could be included, I see little difference between a chair lift and gravity versus just hauling the athlete on a cable way. But I agree, waste of money to even talk about putting waterski on the IOC plate, but if they can go cable for wake sports, and you can come up with a good way to slalom from a cable...

Is skier Drawing software just screen shots of the Sims doing weird stuff?

Yes. Use baller points to gain access and hide it before a number. Lock it for those who get negative feedd

double ouch... what was first, the wheelie or the release?

RTP fit... unkown, front highwrap - watch your set up. Lots of good binding options now for RTP's, I don't think I'll ride a highwarp rubber front RTP combo again.

@gaj0004 - only problem is that track is a great thing to kick. Very painful. Quite a few people have them up in our parts, as you need to pull everything out of the water, and the track units break down pretty easily into rail sections and support brackets. Being that we're talking dreaming anyhow, I would have an I beam gantry crane under a walk out deck over the whole works, with an electric winch to haul the boat up the track into garage.

Few local docs will order one of the myriad of elastic knee braces, with a patellar buttress. Can provide some relief during activity, but won't solve the underlying condition.

Have fin settings for a Mastercraft pulse?

I rode my connelly F3 a few times last summer open water. Don't mind it, but it felt squirrelly.

@eleeski - what was the ultraflexible fin? Thin aluminum? Carbon?

You mean the Masterline cleat?