BraceMaker

Never run em so loose they would come out in the fall, but I've felt what Horton was referencing, too loose by the time you hit the buckle it is stopping your motion, the buckle shouldn't have slack to take up, but you don't need them so tight that your foot is in constant pressure. You just need them to be up against the liner so the foot pulls the boot off the ski.

@estrom I think it is also important to note certain other parameters, such as temperature exposure, UV exposure, physical damage that could allow water intrusion, permeability of resins to moisture, and along with that storage conditions between runs. And I am not certain absolutely where a manufacturer would suggest you keep the ski in all of those places. For instance, is it more damaging to store a ski in a ski locker that is always slightly moist, or in the rafters of a boat house where the deck above is baked in sun all day and temps reach above 100 degrees on hot days? What about freezing? If your ski absorbs any moisture through out the year, should it be kept indoors away from cold temperatures season long, or can it be stored in your winterized boat? And did you have any damage to the edge of the ski, a nick in the finish near that edge?

Which also costs type A money...

@wish - It took them 10 - 15 minutes to find the rifle? Or to finish grilling up the tail?

Thoughts? most of us have our back shoulder so far down and back through the wakes that saying "square" gets us maybe halfway back to where the "pro's" are through the wake. Chest Proud Arms to chest, handle low Back arm load, head control etc.etc.etc.... Frankly my biggest fight is trying not to move, damn the other stuff.

Also for ski stuff, I wouldn't recommend dial. We do a number of measurements, and usually it is helpful to be able to accurately "zero out" your measurements, so you can go, I want to go .XXX" deeper, and measure to that number, instead of moving it and then going... did I want ..788 or .785....

Perhaps, HF calipers are actually pretty well regarded by the Home Shop Machinist types, they are repeatable to the point where you would realistically measure with a caliper. With digital your combined error increases the further you go, so if you zero out, and then advance to the edge of the ski, you only have .75" of travel for error to accumulate over, and it should be repeatable. I suspect the variability in numbers have more to do with the tail of the ski not having a "sharp" edge to accurately catch with the caliper, so varying amounts of pressure into the ski could allow you to "catch" more or less of the ski. Hence creep.

@GAJ0004 Not a bad choice, I'm not sure you could convice me that this: http://www.slotcaliper.com/ Is physically a different product than: http://www.harborfreight.com/8-inch-digital-caliper-47260.html Now if you want the slot... probably not the easiest thing in the world to machine accurately with out fu-baring the caliper, so might as well pony up if you want slot measurements. I have starett, mituyo, browne and sharpe, and HF, and all are accurate to caliper level measurements.

I don't back down the speed freeskiing, but I do find that I naturally free ski with a rounder turn, and wider course. So when you transition, from open-course my big issue is turning sooner.

@stoner - that is the problem with the lake. You can have 100% unspoiled glass on a 90 degree summer day at 2 in the afternoon. Or you can have a week of whitecaps from dawn to dusk. I prefer windy days if I'm up there, atleast that causes one shoreline to be usable. But there are days that you couldn't use a ski boat on these lakes at all.

Saw one in person, was pretty cool, but I seriously doubt I would subject the engine of any vehicle I owned to what that sounded like.

Oh and second picture, this last summer someone had a course in up on Elk, and skegemog is a stumpy nightmare, of 15 foot deep water, but has a few good shores for lower speed stuff.

Hey, give me a PM, I can give you some inside scoop on that region. The lake is BEAUTIFUL. It is also big! It can be quite rough, and it has quite a bit of boat traffic, particularly once the sun is up, and it doesn't have much protection in terms of bays/jetties. It would not be a top pick of mine for the following: Inboard ski boats. Slalom Skiing. Straight up swimming (sucker is COLD). There are days on that lake that a 20 foot deep V inboard outboard is a wet rough ride, and there are bunches of people on there who use boats in excess of 30 feet. It has a kicking sandbar if you are in the right age range to enjoy drinking and partying. It has lots of DNR/Police activity, because there are a lot of drunk idiots on there (this is the south end I am referring to. Please see the following: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_C4Xi39IwMMY/TC3eCBKG4_I/AAAAAAAAAiA/pn5wNDqSsZs/s1600/torch+sandbar.jpg This one shows the south end sandbar, with attached torch river, lake skegemog is seen near the top left, and Elk Lake lake above that, with Grand Traverse East Bay at the very top. http://www.govacation.com/assets/images/listings/100078/Sandbar%20Photo%20500dpi.jpg Catch it on a good day however, it is a 41 mile shoreline. We have skied around the whole thing swapping out when people get tired. You'll use some gas, so bring some extra cans.

Sounds interesting, and like crashman said, might be a good thing to have around in the boat, I'd be curious if I can stow it however. I've noticed with other "wide ride" skis that I have difficulty keeping the ski in the storage locker of the boat along with any other skis. They just don't play nice what with the wide forefoot and short overall length. This could also be a fun genre for home lamination, and full wood construction.

I have a 5mm difference (short right) and am RT foot fwd. I have an inlay in my hardshell under the liner. With out the spacer it is difficult to shift my weight enough onto the front foot. BUT - that hunking spacer seems a bit extreme, would seem to concentrate stress at the front or rear of the block.

@wtrski6 It perhaps could work, the shape of the plate that attaches to the boot will impact the release. For instance, this is factory FM http://i47.tinypic.com/11hc7pl.jpg It has a shallow ramp angle to the sides, and a steep up/down. You could probably machine one that would not release one way, and release easily another, or be some combination of that thought to keep everything attached the way you wanted. BUT... you'd want to think about what keeps the boot back, so if you have a silvretta heel, the angle of the heel set up actually pushes the boot forwards when locking. If the boot doesn't stop, the silvretta doesn't "latch" So if you have a sprung pin at the front, and your silvretta at the back, the motion will fight each other. Or rather one release will load the other...

@horton - per your own video that should not be considered a once in a lifetime 1/4... No?

I could see them working as boat guides as well. You'd have to prototype one and determine a few things, such as CFM consumption and PSI requirements to keep the thing up. Regular course you'd need 6 turn and 4 gate balls, for a total of 10. Add pregates and boat guides and you increase the air requirement drastically I would think. And if it would need a "purge" hole somewhere on the bladder to allow it to passively sink? Or you could perhaps just drive around and push down till the air was out enough for them to drop. So long as "some" air stayed in them it would just drop till the arms hit I would think. A static weight on each could bring it down. Just something I was thinking about while fiddling. The "on shore" set up would be a 90 degree ball valve, you'd keep your tank charged up, crack open the valve. You could possibly even purge at high PSI to get the whole thing up, or between passes to ensure everything was full up. And let it run at "idle" the rest of the time you were skiing.

Ready your domes for a mind bender. The PacMan Jellyfish Bouy. Rendered in Paint... http://i50.tinypic.com/2sam620.jpg The system operates thusly. An onshore aircompressor supplies regulated low PSI low volume airflow to the bouys. The airflow trickles in through an unenclosed opening on the bottom of the ball, displacing water until the ball is full, at which point excess air exits the bottom through the open ring. Tethered to the anchors (or arms of the course thusly) the ball has a low exposed surface volume and size, it floats. And if impacted by a ski/skier the air is permited to blow out the bottom of the ring making the ball "act" like it is not firmly inflated. Additionally this could be the makings of a "sinker" course as when uninflated the system would drop towards the bottom. Thoughts?

Its a Voile pin, like the one from wtrski6's link. The aluminum extrusion gets riveted into the binding base plate, and the pin unit bolted to a milled aluminum plate. When you get down to it waterskiing is such a small market anyhow, that engineering a whole kit is going to be cost prohibitive. So you use bits from other product, Silvretta heel releases, Voile telemark release units, Shells from USD skates etc. And in the end you can assemble a workable product. In theory I do not think this system allows a rotational release anyhow, you have the central blocks to prevent the boots from shifting side/side, you have velcro under plate, and you have the pin mounted centrally. Only in the case of a boot/rtp combo for slalom skiers do I feel there is real rotational force expenditure. And this should be more of a clean high energy torsion release. Frankly it could even be a boot that could spin on its plate under enough force, instead of actually releasing from the ski.

@wtrski6 Recognize the pin? http://www.jagersport.com/images/MountingplatesHO.jpg

@mr_pretzel - I think the argument exists that so long as the system you use is similar front/rear, and not overly tight that you will either release both or neither. So double animals set such that both bindings take approximately the same force to pull up out of would be OK, tight front animal and RTP, or tight rear animal looser front etc. could in theory increase risk. about the only binding systems that actually do what you describe are either double boots on a shared plate, or the FM 66 which has only the rear release pin, and two plates which interloc in the middle, front plate technically is held down by tension through the plates from rear pin and a small section of plane velcro (not dual loc) which is more or less to allow you to jump off the platform or a dock.

So from a different industry, we do laminations in a different manner. First we usually have a positive, and we build around it, and then remove our positive. So we do an inner bag (PVA) which we vacuum to the positive. Then our laminants, which are combinations of fibers, carbon, glass, Spectra etc. Once the dry laminants are layered appropriately, we add the second outer PVA bag, which we tape off, and apply vacuum, then we mix our resin, hardeners, pigment, etc. and pour into the layers from one end, while under continuous vacuum. Then using the outer PVA bag and some nylon stockings, we string the resin into the layers to let it saturate and impregnate the fibers. Once it is sufficiently saturated, the source of resin is blocked off/clamped, the excess is strung to one end where excess fibers exist waiting to be cut off at a later point, vacuum is increased if you want to compact the fibers further, and the system is allowed to cure under ambient temps. Our resins are usually acrylic or modified. Our positives plaster or expanded foam. No cores however.

@horton - I have plenty of left over JB Weld and duct tape - if you are in a silver mood.

Idea 2.... Pneumatic actuators attached to anchors - self retracting ie. PVC pipe homemade actuators of X-length (x being how far you want to suck the anchors under) Under pressure actuators extend allowing bouys to surface, when pressure is released internal spring retracts.... Boom.