BraceMaker

@mbabiash the argument would be that if he could have put his ski out where the side skirt is that he might have made the boat guide. An extreme example for sure. If you take the many 3 event sites that have overlapping slalom and jump courses they probably are all following the published T/C handbook in terms of survey data for the position of the jump and jump course. So you're probably going to be saying that to pull slalom at a certain level the jump must be pulled but that's going to make quite a few single lake sites with jump ramps and slalom courses have to pull their jumps. I can just see how many of the European sites wouldn't be in compliance due to the ramps being surveyed in similarly. Could be wrong but I cannot imagine that thing isn't surveyed into spec I just think Nate sent it way further down course than would typically be expected and you're now stuck debating if there was a chance at all that he was going to make the guide or if he was just missing it anyway. On a side note that corner of the skirt should probably just get rounded off?

Few things to consider, S-Line's is also now the distributorship for KD Skis in the US. So using those skis and that rope company is it really wrong to like masterline handles? Might his ski school still use the S-Line product or might he just like the ski or might the ski come along with a rope sponsorship deal? Famous examples would be CP riding skis "painted" like his sponsors skis despite clearly no being those skis. But ya not great showing if your product fails even if the skier isn't your under your banner. I can see how one could easily have a sponsorship by KD-Skis and S-Lines Ropes and still use a Masterline handle, we see countless skiers ride Goodes using Reflex or Radars while riding reflex bindings. Seems like invented drama. I've always hated the athletes who are clearly not enjoying their redbull.

When surveyed in the FACE of the jump ramp is where the turn ball would be. The ramps are bigger than you think when you factor the front of the ramp surface extending under water and the skirts extending behind they take up a significant chunk of water. And there is surely a safety issue with that. The prosthetic "Flex Foot" that is now so common came from a waterskier who smacked a row boat. That's a real issue in the sport. Nate could have lost a leg from hitting the skirt and maybe the jump ramp should be moved or they should disallow combined slalom jump ramp lakes - but then again.... how many of the top ski lakes use the same surveying data to position jump courses and slalom courses together (all of them) So if what you are saying is that overlapping 3 event sites should pull the course to slalom that could be implemented if you mean it. But how many lakes would have to stop pulling jump to avoid this issue? I assume there was a TC and it was surveyed in the TC handbook spec

**simply move a jump ramp**

it's in the way but it's basically where a backwards course turn ball would be so if you are close to hitting the ramp you're so far down. the reference is in the TC handbook but when installed as an integrated course the jump course shares a few bouys with the slalom course and that dictates where the ramp sits so it would be in the same place on lake 1 at bennetts as well. this is also what caught out Jim Michaels in bouygate as the two courses were surveyed into each other in line but when one moves compared to another line of bouys....

I think he has that Wipeout from the MC pro in mind.

You could always have something manufactured and welded up. its a section of stainless tube, 2 pieces of steel plate and a dimension. Trace out the holes in the hull and get a plate cut, measure the bearing size and order tube, then you just need to cut a bit of cardboard and cut out the filler and weld it up.

Two sides to every coin right? As much as some people like driving I know several people (myself included) who often don't get to ski the course because our drivers find it stressful. My wife for instance has bad eyesight, she has difficulty picking up on the course far enough out to get centered up and that stresses her out too much to find it enjoyable. This could be a game changer. Even if it just tried to do a straight path from 55 to 55 that would generally get her on track confidently so she wasn't so nervous about it. I could probably ski 2-3 more times a week if this tech was on my boat. Maybe even more. There are so many other people around me that can pull people behind a boat but I wouldn't have drive the course right now. That's your target audience not people who pull L/R and have drivers rating they don't need it.

Ya that part of the video not very impressive. But on the flip side if its that or your wife won't drive you in the course.... I'd take it.

@Aoife wonder which of the pros who aren't on reflex skis/team have any sort of deal on the boots I'd assume if the skier isn't tagging reflex on their instagram and is using their boots that either they had to buy their binding or they get them from their other sponsor like a performance ski, wakehouse, or even D3/Goode both of which resell Reflex products.

The old ones had a buzzer not 100% sure on your vintage. I hear the buzzer when I shut the boat off right after dropping a skier, then restart it quickly the heat soak will bring the temps high enough to trigger the buzzer. I don't get that if I idle for a bit before killing the engine or wait a few minutes before restarting so you might be able to figure it out. You could also pull the temp sender get a cup of boiling water and see what the boat has for an alert/alarm.

It might just be that waterskiing is generally speaking so safe compared to downhill skiing that trying to draw conclusions on safety is tough. I'm certain if you took a single day at a ski resort like vail and cranked everyone's releases on their skis down solid you'd be seeing a line of ambulances from the mountain to the ER but there are plenty of people who have successfully used non-releasing bindings for years, and then there are those people who use non-releasing bindings and have injuries. Joel Howley for example non-releasing fractured foot, this weekend you saw Nick Adams in from AUS he's on two fixed boot FMs, those are bolted to the plate with no release at all and he's been on that set up most of his career I believe, haven't heard of him having an injury doing it. Matteo Luzzeri releasing front with an FM EVO interesting system because the cuffs come off the boot no rotational release built in but lets you run a pretty supportive hardshell system that has a release but popped out of the front this summer and had to be cut out of the rubber rear - would have thought that is pretty safe lots of skiers on something like that who seem to do OK with it. Then I think potentially the scariest type of set up would be the double reflex because to me very easily one of them could release and not the other, I've always thought if the double reflex had some sort of cable that would link the releases or maybe that the front release latched the rear boot that it'd be better but then we saw that they can release with Pigozzi just last weekend. Summary I think is that it is unclear when an injury is going to happen and there may be a false sense of safety coming from the systems we use. I've had a fractured femur not coming out of a simple rubber binding and I've had a fractured rib unintentionally releasing a hardshell. MOB I think is the closest to a "safety" binding. If a company were to come out with a Vapor shell with molded in toe and heel ledges for the MOB style release units and the ski companies were to install some extra inserts in the forebody and tail of the ski I think that is basically the closest to a "universal" DIN type system that we have with the least margin for accidental releases.

Double releasing hardshells your options if you want to be able to buy a new system today from someone and have it show up at your door. FM Quattro's FM EVO's MOB System Dual Reflex Goode Powershell Of those only the MOB has a toe release and of those only the Reflex and the FM Evo's require no fooling around with inserts or any sort of velcro or tape.

Could be. But then again you really only have to hold the skiers accountable during the finals. I don't think anyone things the lowest seeded skiers are going to show up and go well if I have 14 passes I'm going to ski 15-39 in 2 rounds to get the most skiing they're still going to ski a 32 opener and get to 38/39 and its no different than it is now but for the top guys the people with a chance at being in the finals who are expecting a score at 41 every round those people need to start budgeting and to that point anyone who's holding back for a crack at a 43 off score in the finals is really needing to hold onto a pass in reserve for it. Because if coming into the finals you haven't held onto that pass you'd have the risk of a 6/41 no continuation if you didn't have it in the bank (Edit - Maybe you could still for the purposes of Class R allow people to run that 43 pass for world records but not for score in the event because I do still give Nate a thumbs up for coming back at 43 behind not his sponsor's boat bravo)

@dave2ballWhat if instead of capping the round you cap the event? Its not 4 passes a round its 2 rounds of qualifiers and then the finals and you have 13/14/15 passes allowed. So if you're going into the finals you have to at some point conserve your efforts. You're allowed that 32 but you might need to use an opt up but its on your to decide how to conserve the passes to have whatever you want in the finals.

Its just people who have no clue what something is, surprisingly common with adaptive equipment people don't realize how much of this stuff is serialized and identifiable. So they steal it and then pitch it when they start trying to sell it.

@Broussard that was directed at @tjs1295 to see someone running 39 from shore is cool but to see someone from the boat is a real event. First big jump I ever saw from the boat was one of your coaching staff down there. I get it's not realistic but he's a fan of the sport it is definately something people should get chase down and you're right the only way is going to be to go somewhere like bennetts or JT or swiss and take sets and see if you can ride along.

Man you need to ride in a boat with someone doing 39 off and someone jumping real distance it's impressive.

Its probably inflated, I had up to 3 devices streaming it upstairs TV, workshop TV, and then I use an old cell phone to stream stuff on WIFI onto my Bluetooth when I do yardwork. I also watched some from my cell phone while at the store so 4 different MAC addresses over the event. But I'm not going to sit in my living room for 8 hours watching skiing. I did have it up and running and listened to a bunch of it and then if something happened you hit rewind and watch it. But that means at times you should divide that number by 2 or 3 because I would imagine most of us did something similar. But then again some people might have been at a ski lake and had one TV streaming and 20 people watching. So its hard to get the total number. TWBC probably has an idea how many unique viewers Waterski needs a captive audience it needs to host events at sites that hold people the old Malibu open Veteran's park is a great example - been to their beer fest in that same park. They regularly sell it out at 5000 tickets. That's 5000 people milling about in the same park get the event back and then coordinate to have the event through the beer fest and do social media to reach those people. Ski lakes are often also large fields with lots of parking things you could host there music festivals or events, car shows, motorcycle shows. What could the venues be used for to get people there. Imagine a large food truck event our local park district has those on thursday nights with usually 8-10 foot trucks and about 1000 people attend over the course of a few hours. If your lake is near enough to a population center can you use those food trucks and their media to draw people in If you're ski lake is in an area with great gravel roads or trails can you host a tough mudder event and have people start/finish at the lake with a ski event going on. Venn diagram skiers, mountain bike enthusiasts, 5K runners, IPA drinkers, foot truck frequenters, classic car enthusiasts. If you were doing social media and wanted to explode the exposure in terms of people who atleast watch a summary reel or check into it you have to not just be looking at the people who are already willing to go or watching TWBC you have to make reasons for people who normally wouldn't to check in on it.

@MegaVega first things first you never ski a course before you do atleast one pass through it. Particularly a portable you want to eyeball it that the course is straight and even if it is you always idle through it, stand up wear polarized glasses clip your lanyard on or get a buddy to stand and idle the whole length make sure the booms aren't broken, the course is intact and nothing is in the way on public water this includes logs. If you've ever skied a course on public water you'll find things including intentional sabotage as well as just logs and debris that hang up on the course. You don't want to hit that with the boat and you most certainly don't want to hit that with your skier. The cables mainline and boom should always be attached with breakaways this means zip ties or plastic clips at the balls and elastic cordage. If you've ever wrapped a rope at speed you should be aware that it will stall your boat out but it shouldn't stop the boat. Never seen it not sure if that could happen IMO nothing is that well anchored to stop the boat that hard. And in several of the facebook posts a person familiar with the scenario has indicated driver error slamming the boat into reverse.

I'm not sure that's a good analogy if you're missing 38% of your openers maybe pick an easier opener. But where does it say administrative closures are bad? Their website indicates the majority of administrative closures are due to the complainant not responding to the accusation. It also indicates that in those cases the accused receives a letter of admonishment. Would them sanctioning 100% of the accused make you feel better? Sure reads as if the athletes would like a more effective system with more strength and more resources not less.

Still has a clamp feature from what I can see its basically a standard fin box with 3 clamp screws to secure the fin in place (red boxes). But then the DFT set screw/grub screw has a turned down area that sits into a slot in a block (Green box) that slides inside the fin box that is threaded to support the rear most turn screw (green arrow). The front one may also float, but it probably does this independently as you can see how the bulk of the clamp reduces after that screw. I cannot tell if the it in the green box supports the bit by the green arrow. However from what's pictured you'd still have to loosen the fin "conventionally"

@ColeGiacopuzzi Yes so bear with me. You get a brand new ski, the chart says 29.5" to the heel of the front boot. Draw a line across the ski at 29.5" from the tail. Drop your boot on it with the heel at 29.5" and ski it and figure out where you like your boot. Now take and mark the binding plate where it hits that line.Now you get another new ski and it says 29" on the chart so you draw a line at 29" and then put your boot on it so your marks on your binding plate. If the factory recommended numbers are meaningful in any way shape or form what I just described should work for everyone. If it works for no one then the factory numbers are meaningless and should just be ignored. In downhill you'd have a ski with the true center marked and then the ski tech would measure forwards or backwards from the true center a small accurate distance they wouldn't bust out a tape measure and go from the boot back 30" across a fin block through maybe a rear boot that has to be removed to measure accurately.

Yup if radar says a ski gets 29.5" and puts a line there would anyone complain? I get that it's hard to put a top sheet graphic down accurately but just do it with a sharpie. You can do it yourself make a line set your plate eyeball it ski till you are happy scribe your plate.

Skip that when manufacturing skis they should mark the boot position on the ski. Just a line across it at whatever position ankle bone or heel of boot. Alpine and cross country skis have these marks. If they'd just include that mark you could run a microjust and reference boot moves to the line. Then all binding plates could have a V notch or whatever to indicate the boot alignment. Nine of this is hard.