Inboardfix

@skiray Your wife has all kinds of great thoughts but what in the world was she thinking when she married you? Divorce Lake is having a May tournament this year. Hope to see you and the family at it.

Right now at 17 but have a feeling I'll come up w/a few more as I reach back into my memory banks. Actually, just thought of another (Mystery Lake in Luverne, Al) so make that 18. Very limited in states skied: AL, GA (make that 19, Lake Tanisia in Dallas, GA), FL, AZ. Probably will end up in the 21-45 catagory when all is said and done but it will be in the low 20s.

@Wish I have a 2008 Sixam 2.0 64" with some damage on the nose/tip. Haven't repaired it yet, $150 as is or $175 repaired + shipping. As you probably know the Sixam 2.0 is a little wider than the 1.0 and a 64" has very close to the same wetted surface as a traditional shape 65". This ski might have 10 sets on it. Customer's Mom bought it for him during the summer. I skied at the same lake as the guy one time and saw him on it. It was way too small. After the set he showed me the nose/tip and asked me to repair it. Rather than repair it I exchanged it for a 66" which is what I should have sold him in the 1st place (his mom guessed wrong on his weight). It was a new ski when sold this summer. Lot of ski for the $.

As the owner of an '07 SN196 w/6.0 and ZO it is very tempting to put her on the market at these prices. However, I don't want to be looking for a boat at these prices. Crazy pricing is well put.

Wow, kinda an in the middle point right now at her size and speed. What size ski are you wanting to put her on?

What speed is she skiing now and how much does she weigh?

Never real supportive of my skiing. However, now that 2 of our kids are loving it she will bring them to the lake to meet me afterwork so we can ski together. Of course she doesn't stick around but at least she drops them off and since I'm taking care of 2/3 of the kids she stays off my back about skiing (most of the time).

Oldest daughter skied and competed in the 2010 Alabama State Championships during which she skied a PB of 4 @ 26.7 longline. As the only G1 competitor she won. The next week she went otf at the gate @ 23 mph and lost interest in skiing. However, the best thing she accomplished during her short skiing history is motivate her little sister. After watching her big sister compete in the 2010 States, Kate said, "Daddy I want to compete in this next year". I replied, "you need to learn to slalom". We went to the lake the next day and Kate learned to slalom. This was in July 2010. Fast forward to July of 2012 and Kate came in 2nd at the Southern Regional Championships with a 2@15 score. Then came in 4th at the Nationals with 5@15. She finished the year running 22 several times in practice and posted a 3@22 score at her last tournament of the year. My soon to be 6 yr old son is killing the innerbouys on combos. On a good day he'll run 23 mph. It is thoroughly entertaining watching him ski. This summer Julia (oldest daughter) skied a couple times for the 1st time since 7/2010. Hopefully she'll start enjoying it again w/her siblings but I doubt she'll ever compete. Kids are cool if you want them. I wanted them and my ski days are much better with them in the boat (usually).

@wish What boat (manufacturer, model, yr) is the multi-line dbw display out of? If CC is it Standard Ed or Limited?

@wish mechanical modules and DBW modules are not the same and the display plugs are vastly different.

@JCmccavit To clarify I meant .5 more pitch of the 422 compared to the 654 should lower the rmps by as much as 100-125.

@JC McCavit Sorry, no numbers on the 422. However, I do know it wasn't uncommon for this prop to be used rather than the crazy-revving 1868 so someone should be able to provide the rpm numbers for you. .5 more pitch of the 422 should lower the rpms by as much as 100-125. @T8skier Haven't had any luck w/props where the pitch has been changed. They always seem to have a little more vibration. However, the prop shops I've done/do business w/all seem convinced changing a prop by 1 pitch isn't a problem.

@swc5150 these 654 numbers are from a 2012 SN200 w/5.7: 32 mph 3460 34 mph 3720 36 mph 3970 No skier and the tach reading was from ZO's rec mode readout.

@OB my departure from the tournament scene coincided w/the birth of my 2nd child. Leaving a newborn and 3 year old at home w/the wife wasn't condusive to a happy homecoming when the tournament was over. Personal achievements for a 40+ year old weren't important enough. Funny thing is my 9 year old competitive daughter (2nd child) has asked me to ski some tournaments w/her next year so she took me out of competitve skiing and now she's bringing me back. Your post got me thinking about what would it have taken to keep me involved in tournaments and it didn't take long to come up w/an answer. If skiing were a team sport and the team needed my 2 or 3 @ 38 score to be competitive I would have taken the wrath of the wife and continued to ski tournament. This brings me to what I'd like to see in Horton's proposed tournament. Make it a team competition w/teams made up w/Ballers from various parts of the country. We as a whole are an affluent group so perhaps one or more of the team members could write off sponsorship expenses. Businesses sponsor softball and tennis teams all the time so why not a ski team? No reason to not have individual awards and the head to head format could still be used: team 1 #1 against team 2 #1 and so on. To me the added appeal of a regional team format to the individual competition would make it unique and less of the same ol same ol.

It is extremely important to get children coaching from a coach who actually knows how to coach children. In May of 2011 we had Nicole Arthur do a clinic for us prior to the Masters ( prior to this year I always sponsored a pro clinic around the Masters in view of our close proximity). Although Nicole did a great job w/adult men 34mph skiers and women @ all speeds she left much to be desired for tips for my 8 year old daughter. Basically, she was a cheerleader between passes w/no coaching suggestions. As I rode in the boat and asked a few questions the answer to virtually every question was it had been so long since she was at that level she really didn't know. It didn't take long to realize trying to get anything useful out of her was a waste of time. As for her business professionalism it took numberous phone calls, text messages and emails between responses. Often it would take weeks for a response and always the response started w/"I'm sooooooo sorry........blah, blah, blah. Prior to this years Masters a couple of the participants from the past year's clinic wanted to see if Nicole would coach them again at their expense (not mine) and asked if I would check for them. She never returned my messages. Drew and Neilly on the other hand are a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the one and only time Kate had a chance to ski w/them was a horrible weather day after the Expo this past September so the skiing wasn't particularly good but at least Drew made the best of it w/some general tips. However, while I was in the boat watching another skier, Kate and Neilly were busy jumping off the boathouse roof into the lake and having a great time. It is important for kids to be kids and w/Drew and Neilly they have that opportunity. Although I haven't had the opportunity to have Kate ski w/Rhoni I have heard nothing but good things about her coaching kids. Having spoken w/her at several CC dealer meetings I consider her to be as pleasant a person as there is in the sport and would welcome an opportunity to have Kate spend some time on the water w/her. Another coach who has an excellent reputation for coaching kids (especially girls) is April Coble-Eller but she's not located in Florida. One day I hope to get Kate some time w/her as well.

Many of you know the Schoeten's and the King Schoeten is Bill. Although I can't say for sure but I bet Bill has more National's medals than any person in the history of sport. The man knows more about skiing than any person I've had the pleasure to meet (no offense intended Horton). When I asked Bill what happened to the heyday of waterskiing his answer surprised me. Although this is a paraphrase his basic opinion was ratings tournaments and dug out lakes led to the downfall from the heyday. Ratings tournaments because all of the sudden winning the tournament didn't mean anything. Skiers came, skied one round and if they got their rating chances are they'd leave. No one cared whether or not they won the tournament because what mattered was the rating. Dug out lakes because it took the sport out of the public. No one outside the skiing community had an opportunity to see a tournament by accident. To see a tournament now you have to know where and when it is occuring whereas on a public site if your cruising the lake and see a bunch of activity you're going to check it out. This is a long way of saying (sorry for the length) I don't see where another tournament to pat the people on the back who aren't quite Big Dawg level will help grow the sport. Also, I don't see where competitive skiing will ever get away from private site lakes nor should it. However, I do think making the local tournaments mean something will help grow the sport. Additionally, if there was incentive to attend a tournament where you know you're not going to ski well, i.e. public lake, then the sport would get viewed by others outside the normal crowd. Such as giving the top 3 a partial qualifying score for Nats (parallel to a qualifying score at a C tournament). No, I'm not against the tournament mentioned on this post but feel getting those skiers under Big Dawg level to support the local tournaments is a more important goal than having them travel all over the country to back yard tournament where nobody is going to see them. Other states may be different than ours (Alabama) but I know of 5-6 local skiers who regularly get into 35-38 but don't do tournaments for various reasons (sorry to say I'm one of them). Figure out what it takes to get those guys across the country involved and the sport will get a shot in the arm.

Prior to the vote to incorporate AWSA into USAWaterski (several years ago) @Jodyseal and I were waiting out a storm under the roof of the boat house where I keep my boat. Jody was up in arms about it saying one day we'd all be sorry if this proposal passes. Jody, not sure if you remember our conversation but basically I wasn't nearly as concerned as you. Well my friend, you were right, I was wrong.

Thanks for the props Jody. Yes, my daughter is doing great on the 64" Sixam 2.0 as are every kid I sold one to last year. Can't get a better ski for the money (in my biased opinion). This was the last ski AM designed for O'brien before jumping ship the 1st time to go to Radar and basically it is a 1.0 Sixam 1/16" wider in the mid. I tried several of the latest and greatest skis this past season and ended up picking a 66" 2.0 as my ski. I truly believe this ski was ahead of it's time as most high end skis are now wider. Kate (my daughter) went from learning the course 2 years ago on a Virage (spoon shaped RIM ski) until she was running 21 mph longline, then progressed to a 66" Syncro until she was running 26.7 longline & at the end of that year made the switch to the 64" Sixam 2.0. Finished 4th at Nats this year and her last tournament of the year scored 3 @ 22 to take back her #1 ranking in Girls 1 which she lost the 2nd week after Nats. I'm a proud Dad and had to post the last comments. I'm a firm believer in getting a ski big enough to avoid digging a nose and causing a fall which can gun shy a child. @Wish has it right when he said as your son progresses the speed will increase so the ski size will still be good. $300 for the ski which is a NEW carryover 2008 not used.

Since I'm now showing a little gray I'm not too proud to say my Dad was right: never buy anything the 1st year. In all the years I've been involved in the ski industry I can think of only 2 instances where a 1st year product came out pretty darn close to perfect: '97 Ski Nautique and the Sixam 1.0 (pretty sure it was 2004). Also, I gave @shaneh an "awesome" because he couldn't have described this engine any better, "stupid expensive". Shane, you should send PCM a resume. America is ready for a tell it like it is marketing manager.

If you'd like to support a fellow Baller I carry the PTM product at my shop. Thanks.

I agree w/@liquid D. Hats are cool! Free hats are cooler!! I don't know for sure but I have a feeling a free Baller Hat would be the coolest!!! As for Stars, labels or titles I don't really care. Once you've followed the forum for a while (I lurked for years) it's clear who's opinion has value.

Pretty sure it is a 1985 SN pulling AM in the video. It is not '87 or newer because the bow vents were under the windshield '87-89. It is not an '82 because there are no side vents on the windshield. Also, '82-84 had painted stripes w/stenciled "Ski Nautique" in big bold letters (usually/almost always a triple stripe pattern). This is either an '85 or '86 and the interior on the '86 engine cover only had 3 stripes (big center accented by 2 smaller stripes). Also, it looks like the stripe goes all the way to the rubrail about 3' from the transom but it is real hard to tell from the view in the video. However, it does look like it and the '85 was the only year it went up to the rubrail. '86-89 the stripe tapered up but did not go all the way to the rubrail and in '89 it did not taper at all. Ryno, AM's shorts were pretty common in the trick world at the time. You'll see a lot of video from the '80s of Tory Baggiano and Cory Pickos wearing similar shorts (probably lots of others as well).

Wow, I just came to the realization I'm starless.

There isn't anyway coverting your engine is economically feasible. Round numbers on repower + ZO are $9.5K for an EX343 w/new front mounts + $1630.00 for ZO, Canbus harness and Power harness + labor. @richarddoane's comment is spot on. Rather than spend $10k + on your boat it may be best to sell yours, add the $10K you'd spend to repower to your sale proceeds and get a much newer boat w/ZO.

in the above statement I wrote you're when I meant your. Sorry for not proofing it better. Mom (or Jody Seal), if you're reading this I really didn't mean it and yes, i do know better (or is it "no" better?).