madcityskier

D A good rule of thumb us that raising kids will cost as much as you let it. It's all a question of priorities. Here we all are trying to give our kids chances to excel at something and learn about character, hard work and sacrifice in the process. What better way would a parent spend their money?

Great ski. I've heard some good things about the Connelly V as well. If you're buying new try to demo if possible.

Only skied one once. 32-15' in the course. (Not as good as I used to be, and was never as good as most of you.) Skied great at that line length and speed. Pulled nicely. Driving was a bit of a chore, though I suspect the boat could use a streering cable. The owner is pretty meticulous, so it could just be that the steering requires a great deal of effort.

Run an 85 Stars and Stripes myself, love the wake. That said the Stars and Stripes 190 is the best slalom boat I have skied. Beats Ski Nautique, PS197, PS205, everything. Trade off of course is if you plan to use it for cruising the family around on the weekend.

Jim, What are you skiing behind? I ride a BigDaddy in and out of the course. If you're truely stacked you should have no real problem cutting through the wake. I have run the course behind i/o's, my 85 MasterCraft, and even a Super Air Nautique. It's all about being centered on the ski. A big wake is actually usefull in showing a skier if their position is as good as they think it is in my experience. That being said, to really make the BigDaddy something you can ski that aggressively, I had to lengthen the slot and add a slider fin with foil, and add a highwrap binding and toe plate so that I could play with the binding position to really get it to where I was comfortable on the ski. Based on your weight, with a factory binding placement and no wing fin, I would probably keep it around 25 at most. The tail will want to pop out in the turn if you're getting the tip down, which is what will let such a big ski use it's shape to really carve a turn. Might try a smaller ski, but still shaped to help keep it from being too hard on the body.