wilecoyote

I signed, and I'm in Canada. It's one thing to have HP limits or no motors at all, but no towed water sports on a lake that allows any HP? Like you said that just smacks of self interest politics. Good luck.

It never looks as steep in a photo as it does in person, however, that shot of Snowbirds north chute is crazy!

The weekend my boat came out, for the winter, I was alone at the cottage, my best friend lives and works 40 minutes away in his own engineering business. Me: Pretty skiable now, what does your day look like? no answer Me: Boat still in and it's glass, just sayin' Scott: You are killling me!! I have got to get a life. I will send you an email. Me: Ski season officially over.

Never mind, I just now noticed the fork lifts LOL.

I gotta ask, how did you get your boat off the trailer and on to the lift?

I have to agree (somewhat) with @eleeski. However, I think knowing the exact reason is important, otherwise you end up chasing ghosts. For anyone in the audiophile world, you can see this in spades. Things like skin effect and transmission line theory abound in marketing of components, but no one ever backs up these known calculable effects with the math because the effect turns out so small you can't possibly hear it. (yet people claim they can, until testing becomes double blind, then they can't) On the cold vs warm water side, until you do the math, it's all just conjecture. I'm a beginner, (pb 4 @ 52kph) and until I started getting into 52, I couldn't tell the difference between B1 and C2 (I'm still not sure I can) so there's absolutely no way I can feel a difference between cold and warm water, but I accept that the short liners can. Still, viscosity changes seem a bit far fetched to me as any explanation. Assuming that there is a real difference between cold and warm water, I would suggest that the flex characteristics of the ski and bindings (and perhaps even rope stretch) probably make a bigger difference than viscosity. When you start going down the viscosity road, you are opening up a new can of worms with regard to salinity, hardness, weed pollen, and on and on.

@AdamCord, while I agree that there is a curve, and we are not completely planing, for practical purposes, we are. Since a water ski is only capable of as I said about 5lbs of lift as a displacement hull, my remaining (classified) mass must be lifted by planing, so while technically it is a combination, there is so little displacement going on, it can be ignored. I would argue that the reason that drag increases as we slow down is because in order to generate enough lift to keep the ski on the water, the angle of attack has to increase, which increases induced drag. On the other point, parasitic drag will increase as speed increases, but induced drag goes down as the angle of attack goes down. For a planing surface, the best L/D occurs IIRC just under 5 degrees, which we we rarely get close to on a slalom ski, so the bulk of the drag we feel is induced drag. I would say this is the the reason why it feels as though drag is decreasing while speed is increasing. It is because the faster we go, the further aft the centre of lift moves, which brings the tip down, which reduces induced drag.

@AdamCord with all due respect, the only time the ski is operating as a displacement hull is when you are swimming behind it and pushing it back to the boat (which I tend to do a lot) In displacement mode, your ski can only support a maximum of about 5lbs.

@dchristman, every time I try something "inovative" using magnets, it generally fails LOL. My idea in this case was was to use a bunch of rare earth ball bearings in detentes with the ferrous bits in the binding plate and the ski, which is why I thought @thager was thinking something similar. I think the ball bearing shape would hold the lateral force mechanically and the magnetic force would hold the plate down to the ski. The main problem I can foresee with this is that when the binding did release you would likely loose a few if not all of the ball bearings. And yes, magnets always stick to everything you don't want them to.

@thager, if you're thinking about rare earth magnets and ball bearings as part of a release system, I like the way you think. I've been mulling over something to that effect myself.

I was on a Senate, and really liked the ski, then it was stolen and I managed to pick up a Quest for a good price. I was looking for another Senate, but the price was too tempting on the Quest. I'm a 15 offer PB 4@52K. When I got the Quest I was still only making a full pass at 46K very occasionally. I fell in love with the ski right off the dock. I'm not sure I ski better with the Quest but it certainly isn't too much for me at all. I think it depends on which high end ski we're talking about as to whether it'll be too much for us. (Beginners)

The high prices are the "honey I've had the boat for sale for 2 years now and no one wants it" price.

I read pretty quick through the thread but no one seemed to mention anything about the pylon height required for an OB. Is it noticeable? I skied exclusively behind outboards of various stripes prior to joining the club and subsequently buying an old Supra, but in those days I was a total hack, so I can't compare. Most setups I skied behind were with the rope on a bracket above the motor or the old school pulley on the rope from handle to handle on the transom LOL.

Here's an interesting question, how many of you skied with those double handles? I did. I was probably 10 or 11 years old, and that would have been 1975 behind an Evinrude. Interesting that the gates were so far back in the 1954 course.

Where are we on buying/shipping to Canada? I'd like to give it a go

I'm 52, first shot at the course was Aug 2013, last year in September, I started running my 28mph around a couple of times per set. That spring I had switched to LFF so I spent the summer getting to that point. This year I skied pretty much 1 set per day all summer and finished with a PB of 4@ 32mph. When I set my goal of running 34mph by the end of the season, everyone at the club just smiled and nodded. Finally one of the drivers told me one speed or shortening per season is pretty much all you can expect, so overall I'm happy. I just figured once I started running 28mph consistently off the dock, 30,32, and 34 would fall pretty quick. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

As for the photo of CP, one sure way to know where the weight is, is to look at where the water is breaking on the ski. If you can't see the ski because of all the spray shooting forward from under the ski, weight is forward for sure. I looked through a few videos, and this is the only time I've seen him with his shoulders back like that. Others who know way more than me are free to comment but I think this position is not a true representation of how CP sets his stack.

At the start of the 2014 season I changed from RFF to LFF which also meant changing grip. For those of us in the 15off ability range, it's pretty easy to do, while I was a bit distracted by the major change of footedness, the handle change was a no brainer, I don't think I had to get used to it at all really. I'm sure if I was a short liner, it would have been much harder to do.

Someone here a while back said to look down the rope, and I did, and it helped. Then I stopped doing it. Now, when I remember (beginners have so many things to remember) I still look down the rope, and on most passes when I do, it helps. I'm only talking about the finish of the turn to the first wake, at that point I switch my focus to the direction I'm headed. Probably the short line skiers don't do this but for us beginners (pb 4@ 52kph) I think it helps you get your hips and chest up and aligned with the direction of pull. ie, until it's second nature, anything you can do to improve your stack will reap huge rewards in the course.

Cool, there's a bunch of them from the same guy, would I ever love to see that on instant replay at streamed tournaments! (I'm in the AV business, so I know how much work that is) I love watching the path, we all feel like we're going nearly perpendicular to the boat path but it's not even close!

Every time I try to counter or keep my chest up through the turn I'm pretty sure I lean back, because the turn usually goes south. When I manage to think about staying over the front of my ski, things go much better, but as CP says I'm sure my hips are behind my feet, so maybe this will help if I can get it in my head. I'm currently having a hell of a time getting angle on my off side, and I think when I slay that dragon it'll be a breakthrough. ( PB 15off/ 3@52KPH,for context)

Will the webcast be cached so we can watch it later or do we have to watch it live?

@TallSkinnyGuy Sounds like you are about where I was a couple of seasons ago. I was king of the otf for quite a while. For me, I was dropping my shoulder and breaking at the waist and my worst falls were between the second wake and the ball. My stack still needs a lot of work but I've only had one otf this season and it was coming into the first wake, and it was a bad one. I've skied pretty much 6 or 7 days a week all season, so one otf is pretty good compared to the past. Everyone says don't be a hero and let the handle go when things start going bad, but that takes experience. When you're new to the course you don't really know things are going bad until it's too late. I've let the handle go many times this season and I never used to, so I think we all need to get through that early phase where you just haven't learned to let go yet and hope nothing serious happens. One thing I will say is that I would NEVER hook my arm through the handle when I'm just resting behind the boat. I know many top pros do it, but at our level especially, stupid falls can happen at any time and if your arm is through the handle... As for how common injuries are, at our club, there has been at least one season ending injury every season that I've been there (one was mine). So injuries are not uncommon.

Well, I wasn't going to post, but it seems appropriate now. Me too! Last year the best I did before I got hurt was getting a look at 4 ball. This spring to save my knee I switched to LFF from RFF, went through a steep learning curve, and, last night, finally ran the course. I'm jazzed. I'd been trying @30, pulling out wide for 1 ball. Last week I did a quick coaching session with Jason McClintock and he suggested doing the gates and skiing at 28. Last night with my regular coach (Thanks Yves) driving I missed about a hundred gates and then finally nailed a gate and ran the pass.

I ski at the club close to my house and have my own boat at the cottage, if anyone from this list showed up at the cottage I would gladly pull them free of charge. But if they passed me one of these things I'd take it for sure. I don't have a course (or PP or ZO for that matter) so the value of a ride at my place may not be the same value as a ride at a private lake.