aupatking

@Horton I agree on inflation. I should have included that in my statement but my point remains that I don’t see the rationale for a 104% increase. 
I definitely don’t mean to pick on Mastercraft individually, it’s just the only one I have direct knowledge of and would still buy another today. 
Just saying, that 4th tracking fin is expensive

As it relates to the higher pricing: in 2015 you could buy a 1 year old Prostar from a dealer that used them at their school for about 300 hours for $45k. I know this for a fact because I had one. Now, the same boat is $92k. That is the same boat but now has a 6.0 liter and a 4th tracking fin. Those 2 factors do not double the cost or the price. I subtract a little in value for them removing the dash pod glove compartment. 
My big question, as it relates to sales: would more ski boats sell if they were cheaper? Maybe a handful, but the percentage would still be negligible in relation to surf boat sales

No one has said Reg hasn’t been trying to run a new WR every chance she gets. I don’t think anyone has even hinted at the  TXI holding her back. As @LLUSA just said about opportunities, I think we are all just excited about those opportunities coming more often, on more tournaments/lakes, with more drivers (ex. Someone mentioned BL). 
it’s excitement guys

Nautique is about to own the women’s slalom WR for the first time in a long time

@Zman Not wanting to take the thread too off-topic, but to answer your question

https://fb.watch/rlCEsWJbx7/

While it is not skiing, it is bringing significant traffic to our lake so we are working in sets as often as I can get there to give as much visibility as possible.

19 hours ago, jjackkrash said:

Care to elaborate?   "Sick" sounds like a ringing endorsement.

Sorry about the “sick” descriptor. We just opened a cable wake park on our ski lake so the wakeboarder language is rubbing off on me. 
“sick”: Automatic. no thoughts like “get over the front to make the turn initiate”, the ski is doing what it is supposed to do with minimal input. You just have to fix you. Onside and Offside turns are easy and tight, no noticeable tip rise. My best set this year

@Hortonthoee L/D numbers are sick, straight off the dock first set

That’s actually the ski that got me into the sport. When I was 4. Thank you @MarcusBrown  good stuff. @75Tique want it

48 minutes ago, C5Quest said:

@Horton How would you tweak these numbers for a 66 ?  

I usually look at the difference in stock numbers from a 67 to a 68 and use those same differences to get “roughly” there. In the case of the “24 Vapor, the settings are the same for the 66, 67, & 68, with the exception of adding .005 for each inch longer. So 0.005 less for a 66

The Masters just announced that Mastercraft will be their new title sponsor as of next year. Nautique has yet to release any official press on the issue but inside sources have hinted towards Correct Craft’s recent purchase of sportfishing boat company, Viking, as a strong change of direction. 
Callaway Gardens is set to welcome next years totally redesigned 2025 Stars and Stripes Prostar as the title 3-Event towboat

@Broussard I could just about get double what I sold my 2014 Prostar for if I sold it today. Crazy world. 

Why are we still on this thread? Malibu is still making TXIs, at least until they wither and die. But, the question that started the whole thread has been answered. We need an Easter pro tournament so we have something better to talk about

awe man... I finally thought I had something useful to say and I say it to the wrong guy 🥲. If there is a good guy to have your name close to, @MISkier is your guy though

It really depends on what you don't mind doing. In instances like this, I think of it in airplane terms, total airframe hours. How many hours can the hull handle. Honestly with fiberglass, it's probably more hours than our lifespan. @MISkier I know you don't mind the little stuff, so I wouldn't be scared off, but would look at the other moving parts: rudder, steering cable (easy), and... well I'm not thinking of much. I do have a serious concern about the screen. I had to replace my screen in my 2014 in 2017. At that time they wanted $4K for it.

Show skiing is to tournament skiing the equivalent of a musical about football. That’s what people think tournament skiing is. Good luck mr president changing that. Your first tv interview went well

Just found this one on EBAY. For about $130 it sounds priceless if your wife will ski. The boots on this one say Medium. What size does she need? I don't mind stalking a little bit (it's far healthier to spend other peoples money)

Just seeing that win list of AM is insane. Some of that was my elementary-middle school years, when i made my parents (free skiers only) buy me a subscription to Waterski Mag. I wanted to be him. I didn't even like it when fellow American, Wade Cox won. The field AM skied against was So Strong! and he just kept rolling them. I met him at the Masters when i was a 12 year old kid and I carried his bag out to the pavilion. Not that he needed any help, but he was gracious to let some kid who asked if he could help do so. I still think about that guy every day. Not that any of this has much to do with the list Horton put up for us. Thank you for doing it

to join the beating of the dead horse, update it to 9.whatever they're on now. I had a 1997 SN 196 that I installed, I believe, 9.2 (may have been 9.1). It was great! It picked up very fast, even on our very short lake setup and held great times through the course. It was as good as the Z-box had been in my previous boat, if not better

I’ve got a 99 Malibu Response that puts out a great wake I’d let go. It is a project, not engine, but interior needs new skins. I love skiing behind it but I have a 2002 Nautique with Zero Off that I’m never letting go. My plan was to convert the Malibu to ZO as well and let it live at my river house but throwing money at it right now is not an option. 

I believe that’s “Rant”. That right @Horton?

It looks like a solid slalom boat

The cost of a new boat has nothing to do with whether I will ski in tournaments. I also will not buy a brand new boat. I’ll take that same amount of money and go buy a rental or some other investment property. I’d love a new boat, but the price is ridiculous to me. I can’t justify it to myself, let alone justify it to my wife. Sure, if you’ve got the cash on hand, go grab a brand new one. They are badass.

I really see no correlation to the price of a brand new boat and whether or not people will 3-Event ski in tournaments. I do see a lot of people that have thought, for many years, that you must have a “within 3 model years” boat to get to practice behind the same boats you’d ski in a tournament. 

I will be getting one.

After watching @JPeckham skiing video, there is way less “tipping” than I was thinking there may be. Even that small amount looks negligible at the point your free hand returns. 

I won’t EVER have this issue, but I read Nate once saying he bends handles. With the load in the middle, I wonder how much reinforcement a T-handle will require. Again though, that’s just a curiosity question. 

One more thing: I’m ready to see Horton ski it. 

Nothing is as cool to see on the water as a skilled slalom skier or a highly skilled wakeboarder. Even Surf is lame to watch (but fun to do). The first two are aspirational. To want to do it, you need to see it (know it exists). My dad and uncles open water slalomed behind our 16 foot checkmate. Seeing those guys made me want to do it. I begged for a Waterski Magazine subscription. I wanted to do what they did, and way more (course and competition). Yes, conditions on the river sometimes sucked but in between the bad sections there was enough decent water to give hell to a few turns. 

There was one public water course that people were afraid to ski because “that’s Tynes’ course and he’ll give you hell for skiing it”. Turns out, that guy wanted us skiing it even more than himself. I feel the same and it’s why I waste hundreds of dollars and hours keeping that public course going. The same reason he did.

It’s access AND aspiration. At least as far as course/competition skiing goes. If there is no knowledge that it exists, well, it doesn’t. If they don’t have a place to do it, they won’t. 

The bodies that should have busted their asses chasing public policies for access chased rules, minutia, and every fad to come around. If they had advocated and lobbied for more public access, we wouldn’t be having this same discussion over and over. 

So, maybe it’s on us, individually. Fight to put a course in and ski it! An $8,000 boat or a $134,000 boat doesn’t matter a damn bit. A skier behind it showing what can be done? That matters.

Access and Aspiration 

Like Horton said, it’s speculation right now, but obviously, most of us see it as most likely. I’ve been trying to avoid going down the “what’s wrong with the sport” rabbit hole on this one But you really can’t. It’s the reason this is happening. I didn’t elaborate a point I meant to in an earlier post. That when I ski the rivers here, people love it. Slalom skiing is still really awesome to watch and it makes people want to do it. It’s just rare. There are zero public slalom courses in my area anymore. I live on public water but ski a private lake. We went into a closet with this sport and expected the world to still be looking. 

I’ve been saying it would be more surprising for this to NOT happen. I hate it. That TXI is a great ski boat but when you can sell a $250,000 boat or a $100,000 boat and the margin is better, getting your stockholders to believe in the smaller boat smaller margin is not going to happen. If surf is growing with $200,000+ boats, price is not our killer. Desire is. Skiing is hard. Hard to learn, hard to get good at. When people see me ski on public water they stop and comment that it is badass! And I’m only a 32 off skier. Surf is easy, can be done by any idiot with a beer in his hand, and honestly, is fun. I applaud HO for developing the Hovercraft to help make learning easy. More of that may bring some market pull back, but it’s a drop in the bucket. I do believe the more surf and wake boat bans we start seeing, the more these manufacturers are going to have to move back to ski boats. And barring an oncoming recession, people are not going to stop buying boats