aupatking

And @jgills88 I’m not discounting what you are saying but I do think competitive 3 event skiing should have been the SOLE focus of SOME governing entity. And Barefooting should have it’s own.

I’ve edited my first post 6 times. I’m just gonna finish my thought here. competitive (3-event) skiing has never been mainstream. Even in the late 80’s and early 90’s no one in my school had ANY clue what I was talking about. And damn near everyone in this area knew how to ski. At least in some capacity. Rather than focus on/spotlight, 3-event, AWSA USAWWWWS (whoever) never stopped chasing the next fad. STILL HAVENT. “OOOH, let’s include kneeboarding or our sport will die”, “oh now we have to include wakeboarding or our sport will die”. And on. And on. And on. If they had focused, maybe we would have at least a little bit of a presence.

Sadly, we’ve had this discussion time and time again. My bet is it would be damn near impossible to figure out how many times. Just about every thread that goes more than 10 posts devolves into “what is wrong is waterskiing”. I will believe cost is an issue when I stop seeing people buy $150k boats, of every type (there are actually pontoon boats that far exceed that. Can you believe that S#*+?). id say it’s accessibility but there are 4 people that ski on my public course. If I ever run across someone I don’t know skiing on it, I’ll kiss them. people do not know competitive skiing exists, and they damn sure don’t know what it consists of. If there was ever a marketing budget, I at least hope they snorted it all up. That way I’d think that they at least had fun blowing that money.

Good luck finding one who can beat Reg

And without question, Wally’s are the best, but if you’re setting up a public course. The cost/benefit is not in line. Wally’s are expensive but you absolutely get what you are paying for with them if it wouldn't kill someone (or would only kill tubers and jet skiers) I’d just hang bleach bottles on the public course. I use old, repainted, whatever buoys I have laying around for the public course and the cost still may not be worth it

Not speaking with any actual knowledge of their sourcing, but I’d be AMAZED if it’s not the same factory that makes the buoys for non brand, KD, Barts, and probably some I’ve never found. I’m sure they’d make a stamper with your name on it too. May not be a bad idea. Mine’s gonna be King Balls Quality is what it is. I think Overtons don’t do that but aren’t as colorfast.

@Nater some of the info is not for the public to see. At least not currently

@Wishand people watched him. A lot of people. Some controversy is good, some not. This thread has more viewers than the tournament will. @ricoI don’t understand the LCQ ban either. Wasn’t he already qualified, just banned from attending? They can’t remove the fact that he was qualified, so banning him from additional tournaments does what? Punishes him beyond the scope of the tournament. Seems like overreach. And those aren’t (officially) Nautique events, so you can’t blame Nautique for those. At least not directly

Really comes down to: what are you trying to accomplish?. Do you feel like you are having the boat “on you” at all times in tournaments? If so, duplicating that feeling with your own boat may be worth it. If not, why make your boat less fun to ski? Like I said, it’s not “what are you trying to do?”, it’s “what are you trying to accomplish”?

@scokepretty sure I wouldn’t have got around 6 on that one. Thank you @Bruce_Butterfield. I will work on width. The narrowness is a product of trying to run 6 from the same direction I ran that 4. You get slingshot out and are way outrunning the boat so I dialed it back. For the 4 ball course, it’s more like the length of runnup I’d get in Milton or Axis, so I am trying to get tournament type setup. I’ll go even with the pylon and get more video. Thank you again guys

@Hortonthat really is the problem, because that is EXACTLY what is being said. And it didn’t happen. I’m not calling the people who have told me otherwise liars. Definitely not. I’ve heard this from people I respect but, I’m quite certain they’re sources are either lying or supporting a lie. Also, something I think I missed, or misunderstood, is this just a Masters ban, or all Nautique events?

Thank you Terry, I concreted a Nautique SS pylon in the ground outside my shop and haven’t had a good reason to use it, until today I attached video, and yes, my “stack” is definitely not good 2 to 3 as I got a bit over the front of the ski at 2 and couldn’t recover before the boat caught me 1FF26B8E-5B7C-4D33-9647-F72713A8ECA3.MOV

Yes, @Horton and @ral, you are correct. I’ve been working very hard on my “stacked” position, and have it 75%-ish percent of the time. That’s the low hanging fruit in the video, and fairly easy to fix. I just have to work on making it better than 75%. Typically when I lose it, it’s from being so late/narrow that I turn anyway and there’s no support from the line. On those I get crushed and it’s all bent from there. I think you are on to the problem Ral, that having the handle and keeping it in are two different things. I really need to be fixing that in my skiing and looking for that when reviewing my video.

I’ve plateaued. I’m struggling with my -32 pass and (self diagnosed) have found that I’m releasing the handle too soon off the second wake. I’ve been trying everything I can think of to MAKE myself stay on the handle, yet Edge change early. I feel like when I keep the handle in, I’m edge changing later, which ends the pass just the same as early handle release. I’m a mechanical thinker like the though “hold handle pressure in back arm” and it makes other things correct. What is a mechanical thought that will help through this hump/slump?

With the first question always being “what got you into skiing?” And the answer being, almost invariably, my family, I can’t think of a more fitting final episode. Thank you @Luzz for the excellent product that you have given us. I have enjoyed every episode and it has been a joy to learn so much from so many that have given so much to competition waterskiing. I will miss your podcast immensely

I’ve spoken with both firsthand and reliable secondhand sources. Both giving opposing accounts of what actually occurred. Given the firsthand versus secondhand nature, I have to believe the more directly related of the two sources: that is that his response was well within what should be EXPECTED of someone who’s living is being effected and that no “line” was actually crossed. If there is a conduct rule for this particular event that was broken, that would clarify the reason for the ban but I don’t believe that is the case. What I do see here is “The Masters” has made its own tournament even more irrelevant in the eyes of the water skiing world. Again, totally unnecessarily and totally preventable with even reasonably priced equipment. This seems, to me, not up to the standards we, and definitely not the professional skiers, should expect from what should be considered a pinnacle event.

My 14 had the screen go bad and would do a lot of what you are talking about. Someone called it ghost touches. The dealer (who I won’t mention or ever buy so much as a canoe from) was an ass. The boat wasn’t quite 3 years old. Wanted $4,000 for a new screen. Local dealer took care of me. Due to the age of your boat, you could be looking at a $4k screen. It controls pretty much all the ZO functions. Hopefully it’s the puck

@Horton I meant to throw that in there. Hell, my company can provide a 400 Gig fiber connection and all stack and access points so they don’t have to lay 10 miles of cable. I’ve been trying to pitch this to my CEO (former jr skier). For some reason, he doesn’t see the financial upside 🤔

@Dragoi think you are right, and point is the actual problem here, that nothing about the setup for judging or video is in the right place. Just because “everyone knows it” doesn’t give an excuse for not fixing it. The judges position may not be able to change but today’s cameras, even inexpensive ones, can be placed where they need to be to rectify this issue. And for this tournament, it shouldn’t be an issue. It truly is a shame, on both sides. I get the anger, especially for someone who’s living is on the line but none of the judges caused the problem that reared it’s ugly head. This was a 100% (well maybe 95%) preventable outcome. That’s where the site/TC/someone (you tell me who) should have rectified the “known issue”. We all know the place is less optimal than todays tournament lakes but a very small amount of tech should have made this one a non-issue a few years ago. This course doesn’t even have to be RC for this tournament, but it is supposed to be fair for all. Come on though, “everyone has to deal with the exact same non verifiable buoy” is a pretty piss-poor reasoning for not fixing it.

As much as I’d like to remove my previous post, I’m going to leave it and live with it.

The skier should be able to question the call and the fact that they couldn’t back it up with the requisite review should have angered him. We are talking about the Masters here. I guess he and I both wrongly held that tournament to a high standard. If that guy says he made the pass, he made the pass. I don’t know what he said to the judges, but “bullying” doesn’t fit what I saw. Complaining that he did not get the level of review he deserved and being angry about it seems the correct reaction. No point dragging Nate’s story into it though. It will keep me and my family from attending, which I hate, because I love to go to it. It is the only true “family event” that the US has as far as waterskiing goes, which is the only way I can get my wife and kids to go.

I’m considering doing something very much like that in my ski boat slip. I don’t know that my fishing boat lift slip would really accommodate such, as it’s just too big. My main question is how much weight is added from the wood alone, and how much will that wood want to float. I’d also want to make the bunks removable, as they look like great places to kill yourself tripping over them when the boat is not in the lift. Im sure someone can address those questions.

I use mine more in my 26 footer than my 196. But my 196 never sees 3-5 footers. And the 196 lives on our lake. On occasion I do wear it, but I never remember to take it off so it damn near kills me when I get up for my turn to ski. I’ll try to take this thread as a reminder to always wear it. Things do happen, buoy line snag (our lake once had a course with buoys in places they no longer are), and steering cable snap, so private lake or not, it’s always a good idea

I typed up a very long response before realizing that this thread is turning into the same old “what’s wrong with competitive skiing” discussion. Even in my response. You can buy an expensive boat or a cheap one and get good. The WILL TO IMPROVE is still the hardest part to find. The reward for being a great skier has gotten so low that buying a $120,000 boat just isn’t there for many people. And most don’t know competition waterskiing is even a thing. Buy a new expensive ski boat if you like it. Buy a cheap old used one if you like it. Neither are going to make you a skier. Sadly, buying a new boat offers zero entrance into competitive skiing. And the biggest thing keeping me from getting a 2020+ Prostar, it won’t make me a single buoy better than my current boat

Only an unladen Great White’s fin speed velocity could have caught her