gator1

@MrJones‌ 38 gates have confounded me forever. Some days no biggy, other days not even remotely possible. I accept you know what you are talking about, but I don't understand. Why does loading early make for a bad gate? Provided I get the ski pivoted all the way before the hook up it seems earlier the better?

Is there a Ball of Bone Fragments site where they talk about the importance of keeping your head vertical while driving your motogp around corners at insane bank angles? Or does that just happen instinctively?

@SkiJay‌ nailed it on gs in the turn. The force on the line theory is wrong, since the rope is fighting acceleration + water drag. Using @Brady‌ time of half second, and Wade's speeds, and assuming constant acceleration from apex of turn to rooster tail, the acceleration in the pull portion is 1.75 gs. But, you don't accelerate all the way from the apex to rooster. Say it takes Wade .17 sec to complete turn and hook up, leaving only .33 seconds to accelerate. Then he'd be up to 2.6 gs. I'd take 2.5 gs to the bank as a conservative number for a pro.

I cut a channel as shown to let air be sucked into the speed step. Only on the front step. The channel goes all the way up to the top edge of the fin. The affect was pretty cool. The steps make my weak side turn better, before the air bleed the affect was rather "digital". Turn felt normal, but if I pushed on the tail it would seem to suddenly wash out easier. This air bleed seems to make the affect I'm looking for more "analog". The easier washout is there, but starts earlier in the turn and is more easily controlled

Think how good @Razorskier1‌ would be if he got to ski bareback all year like you boys. "drysweater" Bah! New name: manbag I really like the Mapple process. I've been skiing 45 years, figure I'm a decent engineer, and yet I have no clue on what to do with fin adjustment and binding moves. I always figure get it set precisely to factory spec, then any adjustment comes out of my technique, since of the two- bindings and fins vs my technique- its pretty clear which is farther from optimal. - So I was derating the review a bit due to the GOAT tuning and coaching. BUT: WTH. If Andy is willing to include that when you buy a ski, then it should be part of the product which is being reviewed, and the result is how many buoys more you and others get and who gives a shit whether it was 90% new ski and 10% GOAT input or 99/1 or whatever.

Very cool process. And, a bit more statistically valid with three different types of skiers. Of course, the GOAT was tweaking fins and technique so that introduced some statistical invalidity. I'd say thanks for all the work, but I just skied 48 degree water, so I'm having a hard time with anything but digging my gonads out of my abdomen. "water in the 80's" bah.

@BG1‌ That is mega cool! I do believe the deeper the step the higher the speed where the affect starts to kick in. Mine does kick in at nice speeds, so maybe a little variation in depth, maybe a little different reaction to technique or ski its mounted on. Thanks for the update. As I shorten the rope it appears to have more of an effect, maybe because I have to turn sharper at the shorter lengths. Really seems to help at 35 and deeper. It'll be interesting to see what @BraceMaker‌ finds with his double deep steps. Well, @AB‌ , that's probably what will happen, but not the intent. I am already the poster boy for the BOS tshirt awfulness (I'm the shirt model in the thread looking for a new design). Please note I am in much better shape than that photo suggests. The current design is not very slimming. I am going to cut the slot in with a hacksaw, will post pics.

Whatever he was on, if that ski in the pic is what he used, it looks like there is some voodoo going on in the speed steps on the bottom of his ski. Can't see all that well due to the artistic blurring of the photo. Maybe not artistic. Maybe intentional industrial espionage prevention.

So. Guys. This is getting really fun. I'm cutting a .020x.020 slot into the surface of the fin from the deep edge of the seaplane step up to the top of the fin. So the edge of the .020x.020 slot will appear as a channel when looking down at the fin box from the top of the ski. Any predictions on what will happen?

Agreed. All I'm doing is looking at a flat plate with a step. Nowhere near the whole enchilada.

I'm using a plastic injection mold flow package that is probably not accurate. But theoretically should be.

I think the deeper longer trench will increase the speed at which you'll notice the tail washing out more easily. But I don't know if that's good or bad. I liked mine the first try, don't know which way is better. My flow package says you increased from mid teens up to mid 20s mph washout speed. Sorry I brain farted the dimension.

.500. My bad! Brain fart.

Sounds like its gonna need a gator tail. Joel I'm done with serial number 001 in two weeks. Have Doug call me, I'll send it over. ROTFL!

@ToddF‌ Well, one school of thought would be that the roughness would act as minute turbulence producers, and would keep the flow attached to the fin longer/more. Then, the follow on theory would be that the fin would act "stronger" on that side, so you'd want to paint the strong side turn of the fin, then adjust the fin shallower. Probably the opposite of the effect you'd want. Another school would be that you'd get minute cavitation points on the downstream side of every bump. This would then create some "give" in the flow, and the fin would act softer, just like you want. Another school, and the one I'd bet on (but maybe only a pepsi), would be not much change. Go for it!

Nope, only the studs.

What's "flopped call". Typo or work duty change? Ya I wasn't gonna comment but glad that was a practice Fin. I figured it was a 4.5 beer cut on the top edge of that last groove. I scribed the deep edge cut, touched the scribe with the cutter, backed off the fin, raised the table .025, cut the deep edge then just feathered off till it quit cutting.

overheard in the ski shop, customer to salesman: "dude, I'm an awesome tuber. Which of these is your fastest tube?"

Haaaa! Can't wait to hear how it works!

Get a nice thick chunk of Al, bigger than the fin. Clamp that in the vise at the proper angle. Use some c-clamps to pin the fin to the chunk. Grab a beer and fire up the mill. Works just peachy, up to about 4 beers. Then, things seem to go wrong.

@BraceMaker‌ go for it! Worst case it is fun. Best case it gets you some pbs.

BTW, in case what I thought was obvious was not, the title to this thread was meant to be ironic. I have not quit my day job. And like gatormod, this is just therapy for my poor battered brain. And, I'll tell you, it is really hilarious big time fun to change my physical performance, something I've been fighting for years, with 15 minutes work on a Bridgeport mill. Its kind of like being a grandparent. Until you've actually thought of something, built it, tried it, seen it work, you'll never know the sheer joy when it works. Just like when that little bitty girl first calls you gampa. On the other hand, the "people have been working on this type of stuff for years, I'm sure what you have done has been tried before" sentiment puts a lot of food on the table from my day job. So that type of thinking never stops me. But big thanks to all you guys who support wild ass ideas with advice and encouragement. But I do look very earnestly for somebody who has ACTUALLY done IT before. Not just tried some stuff like it. So, if anybody has seen THIS before, I'd sure like to know. And, wait'll you guys get a look at my velcroless Velcro plate. ROTFLMFAO!!

@BraceMaker‌ yep. I don't know if something might be better. First try worked. @DW‌ anybody with a mill in their garage can do this. I'll publish a sketch of what I did. @MattP‌ "hitting a rock then pbed" is my fear. Maybe any change is good. For awhile. But send me a fin and we'll see! I do want a bunch of opinions to convince myself this is real not a placebo. So far it seems nobody has tried this before so maybe we're on unexplored territory.

@MattP‌ Send me a fin. I'll cut it for you.

No. Actually it doesn't. Air behaves as a compressible fluid while water is not and does not. Once the flow separates our buddy Bernoulli won't govern the behavior. Seriously. If your are trying to tell me there are meaningful eddies in the water flow inside that step at 30 mph I'd ask you to check with your aerodynamics guy and let me know if I'm talking through my hat.