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@Horton; seeing as I am still smarting from my negative reinforcement hat trick, it seems only fair that the galactic leader would hold himself to the standards he has set for the minions.

@Phillips: I'm on my third year with Stealths. The release is consistent. I added a gatormod, which makes it, IN MY OPINION, the only setup out there that will protect me in a crushing OTF fall. Getting them on is fussy, but not painful. Getting them off in cold murky water, if you haven't planned ahead with where you put the extra laces when you booted up, is an extreme pain in the ass. The laces flop around and get tangled with each other as you ski. However, if you put the slack laces in a known position when you boot up, then getting them off in the water is no big deal. I can't tell a difference with tongue on or off. I think that's all in @Horton's head. Or, I'm not as finely tuned an athlete as he. It is, however, not supposed to be cranked on extremely tightly. The stiff tongue doesn't contact your shin until you have flexed your ankle long past any normal position it encounters while skiing. The stiff tongue is VERY important during an OTF release. It acts as a facilitator to put an upward load on the rear of the plate; without it that load has to come from your Achilles. After 3 years mine are looking a little rough. No problem with functionality, but the exterior surface is getting scuffed up by the laces. I'm all about the style, so this is a problem. They are extremely comfortable, and if you heat mold them they fit like a glove. I meant to graft some "BOA" lacing systems on to mine this winter, but got busy making mods for Ballers running Stealths and Fogmans (and for this one guy on Powershells). I think you could make a pretty cool deal with some BOAs.

@davemac, I'm 185 and run the 67" @ 34 mph. Seems like the right lenght. Two of my 6 regular ski buds have switched to the ski after trying mine. One guy is 170, also on a 67 at 34, and one is 155, on a 67 at 32mph. A third, who normally runs mid 39.5, ran 4@38 on his first set on the ski, and that was using my drastically modified Stealths when he is used to pretty basic FMs. He looked pretty confused at 28, and just kept grinning bigger as the rope got shorter. The only reason he hasn't switched is that he gets a factory deal on the brand he skis. Which goes to @kstateskier question: While the other brands are pretty aggressive out here with deals for the top end guys I ski with, Connelly doesn't seem to market in that fashion at all. I don't know how Jaimie and co. managed to do it, but it is the most calm yet twitchy, smooth yet quick, aggressive yet comforting, fast yet low effort ski I've tried. I've posted before about the customer service I've experienced from Connelly, but will say it again, they've been topnotch. The only other ski I liked as much when I made the switch to it was a Goode 9100 way back in the day.

@skoot1123: Lady on the phone told us "no". Turned out our hotel for the wedding was just down the block, so we showed up on the doorstep with the (true) stories of our long dedication to O'Brien skis and our disarming Midwestern friendly faces. In we went.

@MarcusBrown‌ Awesome! Soon as I can get my old bald pasty leg bending self through the course enough times to get a start on some calluses I'll take you up on that.

skoot, I'm pushing as hard as I can in both pics. You are right, the angle of attack of the ski now sucks. In essence, I'm doing a very high drag side slide now....Don't know how to get it back in the water. I'm beginning to wonder if the angle of the spray is an indicator of efficiency, just like the amount of spray off a snow ski. Gotta look at some more vids. For sure, Miller's spray comes off lower than most. Wonder about other immortals. @ral; Yes, thank you. I am old. And bald. And pasty. And, coachless. Went to a clinic put on by a pro couple of years ago. Got nothing. Had an hour with Jack Travers 25 yrs ago. That was pretty good. Other than that, its all Uncle Butch and @sethro. If I can't figure it out by midsummer I'm gonna pack up and go somewhere to see a coach.

@skoot1123 We were over there for a wedding about 3 years ago. Just walked in the door and asked, got a great tour, saw this big dude running a mill, it was LaPoint, got to talk to him about ski assembly. Awesome. Hope they will let you in, pretty much nirvana for a engineering guy like you.

@Jimbrake: Can't blame it on ZO. I'm a couple of buoys diff between the river PP and the lake ZO. It is a gorgeous spot. I got lucky and found some great guys to ski with when I moved out here from the Midwest. Plus, we don't need a .410 in the boat to repulse water moccasin attacks. Moose, on the other hand......... Probably should have put pic in "pics that make you smile" thread......Note tasteful, understated "nautiques" sticker in hatchback window.

Me, separated by a few years and a few trips to the surgeon. Maybe this shoulders open to the boat shit is not right answer? If I get more of the ski in the water now, I just go OTF. The one on the left was fun. The one on the right is just work. How do I get back to fun?

@skijay: The MRI didn't show my problem either. That technology doesn't do well on this type of issue. Basically my buddy (doc) and I decided we'd tried everything else, there was such a obvious clunk, and the pain was so much worse on the way down, that something had to be mechanically screwed up. Went to sleep not knowing, came out of the ether looking at his big grin, hearing "you'll be ready before the water is warm". And "I drilled a bunch of holes, its gonna hurt because I can't put any painkiller in there or it will screw up the blood coming out of the holes". The "its gonna hurt part" was not an understatement.

@skiJay: bummer. Sorry to hear you're back in pain. My PRP benefits faded out in a couple of months. Then I got my knee scoped and found a flap of cartilage was getting pinched, so I'm doing a lot better after the doc cleaned that flap out and beveled a nice lead-in where the flap was..He also drilled a bunch of holes in my kneecap down into the marrow so it keeps doing "self funded" PRP. My PRP guy is telling me its not a one time fix for back of the kneecap. Need to do it every 6 months to a year. Its a couple hundred bucks a round down here. Come on down for a little medical tourism!

@Ed_Johnson,@ral, @jimbrake: I give up, thanks for trying. I've read/heard/attempted to implement that all before. Just like when I bust through a door, I go out the front if I try to weight/load/put force on the front foot. My CG is plenty low, so that is not it. I was a WCS disciple for a couple of years, and this all worked great. Came back after the winter break 5 years ago, and nothing worked. Then got sick, then got hurt. Last year I was healthy, but still nothing worked. Working like a horse just to run 35. I'm convinced this is the key, I've got to get more ski in the water by getting COM more forward. But, OTF. Maybe just too old now.

@jimbrake, thanks for the attempt to explain it to me. I get the "ski back to the handle" part. I don't get what "load in the direction they intend to go" means in terms of what physical movements are required to achieve that. If it is just putting more weight on the front foot, how do they keep from going OTF?

@klundell, @jimbrake: I have yet to wrap my head around the "COM is always moving ahead of the ski" directive. Does it mean progressively more weight is on the front foot as he approaches the wakes? On a lot of those pulls he looks like he's almost entirely on the front foot right behind the boat. How does he do that without going OTF? How do the rest of the immortals do that? I think mortals have to stay back because the impact with the wake slows the ski and our body keeps going, thus moving our COM inadvertently forward, thus OTF. The staying back is safety margin. Is the theory that he is so strong and quick that he can stand on the front foot without the deceleration from the impact with the wake moving his COM any farther forward?

@OB, My post sure was not meant as bashing. I think the mod I suggested could be easily incorporated and would answer the one-foot-in fears the people have raised. Help OB4 sell more. But, like I said, I haven't seen prints of the OB4, so I'm not positive about that. Unfortunately, the numbers and stats for our sport haven't yet allowed any industry standard method for determining how well a binding works. So, we end up talking about how a release system will work in theory when it encounters the different types of falls we have had or can imagine. And, our wonderful legal system makes it almost impossible for a manufacturer to talk about his binding in theory for fear of saying something that will be used against him in the future. For example, (and I do not have any inside data on this), why does the Stealth have the super stiff external tongue on the front boot? There is no data or explanation I can find from them on why. You don't bump up against that tongue in normal skiing. I THINK they put it there to reinforce the Achilles in a crushing OTF. But, and I DO know this to be true, the lawyers will tell you that talking about how you have solved a problem makes you that much more liable for having that problem in the past. Imagine the bastards in court: "So, Mr. Gates, we see in your advertisement here, exhibit 1, that you incorporated a gatormod in your latest binding design to make the binding safer. Why was that?" Me: "Well, we found in our previous designs that people were ripping the shit out of their ankles in a crushing OTF, and this mod prevents it" Lawyer: "So, while you worked on the gatormod, you continued to sell a binding that injured your customers even though you knew it caused injuries" Me: "Um, skiing is a dangerous sport". Jury: "twenty gabillion $s to the defendant" I really wish we could at least come up with a standard list of the types of falls that we encounter, and then let the manufacturers discuss how their designs function in that type of fall. Like: Crushing OTF (tail skip or buoy hop). Peeling OTF (hinge at the waist coming at the wake). One foot out, crushing OTF (buoy hop in a RTP). Rear Peeling windmill (rodeo crash out the back after too hard on the tail turn) . Crushing windmill. ETC. Then, at least, we could have an industry-wide discussion on the mechanical attributes, and the discussion would be somewhat protected from the lawyers.

@mmosley899: If you put two slots in that center block where it is mounted to the plate, such that it is allowed to slide forwards and backwards, I think you could get a positive instantaneous release of both boots. Pin the back plate so when it is clicked in it can't travel frontwards. Back boot releases, block slides back, takes all load off front plunger, voila, front releases. Front boot releases, block slides forward, takes all load off rear plunger, bingo, back boot releases. I was playing around with this for awhile a couple of years ago by just cutting a fogman in two pieces and TIGed beveled tabs to the remaining plates. Seemed to work pretty well. But I haven't seen your deal in the flesh, so I'm guessing at how yours works.

Man, if you were looking for proof that a straight back leg is the key to very short line skiing, this video alone is where you'll find it.

@Horton‌ : panda retraction?

@ob; please don't run the mod when people are around to see you. I had no idea you were such a crap skier.

@ipskier: Sorry to hear that, the old school guys leave a big hole. Also, a little in awe. Did he post day before yesterday on the straightleg thread? That is indeed old school.

@jimbrake: Oh. Kidding. It may be, perhaps, just perhaps, I'm taking this a bit too seriously, eh? I'll post some video once the ice goes out and we get a few passes under our belts. There is a large committee, chaired by the wife, that would predict my head cannot be fixed on any subject. But, I've never tried crowd sourced BOS head shrinking. If its more painful than just watching video of myself I may not survive. But, I'm game if you are!

@ral: That's me. My head agrees with everything you said. My body continues to disagree. Stupid body. @ShaneH, @Horton: I agree. I should have just started with the picture, but a) its a pretty embarrassing pic, and b) I would have never set the record for single thread negative reinforcement. DislikePandaPython. Should be an award for that.

@jimbrake. I dunno about that. I lost 2 passes over one winter with no equipment mods. Something went to hell in my head, not my ski.

@ozski: We both have to get the gdam front half of the ski in the water. Back in the day, the water broke way in front of my front foot. I can't figure out how to get back to that.

@ShaneH: Look at this poor bastard grunting out a 35. Wish he'd just straighten his back leg a little bit.