bojans

while not 100% the same, imagine throwing the alignment of your car totally out of whack and removing the sway bars, that is the best analogy I can give. Very bad idea plus you will destroy the resale value. Best bet is to modify the trailer or buy the correct trailer.

Not sure this is an easy question to answer, but how many more buoys do you think you could get on a Vapor vs the Senate?

The short question, does anyone have any other sub buoys they are using other than the ones from skier to skier? The long explanation of why the question - we went out to install our course yesterday and as we started looking for sub buoys we were unable to locate 16 of the 26. As you start at the south end of the lake heading north every sub buoy is missing until you get to 4 ball, there we found 1 gate and no turn ball, 5 we found both gates, no turn ball and from 6 north we have everything. We are at a loss as to what happened here. Our first thought was some malicious activity but we are on a private site developed with homes around it. Really no opportunity for someone to put a boat in and mess with things plus, we do not see any rope or sub buoys floating on shore. Our other thought turned to the recent arrival of Zebra mussels, perhaps they collected so heavily on the rope and sub buoy that they sank them or an animal, like a muskrat, started eating the Zebra mussels and chewed up the sub buoys. We will know more after we dive this coming weekend but we need to buy new rope and sub buoys to be ready.

@eddie_roberts_jr that is what I was looking for and thinking. I think it is time to demo a 17' Senate Lithium.

Definitely easing in on the up and yes, I am not shy of throwing the handle. Aside from the ups, I was led to believe the Senate might be an easier ski to ski on, less force on the body whilke act

No to double boots

A little background. I am currently a 34mph skier who can occasionally get into -22. Between some knee issues and a few back surgeries I am really just happy to still be able to ski and want to continue to do so with my kids who are developing a love for the sport. At my best I was getting into -28 @ 36, I would like to get back into regularly shortening the line, but given my injuries, will probably will not push hard enough to get beyond -28 @ 34. I am currently on a 2016 Lithium Vapor, I love the ski but after seeing some recent info and receiving some opinions I am wondering if a Lithium Senate might be a bit easier on the body without holding back on the level of performance I need. One of my biggest issues are deep water starts, I can do them, but the load it puts on my back sometimes causes an issue. for this reason I regularly use a drop ski at each end of the course. I assume the added width helps the Senate pop up a little quicker?

This is why we leave our private site every year to go to Bull Shoals lake. Taking the kids to the place I learned to ski and spend most summer vacations, allowing them to learn to love skiing the way I did as a kid. Krista hit the nail on the head, great job!

I have gotten both kids O'Neil hot tops off Amazon for a reasonable price. That plus a shorty has allowed my sone to ski in 50 degree water and the hot top alone is great for cool mornings and the fall.

A huge thanks to Performance Ski and Masterline. I have the family down in the Orlando area for some relaxation, and skiing. We went to Performance looking for a comp vest for my 9 year old, they did not have what we needed in stock but called over to Masterline (who owns Eagle) and had us drive over there to try the vests on to ensure we got the right size. When we got to Masterline all the kids vest were laid out on the floor for my son to try on. 2 great companies providing great service. Thanks guys!

I am getting ready to retire my 6x4 Gator in favor of a Polaris Ranger. We have to drive about 1/2 a mile to the dock where we ski from and always have a bed full of coolers, snacks, kids toys, vests, etc. The bed of the Ranger is shorter than the Gator and the skis will hang out a lot, possibly to the point of tipping? Has anyone on here built a rack for their utility vehicle that might give me some design ideas?

@jetpilotg4 did that price include the engine and zero off? If so was the engine new and which engine?

Probably 13 or 14 years ago Jimmy Siemers did a clinic at our site and stayed with us for a few days after. Aside from fishing a lot, he went out and ran the course on his trick ski doing a different flip at each wake crossing. If you think it is cool in the video, you should see it from the boat.

I recently made a dryer for snow ski boots and gloves. A hairdryer is attached to PCV in the shape of an H with verticals coming out of each end. I actually added a Y to the verticals so that I can get a boot and glove on each side and dry 2 sets off boots and gloves at once. Hair dryer on med heat and high fan gets everything to about 120 F. It works great for my snow gear, should work well for waterski stuff.

if it is an Excaliber and upgradeable to Zero Off, please send me a message.

Slightly off topic on ratings, but the mention of the class d type tournament may get our club back in the tournament game. We used to host one 3 event tournament per year, always had a great turnout. We stopped having tournaments for a few reasons, getting enough officials was difficult, there was a lot of planning and work, other members with no interest in tournament skiing didn't want to give the lake up for a whole day. Lessen the officials requirement, make sanctioning easier and I could see our club hosting some slalom only tournaments. If it were easy enough I think having an afternoon tournament, maybe 40 pulls and end with drinks and some burgers would be a great way to grow the sport and get together with fellow skiers.

First off, I am not throwing stones here, the people at USA Waterski and AWSA are in a tough position and I thank you for your continued work. That being said I, as with most others on this site, belong to AWSA for 2 reasons, tournaments and my club requires all skiers to be AWSA members for insurance purposes. You are probably not going to grow membership targeting people like us. What is compelling to new members? I had to go onto the website to see what the benefits (other than insurance, and the ability to enter tournaments) were, this is what I found Pages of "benefits" which frankly I stopped reading after a page and half because it wasn't compelling. That begs the question, are the benefits not presented correctly or are there not enough benefits? A few thoughts on what may help grow membership. - Can AWSA facilitate road tax refunds for fuel that was used in boats? - Would it be feasible to produce some member only coaching videos, not just for skiing, but driving, boat care, intro to tournaments, etc? - If regional guides and magazine are not a positive return based on advertising dollars, either stop printing them or offer a discounted membership if people elect not to receive the printed pieces. Online availability is more than sufficient. - Industry involvement. Can you get Goode, Radar, Masterline, D3 etc to offer something for members who buy their products? It doesn't have to be a huge offer, a few % off, free next day shipping, anything that has a perceived value. Best of luck and god speed.

I can't find any info on how the CP is for trick skiing. Anyone tricking behind one?

I have the 2 best looking skis of all time hanging in my garage.

We are switching my son over to Reflex bindings this year. He is 9 years old and currently wears a size 5.5 shoe (US) up from a 4.5 back in Sept... Can anyone provide some guidance on the shell and liner combo that will fit him best but still allow for more than a season of use?

I have an inexpensive ($100) Magellan GPS unit that we marked select bouts on, things like jump anchors, entry and exit gates, etc. The GPS takes a while to update (newer ones may be better) so it is a fall back when we can't spot a buoy, but boy is it accurate. Twice we have lost sub bouys on jump anchors and were able to send a diver down into 30+ feet of water with great accuracy to find them. It was $100 well spent.

not SE, but who wouldn't want to make a run to the Chicago area in January... 2016 with a 6.2.

Best season ever. My back held up well after having surgery #3 in January, no PB's but I was on the water over 50 day. The real reason it was the best season ever is my kids. My 8yo son learned to ski on 1 in June, started running the full course in July and capped his season off with his first tournament running into 21mph. He will be qualified for regionals and likely nationals. My 5yo daughter got over much of her fear and is now on 2 behind the boat. The skiing bug has bitten both of them. Can't wait until next year.

Northern Illinois

There are a lot of ways to jump 100'. As stated above without seeing a video it is hard to judge. If you are going 100' on a single or an easy 3/4 with great form you could probably go a bit longer. If you are charging hard and flattening I would probably stay at 86 or even shorter. Do you know you will have access to a jump site post graduation?