Booze

Hey Phil, actually it's a just-in-case query. I suspect my company will want to transfer me there sometime this year. I'd like to know whether I'd be SOL for slalom if I moved there.

Does anyone know the tournament or 'serious slalomer' scene around Greenville/Spartanburg?

I'm a proponent of the RTP. I say give it a shot. With that said, I don't like thick padded plates. I use non-skid straight to the plate. Wiley's plates are hard to beat. They come with a thin rubber pad that's not bad at all.

One on SIA now. Rumor has it, it was literally the first GTR in the world sold to the public.

There's one on SIA right now

It's decided....you need a 67" Revo. ;)

The Evo felt sweet for me until 35off....then the sweetness went away.

+1 on what @bishop8950 said. I average ~192lb in the summer. I tried the 68" as well and it was good, but I didn't feel as settled as I did on the 67". The Revo and XTR are very different IMO. XTR rides deeper so is more sticky and predictable but requires you to stay on the handle longer. The Revo rides higher, is faster, and casts out and up better...basically stays moving better. It isn't 'sticky' so the turns may not be as predictable. I have found, in working on the concept of an early shutdown and moving the ski under the handle asap, is easier with the Revo. It stays moving in the flats and through the turns better than the XTR. I love the XT and XTR (very similar IMO), but I plan to stick with the Revo this spring (maybe this year? We'll see LOL) due to its advantage in ease of moving out and up. I imagine the only ski that could supplant the Revo is the Adams'ses'es 34mph creation.

There's a 66" XTM (mid-ride) on SIA now for $175. Great deal. I'm 190lb and loved that ski.

Hey @Zman , what ski you riding now?

Not sure how to embed the video

Prostate 190?

@skiboyny - I'm quite sure it's the large wing, or at least the interaction of it with the fin. I've done a/b comparison to normal wing and it correlates.

@Buoyhead69 - same $$ at Cory's.

@skiboyny - yes. I got to 5@38 on the Revo...and never got that far on the Rev6, even with more sets run on it. Onside turn is better, offside is about the same. The difference is in the speed. The Revo casts out well, which to me says it is faster (velocity) coming of 2nd wake

@nleuth - you not digging the GTR?

I tried @skibug numbers and liked it. DFT may have been off because I had trouble getting the fin that forward and long.

@AdamCord - If everything feels good at and out of the buoy, but the ski isn't casting out as well (width became an issue at 35/38)...what adjustment do you suggest?

+1 on what ThanBogan said. I recently have encountered numerous ski/fin setups/changes where everything felt great, but the ski did not cast out, or carry-out, like I wanted or how it did at stock or previous settings.

@igkya - since the boat speed and path are 'constant', I believe it does represent real case scenario...at least close enough to prove a concept. Look at the animation Hortonism has on the right side of this page. Since it simulates a moving boat and skier, if you froze or took a snapshot, does it not still accurately represent a path example? Look at an animation of sine wave generated by a rotating unit circle. There has been much debate over whether the pendulum example is valid, because of such factors as...skier is not a steel ball (or whatever), the boat is moving, the wind, etc etc, blah blah. I contend the force (vector) generated by the moving boat (and translated to the line) is analogous to the force (vector) of gravity acting on a swinging pendulum.

Two things that stand out, to me: a) The distance that the skier has to travel increases as the line shortens. I don't know how to prove this from a calculus perspective...but I believe it is obvious. What I take from that is: if the distance the skier has to travel increases but the speed of the boat and the time interval does not, then more work has to be done to generate the energy needed to propel the mass the greater distance. b) using the pendulum example (yes I know it is not 100% analogous) .... does it not take more energy (and work) to propel the swinging mass higher on the arc? The answer is yes, right? Then why would it not take more energy to 'propel' the skier mass higher on the arc ("up on the boat")?

Since the EVO was mentioned...I like D3 and their organization. But, I rode an EVO recently...32's were sweet....35 was another matter. The smoothness went away.

@AU_Skier - from a general perspective (or IMHO), the XTR rides like an XT, which is slower from side to side but is very sticky and dependable at the buoy. The Rev is 'faster', it still turns quickly but may not be as sticky and predictable at the buoy. Perhaps the XTR rides deeper than the Rev.

@zman - That was last year. The GF and I took the long way home, stopping in Houston and Galveston. Thanks again for the beer. :)