BCM

I am using it on an older iPhone SE (based on the 5, not the newer SE) and it works well.

What type of bike and what type of travel distance/route (from house around private lake to dock or across town)? Loaded bikes handle real weird, might not be an issue around private lake to dock, might be an issue on a road. I would try to keep the COG as low as possible. You might have more options starting with a Big Fat Dummy. Or maybe a Bill Trailer. I briefly looked into building a trailer for jumpers, it could be done for <$100 if you were creative with material sourcing and had access to a welder.

Are you sure you want a 66"? I have a 67" NRG R-1 I am looking to sell.

Check out Bike Flights, I have used them for shipping mountain bikes. when I put in the dimensions of my ski box for coast to coast shipping, it came out around $40. Its been awhile since I used them and they slipped my mind. They use UPS/FedEx as the carrier but have some account/deal with them. With bikes I have had great luck with them.

I recently got quotes from FedEx and UPS for shipping approximately 2/3 of the way across US, about $70, they were within a few dollars of each other. I was going to go with UPS because it is easier for me to get them to pickup at my house, its about a 1 hour round trip to nearest FedEx for me. The demo skis I have received from a few manufacturers have been shipped FedEx.

This summer I demoed the Alpha, Omega, and was able to take a ride on the '21 Pro, they are all very different skis. If you fill out the demo form on the website they will call you to confirm information, I would tell them what you are on and what you like and see what they suggest. I found the HO customer service to be great, super helpful and knowledgeable. There are a few folks I ski with who I would recommend the Omega for, others the Omni, a few the Alpha, and I am looking at the Pro, it all depends on how you ski and what you like. My advice would be to talk to HO directly, they are super helpful.

@RGilmore - It looks like they have a good setup. I did notice that they use swivel mounts, when I installed my top I used a swivel mount (similar to this one), I wish I would have used something more like this. The swivel allows a lot of side to side wiggle in the top, unfortunately the screw holes on the swivel mount are about 1/2" farther apart than the non-swivel and converting to non-swivel leaves a visible hole in the gel coat. If I were to do it again, the only thing I would change is the swivel mount.

My father is about your age and was getting very discouraged a few years ago (similar weight and 15off, 28mph skier), last summer he picked up an HO Omni Carbon, I don't know if it made much of a difference for deep water starts, but he has found that there is less drag and the tail rides a bit higher at slower speeds. His offside turn has improved a lot as well, with more traditional high end skis his hips would fall behind, he is able to keep his hips up through the turn now. This season he is skiing better than he did a decade ago and having fun again. I am not sure it is the ticket for you, but, it helped him out a lot. It might be worth taking a look at the Omni series.

I installed this one on my '98 a few years ago, I went with metal supports instead of straps in the back and straps in front. I am not a fan of straps but they make it easier to fold up for storage. I also used all stainless hardware and replaced a few of the rivets with screws to reduce vibration (I can be really picky). I have been happy with it, customer service was good, the green matched my boat nicely. It does pillow a little at speed but I haven't noticed any flapping. I do make a point to have at least a 1/2 twist in the straps, those can flap and drive me nutty.

I agree with @BMG73 - can we back up a few steps and explain the whole situation? I'm confused.

Dang. Are you injured? I would definately do some release testing before I skied on that setup again after looking at that boot. If you aren't injured, you should consider heading to the casino.

I use a Wiley's behind my reflex (same release mechanism) and it works well. What ever you use be sure you test the release mechanism before you ski. There are videos around on dock testing the Reflex (again, same release mechanism). I run my boots pretty close together, I find where my back toes touch the front boot then move back one hole, the release barely touches the back boot before the boot is free, I can come out of the front with my back foot still in. I am not a huge fan of the standard dock test, I have fallen onto the dock. I like to get both feet in my boots, sit in the water with legs pretty straight and give the tip of the ski a good hard yank toward my chest (similar to removing a jump ski), it allows me to feel how much force is required to remove both boots. I do it anytime I make changes to the bindings and then about once a week to ensure things are functioning properly. Its the same idea as the dock test, I just find it to be a little safer. I've been on hardshells of some type for about 16 years and have taken some nasty falls and have released on some and not on other. I can not fathom how you came out of the boot... I once pulled the mounting bolts for my velcro setup through the bottom of the boot, but still stayed in the boot.

etrailer.com sells a bolt on kit and a weld on version, both are in the $110 range I believe. I went weld on since I was planning to paint the trailer and bleed the brakes. You want it welded right (no backyard booger welds) but any fab shop should be able to handle it pretty quick and easy.

A decent metal fab shop should be able to tweak the trailer tongue to get it folding closer to the bow. A few years ago I rebuilt my trailer tongue so the hinge is just behind the tip of the bow, when the tongue is folded, nothing on the trailer sticks out in front of or behind the boat. I am not sure what trailer the 2000 would sit on, I am familiar with the '96 and '04, the '04 has a hinge just under the tip of the bow and very little if anything sticks out beyond the hull in the back. The '96 had a slip out tongue with a quick connect on the brake line, it was a terrible design. Another option - when we learned my boat didn't fit in the garage I was able to convince my wife to let me build a shop. Building a shop is far better than a little sheet rock work.

@hemlock - I found it best to interpret the user manual loosely, I tried following it to the letter and did not have good luck in my boat or my ski partners boat. I began to believe that 'Ball One' settings were tied to '1' in the time readout (which is actually the time from gate to two). I might be off, a few weeks ago my ski partners boat was getting -0.01/-0.02 at 1 Ball ('0' in the time readout screen) and then +0.03 at 2 Ball (1 in the time readout), then by 3 or 4 we were in the -0.04 range. We tried lowering Ball 1 setting a bit and bumping up Ball 3 with bad results, same times at 1 followed by being real slow at 2 then a big surge. We ended up increase 1 Ball settings and decreasing 3 Ball Settings and it evened things out.

@Windsurfnut I was thinking the same as @skiboyny, try bumping up 1 ball to 15 or 20.

@Jack_Haase - Here is a link to a diagram. It is worth a check, a family member maintains a cable/pvc course setup and found that there were some measurement issues (gates were too close to 1 on one end). If the mainline is tight (you should be able to to pull it tight enough by hand) and the measurements are off (which was the case on the course I am familiar with) the location of the bridal on the mainline has to be moved. Depending on how it is all put together it can be pretty simple with hand tools and some new cable.

@"Pat M" - You are right, 7.5* at 34, my angle gauges are only in whole degrees...

@Justin_C - I picked up a 67" NRG R-1 a few weeks ago. I found the stock numbers worked well. Except wing angle, the stock numbers give 7* for 34ph and 8* for 36mph, I am skiing 34 but found 8* worked better for me. I accidentally took a pass or two at 36 and found 8* was ok but if I was regularly skiing 36 I might try 9*. I have had no reason to adjust a thing, I think my boots might be about a hole back of stock, but I often set my boots back a hole or two on most skis. Good luck with the ski. I demoed a handful of skis this spring and settled on the NRG, after about a dozen passes I tied my practice PB and felt that with a little time I will be adding a few more buoys.

@Skoot1123 - You might want to see if HO will send you an Alpha as well, I recently demoed both and found the Alpha was a better fit for me than the Omega. The Omega is a great ski but didn't work well for me, HO was super helpful and they made demoing both skis super easy. I can not say enough good things about the HO demo program and their customer service.

@keithh20skier - I would check for feel compared to ZO rather than sound. I had similar thoughts when I upgraded my '98 CC but then after skiing behind a SN 200 and '18 Malibu realized that the RPM response is not as noticeable in the boat as the newer boats. But, the pull is a bit more aggressive. As a passenger you don't notice it as much as ZO but as a skier I noticed it and felt that it was a stronger response than ZO. I normally ski A3 and behind the 200 A3 felt really soft, but the motor was loud. In generally my 98 is not nearly as loud as the 200 or Malibu and I think that translates into the throttle response you hear (or don't).

@bsmith - I do a bit of wild land firefighting in the summer, recently been getting hand crew assignments. Lots of hiking with a heavy pack and manual labor.

@SlalomSteve - on days I ski I will either run 4-6 miles or do a 20-30 minute low intensity full body workout with a short run. Days I don't ski is either 60 minute free weights or 30-45 minute high intensity interval workout plus 30 minutes on the treadmill. I would argue that my exercise regime is overkill for skiing but my job requires a high level of fitness during late summer. Overall intensity of the workouts (weight used, speed of run, etc.) will depend on how i feel. Sometimes it is full speed and heavy, sometimes it is slow, methodical, and low weight just to get the body moving. @jercrane - my high school baseball coach called it Cranial-Sphincter-Tendentious and is caused by thinking so hard that it causes your backside to pucker resulting in overly tense muscles/tendons throughout the body. It is by no means a medical diagnosis, but I believe it is real. I suffer from it regularly.

If I let my off water workout regime falter because I am skiing more, my skiing goes downhill toward mid-season. There is balance to backing off the gym so you can ski but not backing off so much that you are out of shape by fall. How often are you skiing? I find that if I get more than about 10 sets a week my skiing goes downhill. I get stronger but my body doesn't fully recover and I get a bit of cumulative fatigue after several weeks. A break can allow your body to recover and might help any issues in your head. When I ski poorly mid season it is almost always due to physical fatigue or a messed up head. If have a less than good set, next set I try harder, it gets worse, I try harder again, it gets worse again, and so on. Taking a few days off can help re-set my head.

When I had to cover my boat every night I would place an oscillating fan on the floor in the passenger side back corner under the cover. It worked well in wet Washington winters storing the boat in a temporary carport (steel tubing and tarp type) with an old cover. The cover did not allow it to vent but the air movement under the cover dried things up nicely. If I forgot to plug the fan in it would get mildew in a matter of days, with the fan running I could go all winter without issue. In my area in winter the dehumidifying containers/packs would fill with water in a matter of hours. Also, coil the rope over water and give it a shake before setting on the floor. Ropes bring in a fair bit of water.