Safer Style of Buoy

[A_B]

@LeonL, no problem with ours. I went back to each buoy a couple weeks after I put them in and let air out so they almost pucker a little. They were ran over twice this season with no impact to the skier.

[Wish]

@coach3 I mentioned the same thing somewhere. Related it to a jump ramp being low vs high. I've used water filled for a long time and have them larger then normal but sunk deeper. Low ramp effect.

[Skoot1123]

Hopefully when our course is in I can do a little bit of experimentation with buoy safety. One thing I know is that what @coach3 and @wish mentioned about buoy height makes a big difference. The "problem" is, doesn't AWSA maintain that the buoy has to be half in/half out of the water? If that is the case, perhaps that rule could be modified. Yes - easier said than done.

[coach3]

Yea I'm sure our buoys aren't legal but they don't look too bad. I've got the wallys with almost no air and half water. They seem to submerge easily w your hand. I know I've added mass w water inside but, the mass is below the warerline. Anyone have some good evidence on the water no water fill idea?

[Wish]

Evidence is in the amount of force needed to hold air filled 1/2 way under water vs water filled. Pushing a water filled under water takes far less force. Line tention holding the air filled in its place also makes for less lateral movement as it wants to come back to center. It just makes sence. As an added bonus, less line tention means less ware and tare on lines, flexable cord, knots, hooks, clips, and tie raps. Can't remember the last time I replaced course parts.

 

[A_B]

Isn't the standard diameter like 8.2" or close, and the minimum height above water is a fuzz over 3", so more than half should be underwater. For practice at our lake, they might even at times be under 3", because it is just practice and doesn't count....

[Marco]

Following are the buoy guidelines from the 2013 rule book. If you use the minimum, buoy size is 7.8" with 3.9" minimum sticking up out of the water. That pretty much means half the buoy must be above the waterline. We keep ours lower during practice.

 

 

"Skier and Gate buoys shall be generally spherical in shape and 20 - 28 cm (7.8” to 11") in diameter (20 cm (7.8”) recommended), and fastened so that they have 10 - 17 cm (3.9” to 6.75") of height out of the water (10 cm (3.9”) recommended). They shall be of lightweight, pliable material with a smooth, exposed surface."

[Skoot1123]

@ob - I hate it when the buoys are high myself - but as @marco quoted from the rules - the half in/half out is pretty close to actual. Personally - I like them as you stated - only a quarter above the watersurface. Much safer and it WON'T throw me (I'm a lightweight) like half in/half out buoy does.

[Marco]

It should be changed. It cost me thousands and 6 months of rehab from hitting a buoy and blowing up my achilles in '09.

[klindy]

Make them larger and lower. According to the rules you can be 11" in diameter and still only have 3.9" above the surface. That's about 1/3 above the waterline.

[RichardDoane]

smaller is better, partially water-filled, and perfectly adjusted, and BTW - go around the buoy, not through it

[Edbrazil]

Buoy size has steadily decreased in the Rules over the years. I remember back in the mid-1970's having to extra-inflate AWSA buoys so that they met an IWSF specification for Record events. I believe that was to something like a diameter of 35cm minimum. (vs. 20cm now). Which would appear humongous these days. When inflating them, some of would EXPLODE. Scared the crap out of my Collie dog "Arf".

 

I've heard that some Euro events back when may have even used something like the "Norwegian Fishing Buoys". See attachment. Anyway, buoys are a lot smaller now, but any size down to tennis balls and less can still trip you. Even a leaf on the water could do that in the wrong place at the wrong time. Until we get to laser hologram-based virtual buoys, we have what we have.

 

For practice, maybe not a bad idea to have extra small and extra low buoys.

 

I believe that blaming injuries on buoys should more appropriately be blaming binding release systems that are 30 or more years behind snow ski bindings.

 

Remembering back-back when, probably late 1950's, and a bit off-topic, but perhaps of some historical or hysterical interest:

When there weren't "waterski" buoys as such as we did whatever to make them. One "solution" was partly-inflated auto innertubes, folded twice. On my lake, I experimented around with beach balls, suction cups, eybolts, and glue. One group on the lake found some foam mooring buoys that they used. However, they had a metal "pigtail" on the top with a sharp edge. You could tell who had been slaloming close to the buoys by the scratches on their thighs. Somewhat forgivable is that they were mainly jumpers. Back in the time with no sidecurtains.

[chris_logan]

Take, for instance, this classic shot of Wade from back in the day. This is directly from HO's website. Now that, sir, is some crazy big buoys....

http://www.hosports.com/images/team/team-wadecox-slider1.jpg

[Waternut]

I haven't really read this entire thread because there has been far too much geek talk even for me as an engineer. So hopefully I'm not repeating someone else's crazy idea.

 

What if the buoy wasn't in the water... Obviously, rule changes would have to be in order but what about a smaller soft buoy, say 4 inches or so, that is suspended above the water by a couple inches on a rubber rod. If you were to run over that, the ski would literally just push the buoy to the side. If you were to turn too early and slide over it, the small ball would just slide off the end of rod. There would have to be a larger submerged buoy holding the rubber rod in place. Excuse the ultra childish drawing but thought it would help people understand my idea...

[oldjeep]

@Waternut - I like it, breakaway gates like in real skiing

[A_B]

We get white caps on our lake some days, I can just imagine looking all around the lake for the little buoys... Sounds like a thought in the right direction though. Would need some sort of resistance so waves or muskrats wouldn't trigger a release.