setting up a slalom course with hydraulics

[illiniskier99]

Hi! I am looking into options for setting up a slalom course on a large public lake. The water is pretty deep (20-40 feet deep) in the area it would need to be. A few years ago I ran a course that was permanent, but could also be hidden so that people didn't mess it up or use it. With a press of a button the buoys retracted to the bottom of the lake with potentially a hydraulic type of system. When they wanted to use it again they pushed another button and the buoys were back on top of the water. Has anyone heard of this before or know where to purchase/how to make it?

 

thanks in advance for any advice.

[dvskier]

Try wallyskier.com they are experts and provide a great system.

[Horton]

wally skier or EZ-Slalom

[dvskier]

@Horton I didn’t know the EZ Slalom made a sinker course. Very familiar with EZ Slalom but if you need a pneumatic sinker course wallysinker is the way to go.

[alex38]

Someone may have an old accusink if they haven’t thrown it off a cliff.

[Wish]

Yes. We did this on our lake in MN. The diff is it was our lake was a reservoir and they drained it one summer. We installed anchore blocks with eye hooks and pulleys at each buoy point as well as down the dead center at each gate. Main line went down the middle block anchors with lines going left and right to points of the buoys and up to buoy. Main line went to a dock where we attacked it to a boat winch. As the main line shortened the buoys were pulled under. Let it out and buoys would surface. Wish we knew about water filled buoys back then as cranking them under was tough. Guessing a hydraulic run system would be easier and maybe what they used. Tough part for you is setting something like this up in 20 feet of water. Was easy for us on dry land...water added a few months later. Aside from being located in a bad spot on the lake, it was perfect and used for years.

[Keith_Menard]

@alex38 but if they did throw it off a cliff....would it float?

 

[alex38]

I would’ve thrown ours off a cliff if I could have got it off the bottom of the lake.

-no dis to accu sink I respect all ski supporting companies current or defunct they have all been great

We rebuilt one once out of an old system for a public lake, was a ton of work with little ski return (always fun building weird stuff though)

I’ve skied a Wally they have a great system

[jcochrane007]

WallySkier makes the premier submersible course. He bought the old AccuSink sytem and redesigned and perfected it. His design works well no matter the water depth (within reason), and even works well with uneven bottom contours. Anytime you have something operating under water it adds a level of complexity to the equation, but Wally (yes, that's his real name) has taken every measure possible to make the system as maintenance-free as can be. That being said, clearly a permanent floating course is a better option (Wally sells those too), but if your course has to be submersible, WallySkier is the way to go.

 

Edit: FWIW, I have personal experience with both AccuSink and WallySinker systems.