I killed my own course. :-(

[o2bnMaine]

We skied yesterday. Everything seemed fine. But in thinking this all out. I think someone snapped an anchor line for the main section of the course. The pre-gates are on their own anchors, so that picked up the slack. The prop grabbed the nylon anchor line and wrapped it up. Then, it started into the stainless mainline!! I'm going to have to replace a diamond for 6-ball and the exit gates. And an entire pre-gate cable. I think I'll have to replace one anchor line as well. Lisa from Insta-Slalom is going to get me a price tomorrow.

I was able to get the cable off the shaft without too much effort. I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary while testing. My test was a quick trip out on the lake followed by pulling a friend barefoot for 4 miles at 39mph, so I'm pretty sure I'd have felt a hum if there was an issue. :-)

I learned another valuable lesson this week. I should have inspected the course more before jumping in. We drove back to FL after being away for 4 months. Who knows the state of the course after 4 months of neglect. Just because I didn't see anything wrong on the surface didn't mean we were in good shape.

[dbaconaz]

to bad.. lucky you didn't have any damage!!

[BKistler]

Ouch. Where is that course?

[lpskier]

I’m not sure which is worse: wrapping the course on your prop, or admitting that you wrapped the course on your prop!

[dave2ball]

@lpskier at least he took ownership of his mistake not too many people do that in today’s world

[o2bnMaine]

@BKistler It is at the north end of Lake Howard in Winter Haven.

@lpskier What is worse is having to wait for the materials to fix the course!

[6balls]

we wrapped into ours once just after ice out while raising it from the bottom. While it was a sunny day and temp ok, the water was freezing and we were in shorts and T's. Murky water. We took turns going under the platform and trying to unwrap what we couldn't see.

Given time of year no one was on the river, so we were pretty much stranded as well unless we could get it free. A world before cell phones.

We eventually go it, but two of us were blue.

[kurt]

@o2bnMaine Had some time to kill before our flight home and ate at Tanners on Sunday, lucky for you lots of courses on that chain.

[lpskier]

@6balls I did the same thing. Memorial Day weekend. Water in the mid 50’s, low 60’s. We put the course in the lake that afternoon. Later, we were going to dinner in the boat. I had a boat full of kids and my wife. Thought I’d check things out. Oh, I could tighten it up a spot and save some time when when we ski in the morning, me thinks. Whop! Cable mainline wrapped in the propellor. No wet suit. No bathing suit. No towel. No goggles. Just me, my underwear and a boatload of hungry people. 45 very cold minutes later we were free. I warmed back up about mid August.

Moral of the story: Let he who hath not sinned cast the first stone.

[skihacker]

I have always preferred doing course work in a small boat with a trolling motor for many reasons, not always an option but.....

[6balls]

@lpskier yes! At the time me and my crew were amateurs. '82 MC got donated to the ski team as it's first boat with 2000 hrs, I had grown up in outboards free skiing as had another guy in the boat--at the time my recollection would be we were 15 off skiers at best (freshman year for me--wow a slalom course!). We were hungry to get that course up and ski it--very motivated. No surprise that we ended up after some time the best course skiers on the team and far improved inboard boat captains--learned a lesson that day--many more followed.

[o2bnMaine]

@kurt Yep! We use the one on Howard the most, but we will venture to Lulu and Jessie.

[o2bnMaine]

@kurt Yep! We use the one on Howard the most, but we will venture to Lulu and Jessie.

[A_B]

@o2bnMaine - we feel your pain brother!

@6balls we did the same thing once. Just popping buoys off at end of season in just above ice conditions. Weren't skiing so didn't have drysuit or anything in the boat, so just jumped in with underwear on. Luckily just a few wraps and no damage. Can you say shrinkage?
Never went out without wetsuit gear after that!

[A_B]

@o2bnMaine - we feel your pain brother!

@6balls we did the same thing once. Just popping buoys off at end of season in just above ice conditions. Weren't skiing so didn't have drysuit or anything in the boat, so just jumped in with underwear on. Luckily just a few wraps and no damage. Can you say shrinkage?
Never went out without wetsuit gear after that!

[dbski]

If you really want to make it fun wrap the main line around the prop and include the air lines from the air bladders on a submersive course. Then add to the fact its 7 am and you need to be a work in an hour!

[dbski]

If you really want to make it fun wrap the main line around the prop and include the air lines from the air bladders on a submersive course. Then add to the fact its 7 am and you need to be a work in an hour!

[o2bnMaine]

@dbski I have a friend who runs a rental business at the southern end of the lake. I called him up and he came right over to drag us to the boat ramp. I'm glad I didn't have to be anywhere though.

Lisa from Insta-Slalom was great to work with as always. She helped me isolate what I needed to replace for as little $$$ as possible. I'll hopefully have the course back together before I'm off injured reserve. I tweaked my neck on Saturday -- I couldn't even lie down Saturday evening -- and really should hold off skiing for a bit longer.

[o2bnMaine]

@dbski I have a friend who runs a rental business at the southern end of the lake. I called him up and he came right over to drag us to the boat ramp. I'm glad I didn't have to be anywhere though.

Lisa from Insta-Slalom was great to work with as always. She helped me isolate what I needed to replace for as little $$$ as possible. I'll hopefully have the course back together before I'm off injured reserve. I tweaked my neck on Saturday -- I couldn't even lie down Saturday evening -- and really should hold off skiing for a bit longer.