kirkbauer

I'm doing 32mph and I think I'm about 20 off -- it's a 15-off ski rope at full length, but I go one loop less than that (so I'm not sure if that's 3ft, 5ft, or 6ft less?). I'm used to skiing pretty fast (I reduced my speed last year from 36 down to 32 based on suggestions here) and I chose the rope length to try to make for the softest wake crossings.

I skied in high school and then I did almost zero skiing for about 20-25 years. I'm about up to the end of my first full season back to the sport. I could use some gentle feedback for things I can work on next season. What I think I need to do is commit better to the cuts. I think that I am either unable or unwilling to cut aggressively enough and I stop the cuts too early. This creates slack in the rope which obviously is problematic. So, in my mind, if I could cut more aggressively and continue it a bit longer, then I won't generate as much slack, and that means progress.

Yes, correct, this was a Lake Havasu boat and it seems it spent more time on the trailer than on the water. It was a 2015 with 110 hours total time. Contrary to other opinions on here, I'm told it was custom-built for this boat. Now I don't know how that works -- perhaps by "custom-built" it means they modified an existing design for much larger boats?

As I understand it, the trailer was custom-built for the Prostar but the original owner liked a flashy trailer.

I recently purchased a Prostar and it came with a very nice custom trailer -- three axles, six-wheel surge brakes, spare tire, ladder in the front, removable tongue, etc. But the thing is that I don't have an indoor space to park the trailer, and I won't be using it much since I have a dedicated spot for my boat on the water. So I'm curious if anybody is interested in either (1) buying my trailer or (2) trading your more basic trailer plus cash for my trailer. I'm located in central Georgia.

Well, that's the thing, it has never been dry so I don't know how much water gets in with each usage. I'll find out if/when I even get it emptied.

Thanks, everybody. I guess my situation wasn't as unique as I thought! It's just the first time I have seen a "marine railway". There are some good ideas, but I'm trying to decide on the best way forward. Should I try to get the water out after every session, or should I just try to get it out for long-term storage? I use the boat almost every day "in season" and then I don't use it for 4-6 months.

I have a unique situation. I have a boat garage with a dolly and tracks going down into the lake. All I do is lower the boat into the lake, and then when I'm done, I use an electric motor to pull it back up out of the water. The boat sits at a slight angle, with the bow higher than the stern. I have never used the trailer since I originally launched the boat. Every boat I have had in the past has the drain plug at the stern of the boat. But the Prostar has it in the center of the hull. This means that I never get all of the water out of my boat, since the only time it is level, is when it is in the water. Once it is in the garage, the drain plug area is dry, but there is still plenty of water under and behind the engine. This was my first season with the boat. When I winterized it, I put some antifreeze in with the bilge water to make sure it didn't freeze and cause issues. But I'm wondering if I'm going to have some long-term negative effects of never being able to completely empty the bilge. Does anybody else have concerns about that?

Thanks, everybody. I have had a lack of skiing due to weather, travel, and driver availability, so I'll get working on this soon.

OK, here is a new video. Early on I tried a lean and you can see how far over I can get. Then I tried to do more gradual turns using my hips instead of my rear foot to turn the ski. I also tried to stand up more "stacked" and I think my stance has improved, however I still see that I'm leaning forward sometimes. So obviously I need to keep working on that. The wake seems worse and I'm not sure why. I'm going to try to actually use the ballast tank on the observer side since only my wife is in the boat for this run. Perhaps I should consider a different speed and/or rope length? I feel that I get very unstable going over the wake.

This is great. I have plenty to work on. I'll check back eventually with a progress video. Thank you!

OK, please be gentle. Even though I've been skiing for almost 40 years now, I took a 30 year break, and am only just getting back into it. I have a new boat, new ski, I'm out of shape, etc, etc. Also, I have never done a course before, and, unfortunately, probably won't be doing one any time soon. But, what I would like to do is work on my technique for getting better and quicker cuts. I took a video today and I hesitantly am sharing it (because I'm probably doing all kinds of things wrong). Feel free to skip to the half-way mark -- the beginning of the video I was waiting for some smoother water. The first thing I notice is my hands/arms. I do this thing where I lift them up, trying to manage the slack in the rope from the turn. It doesn't seem right to be, but I'm unclear what I should be doing instead? PS - I'm skiing at 32mph, and the rope length I picked to put me in the best spot for wake crossing at this speed. However, for this video, I have a bunch of extra people in the boat, so the wake shifted, and therefore I'm not crossing at the best possible spot.

OK -- great news from this morning. I got up on my 1st, 2nd, and 5th attempt! Prior to today I've only had one successful deep start without a second ski or the harness. We used a lot less power, I leaned forward sort of touching my toes, got my ski down to more of a 30 degree angle (flatter). I came out of the water in a crouch position and then stood up. It wasn't super easy or quick but it was manageable. I assume that as I get lighter and in better shape, and knock the rust off, we can gradually increase the throttle and get me up more quickly over time. I think I can explain how I got here too. When we first got the boat, we were using way too much throttle and it was pulling me over the front. But in my mind, more power means easier deep starts. So I didn't think about pulling way back on the power. Instead, I adjusted by putting the ski more in front of me and leaning back more. That just made my grip strength the weak link. So I'd either go over the front if I leaned forward, or I'd lose the rope if I leaned back. I felt like I was learning how to ski all over again, and I was -- I was trying to get up with a whole lot more acceleration but without the strength to resist that pull and still hold on. The solution was pulling me out much slower, and then I could lean forward again without going over. Which is what just happened. I really appreciate all of the help you guys have been incredible.

I certainly think it's possible that my technique wasn't great and I was strong enough and light enough to compensate. A guy on my lake has a Nautique direct drive so I'm trying to get him to give me a few pulls on his boat that he is very used to pulling skiers behind. That will hopefully narrow it down to me vs the boat/driver.

Hmm... all I can find online is that the top speed is 36 for men and 34 for women. I had no idea it had changed -- again, I'm not a tournament water skier. I'm sure when I was a kid my dad skied at 36 so I just followed suit.

I'm 45 years old. Why am I skiing at 36? I don't know, I just always have since I was in high school. Unfortunately I have only once had an opportunity to do a course, so my enjoyment is going fast and making big cuts. Should I be cutting back as I get older? :) I'm an adrenaline junkie, so I think that's why I still prefer slalom to other watersports -- I get to go faster.

Again, I feel like a beginner when it comes to deep starts -- basically I'm relearning how to get up. And I'm far from a professional, but I'm very comfortable once I'm up on the ski. My last stint of skiing was 2016-2019 and that was all 36mph on a 71" ski.

Thank you so much for all of the help. There is a lot of really good advice here and I'm glad I posted! The weather has been bad here but I'm going to be trying out a lot of these suggestions. Answers to some of the questions; 1) I use do use "gear" and then "hit it" for commands 2) My weight is coming down (back to Keto which I've had a lot of success with in the past) 3) I will reduce my zero-off speed to 26. It just feels so draggy when I'm up. But my primary goal is getting up so I guess I can up that speed later. 4) I did try dragging my foot and I don't feel like it helped me out. I have 1000+ deep starts with both feet in so it just feels so strange. 5) @oldbyll the Cape Reamol harness is really cool. Only half of the force on your hands, and it detaches if you drop the rope. You aren't going to be running any courses with it on (it changes the forces quite a bit) but for getting up easy and having fun it is nice. 6) I'm going to try harder to get the one experienced direct-drive driver I know to giv eme some pulls (are any of you near Lake Sinclair?)

A few updates based on the comments and questions: 1) I'm not a new skier, just having trouble with the starts. I am certainly a bit rusty, so I dialed back from 36 to 33mph, but anything slower feels ridiculous. For background, I've probably done a thousand successful deep starts in my life. 2) I should have mentioned that I have never dragged a foot to get up, so I'm starting with both feet in the bindings. 3) I have a very slick wetsuit (Stokes) and for the one successful start I did remove my life vest to see if it helped reduce drag (and it seems that it might have helped). I'm going to go back out and have my driver apply power slower and more smoothly.

I started with a Radar Senate Graphite 69" ski but when I was having issues deep starting, I purchased the HO Fusion Freeride 71" hoping it would be the easier ski. Should I stick with that but with less throttle, or am I actually making it harder on myself with that bigger ski?

I have cruise control set to 33, so I told her to to just keep pushing the throttle forward at a steady rate. But should I have her stop at some point until I'm up and then push it forward more?

OK, that's good to know -- curious, what's the point of having a 6.2 if you don't need that much power for a deep start? But we figured out full throttle didn't work fairly early on. So, for the vast majority of my attempts, my driver has been attempting a gradual application of throttle. Whether or not she is doing that consistently I'm not sure. I sure wish ZeroOff could record and replay an acceleration profile. Is there a technique to help the driver apply the throttle consistently for each start?

I feel like some backstory would be helpful here. I grew up skiing -- never on a course, but lots of time on a slalom ski. Once I learned, I never had issues with deep starts. Then, over the past 20 years, I was only able to ski occasionally, and although I had some challenges with deep starts after not skiing for a while, I'd eventually figure it out. Well, now, I'm finally living my dream. On a lake full time, with a proper ski boat, and great weather. And I'm having major issues with deep starts. There are definitely a lot of factors: I'm older, I'm more out of shape since Covid, I'm more overweight since Covid (at 210# about 30lb overweight), a brand new ski, a brand new boat, and a brand new driver. My ski is a 71" "easy start" ski for skiers up to 250#, and as far I can tell that's as big as they get. I'm working hard at losing weight and getting back into shape, but that won't happen overnight. And, frankly, skiing regularly is part of my plan for that. Over the past month, I've made about 50 deep start attempts with no success (mostly being unable to hold onto the rope, but sometimes going over the front). I also tried out a Cape Reamol harness that puts half of the force onto my waist though a clever pully system -- not great for skiing but great for deep starts. I have got up quite a few times with that system -- a few times it has been really easy and I got right up, a few times it has been really hard and I struggled up thanks to the harness, but most of the time even with half of the force, I still don't make it up. Interesting case in point: one time I had my driver go to immediate full throttle and I leaned back and held on with the harness. The 450lb-breaking-force safety link snapped. So I don't think leaning back and holding on and letting the boat do all of the work is a feasible plan. For now, if the water is nice, I get up on doubles and drop a ski. If the water isn't nice, I go out there and try deep starts. Just a few days ago, I finally got up without the harness on a deep start and it was a bit of a struggle and I made it up. OK -- question time. I'm almost certain the issue is a combination of my technique and the driver/boat. Despite not being in shape and being overweight, I know I can get up on a deep start, so my strength, weight, and ski size is sufficient, even if it isn't ideal. For the boat: I grew up a boat with a 110hp outboard, and now I have a Prostar with a 4.2L engine. When I was a kid, I leaned way forward and tucked into a ball and slowly was dragged up to the surface. But that doesn't work with this boat. In fact, if I lean forward at all, I go right over the front. But, if I lean back too much, I drag in the water and can't hold on. For all of my near-successful attempts (and my one successful attempt), here is what I did: ski at about a 45 degree angle, back foot tucked up to my butt, arms straight, back straight but not leaning way back, and the driver does a gradual application of power over about 2 seconds (as opposed to flooring it). But even with what I think is a good technique and position, most of the time I'm either over the front, or dragging too much and can't hold on. So, is there anything obvious I'm missing? Any tips out there for my driver (who has never driven a Prostar before)? I know a lot of skiers value the powerful motor, but at least at my current weight, it seems impossible to hold on for a deep start at full throttle.

Where do I go for a new screen? I'm new to boat ownership and I'm nowhere near a MC dealer. I'm the second owner and it's a 2015 so I'm guessing no warranty.

These are great options; thank you!