Southside_Mike

Thank goodness they don't do that with crash vests, wetsuits and skis

Not sure about them as casual wear. Saw a sign outside a pub in an article about them that said "No Dryrobe w**kers"

Dryrobe was started by Gideon Bright, a Cornwall based surfer. They're really popular over here

But if this guy takes up Waterskiing -

The fundamental difference between a boat and car is that you can take the car to a rapid charger if you need to recharge in less than several hours. No matter what happens regarding battery technology, the basic facts are that unless your set requirements per day can be satisfied on a single charge, it will be a problem as the cost of installing a rapid charger at a lake would be prohibitive

I had a pre-release last year and then a second one earlier this season. I had tightened a quarter turn each time. I then bought a new boot (classic slalom) and found that the setting was too tight when I dock tested. Obviously, the new boot might be slightly different but I do think that over time there is some deformation which may make a pre release more likely

First pre-release today (I'd replied to the poll previously). Have used Reflex binding for 3 seasons and as I'm a 15 off skier, I've had it set pretty light (just below 4). I've been working on my gate this year and going quite a bit harder into centre line. Today it pre-released at the first wake and my face hit the ski. It was quite choppy so that might have contributed. I've checked the mechanism and I can't see anything wrong. I've tightened it just a bit and went back out after the bleeding stopped and ran a few passes without problems.

They're on cable. Cheaper, less painful, much faster progression (easier).

Definitely don't chuck the rope out before you get in the water. Once saw a wakeboarder do this and fully submerge when he jumped in - came up with it coiled round his neck. Boat was drifting away so he started to choke before the driver threw it into reverse. Ultimately no damage but a scary moment.

@MISkier - Sorry about that - it's a UK mobile phone advert. Kevin Bacon has done a load of them over here. He ends up wakeboarding down the Thames

Actually, it's pretty easy to link Kevin Bacon to water skiing ( sort of)

Very few people talk about goofy and regular in wakeboarding these days. It causes a lot of confusion with the concept of regular being your natural stance versus your switch stance. As far as I know, when this has been looked at in wakeboarding the split is about 50:50 so it is clearly not related to handedness. It would be more interesting to see how it relates to kicking foot (assuming Americans do much of that sort of thing)

@Horton - I don't think you should be regretting bringing up pelvis rotation. As a 15 off skier working up through the speeds what you have been discussing is very helpful. Clearly the orientation of my upper body in relation to my lower body needs to change between the point I start to change edge (probably a bit later than you guys, but that's another subject) and the point I hook up with the boat again after the buoy. What I'm taking from this discussion is that the first part of that is squaring up with the ski as I head outbound and then leading into the turn itself (especially offside) with my hips/lower body which I can understand will produce a natural "counter rotation" effect as my shoulder will inevitably rotate out slightly. The idea that this will keep my weight forward compared with pulling my outside shoulder/arm back makes a great deal of sense and I can see that I will have a much better chance of getting into a half decent position at the end of the turn doing that. Without the pelvis bit, I don't think I could really understand what you are getting at. Hope I've understood correctly - if not then please have another go

Golfguy - very reasonable question for which there are a number of answers - 1. Electrically powered vehicles are quiet, have loads of torque and (probably) are less damaging to the environment 2. They have far fewer moving parts and are much cheaper to service. Winterization? Pah! 3. As the car industry moves towards a future where most cars are electrically powered, how easy is it going to be to obtain engines, parts and fuel? 4. Many boats reside in places where there is lots of sunshine - could this be used to power the boat? So lots of potential reasons to consider this option. The technology isn't there yet, IMO, but will probably get there eventually

Like everyone else in the UK, I have 230 volts at home. Doesn't mean I can rapid charge. Best you can get is 7kw/hr which is a long way from even standard 50kW/hr rapid charging

I think that at the moment, the technology won't work for most people. The DC rapid chargers available here in Europe are 50kW and I think that the non-Tesla ones are the same in the US. The Tesla superchargers are 120kW and I don't know how much they cost to install but a 50kW rapid charger costs anywhere between £50,000 and £100,000 to install here in the UK depending on location but we are talking about areas like motorway service stations, not a lakeside - I suspect it would be way over £100,000 at many lakes because of the amount of cabling required. A 50kW rapid charger takes over 2 hours to fully charge a 100kW/hr Tesla battery, so if you have to stop skiing every 8 - 10 sets and then have a 2 hour delay to recharge, I don't see anyone paying an extra 100k on top of the boat for that privilege. I think there will need to be a pretty dramatic upgrade in this technology for electric boats to be a practical proposition for the majority of users. Electric cars have ranges of 80 - 300 miles when fully charged. This is more than the average daily mileage for the vast majority of people so an overnight, slow charge approach is ideal. Tow boats have a completely different usage pattern. If, however, you had a boat which got used one day a week for a limited number of tows (less than 10), then the idea of solar panels would come in to play - you could slow charge for "free" over several days. There is, however, a limit on how much energy the sun delivers per square foot of planet earth so no matter what improvements come along in solar or battery tech, it would not be possible to charge quickly without huge solar arrays. You will never see cars being run from photo cells on their roof - it isn't possible. I'm not down on electric vehicles - I drive one every day and think electric cars are absolutely the future. I just think it will be a long time before this tech makes sense for the majority of water skiers

The white (and black) cuff is cheaper than the Supershell. I suspect a lot of people go for it when they first try Reflex and then see no reason to change

In the UK we get good service on Radar from Robin Hood Water Sports (www.roho.co.uk). Even if buying from them isn't practical why not give them a call? They are very helpful and may well be able to give you info on suppliers closer to where you live. OR - holiday in Florida, pro coaching sessions and buy from Perfski - best option of the lot.

The only two places I've been to are Rini's and the Swiss Ski School. I can imagine meeting a gator at the Swiss, but Rini's place is very urban and while not impossible, I'd be pretty surprised if you came across one there. Never bothered me when wakeboarding at OWC either. Frankly, if you prepared to drive around on the I-4, then being worried about gators isn't good risk analysis.

The hardest part of learning to use a slalom ski is the deepwater start so why try to master that part before the easier bits. So much better to spend some time learning to drop a ski and have some fun skiing rather than swimming. Once you are confident that you'll stay up if you can get the ski up on the plane then start learning the deepwater water start. As you can see there are different opinions on how to do it. Personally, I don't think putting back foot pressure or "pushing down" is good - I prefer to get as compressed as possible and let the boat pull me up. Pinning the handle to your shin and keeping it there helps IMO.

Another vote for learning to drop first. Never really found "lifting" helpful but shifting weight so that the ski is directly under the pelvis and sliding the trailing foot back worked for me. They need to think of a triangle with the ski at the bottom, rather than a rectangle supported by two skis. For the deep water start, if the boat has a tower - use it, helps a lot

I've had an electric car for the last two years and for commuting in a city they are fantastic - I'd never want to go back to ICE. However, we're a two car family and my wife has a diesel. The problem I see with boats is refuelling. The sort of accelerating under load required for water skiing will drain batteries quickly. Not much chance of regenerative braking either. Once the battery is exhausted then a 24 kW/h battery in a basic Nissan Leaf will take 12 hours to recharge using a standard household level of electric supply. The 60 - 90 kW/h batteries you get in a Tesla over 24hrs. Installing rapid chargers is very expensive indeed and difficult to see them popping up at the average lake. Battery technology may improve but the laws of physics place a limit on what is possible with regular electrical supply.