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Kroeks

Baller
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Personal Information

  • Preferred boat
    1977 Ski Nautique
  • Home Ski Site
    "The Green Mile" (somewhere in a field in Alberta) and Bissett Lake, Nova Scotia
  • Real Name
    Darren Kroeker
  • Ski
    2018 66" Vapor PB
  • State
    Alberta/Nova Scotia
  • Tournament PB
    2@12m/55k
  • USAWS Member # or other IWWF Federation #
    200005837

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Apprentice

Apprentice (3/15)

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  1. Hey Canadian ballers, anyone have an old, left foot, size 11 RS1/Strada/Vapor boot (or similar, but probably size 10 if another model) that they aren't using anymore? It doesn't have to be nice, as it will just be used for some experimenting with a new cold water setup I'm working on. Thanks!
  2. I agree, but unless I'm reading his graphs wrong, I believe they do show the min speed being just after the bouy. The entrance gates are at the bottom, no?
  3. @schafer is that 66" 2023 PB still for sale? I'll be in Alberta in August and am getting the itch to try something new...
  4. +1 for wally! You can buy directly from his website. Turn buoys: https://wallyskier.com/shop%2Fbuy/ols/products/buoy-wallyskier-turn-buoy-787-softest-buoy-usa Boat guides: https://wallyskier.com/shop%2Fbuy/ols/products/buoy-wallyskier-hd-boat-guide-6x-20-usa
  5. The whole set from him was pretty much perfection
  6. @Windsurfnut what size is the TRA? I'll share your ad with the Nova Scotia group as we have a fairly good number of young skiers getting hooked on slalom that could make good use of it.
  7. Yeah, unfortunately I have a number of newer skiers that I'd like to get on it and they don't all fit into one binding size. I also know that myself and a few of my regular ski partners will want to play on it (looks fun to me :) ) and we're definitely not all going to fit in the same boot.
  8. I'm in the same boat...been wanting to get a Hovercraft for a couple of years now, but can't get over the direct connect thing. Anyone have any insight to what the impact of installing inserts would be?
  9. Depends on how tight your usual ski gloves are, but if you have room, the method I have found works best for me is: 1. Use a very thin merino wool liner-glove (icebreaker and smartwool both make nice ones, be sure to get the thinnest ones), then fold (or hem) the part that extends over your wrist in a bit so they aren't too long. 2. Put the surgical glove over the merino wool glove, and make sure the wrist of the surgical glove extends past the wool glove. 3. When you put your drysuit on, it's important that the wrist gasket on your drysuit is over the wrist part of the surgical glove but also still making contact with your skin so no water leaks into the suit (if you don't have a drysuit, duct tape around the wrist works as well, but usually after a few passes it starts to leak...plus you have to rip it off after) 4. Then put your ski gloves on. You should have perfectly dry (and warm!) hands even after multiple full sets.
  10. I believe it was primarily tested on new skis. I certainly liked what it did to my 2018 Vapor!
  11. I want to say yes, but whether that is due to a reduction in drag or if the smoother finish to the turns is allowing me to achieve a better position for accelerating is unclear. I guess the result is the same either way, and I like it :) My season abruptly ended 2 weeks ago, but on my last set, I salvaged a -32 off a bad gate, then ran the best -32 of my life, and then took my first try at -35 for the season...only made 3 but it was the first time that I ever felt like I had the space required at 1 and 2 to actually have a shot at running it.
  12. No issues since 2009. I was advised to have some sort of protection for the first 6 months so I got some spex, which I like so much that I'm still using them on bright days. I've had countless crashes (on water, snow, and mtb) and no issues yet. I did take it easy for the first 6 months, but haven't thought much about it since.
  13. That is super interesting! I may have to do figuring on that, but my guess is that even though the radius of the handle path is constant relative to the pylon, it's actually tightening when viewed from a fixed point in space after centerline. Skiers that keep the handle close after centerline are keeping their COM closer to the center of that curve compared to skiers (like me) that get separated. Conservation of angular momentum kicks in and the angular velocity increases, kind of like how a skilled mountain biker can generate extra speed on rollers without pedaling by pumping.
  14. Update: sadly the skiing I have been doing so far this week has all been with new drivers, so some of the sets were pretty all over the place and I never bothered shortening past 28off. My girlfriend (who drove me though the course for the first time ever/third time ever driving a boat) clearly has a knack for it so I had one set where I could start to really get a feel for the new fin. The other sets were good for seeing how it handled when I was scrambling, haha! The offside is even better than I originally thought. When skiing well, it just feels so much more natural than what I'm used to. The ski used to have a tendency to over-turn and kill my speed, so then it always felt like I was starting my offside pull from a deficit. That's clearly not a problem now. I'm stubborn, so my skiing can get pretty scrappy from time to time; I got very late during a pass with a strong quartering tailwind and attempted a turn that was very stupid and should've blown the tail...it didn't, and even finished the turn smoothly enough for me to get back to a good position and run the rest of the pass. The onside is still giving me occasional trouble, but much less now. It seems to reward you when you move your hips up over your feet, and punish you with the super slow turns when you don't. For some reason I don't do that consistently on my onside, and it's something I tend to struggle with at the start of almost every season. I suspect the fin's ability to hold more exaggerates that problem, but on the flip side, rewards with a buttery smooth finish to the turn when I get it right. That's all for now. I'll try to get my girlfriend back behind the wheel again this weekend and see how it feels at -32 and maybe -35 if things are going well.
  15. I've only had 2 sets of free skiing and 3 in the course with mine so far, but I can say that I am LOVING the offside turns. The grip just gives me way more confidence to get my hips moving through the turn without risk of blowing the tail or overturning. I still need to figure out the on side a bit...sometimes I am making these big, lazy turns that put me way down course, other times it's fine. For wake crossings; I'm pretty certain I'm getting more swing speed out of the ski now, but that's tough to know for sure. I'm hoping to ski a fair bit in the next week and a half, so I can update as I learn more. (For reference, I'm a 34mph guy and I usually ski 22 and 28 very consistently, and better than 50% at 32 once I'm into the season a little further. No luck at 35...yet...)
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