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Mtea

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  • Preferred boat
    Mastercraft
  • Real Name
    Marty Hurbi

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  1. Thanks BGrow. I’ll look into it. Already have a house but hope to score a pull now and then.
  2. We’ve recently moved our summer operations base from Deep Creek Lake, MD to the Sun Valley, Idaho area. I found a man-made ski lake just south of Bellevue that has “MGM” on the gate but I can’t find any info online. When your search terms here include “ski” or “MGM” all the results are about Baldy or Las Vegas. Does anyone have any info on this lake?
  3. I’m 67 yo now and start better than I did 20 years ago. Agree with comments above, flat ski, start from “in gear” not dead stop, etc. I will add to “engaging your core” to “engage everything”. I tell people to make like you are a statue and the boat will pull you up. Don’t fight it. Also, when going calling for “in gear”, if you are in the correct position relative to your ski and the water you should notice that you will rise up ever so slightly as you gently move forward. If you don’t, or if you start to go down lower in the water, you are definitely not in the correct position. Finally, if you are wearing fashionable baggy swim shorts, swallow your pride and get some skin-tight shorts. This will reduce water resistance and make it consistent. With the baggy shorts, sometimes it felt like an open parachute in the water; sometimes not. Switching to tight shorts was one of the best things I did to have consistent easy starts.
  4. I would think the $5k price would come down as they ramp up production with Yamaha who is going to offer them on their own outboard motors according to the press release. It would be interesting if someone could negotiate a propeller test on a tow boat to see what happens. How much would you pay for significantly better performance or a better wake if that turns out to be the case?
  5. I happened upon this new propeller (toroidal design) from Sharrow marine that might be interesting to the waterskiing community. Data from Boattest seems to say it has a better hole shot, improves performance a ton in the mid-range RPMs (boat goes faster, planes sooner using less fuel at lower RPM), is quieter, less captivation, better control in reverse. They are very expensive, but they recently signed a production agreement with Yamaha to increase production (and hopefully bring down cost). I found several videos on youtube and some boating forums discussing the prop. It seems like these attributes might be beneficial to further calming the wake behind a ski boat. The test videos I saw were all on outboards, no I/Os or direct drives. Any chatter out there about them? I have nothing to do with the company whatsoever. https://www.sharrowmarine.com/
  6. Like you, I took about 20 years off from skiing before buying a house on a lake and having a real boat to pull me up. I’m in my 60s now and starts are easier than ever. I’ll add my two cents worth to the good comments here. 1) Lose the wetsuit. Strongly agree and definitely get skin tight swimwear. This is probably the best thing I did to have consistent successful starts. Starting is hard enough without having 50 pounds of water anchored to your butt then maybe 20 pounds the next time. 2) Make sure your life jacket fits and is tight. When you are in the water your jacket should not rise up and hit your ears or even leave your shoulders. If it does, it’s not lifting you up which does help. We always say that if you can breathe, it’s not tight enough. 3) I agree with “in gear” then “hit it” (or “rinse me off” or “giddyup”; there’s a fun thread about go phrases). Try this when you go “in gear”. Take note of the water level around you. If you are in the correct position and idling forward, you should notice that you will rise up ever so slightly in the water. If you are not rising up or worse yet sinking down, you are probably in the wrong position. I’m usually “in gear” for four or five seconds adjusting things before “hit it”. 4) When I rise slightly at idle (correct position) and I say “hit it” I don’t lean back or forward; I don’t change anything. I tense every muscle, arms, legs, feet, ankles and try to become a statue and just let the boat pull me out of the water. If I rise at idle I’ll rise when going faster. 5) A gentle and steady increase in power by the driver is the way to go as mentioned above.
  7. Early morning in late August before my first run on Deep Creek Lake.
  8. We find that if you go out early on Deep Creek Lake (7-8:00 AM) you can almost always find good water. We ski between the 219 bridge and the dam. Miles of shoreline and coves that run every direction so if it’s windy there is almost always a sheltered run. We normally go every day including weekends and only cancel for rain or really high winds. We are seeing bald eagles fairly often now and even skied past a swimming bear one morning (I was driving; my buddy was puckering).
  9. I bought a 2000 MC Prostar 190 with low hours three years ago. We use it to ski almost every day in the summer all free skiing usually at 32 with 15 off. I have never skied a Response, but I find the Prostar very nice to ski behind. The wake is relatively soft and I like it just as well as a 2003 Prostar I ski behind regularly. Another boat I ski behind is a 1998 MC Sportstar. Although the boat has few frills, the wake is very nice, possibly because it is lighter. Here is a video of me skiing behind the 2000 Prostar to give you a sense of the wake.
  10. I was one year out of WSU working in Spokane when St. Helen’s blew. We were at the air show at Fairchild AFB when they announced it and that all the visiting planes had to scramble. I got to see an SR-71 Blackbird take off. Very cool.
  11. Before the first run in early September 2020 on Deep Creek Lake
  12. We have a place on Anna Maria. Last year I saw a water ski course on Palma Sola bay where you first hit the water on the south side of Manatee Avenue. Don’t know any more about it but somebody is skiing there.
  13. CR1, we are about a mile away from the dam in the last cove on the right before the dam. Stockslager Road. Because there are many coves that go off in random directions we are almost always able to find good water in the morning unless it is really windy. Four skiers this morning and flat water for all. Almost no other boats. ALPJr, interesting about your DCL Mastercraft. I don’t know about Betty, but Greg Rouse has been teaching waterskiing and other watersports on DCL for probably 20 years. I still see him and his customers down here by the dam barefooting some mornings. Pretty likely Betty is related to Greg.
  14. I’m 64 and started skiing decades ago using the one foot method which never went well. At about 45 years old and not skiing for awhile, I switched to both feet in still using an RTP and that worked a lot better. Today I am getting up better and easier than I ever have and this is what I tell people that ask. First, always have the boat in gear. This helps straighten and control the ski. With your back foot as close to your rear end as possible, it allows you to rotate forward so that your weight is more over your ski which flattens your ski (maybe 8 or so inches of ski shows) and gets your upper body leaning slightly forward. If you are in the right position you should notice your body rise slightly in the water when in gear. When the boat goes, tense ALL your muscles and your first motion should be to rise up. If you go down or rotate backwards, you are in the wrong position, Second, get rid of the baggy shorts if you have them! I switched to a skin tight knee length Speedo several years ago and it’s so much easier. Not having what feels like 50 extra pounds of water on your rear end can make a surprising difference. Bonus tip. If you your life jacket is hitting your ears when you’re in the water, it’s way to loose, too big, or both.
  15. I was skiing a 20 year old Connelly and last year (after some advice here) I sprung for a 2019 Radar Senate Alloy. I’m 64 and skiing better than ever now. Very happy with the ski and response from Radar to my questions. I usually free ski at 15 off at around 32 mph.
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