Mtea

Thanks BGrow. I’ll look into it. Already have a house but hope to score a pull now and then.

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?

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.

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?

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/

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.

Early morning in late August before my first run on Deep Creek Lake.

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).

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.

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.

Before the first run in early September 2020 on Deep Creek Lake

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.

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.

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.

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.

MISkier, I didn’t mean to imply that the 2000 Prostar and the 1999 Sportstar were the same hull. Just wanted to point out that I ski behind a similar (yet different) vintage MC and the wake of the 1999 Sportstar is very nice if not better than the 2000 Prostar. Thanks for clarifying though.

Deep Creek Lake, MD. I’m biased because I’m here all summer and ski almost every day. First photo was taken by one of my morning group on the way to my dock. Then a shot from my deck followed by one from the dock.

I currently have a 2000 MC Prostar 190 that we like a lot for skiing. I was looking on Boattrader, where I found our boat, to see what’s out there and I stumbled on to this one. 1999 MC Sportstar which is the economy version of the Prostar 190. It may not have the frills, but the bits that matter are the same. A friend I ski with has one and the wake is excellent. Now the good part. Engine says 214 hours and they are asking $12,500. It’s at Conneaut Lake which is north of Pittsburgh. I am in no way connected to the seller or Autotrader. If it checks out, I thought it might be a nice boat for somebody that didn’t want to drop a lot of cash. https://www.boattrader.com/boat/1999-mastercraft-sport-star-7520242/

2000 MC 190. Bought it four years ago with 275 hours on the clock. It’s winter garage mate is a 1991 911 C4 Targa.

Thanks for the link to the older thread on this topic Onside. I had several lol moments reading through it. I had no idea there would be so many genteel commands for a pause to take a pee.

For years our skiing routine included “hit it” or just “go” when the skier was ready. We added a couple new guys to our semi regular group and one of them shouted “rinse me off” when he was ready. The rest of us thought that was too cool (low threshold of excitement for sure) so we all individualized our launch. Mine is “let’s rock n roll” because I play guitar. One of the ladies is an opera singer so she starts with “make me sing”. Another is “make it happen cap’n” which has a long and funny story behind it. You get the drift. Are we just easily amused or do others do this?

Back at Deep Creek Lake in western MD we have experienced a sharp warming trend. First outing on May 23 water was 54 and the air was 53. No snow for two weeks now. Did fine with a shorty wetsuit. Had some sunny weather and water temp May 25 was 56 and the air hit 70. Today at 8 AM water was 59. It hit 77 in the air today so I’m hoping the water breaks 60 tomorrow.

I am also 64 and bought a new Radar Senate last year which was my first ski purchase in 20 years. It took me awhile to get used to the new ski and had to change my body position some. I also learned after awhile how to tighten the bindings down well as my old Connelly had velcro closure on both the boot and the toe step which helped. I still think my old Connelly toe step holds better than the Radar lace up toe step. A rear boot might help I suppose but have never used one. That said, I definitely carve better with the Radar, particularly on my weak side.

Not sure of the water temp here at Deep Creek Lake but it was 20 degrees last night. We usually start skiing on Memorial Day so will go from snow to spray in two weeks. A record at least for me. Here’s a photo from this morning.

This older thread has some good oil discussion so I wanted to add a bit more. I too noted last year that the Shell Rotella T4 no longer had the proper designation for gas engines for my 2000 MC engine so I called my brother who worked at NAPA Auto Parts for 40 years for advice. Our conclusion after some research was that this was more a government change than and oil change in order to help catalytic converters last longer. My MC doesn’t have one so no brainer. As a backstop I phoned the nice folks at Indmar and they confirmed it. Use the T4 even with the new designation.