DangerBoy

@John1010 I installed a Steady Pass system on my Evinrude 150HO eTec last year and it works great. I'm still tweaking the PID coefficients to try and optimize the performance but I got it down to where it pretty much always stays within ±0.2 mph of the target speed most of the time. That's plenty accurate enough for me and the people I ski with. We just free ski though. https://www.steadypass.com/ I looked at Perfect Pass and thought about it but then I talked to the guy who owns/runs Steady Pass and he was so eager to help me be the first person in the world to ever install a Steady Pass system on an eTec (3 other people had successfully installed Perfect Pass on an eTec before I did my installation) and then looking at the huge price difference between the two systems I decided to go with Steady Pass over Perfect Pass. When figuring out how I was going to install the Steady Pass on my outboard I consulted with the three gentlemen who had installed Perfect Pass on their eTecs. Two of them had fairly similar implementations and the other one's was quite different. I ended up doing mine different again but using some features of both systems those other guys had come up with. In talking to those other gentlemen, they are not getting any better performance from their Perfect Pass systems than I am from my Steady Pass and the Steady Pass system gives you the opportunity to tweak more settings or coefficients than Perfect Pass does so you have more ability to refine (or screw up) the performance of the speed control system with Steady Pass than you do with Perfect Pass. And when you consider that Perfect Pass costs several hundred dollars more than Steady Pass and doesn't offer any better performance, I can't see why anyone would go with Perfect Pass over Steady Pass on an outboard. I highly recommend you look at that system. If you're going to install this system on a Yammy, then the installation will be very similar to my eTec as both types of outboards are push-to-throttle. A Merc will be a little different and maybe a little easier as they are pull-to-throttle. I very carefully and thoroughly documented my entire installation procedure so I can provide you with a lot of information and photographs of every step of the procedure. It took me a little while because I really took my time thinking and considering options at each step but in the end it wasn't really that hard to do. I'd be happy to share all my information with you if you'd like to see what I did. In the picture you can see my installation. The servo/linear actuator is in a white 1" PVC tube in the upper left part of the photo. You can follow the servo cable down to where the throttle cable and the throttle cam lever are. I later replaced the unsightly white twist tie holding the servo cable in place with a neat little black zip tie after I had finalized the routing of the servo cable.

@mike_mapple I don't know if these are exactly what you're looking for but I have these available on Ski-it-Again. Is this the kind of thing you were looking for? https://www.ski-it-again.com/php/skiitagain.php?endless=summer&topic=Search&category=Misc&postid=57943

When Thibaut left HO to go to Connelly he sold off his HO skis on Ski-it-Again. I was lucky enough to snag one of his slalom skis. He gave me a really good deal on it. Still have it and plan to ski on it this year. I don't get to ski much each year so I plan to stay with it for a few more years. I hope he finds success being back with Syndicate/HO.

@At11 If you could find a used one in good condition, a G1 small block version Evinrude eTec 200 would be ideal for you. The 2.7 L small block V6 version of the eTec 200 only weighs 433 lbs and is much shorter (no pylon extension needed) and smaller in size than any 4-stroke 200 hp motor out there. You don't want the 200 HO (high output) eTec version because that motor uses a 3.3L V-6 block and weighs about 524 lbs. Here's a link to a page that explains the differences between the 4 versions of 200 eTec that Evinrude (BRP) made: https://continuouswave.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2213 I think they made the G1 2.7L eTec 200 up until about 2017 or 18. The eTec will also give you way better fuel economy and way lower emissions than your current motor (if it's carbureted) and better fuel economy and lower emissions than any of the modern fuel injected 4-stroke motors even though eTecs are 2-Stroke motors. And because they're 2-stroke, eTecs have something like 130 fewer moving parts than a competitor's 4-stroke motor so there are far fewer parts that can wear out and fail. They also don't look stupidly huge like the current generation of high horsepower 4-stroke outboards do. I have a 2010 eTec 150 HO and I absolutely love it. On my 17' Glastron 180GT it gets 2 to 2.5 times the fuel economy my old Johnson 115 got on a boat that was 500 lbs lighter than the Glastron. The thing has been ultra-reliable and trouble-free and super easy to maintain. The thing even winterizes itself at the end of the season! IMO, the G1 eTec motors were the best outboards ever made. According to my nephew, a senior Evinrude mechanic, the G2 eTecs are not near as reliable as the G1s (too many sensors that can fail on the G2s) so a G1 is the way to go, if you decide to look at an eTec. I just successfully installed a SteadyPass speed control system on my eTec and it's working very well. There are others that have installed PerfectPass on their eTecs as well. I thoroughly documented how I adapted SteadyPass to my eTec here. It's pretty easy. https://etecownersgroup.com/post/successful-steady-pass-speed-control-installation-on-2010-etec150-ho-12420854

I really like the Masterline K-Palm Curves. Very tight fitting but stretch just enough when they're wet to get your fingers into them. The palms and fingers are completely covered with Aramid so they give you great grip and they're extremely durable, resistant to wear and long lasting. For me, the fit is perfect with those gloves. I don't think I could find another glove that could fit my hands more perfectly. Your mileage may vary. https://perfski.com/masterline-k-palm-curves-gloves.html

FWIW, the last two skis I've had were both HO's top-of-the-line tournament skis when they came out (an HO Monza and a V-Type) so were designed to run the course at 36 mph but I found them both to be very forgiving and easy to ski at slower speeds (i.e. 30 - 34 mph).

For those of you who may have Etec outboards and might be interested in installing a speed control system or even for people looking at installing a budget priced speed control system and were considering Steady Pass, here's a link to a post I made on the etecownersgroup.com forum that documents my installation and the results in fairly good detail. There's over 20 photos and two videos in my four posts. https://etecownersgroup.com/post/successful-steady-pass-speed-control-installation-on-2010-etec150-ho-12420854

Went to see the Ortho Surgeon June 30th. Had to drive ~200 Km total to see him driving my stick-shift car with a busted left (clutch foot) ankle. No problem in the aircast. X-rays checked out great. A textbook Lateral Malleolar fracture with no displacement/everything perfectly in place for healing. No need for fibreglass cast and no need for any deck screws to be drilled into my malleolus and tibia. Doc said, "Keep on wearing the aircast and keep on doing what you're doing. If you want, make another appointment to see me in 3-5 weeks but if you don't want to that's okay too. Should take around 6 weeks to heal." I said I'd do it in 4. ;) I think the injury date was June 24. Ankle is doing well and am not using crutches anymore as of July 3. Using the aircast as a walking cast and not feeling any issues with the ankle at all. Just making sure to walk carefully everywhere I go and to not overload that ankle when I'm going up/down stairs. Sleeping with the aircast off seems to allow swelling to go down and my foot and ankle feel much better in the mornings. Seems I got "lucky" with this injury. It could've been much, much worse as ankle fractures can get really nasty and complicated. No good luck goes unpunished, however, as the clutch failed on my car just as I got started on my way home from my cabin yesterday. I'm now stranded at my cabin and the car is now at a dealership 60 km away waiting for me to find the parts for it because they (the GM Dealership) can only get the parts for this particular car (one of theirs from 2008) in 3 - 4 frickin' weeks. The clutch kit is available in a warehouse somewhere in the US but apparently, the only way GM can transport it to help out a stranded GM car owner in Canada is "el burro" so that's why it's gonna take 3 weeks to a month to get here. I love how GM goes out of its way to help its customers. ;)

I know there have been three people who have successfully adapted Perfect Pass speed control system to work on their Evinrude eTec outboards and I have been in contact and received help from all three of them. (Thanks @GregHind!). I believe that there have also been a few people who have successfully adapted the Steady Pass speed control system to various other types of outboards other than eTec but I believe (and please fee free to correct me if I'm wrong) that I'm the first person to attempt to adapt Steady Pass to an eTec. At this stage, I just want to report that I have accomplished it, the installation went well and after a little tweaking of some PID controller parameters in the software, the system is working well. With the stock PID parameters provided in the latest (V22.0) version of the Steady Pass firmware, there was too much over and undershoot (hence surging) in GPS Speed control mode to be acceptable. RPM mode was noticeably better but still needed improvement. After trying some new alternative PID coefficient numbers provided by the owner and designer of Steady Pass, speed control in GPS Speed control mode was hugely improved! There is now only a brief overshoot at the beginning and then within a a few short seconds, the system settles into a very stable zone most of the time staying within + or - 0.4 mph of the target speed with the occasional deviation of + or - 0.5 mph. Those of you who run Zero Off on your Tournament boats may not think that's anything to gush about but keep in mind what objectives and needs I was trying to meet. The eTec throttle system is aggressively cammed in the RPM range where most slalom skiers like to ski. That makes throttle control very touchy and sensitive in that speed range. My friends and I are only recreational free skiers but we love skiing and just want to have good runs without too much fluctuation in speed. While driving, we just want to have a system where we don't have to be so exact with our throttle control and don't have to fight with a finnicky and sensitive throttle lever to give our skier a good ride and be looking down at our speedometer more than we're looking ahead at where we're going. Being able to just set the speed we want, hammer it and then never having to look down at our speedometer and make throttle adjustments while pulling our skier was always the dream for us and I achieved that goal in spades with this Steady Pass implementation. When I get back home and have more bandwidth to upload all the photos, I plan to document my Steady Pass installation on the Barnacle Bills Evinrude eTec forum and will provide a link to that post in this thread so that any of you who might be interested in learning what I did and how I got Steady Pass to work on my eTec can easily find and view my postings on the subject. For now, just know that Steady Pass is a credible, less expensive competitor to Perfect Pass. It can deliver comparable performance to Perfect Pass at about half the price and can be successfully, and fairly easily, adapted to an Evinrude eTec or other outboard motor as well as any inboard or inboard/outboard rig. Of course, Perfect Pass is a great system too so you can't go wrong with either of them. Epilogue: Unfortunately, I injured myself on my very first run this season (see this thread for details httphttps://forum.ballofspray.com/discussion/21958/injured-list/p2://) so I won't be able to enjoy the fruits of my labour this season except for when I drive and take my friends skiing. Dang! :(

Add me to the list. First run of the season, just three turns in. Was taking it easy, trying to ease into it and get warmed up. Not pushing it at all. Don't know what happened but kind of went OTF coming out of offside turn (LFF). The ski kind of jammed which caused me to fall forward and load the tibia on my front (left) leg and I heard or felt something pop. Left ankle hurting. Not a lot of pain but enough to know I wasn't going to be able to ski any further and needed to get the ski off. That was a bit difficult and a little painful. Later on, there was quite a bit of swelling and some bruising below the inside ankle bone despite repeated icing and keeping it compressed and elevated. A retired doctor from a few cabins down looked at it and said I needed x-rays so drove me into town an hour away and then waited a few hours with me in the Hospital ER while I got x-rayed. I owe him one. Apparently, I broke or sheared the tip of the tibia off the inside of the ankle bone and it may require surgery. A "malleolar" fracture of some type. Not sure yet which. I suspect it's a medial malleolus transverse fracture. They said I must see an Ortho Surgery specialist ASAP but he's in another town a little more than 2 hours away. Not yet sure yet how I will get there; left foot is useless and I drive a stick shift. Can't work the clutch. Will find a way I guess. At any rate, it's pretty clear my season is done before it really even started. So disappointed. Had big plans and high hopes for this season. Damn! :(

@lakeo Sometimes horses lose races because of the jockey making tactical errors by making a move too early or too late or allowing other horses to close in around them and not allowing them to get to the outside in time to make a move on the lead. How many track records did Father Time or Mother Nature set that have stood up 29 years and counting? Did either of them ever win a race, and particularly a long race like the Belmont by even 20 lengths? Has there ever been a top level waterskier who has ran, say, two line length changes above what everyone of his/her peers could do at the time? Like say, run 39 clear when not one other top competitor was capable of running even 3 or 4 at 35 yet? That's about equivalent to finishing the Belmont 31 lengths (~250 feet) ahead of the rest of the pack. I'm surprised that no one has looked at the video and said something about how incredible it was what Secretariat did and/or talk about their memories of watching those races back in '73. I remember them. I was 12 and like a lot of people in the world was caught up in all the excitement about Secretariat. I remember watching him come around the home corner at the Belmont with the rest of the pack not even in site. I remember jumping up and down in excitement with my parents as he tore down the homestretch, yelling at the TV urging Secretariat to go, Go, GO! I remember how awestruck and astonished we were when we saw how far ahead of the rest of the pack he was when he got to the finish line and how we cheered so loudly. I remember how we all felt we had seen something truly great; something legendary. Something for the ages. Watching that video brings back all of those memories and I can't help but feel some of those feelings again. It also makes me feel wistful with memories of good times I had with my parents when I was a kid. I do miss them. :'(

@The_MS Gretzky was an Oiler (Flames fan here) so he cannot be in the conversation. ;) Yes, all these athletes you and @ski6jones mention were all great athletes and stood above their peers, but I would argue that no athlete has ever stood so far above and been so far superior to his/her peers of their time and his/her peers from the past or future as Secretariat. Watch the last race in the video and see by how much he won the race. By the time he crossed the finish line, the rest of the pack were just barely rounding the home corner and getting to the beginning of the homestretch. It's absolutely awe inspiring and astonishing. At that level of racing, a victory by 31 lengths (~250 feet!) NEVER happens. Yeah, a good horse on a good day can win a race by a couple lengths but not 31. That's like Hussain Bolt at his best running the 100 m against a bunch of kindergarten students. Those other horses (like Sham) were great horses but they weren't even in the same league as Secretariat. Not even close. And nothing's ever come close since. The reasons for that are obvious: he was anatomically perfect and optimized for racing in every single way - literally a freak of nature - and he had all the desire, determination and heart an athlete could ever have. He was perfect.

Who's the greatest athlete that ever lived? That's easy. Secretariat. After 29 years, his records at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes still stand (as do some other track records he set). His never seen before and never seen since 31 length (~250 ft! ?) margin of victory at the grueling Belmont Stakes will never be touched. Later, computer analysis revealed that his physical anatomy, geometry, etc. was as perfect as a horse's can possibly be. Further analysis revealed that his gait/stride was also as perfect and efficient as a horse's can possibly be. Couple that with the fact that after his death, his heart was found to be approximately TWICE the size of a normal race horse's and you've got the perfect/ultimate equine running machine. But all of those things put together are not all that's needed to make an athlete, especially a distance runner, truly great. What are also needed (and arguably even more important) in such an athlete are the desire and the indomitable will to push his or herself to outcompete and win and you see those things in spades in this video: Watch how, in every race, Turcotte never puts the whip to him but Big Red never stops trying to go faster and pull further away from the pack. Even at the Belmont, when he was so far ahead he literally could've trotted the last furlong and still won, he kept pouring it on and kept pulling further and further ahead of the pack. But Turcotte wasn't the one making him do it; it was his will and desire. It was Secretariat pushing himself to get to the finish line faster. In that sense, his heart was WAY more than twice the size of other horses. To my mind, he was, without contest, the greatest athlete that ever lived. Watch this video and be in awe...

@Horton Also the search box at the top right of the page does not work. No matter what you search for through that box, it never returns any results. Only the small search box lower down on the right side of the main discussions page works.

@Rednucleus Nope, they're for a long time but not forever. ;)

They're both gifted, dedicated hardworking athletes so I respect and admire them both the same. The three event skiers are generalists and do all three events at a very high level but in order to be the absolute best in any one event, I would argue you really have to specialize and dedicate yourself to that one event, especially when the three events are so different from one another. It's not like alpine skiing where slalom and giant slalom aren't that much different and the same could be said of the Super-G and the downhill. The way things have gone in waterskiing is no different than what has happened in other multi-event sports. Just watch the alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics. When was the last time someone medaled in Slalom, Giant Slalom and Downhill let alone took gold in all three of those events since Jean Claude Killy did it at Grenoble in '68? They didn't have the Super-G in those days but JCK was so superior to the rest of the field at that time I would bet he would've taken gold in that event too if they had it at those Olympics.

@mbabiash Technically speaking, carbon fibre is more correctly called graphite fibre because the fibres actually consist of graphite and not carbon. But then, in a practical sense, it is also correct to say that graphite is carbon in the same way diamond is carbon. Both graphite and diamond are not elements, they are different metamorphic mineral forms of the element carbon. If you take carbon and bury it deep enough in the crust where it is subjected to high enough temperatures and pressures, it will change its crystal habit into a 2-D planar sheet like structure that we call graphite. The high pressures and temperatures actually cause the carbon atoms to join up with others in a new way and form the mineral graphite which we use for a number of things such as lubricants, pencil leads and making carbon fibre. If you take that graphite/carbon even further down into the crust and subject it to even higher temperatures and pressures it will metamorphize - change its crystal habit again into a 3D crystal structure forming a new mineral that we call diamond. Carbon itself in the form you find it at or near surface temperatures and pressures is useless for making carbon fibres and due to its 3-D crystal structure and other properties neither is diamond. Graphite, on the other hand, is perfectly well suited for making fibres as is silica which is used for making glass fibre except carbon fibre is much lighter and has far higher tensile strength than glass fibre which is why it is used to construct all higher end waterskis, tennis rackets, hockey sticks and a myriad of other things where the use of a strong lightweight material makes sense. While technically speaking carbon fibre is more properly referred to as graphite fibre, most people aren't geologists or mineralogists so the terms carbon and graphite are used interchangeably so some people will say a tennis racket is a carbon fibre racket, others may call it a graphite racket or say the racket's made of graphite. It's funny though that the same is not true of diamond; I've never heard anyone refer to a diamond engagement ring as a carbon engagement ring but technically speaking, that's what it is just as a graphite fibre ski is a carbon fibre ski. They're all just carbon but carbon in a different crystal structure. P.S. Technically speaking again, both graphite and diamond are unstable at the temperatures and pressures they are subjected to here on the surface of the planet so, in time, both of those minerals will eventually revert back to carbon. Luckily, the timescale for that is in the hundreds of thousands of years so you won't be around long enough to see your new expensive waterski or the uber expensive diamond you bought for your fiancée/spouse transform back into a pile of black powder.

@MDB1056 In actual fact, the handle is 4 or 5 feet away (closer to the boat) than any part of me is in that picture so it's not as close of a call as it might appear. I'm not sure what caused me to fall like that (bad form on the turn obviously) but I have never had a fall like that before or since that picture was taken 14 or 15 years ago. Just my luck that whomever it was that was taking photos of my run happened to snap the shutter at this very instant just in time to capture such an ignominious (and embarrassing) moment. :#

Ahh, so nostalgic. Remember those days when you used to ski along in 6 inches of water 10 feet out from shore and pick up the babes? We always used to do that and it worked like every time! ? Also remember when it only took 7.5 hp to pull a 150 pound skier on a pair of 75" long skis or 35 hp to pull two 240 pound skiers on pairs of 75" long skis? It seems like horsepowers just went further back then. Now you need like 350 of 'em just to pull one skier. I guess that's the effect of inflation... ? Hey @Melissakimball, did ya notice the pair of skis they're loading into the boat in the inset image? Look familiar? They must be pretty early models eh? (sorry, Canadian ;) ) Maybe someone here is better at identifying vintage ski boats than me. That boat in the inset picture, is that a '55 Prostar or a '56 Nautique? I can never tell those two apart. Similar lines and all.. ;)

Wanna learn to be a champion jumper but can't afford the lessons? Don't worry! The good folks at Evinrude got your back. This'll get ya from newbie to expert in no time. Just follow the instructions carefully... Apparently, the whole concept of protective gear completely eluded people in the 1950s... ? What's really funny about this one is where it says, "While jumping may look like a cinch from the sidelines..." and then you look at the pictures of four idiots killing themselves and say to yourself, "Uhm... not sure that looks like a cinch..." :D

It's all right here in one simple brochure... (Shameless plug: If you want to see what I was able to do with the above image and some others in Photoshop check out my ad on SIA) P.S. Apparently, PFDs hadn't been invented by 1956 ;)

Digging through my old old photos I found these. These next two are of two different crashes I had on the same run. I don't usually fall that often so I must've had a bad day. Beauty crashes though ;) (P.S. I'm on my '06 Monza. Graphics and color-wise, one of the coolest looking skis of all time IMO) a few minutes later I pile in again... Head first this time. This one's of my ski buddy. I have quite a few shots of him crashing...

Okay, here are a couple more of my best. This is what I call wipe-art; artistic shots of epic ski wipe-outs. These were taken with my Sony A7II mirrorless camera using a vintage manual focus Russian (I think Soviet era) 105 mm prime lens. Great glass in some of those old film camera lenses. These are both of my best ski-buddy of over 30 years doing what he does best; crashing. I like how the images seem to capture the essence of that moment of desperate realization and resignation you have when you see the handle has just left your grasp and you know you're about to pile in and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

@Cam I can see why you didn't buy that ski. It doesn't seem to ride very low in the water or rather it seems that it rides a little too high in the air. Pretty hard to make it around a ball when a ski does that. ;) Epic crash though. While completing many tumbles and flips in the dismount will earn you lots of points for technical merit, the dramatic arm flailing you're doing during those tumbles is really critical to racking up the artistic impression points which can make the difference between finishing on or off the podium. :)

@FunoRyota Wow! :o