Slalom.Steve

@Hucklefin Creative thinking, but the camera specs have come so far since the 6 that even the selfie camera on any model from the iPhone 11 or later is probably better than the rear camera is on an iPhone 6.

@swbca So right now, if you go to your home screen or another app but don't actually "close/quit" the PylonCam app (ie it's still in the background), it does save the zoom setting when going back to PylonCam. I'll look into whether I can get it to save/re-load the zoom even after a "full quit and re-open."

Oh I almost forgot! Wakeye would also, at least on some phones, save any selfie-camera videos backwards, and you'd have to manually reverse each video. No such issues on PylonCam! All videos save in the correct orientation. @BSBELL Interesting... I would've expected the background vibration to be much worse on the main rear camera! Well, that's the idea behind the Camera and Lens selectors - it's gonna depend on each person's phone. Test each configuration and see what works best for yours!

@BSBELL Glad to see it at work! Curious, could you post your "full specs"? Phone model: Camera Select: Lens used: Video mode (HD/4K, fps): Pylon mount (Ski-Doc/Wakeye): I could add 4k at 24fps in the future!

@swbca Yeah rope shake is the biggest problem with any kind of pylon-mounted mechanism. The way to "solve" it is to use a GoPro or something with similar stabilization software. But a side effect of the way all that software works is that the video has to be pretty zoomed out, and within the frame of the video, the skier moves from one edge of the frame to the opposite edge of the frame as they cut back and forth, so if you zoom in at any one point, the skier quickly moves out of the zoomed-in frame as they cut side to side.

There's only been two commercial products (that I'm aware of) for pylon mounting/tracking: Wakeye and Ski-Doc. Wakeye has gone silent as a company for years now and you can't buy them anymore. Ski-Doc is still active and makes a great solution in the Ski-Doc Orbit: Camera Mounts (theskidoc.com)

Will this app solve the issue of “shaky image”? The short answer is: The PylonCam Pro app gives you the flexibility to choose the best possible settings for your specific phone model. Just record a set using each lens on your phone and see which one is best. The long answer is: Yes and no, and there’s a lot understand about iPhone hardware and software: Lens Info: Starting with the iPhone 6S, Apple introduced “optical stabilization” on the rear lens that, while improving image stability under “normal,” hand-held use, creates terrible image shake with the hi-frequency vibration of a pylon. This is a physical mechanism in the hardware of the phone and thus there is no way to turn it off or circumvent it via software. The solution has been to use the front/selfie camera instead, which does not have optical stabilization. The downside is that the front/selfie lens is a lower quality lens than the main rear lens. At the time of the 6S, there was only one rear camera on iPhones. For a while now though, iPhones have 2 or 3 different rear lenses: On regular models there is a main lens, sometimes called a “Wide” lens, and there is an “Ultra-Wide” lens. On Pro models, there is those two lenses plus a third “Telephoto” lens. No matter what model you have, as you zoom in or out, the lenses aren't physically moving and thus aren’t actually “zooming” (called optical zoom) - the phone is just cropping and expanding the image on your screen (called digital zoom), which means the image quality degrades, because after a crop, you have a lower number of pixels occupying the same amount of space. However, with the extra lenses, at certain "break points" the phone switches to a different lens. As you zoom out, it switches to the wide-angle lens. As you zoom in, on regular models it’s all digital zoom, but on Pro models at a certain point it switches to the Telephoto lens, or it seems sometimes Apple does an interesting software mixture of the Main/Wide lens and the Telephoto lens as you zoom in. If you press and hold on your zoom options while in the camera app, you can see this dynamic a little more clearly, with the different lens demarcated. Here’s a screenshot from an 11 Pro, showing the three lenses and their “start points”: Back to stabilization: On non-Pro models the regular/wide lens has the problematic optical stabilization, and on Pro models the telephoto lens also has optical stabilization and thus unsuitable for pylon recording. On either model, the ultra-wide lens does not have optical stabilization, so as soon as you zoom out to anything less than 1x, it switches lenses to the Ultra-Wide and you “access” a lens without stabilization = no pylon shake. This seems to solve the “problem” of having to use the selfie camera, except at least on my iPhone 11 Pro, the ultra-wide rear lens isn’t any better quality than the front lens, and the ultra-wide lens is more zoomed out than you need to capture skiing, so if I use the ultra-wide and “re-zoom” the video (which remember, isn’t zooming but just cropping), I end up with slightly lower quality than if I had just used the selfie/front lens in the first place. However, Apple is perpetually updating their lenses (most models) and stabilization (stabilization was upgraded on the 12 Pro Max and again on the 15 Pro), so with newer models or not-yet-released models, the ideal pylon-recording settings may change. The best thing to do for now is just record a set on each lens of your specific phone and see which is best. To restate the important part: The PylonCam Pro app gives you the flexibility to choose the best possible settings for your specific phone model. *one final note to understand about lenses: the MP (mega-pixel) size is not the only, or even really a good way, to determine the actual quality of a lens. Sensor-size is a better measure, and you can find that info for some models but Apple doesn’t seem to proactively list it, so it takes digging, and even then, there’s still other factors. So don’t just assume that two lenses with the MP will turn out the same

Download here: PylonCam Pro on the App Store (apple.com) I am excited to announce the release of PylonCam Pro, the next progression in automatic phone recording for water skiers. This iOS app works very similarly to our old friend Wakeye, but with better quality and more flexibility (Wakeye max quality is 720p). Here’s the features: - Ability to record in Full HD (1080p) at 30fps, 60fps, or 120fps* - Ability to record in 4K quality (2160p) at 30fps or 60fps - Start/stop trigger based on GPS speed - Previous settings reload automatically on opening - Saves videos directly to camera roll - Ability to select ultra-wide lens when using rear camera (see below for explanation) - Active support and bug fixing guaranteed! The app is $9.99 as a one-time purchase with the promise to never switch to a subscription model. *When recording at 120fps, Apple defaults the video to playback as a “slo-mo” video. It's a super quick fix to make it playback regular speed, though you do have to do it on each individual video. Get it on the app store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pyloncam-pro/id6480435107 Right now this is only available for Apple/iOS. If this version is successful enough and there’s enough demand for an Android version, I may be able to do an Android version as well.

The challenge isn't keeping hands warm, the challenge is keeping hands warm and still having good grip on a ski handle. @Gale K - What's the "other thread" you mention? To confirm: you use these "dry suit" gloves, and wear ski gloves underneath? And your handle grip is still good?

Seriously, and he's only 18! I feel like his cutting position/stack is practically perfect.

Come on @Adam Caldwell, spill the goods! 😉

I have that shirt! There's also this great video:

I will preface this by saying I'm a Radar fanboy and I've gone from a 2016 Lithium to 2022 Pro to 2024 Pro. But... if the Radar team and Radar users both recommend that even skiers at slower speeds and longer lines use a Vapor over a Senate, why does Radar even produce/sell the Senate? What's the target demographic/who is "supposed" to buy a Senate then, if not course skiers at slower speeds and longer lines?

Expanding foam is the best to protect the tip and tail: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CF1QMKDZ

These look sorta interesting - https://www.scdivingstore.com/products/dry-five-dive-gloves - never tried em though.

I tried those but they were too slippery on the inside of glove - like the main ski glove could pull off my hand really easily, so half my grip strength was spent just keeping the main gloves from sliding off.

If someone is passionate enough to watch ski tournaments but isn't a member on Ball of Spray, I would be confused. Or am I overselling the prominence of BOS? What I mean by that: I would think the huge majority of people who would be people watching and commenting on a ski tournament on YouTube are also Ball of Spray members, so doing a live chat "similar to what YouTube already does except it would be just Ballers" seems like a useless duplication? Viewership is small enough, just keep it on YouTube rather than splitting it into another, even smaller group of viewers lol.

Just of note in case anyone tries: You can't rely on an Apple Watch (or I assume any purely-wrist-mounted device) to accurately measure heart rate during a pass. The watches measure heart rate by using light to look at blood flow though the blood vessels in your skin, but when you're strenuously using your arm muscles, like when weightlifting or skiing, that temporarily constricts blood flow through your wrist, so the watch won't read accurately until the muscles can relax again. To get an accurate reading, you'd need to have a chest strap measuring electrical signals instead.

I watch nearly every event, but always on delay so I can skip ahead a bunch. I don't want to spend 8 straight hours of TV that frequently, and I find watching all the opening passes kind of boring. I'll usually skip each skier's opening passes and just watch the last couple of each skier. If it's a big tournament, I'll also usually skip the lower seeded skiers as well (unless there's one I'm a particular fan of : )

Wait.. like a pole all the way to the boat? I guess you'd never get any slack! 😂

It says "There shall be no sharp edges or projections", not protections 🙂

Ugh, as if it wasn't enough for the f***ing surf barges to ruin the water, now they have to ruin the laws too. JUST BAN WAKESURFING - simple answer, actually addresses the problem, best solution.

Sweeeeet Its Because Of The Fans This Happened Eric Church GIFfrom Its Because Of The Fans This Happened GIFs

@ColeGiacopuzzi - sounds good. or should I star with long/shallow, if that seems to be the more preferred option?

@Chris Rossi Question regarding this: I got my '24 Vapor but not before the Midwest season came to an end😭. So my first set on the '24 will (likely) also be my first set in over 6 months come next spring. I've got the fin set at short/deep to start as recommended, but I'm worried I'll be rusty and not really tuned into the ski anyways (I'm 32-34mph, 15-28off) and thus not able to get good feedback on trying different settings. And I imagine I'll ski better on my 2nd day even if I were to keep the same settings, so if I do a day at S/D then a day at L/S and improve, is it the setting or is it just getting comfortable on the water again? All that said, my previous skis were a '16 Vapor and a '22 Vapor, which only have one stock setting specs, and I only ever ran those at stock. So I've never in my life made a big (or any) fin change. Will it be obvious enough which I prefer even with it being the first rides of the year? (yes I am planning for my ski rides 6 months in advance lol)