adam

@savaiusini Are the thicker toe hoops in stock yet? Thanks

Thanks savaiusini . I'll wait until you have the thicker version of the toe hoop and will be much appreciative if you could send it to me. I'll PM you as well. Adam

savaiusini : This is my second year on the Syndicate hardshells. The first year the 3d printed plastic broke and the toe loop bent forward creating a gap and I had a pre-release crossing the wake. Before I had the pre-release, I could feel it moving as I crossed the wake. I ended up going back to the Reflex until HO sent me molded plastic bottom contours and a new toe loop. I've been skiing it this year with the new toe loop and the molded plastic foot bed. The molded plastic foot bed is much better and more durable. The toe loop is bent and I'm feeling movement in the front binding when I cross the wake. I don't feel safe at all and am ready to give up on these bindings. They were a good idea, but I don't think the metal is thick enough on the toe loop. So far, I haven't gotten a whole season out of them without some kind of issue and I'm sure they are out of warranty.

I'm not sure if what I typed came across as I intended, but I agree with 6balls with a clarification. I think the tower is the best place to call only the entrance gate from the closest gate to that tower. A camera could replace the tower judges. I believe the boat is the best place to call all 6 buoys AND the exit gate. The tower judges should never overrule what the boat calls for anything other than the entrance gates unless they have access to a view from the boat such as with a camera feed to the tower. Using the current judging scheme, the tower judges could do a better job just monitoring the gate camera and boat feeds. The tower judges could basically sit anywhere (even in an air conditioned space) and in the cases of two judges in the same tower, they would have to make their own calls independently because they don't have to be co-located.

The Last Nationals I went to, the new rule where you can get DQ'd for holding on to slack to get the full buoy had just been added. I believe it was 2010 at OKE. I was near the end on the low seed lake (turnpike). High seeds were on the GS lake. I skied completely around 4 ball at 38 and had slack so I let go. The previous year, I could have easily gotten the full 4. I expected to get 3.5 and was enough to give me 11th or 12th since the conditions weren't that good. The boat gave me 3.5 and ALL 4 towers gave me 3. I ended up with 3 at 38 and somewhere in the low 20s and my placement. I spoke with the boat judge afterwards and asked him if there was ANY doubt that I went around 4 ball and he said no. I was actually disappointed with only getting 4 ball since I was starting to run it regularly. Getting 3 was adding insult. So much for benefit of doubt. That was my last tournament. The other issue I had was the high seeds skied on a different lake that had much better conditions and a much much MUCH better driver. If 1/2 of the skiers skied on the high seed lake, I would have skied there, but the split was not at the halfway point. I am a regular judge and actually judged at that nationals. I was amazed at how one judge makes the call and the other judge never disagreed. The other judge in tower with me was very old and was not paying that close attention to the skiing. He never went against any of my calls. I always give the skier the benefit of doubt. I know it is adding to the cost of tournaments, but I think the 1/4, 1/2, and whole buoy calls should be made from the boat either with two judges there or a camera that the shore judges can view. As a judge, the 3 and 4 buoy can be very hard to call, but the view from the boat would make it an easy call. My other nit is I think the entire division should be run on the same lake and boat and perferably the same driver. Just my .02 FWIW.

If anyone has Adam's PDF on his reflex modifications, I would like a copy or a link to where I can download it. Thanks. Adam

ScarletArrow- I would test the release of the boots by either the dry land method or while you are in the water grabbing the tip of the ski and pulling the ski off. I would hate to see someone suffer the same injuries as me. If you can't get to the point where you feel comfortable that they will release when needed, I would adjust the tightness or modify the boots until you get to that point, or switch to something else. In over 20 years of skiing, I have never had an injury more sever than an ankle sprain from bindings until now.

Got my cast off and an xray. Everything looks good. Should be weight bearing by the end of August when I can start rehab. The only ligament damage was to the PCL, but that can be dealt with through PT fortunately. DanE- I'm not sure. My Front boot is all black while the back boot is a mixture of black and grey or silver. Both have a flap with a lower non elastic lace that I never adjusted. Actually, I'm not sure I would have adjusted them anyway as the bindings felt awesome. I felt like I had really good edge control. IMO any of the Strada boots are infinitely better than the RS-1 boots. I have the RS-1s that I never really used much and was not a fan. ScarletArrow- I agree with a lot of what you listed. I may have considered the 10.5 if it was available. The Strada boots seem to be more true to size that the RS-1s. I usually take 8 pass sets and never had any cramping issues. It felt like they would start cramping if I were to take a 9th or 10th pass though. The fit an finish on the Strada boots are far superior to anything else I've seen. I don't think the perfect and safest bindings are out there and if I found the perfect binding for me, I'm pretty sure the wouldn't be perfect for everyone else. If I could go back in time, I'd modify the front binding so there wasn't any way it couldn't release if the rear one did. Maybe cut down the rear top of the front binding or something like that. From the ankle bone up, there isn't much control lost as I think 99% of the control comes from the front part of the boot that locks down on the top of your foot. As long as the front foot is in the binding completely, you have good front foot edge control. It would be really tough for your front foot to come out without the back one coming out first anyway unless I'm missing something. I guess that would be similar to running a full Reflex binding in the rear and the half Reflex in front except, unlike the Stradas, the Reflex does get a good bit of its edge control from the upper cuffs. Too bad I don't have deep pockets to be able to test ideas out.

skidawg- Thanks. Prayers for a speedy and complete recovery for you to.

mwetskier- It was after the wake. I had a LOT of load and was getting more. it wasn't a nasty high side fall. It was a lower risk/impact out the side fall that just results on a skid on the back before I bailed. I was going fast, but had bled some of the speed off before the ski caught.

mwetskier - Is one fracture type better or worse than the other? it is basically the inside part off the top of the tibia that was in pieces. the doc used a plate and screws to piece it back together and told me he was virtually 100% confident I would be back to almost normal and can go back to skiing fairly soon. I wish I had done more testing with .the strada releases. I haven't been releasing much lately. I guess that ended up being unfortunate. The strada's are the most comfortable boots I've tried and the lightest too although I haven't tried the latest HO version.

JC - not trying too hold anything back. After adding the knot,I never did any dry land testing. Maybe I should have. I had never released prior to that. I typically leave the tension the same and just pull the bungee over the hooks. after the knot, the effort required to hook the bungee was the same or less so I thought I was good.

I am not familiar with either of those terms, but after finding them in wikipedia, I would say it is the valgus type. The reason I picked that one is because my leg looked like the lower part of my leg deviated outwardly from the knee down.

The front lace had a knot in it whewhere i broke it trying to get the boots off one time. Even with the knot, it was looser than the rear.

I figure most people won't make it through this writeup. I think I fell asleep once or twice through it myself. I'm sure it wasn't the drugs;) With the hardshell questions/discussions surfacing, I thought I would add my .02 from my past experiences. FWIW(very long and on lots of percocets), I'm switching to Reflex front and probably Reflex 1/2 boot rear. I am currently in cast due to the Strada boots not releasing going from 3 to 4 at 38off (LFF). The back boot released fine with the liner, but front one didn't. My front foot eventually came out with the liner still in the boot, but not until a medial tibular plateaux freacture (inside top of tibiea in pieces). The PCL may need surgery too but I have to wait on the results of the MRI that was done post surgery to find out. I thought I was in a safe setup with the Strada's. I don't recall ever releasing with a double Strada setup but I'm not sure I've taken any falls where they should have either until now. I did an out the side type fall past the second wake and rolled to my back and skidded head first on my back until the ski caught. It should have been a non-event/standard release I would have thought. I've skied several other boot and boot combinations over the years. Most of my skiing was on the original black Fogmans and Diablo red fogmans. No real injuries other than occasional sprained rear ankles. The down side from my perspective is: - The plate can damage skies when you release and it is usually the bottom edge. - I've had them release a couple of times in the turn when they should not have. - The release units are expensive for what you get and the pins can develop a wobble. - You have to make adaptor plates to try other skies while hoping they don't release and hit the ski with the aluminum plate. - They are heavy, but I'm not sure that is a downside but it can definitely defeat the purpose of the ski companies to go lighter. - I am one of those skiers that makes sure the crease in the boot is centered on the ski. For some reason, the rear crease of the front boot had a tendency to shift away from this centered position. It had a favorite position that it shifted to that wasn't much off (1/32 or 1/16 at most). More aggravating than performance sapping. Overall, I've had good success with Fogmans over the years and feel totally safe in them. Will switch back to them if I can't get the Reflex working ski performance-wise. I used FM's in 2005(year?) I skied my practice PB several times with this setup. The boots were huge and would catch the water in turns. I would have been running 39 with those boots if they wouldn't catch. I've come into 4 ball several times early at the buoy and not skiing away from it due to the boot catching. Very frustrating. These boots look like they were put together in someones garage and I felt like I was paying to be part of the R&D effort. I can't complain about the performance I was getting though. I don't think anyone could get a major injury from these boots unless you believe in the death-by-1000-cuts. I have scars on my shins from using these boots. The plastic under the boot kept breaking. The replacement never felt the same as it was custom made. Also, I had some pretty nasty pre-releases in the edge change/preturn when you are not expecting it. They require a lot of maintenance. In the end, I gave up on them and switched back to Fogmans. For a while, I even made some modified FM releases to use on the Fogman plate. Still can destroy the ski when you release though. I have to say the odds of hitting the ski after release are slim. I did it though. I messed a perfectly good Strada up that way that I can't really sell now. Lately, I've been on Strada boots (2012 Front, 2011 Rear). Very comfortable and light weight boots. Can't damage skis if/when they release. I do not trust the centering marks on the boots. I feel like the boots are rotated towards the big toes when they are centered. I actually took out the centering screws and rotated the front of the boot more open as far as it would go leaving the rear of the boot alone. It looked much more centered on the ski and skied better (in my opinion). The 10s felt like a good fit and the 11's would have been too big. If they had a 10.5, I would have went for that to give myself a margin of error. I was just starting to get comfortable on these bindings. I wasted about a year and a half trying to convert to a rear toe plate. I don't trust the front boot releasing on all types of falls. I have a Reflex front boot that I've tried with a toe plate as well as a RS1 rear. I have to say that the Reflex boot was the hardest boot to get used to. I really thought this was a boot that you could just bolt on the ski and everything would be straight and centered. I couldn't even screw it to the ski that any other HO plate fits fine on. I called Miami Ski Nautique and they seemed to think my plate was OK. The holes were about 1/4 screw diameter off if the other side of the binding had screws in it. It appeared to be a stamped G10 plate where all the plates made with that stamp would be the same I'm guessing. I ended up reaming the holes slightly wider on each side of the plate to be able to mount it to the ski. Of coarse there was no joy afterwards when I checked if the binding seams were centered on the ski. Short of making a new plate, I'm not sure I could get them centered. From what I remember, the heel was the most difficult. It has the side adjusting screws to center it. With the release catch higher up on the boot, I don't think simply screwing the boot to one side is really centering it. When I can ski in hopefully about 2 moths, I'll have my work cut out for me making the reflex's work given the problems I've had with it. I need something safe, so it will be worth the effort. If you are still with me at this point, I'm impressed. I hope this helps someone. I'm still not convinced that we have the safest bindings developed yet, but my current vote would be the Reflex's. I just wished they were more of a refined product that you could just take it out of the box and know that it is centered without having to waste time on them. Good luck.

I held out as long as I could. Any driver is human and can make mistakes. Unfortunately, the skier is the ONLY one getting scored. The driver needs practice at the same rope lengths as each skier. As skiers, we have several ranking levels, but drivers only have assistant, regular, and senior. The driver ratings have absolutely no bearing on how good the drivers are. There are a lot of senior drivers that have no business behind the wheel for a 35 off and beyond skier. They need to pull skiers who actually like the pull at those rope lengths regularly. If it weren't for their own clubs tournaments, a lot of seniors would have a hard time maintaining their ratings because they aren't getting invited to other tournaments. Maybe if drivers had a ratings system similar to skiers, some of this would be solved. A driver would have to successfully pull so many skiers through 35 off to be able to drive a division where skiers are expected to run that rope lenght and so on. I know it probably won't happen, but for many years I've watched skiers that can run 35off back to back to back (I am one of them), but with certain senior drivers, they never run it in tournaments even in perfect conditions. After the tournament, I've about every excuse in the book. Oh our water is just slow and they are having trouble getting used to it, or they ran the same thing at the regionals or nationals, or they can't do it with a straight boat path, etc...

My liner comes up to about 3/8" above the boots. I trimmed about 1/4" off the top of the rear of the front boot. I stayed an inch away from the stitching on each side. Most of the pain was during the deep water start but there was a little while skiing. After trimming the front boot, it wasn't nearly as bad. I only skied one set on it though. I'll see how it feels after a few sets and may consider trimming a little more. I'm starting to like the bindings. They are so much lighter than the fogmans. Thanks for the replies. Adam

I am considering trimming to top of the front boot because it killing my leg. The side of the boot and the rear of the boot is digging into my front leg. After two sets, it is almost too painful to ski and it is sore for a couple of days. Anyone else cut on their boots or is there a better suggestion? I have had these boots for a couple of years, but went back to the fogmans immediately. Now I'd like to make them work. Thanks, Adam

JD, What do you recommend on the X7? I have a 67" X7 coming in a few weeks. Adam

I have a Polar and a Garmin 305. My HR tends to be through the roof. I try to keep it below 200, but can easily go over that. If I run a race, I can hit 210+ at the end. Some of it may be that I try to do what I did when I was younger and in better shape. I'm 45 now. I've had two stress tests at the Dr's office over the years, and the HR monitors seem to correspond to what the Dr's were seeing too. I like the garmin chest strap because it has a replaceable battery. I like the Polar because I can use the chest strap on most treadmills including mine at home, but I don't like the fact that the chest straps don't have replaceable batteries. They have lasted for several years though. I like taking the Polar chest strap with me on travel because that is usually all I need to run on the Hotel treadmills. If I just go for a run outdoors, I take the Garmin since it is much more advanced than the Polar version I have. I have noticed that as I train more, my HR goes down for the same level of effort. Both of my HR monitors were a good bit more than $40. I justified it because I didn't want to skimp on my health. If you just want something basic and versatile that provides real time information, I'd go with the cheapest Polar with a chest strap. Adam

Animal: Not much of a difference between open and MM if the speed is 36. It would be kind of like pro verse semi pro or simply another division like between M1 and M2. I'm not really a huge fan of MM because the speed is the same and it dilutes the other divisions at nationals. I am for using ZBS and still allow M3/M4 to go 36 if they choose.

I agree 100% with everything Scot is saying. I see absolutely no reason for M3 to ski 34. I liked it when M3 was allowed to ski 36, but it made absolutely no sense to score it as if it was skied at 34. What is up with that! We should use zero based scoring with it. It is not unfair because everyone has the option of skiing either speed. It is unfair to score someone skiing 36 the same as if they were skiing 34 though. I'm entering M4 after Nationals and if that division used ZBS with the option of skiing 36, I'd still do it. MM is another topic. I'm not sure it really makes sense with the way it is implemented. The speed is the same, it just dilutes the M3-M4 divisions. If MM is going to be an elite separate division, it should be at least a little faster (35) or the full 36. If MM is at 36, it should be easier to qualify for and the open qualification should stay the same for the open division. I guess that once a MM skier reaches a certain level, he should be required to ski Open, though I'm on the fence on that.  Just my .02 FWIW. Adam

The lift ring at the bow seems too far from the bow to give enough support to lift the boat.

Tadd,  I'm interested. I bought a medium from Seth at the Nationals this year. It is very tight and my mouth is barely above water when I am at the ends. Any chop in the water makes it harder to breath. I'm not a natural floater. More like a sinker. So I'd probably be interested in a large(I'm 5'9" 172 lbs). I assume that wouldn't be too loose since the medium is fairly tight. I love the way the vest feels, how light it is (even wet), and how much freedom I have with it. Will the extra floatation make the fit even smaller? I've always been a USCGA vest user but it is hard to find one that gives me range of motion and doesn't give me carpet burns on my biceps. Adam

When we first got our 09 Malibu, I accidently pulled a skier with the throttle too low. ZO will not apply throttle at a setting higher than what the throttle handle position would allow. Nothing crazy happened. At least with our boat. It just beeped during each pull. I could see where this may give a softer pull. I think it would limit the RPM swings. Of coarse the driver would have to practice to find that sweet spot for the throttle because if it is too low, the times would be affected. I always push the throttle all the way now that I am comfortable with the way ZO operates. I have never noticed any drivers doing this in any of the tournaments I go to. I doubt any boat judges would be in on it. They are probably paying more attention to the boat path the skier. If it was intentionally happening, I could see it putting the boat judge in a bad situation. It would be an easy fix for ZO to just display error or something like that as opposed to the time.