I tried my best to avoid this thread because I knew I'd get sucked in....and alas....here I am. I apologize in advance for what comes next:
It would appear that this all started when @bko asked a seemingly simple question...does a shortline skier need to cover more ground than a long line skier?
I read through all of the responses and I think I can confidently say that everyone here is right ! Hooray! Also everyone here is wrong. Boo. The reason is that because the original question seems straight forward, there's actually a lot of nuance in the question: "does a shortline skier cover more ground than a long line skier?"
The answer is YES! ABSOLUTELY! Except for the times when they definitely do NOT.
Let me explain. At a longer line length, the options for where a skier can ski and which path they can take are many. They can ski wide and early, and they can ski outside the buoy by a wide margin, making what could be considered a version of a square wave. Conversely they can take a path that is straight from buoy to buoy, drawing Zs all the way down the lake.
As the rope gets shorter, however, our options for where we can ski are reduced. By the time we get to 41off, the path is probably not just "as wide as a garden hose", but man it's close. Also as the rope gets shorter we MUST take a path that's more buoy to buoy. When you're approaching 90 degrees to the boat there isn't enough kinetic energy to keep the skier out there for long, and when the rope is crazy short it may be just enough to slip your ankles outside the buoy.
Having said that, let me address some of the excellent points made above. @Bruce_Butterfieldand @Menzelskier I like where your heads are at, but I think you are ignoring the fact that the speed of a 15 off skier (relative to the boat) is vastly different from a 39 off skier. So just because the 39 off skier covers more ground relative to the boat, they are moving much slower (relative to the earth) at the start of that swing and much faster at the end. What results when looking from above may actually be a pretty straight line. So if we're asking if the skier covers more ground relative to the boat, you're spot on. If you're talking relative to the world...maybe not.
I think @MarcusBrownhad it right from the beginning...IF you're talking about the same skier. Will Asher at 15 off could get to the next buoy line 50 feet early AND 8 feet outside the buoy line. That is obviously going to be a longer path than what he can run at 41 off. But compare him to someone like @Horton who can barely run 15? Then their paths may be pretty close.
I also want to address David Nelson and Schnitz with coordinates since it was brought up and also since I'm on a work trip in a hotel and have nothing better to do....I don't think those guys were totally wrong. I also don't think they were totally right, but if I understand coordinates correctly they were talking about moving the apex of the turn closer to the buoys instead of trying to apex way up course...? If that's what they were preaching then as I have said above, you can only be 90 degrees to the boat for a moment, so at super shortline that better be right when you're at the buoy and not a moment too soon. As we have also tried to preach with GUT the handle path going to swing up and past the platform of the boat when the rope gets short...trying to take that handle to the shoreline will get you nowhere. So again I don't know that I fully understand what those guys were talking about, but in general it doesn't sound too crazy to me.
end of dissertation 😅