Bud Man

I have used red Polyform buoys for a little over a year. They are not always the easiest things to see. I hope to eventually use orange Polyform when they are available. I had some old yellow buoys that I painted today. I used Wal-Mart florescent orange spray paint. One can easily did the top half of six buoys. Because I was covering yellow, the buoys turned out super bright. They are much brighter than they would have been if I just painted over the old red ones.  Added note: My turns have ½ gallon of water in them and ¾ gallon in my gates.

There are many ways to keep up with your setting and skiing progress. I spent some time working on a program that will allow skiers to easily record their data and then sort the data to see any correlation that may help to not repeat the same mistakes or changes, or find something that helped them ski better but forgot it over time. You will also be able to sort by multi-level. I think the sorting capabilities makes this format so helpful. I sent a copy to John the other day but I have made a few improvements since then. I will post some pictures below of some screen captures. Keep in mind that there are unlimited lines to record the data on. I will also send John the most current version in hopes he can make it available for everyone to download. Here also is my email address if anyone would like me to email directly to them. (budlake1 at yahoo dot com) Some examples are: Sort by buoy count on the first level and ski name on the second level. Result will show the highest buoy count for a particular ski. You can then look at what the fin setting were for that ski at the time you got the most buoys.  Sort by driver on the first level and buoy count on the second level. Result will show the results of that driver in ascending or descending order. You can sort by boat, water temp, air temp, speed control settings or anything.   In addition to the logbook on the first page: There is a page for flex records of your skis. There is a page for fin setting references of different skies. There is a Slalom Buoy Count chart on a page.I also included a contact link that will allow users to email me with any questions.  I took a lot of data from some old notebooks to experiment with and I think this will be very helpful for most skiers of all levels. Here are four pages. Sone are wider than your screen, and you will need to pan to the right. http://ldifrq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pVkHrf_MbjidRdjGt-_fxtwkkttkkfxMiAxdpKtBCXdbddd-H4g9caMVCBdunJvaIoRgiqJTE_CWbSTurllORAevslRCTvnce/Logbook%201.JPG?psid=1http://ldifrq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pfudH3oksGAQYnRbKKMPdsfmNaHMXkk2y5DPBv3O7vJxKdf-sTNUfnJLcXVuFW-YaCyQpPYyHEkv2lTAM5KhZx42H0ojDOqmO/Logbook%202.JPG?psid=1http://ldifrq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pmtYOBlzxYXMn7yTtjHDf4AUYuFg9ErKM9y0ATfyiWyPM6H2c9SEUhfKHUyqOf_DehZ5K_P_ITgPASzAxC79AFONOt1MAwalx/Logbook%203.JPG?psid=1http://ldifrq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p5uiHI0hs1VBw6eE_AeM72_vARMokZ9DbIJVj3CzvrgnkbLGbKbNnTGC157-h5GhoibCNHpRgJx-4e6T-MHyG0_yUgvTcykSM/Logbook%204.JPG?psid=1

Excellent point jdarwin. I have been hoping for quite some time to see a torsional flex tester. Have you ever seen one and do you have any pictures you can share?

Anyone can have their own flex tester for around $150.00. I posted a video of how to make one including the material list and another video of how to use a flex tester. You Tube budlake1  IMO: There are three categories for slalom. 1)     Open water slalom skiing 2)     Slalom course skiing 3)     Tournament slalom sking  If you are skiing in a course, you should have it accurate. If it is not accurate, get it accurate. For the sake of comparing, I am talking about speed control, accurate courses along with measured ropes.  I feel that anyone running 14.25m (28 off) at their appropriate speed should be considered a short line skier. No tournament required. I think the term short line applies to both of the bottom two categories.

Keith, If you are trying to log onto Wetjacket, I think you just use the same user name that you use on ProSkiCoach. You might need to click on "change password", I'm not sure. Let me know if you still have trouble or you could send an email to Wade Williams. MattP, It is another water ski forum. I think originally ProSkiCoach had a forum part of it, and now it appears that ProSkiCoach has other special features but no forum and all the old forum post were saved and moved under the name Wetjacket. It is kind of hard to describe. It is not like The Water Ski Forum at all. It has a lot of different features. I think it could be said that it is more like The Ball Of Spray if you are just comparing it to The Water Ski Forum. But, it looks like it has more socialing aspects built into it. It shows you who is on line and what the new posts are. It automatically emails you if you want it to let you know there is a new post to something you are interested in.It has a lot of features I haven’t even checked out yet. It appears to have about 3000 members right now. I can’t imagine how hard John Horton works in everything he puts into Ball Of Spray and Wetjacket might have even more features, so that is more mind boggling to think how much work was done to make Wetjacket. My hat goes off to John, Wade and Kent for their work in giving us places to learn more about water skiing.

Keith, I know you talked here some where about the differences you felt between a 65†and 66†Strada. Someone asked that question on Wetjacket. I know they would want to know your experience. Maybe you could link them to your previous post or re-answer for him.

I’m picturing that disland is envisioning the handle being bend in a different plane than a regular radius handle. He said vertical, so I think regular handles are bent in the horizontal plane and his idea is to bend it in the plane as if grabbing a steering wheel on a car. I’m not sure it everyone is on the same plane with disland, or my interpretation could be off.

John, I have been on these forums for only a little over one year now, and have possibly learned a little about forum poster. I could be wrong but I will share my perception so far. I'm sure others have learned more than I ever will. After the words on ANY subject are read, the meaning is not always taken as it was intended. Sometimes people innocently don't realize how offensive their own words. Maybe, some people are upset with their own lives and lash out through the anonymity of the internet similar to the way some people exhibit road rage. In the same half full, half empty scenario; when reading a post some people try to look it as negative when they could just as easily read it as positive. But I do believe that people are good, they just do and say things sometime that aren’t so good.  I think a good rule of thumb is: When posting people should; keep it clean, keep it civil, keep it truthful, stay on topic, be responsible, share your knowledge and treat people the way you want to be treated.

Ed, I don’t want to know what you inserted to think something was cheap or trash. My thoughs were to leave it open and people could fill in the blanks with something cute and silly. That's just me; happy go lucky and wearing a smile.

Are you sure it is a trick? I thought it stood for T….. W…. Shouts Fiction.

I like a baggy dry suit. A friend just got an Eagle baggy and I think I like it better than my Stay Dry suit. I have used wet suits and Sahara dry suits. I think I will always stay with a baggie.

·        I learned that staying off the water for 3 ½ years was the biggest water ski related mistake I ever make. ·        Relearning and climbing the rope the second time around is also a lot of fun. ·        At 53 my body tears up faster and heals slower and the reverse; at 35 my body tore up slower and healed faster. Would that mean at 44, I had a balanced body and mind? Probably not. ·        At this point in life, my brain ceases to function while my ski moves across the water’s surface. ·        And, I still love water skiing!

John, Did you mean to say the opposite of what you said above? Since the liner is designed to slide out of the shell I would not think anything should go between the two. I know I do not always type or say what I intend to. I like my RS-1s. They do not cramp my feet like the Animals did. They keep them warmer in the winter, but I do not ski as well. A trade I was willing to make.

David Miller, Could you email me your email address please. I would like to ask you something. Thank you. Bud budlake1 (at) yahoo (dot) com

jaredFish, Loose. I skied for many years in the Animals. Man did they cramp my feet, but I feel they skied well. Mounted to a CDX-1, I was constant at 38 off the dock. I ran 39 only a few times with them. (34mph skier) After 3 ½ years off the water, I am relearning. I have tried the Strada boots and the RS-1 boots. In my opinion, I believe both are NOT in proper proportion (length to width). I think they are too wide for the length. This seems to be a bigger problem for the Strada because the liners are thinner than the RS-1s. I feel that the shells of the Strada’s are softer than the RS-1. I like the RS-1 support better than the Strada support. I think you should also look at the Obrien Prodigy and Elite before settling. I might have skied better with the Animals, but my feet are much happier in the RS-1s, and I think they are going to be warmer this Winter as well. I have run 38 in the RS-1s, but just a few times.

I cut a few pieces of angle aluminum threaded it and glued some rubber on it. I put my Kodak Play Sport in it and put a Velcro strap around it. The picture is so much better than it was with the camera mounted just to the bottom bolt. I also do not have to adjust the camera left to right angle each time. I just stick it in and ski.

I made a bracket for my Kodak Play Sport that would probably work with your Flip. I will try to take some pictures and post later.

I would like to understand more about flex. I have heard of people like Jeff Rogers breaking down skies in short time. How much numerical difference in a flex tester would indicate the ski had broken down and what exactly does a skier feel when the ski breaks down? I heard recently that April Coble broke down some skies almost immediately.

E-mails can be accidentally deleted before reading. As nice as she is to me, maybe she never saw your e-mail. Call her and you will know for sure. 1- 575-527-2917 I would try not to assume.

Adam,Thank you for your response.So I zero scale after preloading 20lbs. and then raised jack 0.1†and get a reading of 130 lbs, would the flex at that given location be 130 or 150?Thank you. Bud

Adam, Please elaborate on preload and why you preload. Example: 1.      Ski goes in at 44†from tail 2.      raise jack so that ski comes in contact to two rods 3.      zero out scale 4.      raise jack to load ski to 20 lbs 5.      zero out dial indicator Do you also zero out the scale? 6.      Raise jack 0.1 (one tenth of an inch) If I zeroed scale after step 5 and got a reading of 130 lbs after step 6, would the flex at 44†be 130 or 150? If I did NOT zero the scale after step 5 and got a reading 150 after step 6, would 150 be the flex at 44�

I have recently become interested about flex. I built a tester and tested three skies. One interesting thing I noticed was what I perceive to be rebound. For example, as soon as the ski is loaded, it does not hold the tension. The tension settles a bit. I'm wondering if there is a correlation between little settling and quick rebound and more settling and less rebound. Who else is flex testing and what are you finding? Do you preload the ski with a few pounds? And if yes, how much? How much change in flex would indicate a ski is broken down? And maybe the flex number doesn’t indicate it is broken down but the settling of the load that tells you it is broken down.

That seems to be a great question skimech. I hope we get some accurate answers.

An engineer at a speed control company told me that they had a GPS steering system that did work but the problem was in the course, not the boat. He said that the wind shifts all 26 buoys on an individual anchored course over enough to make the boat run over them and the skier closer to the turns on one side and farther on the other. Not to mention how far off a cable course can be. A human driver centers the boat in the lane regardless of the wind shift. Even if he was pulling my leg, I would not know. But I had no reason to doubt him.

Good recommendation clemsondave. That will allow the skier to adjust their position until the load is transferred through their frame and to the ski.