Klinger

I've always wanted to see video of a flip on double trick skis.......

@Guppy73, Is that one a neoprene material??

All, I have a 3 month old son and am wanting to get him a life jacket so once the boat goes in the water he can come with. Realistically, it will probably be May or June before we spend a bunch of time in the boat, so he would be 5 months old by then. What life jackets have you tried and liked for young kids?? I have had friends with small kids come over before and some of the life jackets I have seen for kids seemed awful for the kid. If you have recommendations of ones that work well, I'm all ears! Thanks, Kevin

It seems that a majority, at least here on BOS, are for ZBS if age division max speeds are left in place. I really don't see a downside in letting a M1 or M2 guy shorten at 34 as I don't think he'll be able to podium at Nationals by doing so. Meaning, I don't see a reason not to allow this at E,L and R tournaments, assuming age division max speeds are left in place.

First, I think this is a great rule. I have been a part of collegiate skiing since 2005. There is a large number of skiers face planting between the gates and one ball. A mini course should allow them to at least get around the first one and maybe the second one. Not everyone, but it will help. I have a little background with mini courses that I'll provide only as food for thought. On the lake I ski on, we installed a permanent course through the ice last winter. We put in a mini course at the disabled standards as we have a girl on the lake who is getting into disabled skiing and starting to get a few buoys. While the disabled course dimensions are really good for new beginners, it becomes pretty easy to run the mini course with these dimensions. That is a good thing. But at the same time, it is also still a big jump to go around the full width course. If the disabled course is roughly 16 feet in from the full width turn buoys, I have found that a mini course closer to 8-10 feet in may be a better overall placement of buoys to allow new skiers to start the course but still be challenging enough where it isn't a new completely impossible task to start getting orange full width buoys. In the end, any mini course is better than no mini course. At our lake, we'll keep the disabled course as we have a need for it. If you have no need for it, I would say 10 feet in would be a better placement.

This is tough... But really good to put on paper. My first goal is to get my new ski and front binding dialed in. After that, I will focus on two main things: 1. keep working on my gates with the information learned from a Chirs Parrish clinic last year and 2. work on my positioning over the ski to be more centered. Too far back most of the time today.

@walleye, You are correct that only M3 and up can choose to go faster. W5 and up could also choose to speed up. M2 and lower can choose to go slower. As tripplett said, I think you could see some M1 and M2 guys playing around at 34 to see if they can get a higher total buoy count. I will for sure play with this as a Men's 2 skier. Am I going to win nationals doing this? No way, but I'm not going to win nationals anyway and it might be fun to take a lot more shots at 35 off than I do today. I think the main point of this ZBS is that it gives everyone more options and more freedom for them personally. I see both sides of the speeding up argument. Maybe that doesn't completely make sense, but I still think it would be good to try it out for a year and see what people really think and what really happens. Being able to shorten at a slower speed is for sure a great thing for our sport. More options are better.

Awesome. Thinking I'll try this out. Thanks for the advice. I'm not convinced a hardshell is the right thing for me personally. I LOVED my HO Approach, used it for 7 or 8 years. Hopefully the Radar is a good replacement.

Anyone use a Radar boot up front and a Wiley in the back?? I used the Fluid Motion E-series up front with Wileys in the back and I seem to pop the cuff off on one side pretty consistently. Not sure its the right boot for me. Thinking of trying a new Radar boot up front but leaving the Wiley in the back. Thoughts?

Great discussion on this topic. I'm curious what the perception of this new rule would be if all age division speeds were kept in place?? That probably gets rid of the safety aspect that has been brought up. If B3, M1 or M2 skiers thought they could get more buoys at 34 than 36, go for it. I think that may be true for some of the middle of the pack people, but not many. I also think it could add a lot of fun at tournaments. You could get a group of friends together from different ages, set a max speed of everyone's choosing, say 30 or something and go have a friendly competition of how short you can go. Who cares what the buoy count would be, just stay at 30 and compare your count at said line length. The other area that I always think about is the poor kid trying to run 36mph 15off. That is a big hurdle to get over. Some never do. Some start at 32-22 , then 34-22, then 36-22, just so they can skip 36-15. I always really hated 36-15, it's a terrible pass.

Hydrogen is a popular ski dive helmet that many jumpers wear. I know Bennett's has them on their website as well as another brand. I do hear your pains though, as I also have a large melon! I used a Vector mountain bike helmet for a few years, worked fine, but was heavy and big! I ended up with an XL hydrogen helmet. Bad part is they are around 250 or more. ProTec makes some good helmets for wakeboarding and mountain biking, but I never was able to find a ProTec that was big enough. Good luck!

Also make sure you dont have a bad connection on the battery terminals! Any type of electrical problem, you always start with cleaning and inspecting the battery, connections on battery, and cables. Good luck!

6balls, I believe your high ranking was because you selected ski year 2011, and not the rolling 12 month average. By selecting the ski year 20XX you cut out anyone that hasn't skied after nationals. Clear as mud, right?

MS, As we discussed at Regionals, the 196 is a terrible 3-event boat. The worst wake every for trick, and a pretty good bump for jump at 35.4mph. Well I would agree that we dont need huge boats on private lakes, we still have to be able to sell them when its time for an upgrade. Also, when boats were much smaller, late 70's early 80's, they also had huge nasty wakes. I guess they found a compromise somewhere with decent size boat with decently small wake. Just my $0.02

Wow, what a beautiful place!! I wish I had a lot of money, because that place looks SWEET! Too bad you have to sell!