footloose42

I found when I was learning to drive in the course that this was something that helped: keep my legs about shoulder-width apart, keep both hands on the wheel at about 8 & 4, and rest both forearms on my thighs. This basically allowed my legs to help hold the wheel in place, and it made it much easier to not allow myself to get pulled off center as the skier rounded each buoy.

I don't know how different UGA and Georgia Tech are from each other in terms of how the sports clubs and student governments interact, but if you send me a PM I might be able to lend you some advice and/or answer questions on how to navigate those types of things. I was the president of the Georgia Tech club for a time; I know what you mean when you say you have trouble with little experience and only 4 members.

I had a Fluid Motion guard on my old 12" handle for a while (https://fluid-motion-sports-2.myshopify.com/collections/parts/products/fm-b2-handle-guards), and never had any qualms with it. I'm just trying to replicate it on my new 13" handle, but I figured since I have a laser cutter and a water jet at my disposal, I might as well just make one myself. The design I made is pretty much exactly the same as the FM guard except it has my name in the middle rather than "FM". The FM guard is made out of some type of flexible plastic that I have no trouble rolling into a cylinder when attaching the handle to the mainline. I'm hoping to find the same (or similar) material for my new one. I think I'll go with Jim Neely's suggestion and try polypropylene.

The biggest problem with waterskiing IMO is not just that its inherently expensive. It's that it also inherently serves a small number of people. You can invest millions of dollars into a golf course and have dozens of people playing on one 18 hole course at any given moment, or invest millions in a ski resort and have hundreds of people snow skiing at any given moment. You may have to pay a lot as a customer to go there, but at lease once you pay you're given immediate access to hours of fun. You can invest millions of dollars to build a 2, 5, heck even a 10 lake site, but you will still always be limited to 1 skier per lake every 10 minutes (or however long a single set takes). Compared to other high cost sports, that's a ridiculously small capacity. The problem isn't just that there's not enough people who want to ski. Its that even if there were, there wouldn't be enough places for them to go. So what's the solution? I don't know. The problem is inherent so its not like we can just have multiple people skiing at the same time on a single lake. Perhaps we need to focus more on adding entry level activities (similar to creating 15 inch golf holes) that simply exist to a) increase visibility of the sport, b) increase revenue of ski sites to allow them to continue serving "pure" 3-event skiers without going under, and c) hope that some percentage of those who come for the lesser activities eventually transition into 3-event. In this regard, sites like Trophy Lakes come to mind for me. On top of their ski lakes, they also have a cable park and a disk golf course. These things don't get in the way of 3-event skiing, but they give the site a whole lot of extra revenue to be able to keep the 3-event lakes open.

If I remember correctly @OB once drilled an extra hole in his fin. I wonder if he can give insight into any changes it made

I put together a CAD file of a handle guard that I'd like to laser cut, I just can't decide which type of plastic to use since McMaster Carr has dozens to choose from. Anyone know what handle guards are typically made out of?

I'd be interested in seeing a second pole that asks what costs your college covered for you (either currently or back when you were in college). I'd like to think that colleges are helping out their sports club teams at least a little bit, but its also true that waterskiing is probably a lot more expensive than most club sports to fund...

This might help http://www.mwsf.org/contact.html

For me it depends on your skill level. A collegiate skier going 30 mph, '15 off? Sure, act like you made the pass. A more experienced skier getting into '39.5? You should probably call your own fault.

@MattP I originally had it has just the link but I guess my impatient self didn't wait long enough to let the site auto-embed it after posting so I panicked and changed it!

Yeah the embedding is not showing up :/

I've finally gotten around to videoing myself skiing, and I would greatly appreciate any/all critique you guys could give me (Other than the fact that I ignored the gates and went narrow on several of the balls http://youtu.be/tdJdKkXHco4

It makes sense from a fluid mechanics perspective. I'd be interested to try skiiing a set on one to see if I could notice a difference. Though at my skill level I don't think my mind is fine tuned enough to notice differences with the ski...

First job: actor. Second & third job: lifeguard at a summer camp and lifeguard at a pool. The same summer camp that taught me to waterski many years prior!

@boarditup, I agree. If you've only ever practiced backboarding on land, you're going to have quite the time trying it for real in deep water.

@MattP yup looks good to me

I've been thinking about getting a graduation photo of me in my cap & gown running the course, though I didn't think of doing any types of photos like these. I may consider it now...

I have a 12" handle with an arm guard and I have never accidentally missed a grab. Though I will probably switch to 13" once this one wears down too much.

I'd rather not be the guy on the lake who can run a really short line, but looks like he's going to kill himself every time he does it

@MattP I guess we just have to do a controlled test. We'll put your binding on the tightest setting and ski you until you hurt yourself.

@skoot123, tell me more about this new lake of yours...

@MattP, it's just a little trade school on North Avenue. You've probably never heard of it.

I even got a PB in the pouring rain!

You'd think they would be all for it. I mean, with wakeboard boats breaking $120K nowadays...

@gregy collegiate skiers can ski all the way down to 19.3 mph.