Slalom driver help

Orlando76 wrote: I'm not familiar with perfect pass other than its cruise control? I don't need EFI for that? She does EXCELLENT once on plane, my dad is the one who needs it, he insists on pulling me at 27/28.

It will keep you at a constant speed as you ski. Perfect pass was originally designed for boats with a cable throttle (Carb or EFI), while Zero Off works on the drive by wire boats. They are well worth the money. One less thing for the driver to think about it. I pull tons of kids on all kinds of things, so being able to dial in a speed over and over again, makes it more enjoyable for driver and rider! Keep on skiing!

Roys wife had the heavy hand while he was learning to foot so I stepped in with her and gave her the tips live as sje drove and explained why ...she figured it out and peace and happiness prevailed...have a buddy take the heat.

If you plan on continuing skiing, go ahead and order a perfect pass now. As you get better you are going to start fighting about speed control.

PP saves my marriage several times a season, when the kids aren't around, and she is the only driver available!

Tom351 wrote: Driver form is important as well- make sure that she is resting her arm on the gunwale and only moving thumb/wrist to apply throttle.. Many beginners move their entire arm (pushing from elbow or shoulder) and this makes throttle movement MUCH less precise. One analogy is a computer mouse..try clicking around on your PC by moving elbow or shoulder compared to wrist and thumb movements.

Ding ding ding we have a winner. Tom hit the nail on the head. Went out last night, made very minor adjustments in my form, basically, extended arms so my front knee and elbows were all lined up. Dad slowly rolled into the throttle, slower than he says he has in 50 years with a skier, and Vola! I got up 4 times in a row. No pain, no strain, no sprain. He's used to his Nautique which doesnt shoot out the hole like that. Skied 4 times around the lake. On my way home I thought about everything you guys have said. Ive always drove like Tom described, with the wrist, but it occurred to me that both my wife and I have only driven stick shift vehicles. So when I get home her and I talked and asked her to show me how she drives and asked her without leading towards the correct answer, does she use her wrist to move the throttle or her elbow. She innocently said and displayed her elbow. Holy heck, her throttle movement was all shoulders and elbows as if she's shifting an old long throw tranny. It makes my forearms hurt thinking about it. I said maybe tonight we can go out and keep your elbow in the same spot on the boat, wrist in the same location towards the base of the throttle and move the throttle like a flamboyant gay man using his hands when he talks. You know what I mean.   I wonder if she had a water balloon in her palm between the throttle ball if that'll help ease the throttle, almost like an egg? I may tell her only touch the, throttle arm below the ball so she'll have less leverage. Maybe I shouldn't have dismantled and cleaned/lubed the Morse 3 weeks ago along with those Teleflex Extreme cables and correctly aligned all the components together.

Thanks for the help and input guys. She always does good but Hope I can tune my wife in a lil better.

Dude Tom, for sure. This is why I have always hated the throttle set up of other manufacturers. CC always got it right in the arm rest department.

Your hair is still dry, eyes open and breathing normally, not burying your head under water!

Here's the good news. Because your wife is probably giving you a different pull everytime you will eventually be able to get up everytime with any driver behind any boat. While my wife was learning to drive, and I was learning to ski, she pulled me fast, slow, sideways, hesitated in mid pull and plenty of other variations. Through all that I learned to try and keep watching the back of the boat during the pull (this keeps your head up and body position slightly back) and I start slowly pushing with both legs as soon as I feel motion. If you wait to start pushing the boat will pull you over the front. It's not like an I/O. You don't have to wait for the boat to get going. Once I got used to it I prefer the hammer. It feels like the ski gets a little air as you launch out of the water. I skied behind a Mastercraft once and told the owner to hammer it he said no one could hang on to a full throttle pull (it was one of the Sammy Duvall 190's with the vette motor). You should have seen the look on his face when I stood right up. Good Luck and be patient. The guys I know that have criticized their wife's driving don't go to the lake anymore.

Have your driver drag you at idle. You should be able to stay in form ready to go at any second. Once you calm down and aren't tipping and flopping around have her roll it up! I like that stop light approach.

Oh yeah, both palms down. You don't need the baseball grip until you're swerving. It only increases your tendency to pull the handle into your body anyway.

Hard to say what angle I like my ski at. Not perpendicular and not parallel, whatever's comfortable? 45-60 (90 being up and down, 0 being flat under you like you're already skiing).

Go Take a lesson at a ski school. you will never regret doing so, take your driver with you spend the day and when you go back on your own to the water you will be far closer to your goal then you would think.
Plenty of great ski schools around the O-town area.

dwouncmd wrote: I am no expert, but lots of good advice. Snug rope, a little throttle then more (I like the stoplight analogy), sitting high in the water with a good snug vest.

Don't worry, my vest is good and snug. That's part of the reason I decided to ski more, I'm too young to start packing these pounds on.

When are you coming up to SML? We'll work on it together then... Skiing, that is!

Todd - Just before you get your vest on, pull a spark plug wire. If she still takes off too fast, pull another from the other bank.

JK!

Tell her you want to save on gas so you take her out to dinner more often.

I tell new drivers to pull out a skier the same way they pull a car away from a stop light, give it s little gas and let the speed catch up.
I have them practice several times before I get behind the boat.
A friend bought a new Fuel Injected boat when they first came out and loved to floor it and show how much power it had. The only thing accomplished was pulled muscles and damaged discs in backs. The boats have an excess of power that does not need to be used unless you are pulling out 4-5 deep water starts at once. ( we did 7 once ) My old 78 Nautique was only good for 4 with a 13x14 prop.

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Haha, you don't know my wife. If there is any hope in her and I being a ski team I better slow my boat or learn to get ripped. My wife does not take any critizism on anything. But she can load any of our boats better and quicker than me or anyone else at the ramp. And I thought I was a hot shot at the ramp.[/QUOTE]

It's as if we're married to the same woman. I find that there needs to be about a 5:1 ratio of praise vs. constructive criticism and the criticism better be delivered with the right tone. But....she can back a trailer better than any woman I know and drive a boat on as good as anybody.