Slalom Rope Question.

15, 22, 28, 32, 35, 38, 39.5, 41

BKH

Rope is 75' with the following take off's which are all color coded.

Red=60ft or 15 off
Orange=53ft or 22 off
Yellow=47ft or 28 off
Green=43ft or 32 off
Blue=40ft or 35 off
Violet=37ft of 38 off
Neutral=35.5ft or 39.5 off
Red=34ft or 41 off

There are 16 categories of boys/mens skiing, and 15 categories for girls/women. These classes are age based with the exception of the Open class for both men and women, which is the most skilled class, and the class under which the pros will participate.

The minimum starting speed for any class is 25 kph, or about 15.5 mph. Each class has a maximum speed ranging from 30.4 mph for the young boys and girls, to 34.2mph for the open women, and 36 mph for the open men.

In the old days, speed in the US was in mph, and was bumped up in 2 mph increments. These days, the speeds are most often in kph, and are bumped up in 3kph increments.

A skier is supposed to reach the max speed within the class before beginning to take off rope length. I have seen local amateur tournaments where skiers take off rope length, but are not at max speed, but I don't know how these tournaments work.

You can do a search on both American Water Ski Association and International Water Ski Association and find the complete tournament rules for Slalom, jump, trick (or shortboarding as it's now called), speed skiing, and I believe they now cover wakeboarding and hydrofoiling as well.

BKH

Maddie: You certainly are a knowledgable young lady when it comes to water skiing. Quite good looking too I might add...must look like your mother.

I think you might want to check your signature line tho....I believe you dad might have added something without your knowledge.

john

Yes she is.

Check out her last name in her profile...and put 2 and 2 together.

john

No. When you are at the end of the red, you are at 15 off. The first section, if you were to actually take it out is usually white. BKH

At the end of the red line is 22 off, end of orange line is 28 off, etc.    You don't actually remove loops. You just shorten the rope up to the next loop if that makes sense BKH

Gabe,

If you need a new slalom line find a good quality line which has the take-offs tagged like this one, note the silver markers on the rope.



If you are not planning on buying a new line take yours out and measure it from the end going towards the handle to verify which loops are which. If you guy's are just learning you should stick with 15' off until you can run the course, another thing is depending on your boat the wake may be better at certain line lengths, when free skiing you may want to experiment the various lengths, shorter lines will also tend to make you ski a little quicker.

Have Fun!