New Sky Skiers

[diehardskier]

I was wondering how the folks that got their sky ski's through the group buy are progressing with their new toy. Haven't seen anything posted lately and my curiosity is aroused. Post some pics or videos so we can see.

George

[tgaugh]

Yeah good point. Looking back who isn't happy and paid too much? I was really hesitant to buy one, as much as I wanted one. Real curious to see how they turned out.

[WakeGirl]

On the contrary, we're having too much fun on ours to remember to take pics, plus we don't usually have an adult around to take any. I started attempting to jump last time out, & promptly took a nasty faceplant. Took the starch right out of me for that run. I'm getting much, much better at my lateral control & can generally fly the foil outside of the wake on both sides now, & have gotten up to around 17mph on my speed. I spend a lot more time on that than anything else, mostly because I can. The tiring factor just isn't there like it is with just about anything else that you do behind a boat, & I find that I can go 30-40 minutes at a time with no difficulty at all. Plus when the lake blows out and/or the wallies come out, it's the only thing that we can do other than tube.

It's a lot of fun, if you decide to pull the trigger on one, you won't regret it.

[SacRiverRat]

we don't usually have an adult around

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yea - Guess it is hard to teach Joe how to do much...

[Ronnie]

Tracie,

You might try to speed up a little more. It makes it more stable. I would get it up to 19-20. I try to tell people to run an imaginary course, inside the wake, sort of like snow skiing. Switch from side to side as fast and as many times as you can. This will build your control and makes you respond faster to correct your height on the foil. Learn to use your arms to correct your height. Raise your arms to get the foil down and lower them to bring it up.

Jumping...watch your pressure on your feet. It's a normal reaction to push down with your feet and that will faceplant you every time. You need to leave and land in the same position while learning to jump. I still catch myself trying to push with my feet on really high jumps.

Also you will notice that you might turn a little while in the air, watch pulling on the rope too much with one hand and not the other. It will pull you out of position.

[WakeGirl]

Thanks Ronnie. From the start I've been adjusting my position more with my body than my arms, but I'm finding that it's just easier with my arms, although it's harder to overcome the natural inclination to pull in & down on the rope when things get a little dicey. I'll try that slalom course idea, sounds like fun.

[LS-One]

I don't own one but I have been playing with another crew members, after three sessions I'm comfortable getting up, and staying in the seated posistion, hopfully this weekend I can practice getting up on the foil.

[John I.]

For a variety of reasons, I've only had the opportunity to use mine 3 (maybe 4) times, and all behind a friend's 23' Chaparral. I haven't even mastered the d@mn taxi position yet! At this point, I'm blaming it mostly on the boat's lack of speed control...but, then how would I know?

I have, however, provided countless side-splitting laughs for the boat's occupants as I've submarined, faceplanted, flipped, skipped and launched from the water in more positions than I ever imagined possible while remaining seated! On a positive note, I've managed to convince a couple other folks to give it a try and also enjoyed the show from the boat!

I'm looking forward to a 5 day trip in a couple weeks where I hope to have a little more success behind my own boat. If that doesn't help, look for a good deal on a slightly used sky ski in the classifieds!

Edited July 8, 2005 by John I.

[WakeGirl]

John,

A couple of things that I found that helped in the beginning:

- shim the foil with a dime - at the slower speeds it rides more neutral

- attach the rope at either the pylon or the butt of the boat - when in choppy water the tower gets bobbing & really affects the foil, it wants to go up & down of its own accord. When you get better control & a better feel for it then you can go back to the tower.

[LS-One]

John,

A couple of things that I found that helped in the beginning:

- shim the foil with a dime - at the slower speeds it rides more neutral

- attach the rope at either the pylon or the butt of the boat - when in choppy water the tower gets bobbing & really affects the foil, it wants to go up & down of its own accord.  When you get better control & a better feel for it then you can go back to the tower.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And I'll add try to get instuctions from someone whos knows what they are doing the learning curve is reduced three-fold.

[Daniel]

Not a Sky Ski, but... I had the opportunity to try out an old (read, first ever made, probably first off of the produciton line) Air Chair over the week of the fourth. I must say, I am hooked. That was the most fun I've had on the water in a long time. With that being said, could someone give me pointers on how to steer the dang thing. I got it going in the direction that I wanted a couple of times, but I'm not sure what I did to get it there. It started to rain before I could really get into it, but I'm hoping to get another chance this weekend. Thanks

Daniel

[Ronnie]

Steer with your knees. Point them the way you want to go. Don't lean!

You don't even need to get the ski up on the foil (flying) at first. Start out at 12-14 MPH and learn to ride the ski. Learn to steer then try raising the speed a couple of MPH to get it to fly. Slow movements are the key. Raise your arms to let the ski go down and lower your arms to raise it up. If you get the basics down first you'll be better off. If you got up you have it made now, just go slow and don't rush it.

[Daniel]

Ok, I'll slow down some, we were going around 20 mph, and it felt like 60. It's a good thing that I bought a helmet, cause I think I'm gonna need it.

Daniel

[Woot13]

I had been renting a Sky-Ski from my BU Dealer for the last couple of weeks. My ski buddy finally broke down and bought it, just so we would have it for our week at the lake. He & I both have 12 year old sons that love to ride and we all have started jumping. Not high but we average 1-3' off the water out side the wake. At first we both said that all we wanted to do is learn how to ride on the foil, now all we want is to see how high we can jump. What's next?

[Ronnie]

You're gonna' want to be inverted....

Funny, you spend so much time learning to ride right side up so you can finally get upside down.

[stewart]

I used mine at McClure, Memorial weekend, and that was it. I'm not even sure if I'm bringing it to WOW.

I had a blast using it, in fact I picked it up faster than anything else I've tried, just too lazy to drag it out, I guess.

Plus, this is the first summer I have actually had a boat that runs........ so I'm trying to take advantage of boarding and surfing as much as possible!

[stewart]

For those of you that are using a dime on the Sky Ski, where exactly are you placing them? My CFO loves the sky ski, but says it is reacting to quickly and porpoising too much. I had her at 17-18 mph. She is definitely a beginner.

[LouDoc]

For those of you that are using a dime on the Sky Ski, where exactly are you placing them?  My CFO loves the sky ski, but says it is reacting to quickly and porpoising too much.  I had her at 17-18 mph.  She is definitely a beginner.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Forget the dime! Slow the boat down for her. She can learn at 12-15 and have lots more time to react to changes. The faster you go the quicker the foil changes height. Slow her down and have her focus on her handle position. The forward lean and hands at shoulder height should bring her back down to the water and break the porpoise movement. From there she can work on going up slowly without the lack of control.

One of the guys on the foilfreaks.com suggested learning control at slower speeds and advancing by 0.5mph with each session; you would not advance until the new speed feels comfortable and easy to control.

[AirChair1]

For those of you that are using a dime on the Sky Ski, where exactly are you placing them?  My CFO loves the sky ski, but says it is reacting to quickly and porpoising too much.  I had her at 17-18 mph.  She is definitely a beginner.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Stewart,

Tow her slower. She can probably fly it at 12-14 mph and then it reacts much slower.

Jeff/Airchair1

[AirChair1]

For those of you that are using a dime on the Sky Ski, where exactly are you placing them?  My CFO loves the sky ski, but says it is reacting to quickly and porpoising too much.  I had her at 17-18 mph.  She is definitely a beginner.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

One of the guys on the foilfreaks.com suggested learning control at slower speeds and advancing by 0.5mph with each session; you would not advance until the new speed feels comfortable and easy to control.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Slowly increasing speed is definitely the way to go. We have lots of people ride ours. I ride at 22-24mph. My wife rides at 17-18mph. My most accomplished friend rides at 20-21mph. Most people who haven't ridden much are around 15mph. I try to tow beginners at 12mph and then slowly increase the speed until they decide they like the speed. Raising the speed EVERY session seems a bit much but raising it slowly over time is a great idea.

Jeff/AirChair1

[LouDoc]

My most accomplished friend rides at 20-21mph. 

Raising the speed EVERY session seems a bit much but raising it slowly over time is a great idea.

Jeff/AirChair1

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is he doing inverts at that speed?

Agree that Every session is too much; I probably misrepresented his comment. More accurately, his suggestion was to progressively raise by 0.5 increments until you hit your target speed.

[edwin]

What's the dime for?

[tgaugh]

What's the dime for?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To throw at pesky skiers!

[Pistol Pete]

It reduces the amount of positive lift.

[WakeGirl]

I'm not sure on the Air Chair, but on the Sky Ski it helps neutralize it a bit. It really wants to climb & you have to pay attention to keep it under control. The dime shims the foil up a little & makes it so that it doesn't want to climb quite so easily.