Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

poor man's slalom course


Arctic Slalom

Recommended Posts

heading up to inlaws cabin for 10 day trip in a few weeks!

my brother will be there for a couple days (we're the only ones who slalom much) and we were talking about setting up a poor mans slalom course. i was planning on buying a few bouys from overtons and trying to arrange them as carefully as possible.

we are both strong recreational skiers, but thought trying some buoys would be fun....neither of us have any course experience....we're just looking to have fun and challenge ourselves a bit.

the lake is in the middle of nowhere (google map St. John, ND)! No-one will really care if we leave it out for a day or two. We'll likely set-up in a long-ish bay which is about 6-12 feet deep. a few questions :unsure: :

have others tried this with any success?

we're thinking 10 buoys (6 turns and 2 on each end of course for boat)? do we need more?

should we just use regular rope with weights?

will we be able to eye-ball and measure this course even relatively close to the real deal?

any thoughts or insight on an easy way to measure this up (squaring/alignment, etc.) would be great!

Link to comment

I have had a course for 3 summers now on my lake now. While I think what you are looking to do is possible, I personally would not try it. I would be very difficult and time consuming to try and get things lined up anywhere close to accurate. If I were in your situation I would invest in one of the inexpensive portable courses that are sold. They are not that expensive and would enable you to install/take down rather quickly. That's my .02.

Link to comment

It is certainly worth a shot if you want to spend the time and effort to do it, but I think it would be very difficult to get it even remotely close by eye balling it. If you really want to try though, I would start with a rope that is 850 feet long (+ additional length to anchor each end) to establish the overall distance, and then measure ~37.5 feet out from the centerline for the turn bouys. I would add 1 or 2 additional boat guides in the middle of the course. Good luck. I would highly recommend buying a portable course instead, then you can replicate it anytime, anywhere.

Course Diagram

Link to comment

A portable course from Ed @ EZ-Slalom will do you quite well. they take about 15 minutes in and 15 minutes out.

They are not inexpensive, as you will be $700 or so shipped. The course goes together simple and with two people installing and a driver for install, you will be in great shape. You don't need a driver to take out as you pull the boat along the course by hand to remove the mainline/arms.

The nice thing about having a portable course....you can take it anywhere and set it up, even if just for a few hours.

M3Fan and I have set up a portable course at least 50 times in different locations. They break down into 8' lengths and are easily stored on the wall of a garage when done.

Think about purchasing 10 bouys, ropes, anchors and getting it set up. You are at least $100 into the project and you will have a hard time getting any accuracy of the distances. I know there is a difference between $100 and $700, but once you ski a course, you will set it up all the time.

If you want to make an investment, a portable course is a great way to go. CALL ED AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK

Link to comment

dont bother... not worth it

buy a course or ski open water. you can get pretty good if you train open water like you would in a course. ie/ pull out, run 6 turns, stop, repeat. its also great to try new things like running a shorter line or faster speed.

the fake course will do nothing but waste your time on the water and ruin any decent form you can come up with.

Link to comment
You won't be able to get it anywhere close unless you have a surveyor's quality GPS.

i've got access to one of those (work in an engineering/architecture firm) but they can't let her go for 12 days....

sounds like eyeballing is pretty crazy Cry.gif...sounds like the birth and death of a bad idea!

$700 for a course is actually really cheap. heck, I go through 1/4 of that in gas for a long weekend.

we'll probably stick to free skiing, i guess.

for those Minnesota skiers out there; are there any public courses set up in central, mn? anything in the annandale, paynesville, new-london-spicer, litchfield area would be great!

thanks for all the insight everyone

Link to comment
for those Minnesota skiers out there; are there any public courses set up in central, mn? anything in the annandale, paynesville, new-london-spicer, litchfield area would be great!

We have one down here in Winona on the river. Or we should soon, the guys are a little slow this summer. Not sure that I would call it 'public' Whistling.gif but its in the river so they can't keep anyone from using it. As long as you don't take a jetski off their jump they are cool with people using it.

Link to comment
You won't be able to get it anywhere close unless you have a surveyor's quality GPS.

i've got access to one of those (work in an engineering/architecture firm) but they can't let her go for 12 days....

sounds like eyeballing is pretty crazy Cry.gif ...sounds like the birth and death of a bad idea!

$700 for a course is actually really cheap. heck, I go through 1/4 of that in gas for a long weekend.

we'll probably stick to free skiing, i guess.

for those Minnesota skiers out there; are there any public courses set up in central, mn? anything in the annandale, paynesville, new-london-spicer, litchfield area would be great!

thanks for all the insight everyone

CAll EZ slalom and get the plans and build your own. I got the plans and the clips from them and with the bouys and all parts, I have only about $200 into my portable course.

Link to comment

I think I can be a very aggressive open water skier. Now go to a course can you say HUMBLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also know how fare the rope must go on the mooter box to get out to a buoy and the time through a coarse so you can get a very rough idea if you are in the ball park.

Did I say rough very rough!!!

Link to comment
  • 8 years later...

Hello, here is my idea  of a poor slalom course.

First you need 8 Buoys, 2 pvc of approximative 8 feets long, 2 1/4 polyéthylène rope of 54m long each, and 2 anchor  rivers with appropriate Line lenght  and tension Line. 

You tension all of this, mark the center or each rope so that at 27 m from each pvc, you got one boat guide on each side. When all the buoys are fixed, you obtain one entrance gate followed by one pair of boat guide followed by an exit gate. This is a one turn buoy slalom course.

You complete on one side with a buoy attached to a weight that you let sink at 10 m from the closest boat guide. To obtain the proper position for that buoy, you use a laser scope, aim at the two boat guide and once the two are aligned with your position and the reading is 10m you drop your buoy.

You can place 2 noodles 1 inch over the surface at 14 m at each end which will mimic an entrance gate for a virtual second turn buoy. If you can exit between the noodles, you probably would have succeed the second buoy, and if you can pass 6 succesive times so, you are close to succeed in a conventional 6 buoys course.

What is nice is that when you come back of your good side, you can practice your bad side.

My system get rid of the Diamonds, need only a pvc on each end.

You are free to upgrade in the same manner to make a 2 or a 3 or 4 or 5 or even a complete course.

The drawback is the more buoys you have the longer it take to scope each turn buoy.

I plan to do a 2 turn buoy slalom course and i figure my installation time will be well under 15 min http://imgur.com/a/l31s0 uninstall even shorter.

Here is a shematic

http://imgur.com/a/l31s0

 

 

 

Edited by michel
Link to comment
  • 5 years later...

Well the idea of a poor man’s slalom course had some flaws, and all the arguments against it were appropriate

the placement of a buoy by eyes sight has revealed to be bad when I finally decided to try it

the cheap ropes I tough will  hold distances revealed to be imprecise because they stretch under tension

i ended with

stainless steel ropes and return to diamonds to save on cost

telescopic swimming pool tubes for the arms

i named the project “the one buoy skill”

 

i make it and it works

 

here is the link  

 

Edited by michel
  • Like 3
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...