Cold Water skiing

[NorCaliBu]

An killed any belief you are a good driver...

Ya, OK. Says the slalom skier that doesn't even own a ski boat. I'll put my driving skills up against yours any day, junior.

So...how's the slalom wake behind your wife's VLX?

[LakeOneSkier]

So...how's the slalom wake behind your wife's VLX?

[Sethro]

Never did figure out what caused it but when you take water over the bimini... ...something went terribly wrong. That turn killed a digital camera and a steering cable.

That is absolutely funny stuff right there...over the bimini? Really? The bimini?

That reminds me of the cold day a few years back when my buddy took water, a lot of water, over the windshield of my Echelon. Water and air were about 50 as it was early November, and he had brought a prospective girlfriend along as our spotter. She looked good wet, I'll give her that. The best part was I was in the water watching it happen, and he stood up at the last minute to get out of the way, but he didn't warn her.

Things didn't work out for the two of them either.

[Malibudude]

Ya, OK. Says the slalom skier that doesn't even own a ski boat. I'll put my driving skills up against yours any day, junior.

So...how's the slalom wake behind your wife's VLX?

Yep, funny thing I ski more now then ever when I did own a DD, now they are only good for trash/ice runs on the lake....

That is absolutely funny stuff right there...over the bimini? Really? The bimini?

That reminds me of the cold day a few years back when my buddy took water, a lot of water, over the windshield of my Echelon. Water and air were about 50 as it was early November, and he had brought a prospective girlfriend along as our spotter. She looked good wet, I'll give her that. The best part was I was in the water watching it happen, and he stood up at the last minute to get out of the way, but he didn't warn her.

Things didn't work out for the two of them either.

Yep over the biminy, the bow was filled w/ water up to the gunwale vinyl and everything on the floor was floating to the rear. His face was one of shear fear he'd sunk his boat....don't think the bilge turned off even after returning us to the houseboat and getting the boat on the trailer. He was showing off his mad slalom driving skillz....

[NorCaliBu]

Yep over the biminy, the bow was filled w/ water up to the gunwale vinyl and everything on the floor was floating to the rear. His face was one of shear fear he'd sunk his boat....don't think the bilge turned off even after returning us to the houseboat and getting the boat on the trailer. He was showing off his mad slalom driving skillz....

Nice selective memory. First off, it was Malibudude that was instigating the bat turns. He wanted me to get SacRiverRat & BarefootH20 (who were sitting on the floor in the back) all wet. I did a 40 mph bat turn and the boat just did a flat spin and took no water over the gunwales whatsoever. Well that just wouldn't do. "Try it a little faster" says Malibudude...so 42-43 mph...cut throttle, quick spin of the wheel, boat starts it's spin, I go to power out of it and all of a sudden water is coming from everywhere. While I was concerned with the amount of water we took on at no point did I think the boat was going to sink. And as far as "showing off the mad slalom driving skillz..." that's not "slalom driving" meathead.

Like I said before, I'll put my slalom driving skills up against yours any day. Slalom skiing skills as well for that matter. Let me know when your skill level catches up with your mouth.

...oh, and there is no "y" in bimini.

[Malibudude]

Nice selective memory. First off, it was Malibudude that was instigating the bat turns. He wanted me to get SacRiverRat & BarefootH20 (who were sitting on the floor in the back) all wet. I did a 40 mph bat turn and the boat just did a flat spin and took no water over the gunwales whatsoever. Well that just wouldn't do. "Try it a little faster" says Malibudude...so 42-43 mph...cut throttle, quick spin of the wheel, boat starts it's spin, I go to power out of it and all of a sudden water is coming from everywhere. While I was concerned with the amount of water we took on at no point did I think the boat was going to sink. And as far as "showing off the mad slalom driving skillz..." that's not "slalom driving" meathead.

Like I said before, I'll put my slalom driving skills up against yours any day. Slalom skiing skills as well for that matter. Let me know when your skill level catches up with your mouth.

...oh, and there is no "y" in bimini.

So you're saying that you succumbed to peer pressure...

Your are the best driver no matter what they say.

[areamike]

Well, looks like we will be getting our February barefoot run in today. We have some drizzle, little wind and air temp will be about 38F. Water temp has to be below 40F.

The lake is still frozen across in front of my place, but up the river where we went last time it's open in the middle. We'll just have to walk out over the ice and push the sea-doo to open water again. Oh what fun.

I plan to wear my GoPro video camera on my chest mount during my run. Hopefully it will work out. If it's not raining too much I'll try and get someone to video tape from the shore. I'll post back later with some video hopefully.

[areamike]

OKAY. Here's a video of me walking down our dock to take a look at the lake. It does not look very promising.

And now we have a video my wife did from the bridge. It got a little grainy a few times but overall, not too bad.

I'll post the GoPro video here in a few once it is done processing on YouTube

[LakeOneSkier]

Got a few sets in today; air in the low 70', water 56.

I think it's time for a good warm soak.

[areamike]

Got a few sets in today; air in the low 70', water 56.

I think it's time for a good warm soak.

Nice.

Alrighty then. Here is the first video from the GoPro camera chest mount. Try not to laugh at the sea-doo. It's the same one that my buddy Marc rigged so he could ski behind it with no driver. It eventually went astray and crashed into a parked Pontoon on it's boat lift and caught fire. The result is what you see in the video. Nothing some foam spray can't fix I guess. If you want to see the video of that sea-doo when he skied behind it unmanned, here's that link if you want to check it out:

And lastly, the final run I did with booties on this time since I could not feel my friggin feet. I did manage to throw in a tumble turn.

[davemac]

Try not to laugh at the sea-doo. It's the same one that my buddy Marc rigged so he could ski behind it with no driver. It eventually went astray and crashed into a parked Pontoon on it's boat lift and caught fire. The result is what you see in the video. Nothing some foam spray can't fix I guess.

Too bad that crash wasn't caught on tape....that would have been priceless!!

Two questions, Mike...

How fast is the Sea doo going?

Is it an optical illusion, or do you actually need to duck when going under that bridge?

[areamike]

Too bad that crash wasn't caught on tape....that would have been priceless!!

Two questions, Mike...

How fast is the Sea doo going?

Is it an optical illusion, or do you actually need to duck when going under that bridge?

The sea-doo will barely do about 34 pulling a footer. Out of the hole it is terrible.

And yes, you have duck unless you are between the beams. You can drive a ski boat at full speed between the beams as well.

[davemac]

Try not to laugh at the sea-doo. It's the same one that my buddy Marc rigged so he could ski behind it with no driver. It eventually went astray and crashed into a parked Pontoon on it's boat lift and caught fire. The result is what you see in the video. Nothing some foam spray can't fix I guess. If you want to see the video of that sea-doo when he skied behind it unmanned, here's that link if you want to check it out:

Its not how the Seadoo looks that is funny, but I can't stop laughing about the fact that it got away and crashed and burned into some poor bugger's boat. I'm assuming people on the river now give you guys the automatic right of way.

Great videos...hardcore stuff all the way. My skiing/footin coworkers enjoyed them as well.

[areamike]

Its not how the Seadoo looks that is funny, but I can't stop laughing about the fact that it got away and crashed and burned into some poor bugger's boat. I'm assuming people on the river now give you guys the automatic right of way.

Great videos...hardcore stuff all the way. My skiing/footin coworkers enjoyed them as well.

Just to elaborate, here's what happened.

If you watched the unmaned sea-doo video you'll notice the kill switch he had rigged up.

A few days later he was taking another run by himself. He gave the quick jerk the handle, the sea-doo took off, but he fell while trying to get up. When he did, the lanyard for the kill switch broke. This just let the sea-doo go racing on down the river at full speed with no driver. All he could do was watch in horror. LUCKILY, there was literally no one on the lake that day. The sea-doo then proceeded to head towards a pontoon sitting "safely" on it's boat lift. The sea-doo rammed into the rear end of the pontoon just under the nice new Honda 200 outboard motor and then caught fire while it was still revving at full throttle. The owners of the pontoon saw what happened and ran out of their house to investigate. By this time, Marc had swam to shore and was running towards the wreckage. The Husband of the Husband/Wife owner duet actually shut the sea-doo off before Marc got there. He asked if Marc was OK, but his Wife tore into Marc like there was no tomorrow. In the end the overall damage was about 4000 dollars to the pontoon and motor.

When the police arrived to investigate the accident, they had no idea what to even ticket Marc for. They had to go back to the Police Station and look up the boating laws in order to figure something out. They returned a few days later and gave him a ticket for No Spotter/Observer. The Police actually got a pretty good kick out of the whole ordeal as they had never seen anything like it. Marc started to argue the ticket saying how could he be ticketed for no spotter when he was in fact the driver and actually the spotter too. He didn't argue long as he realized he was better off taking the 125 dollar ticket and just biting his lip. They could have charged him with reckless driving and/or even reckless endangerment

[A7X_LSV_23]

Oh my god!!! LMFAO!!! That video is AWESOME! Never seen anything like that. I'm REALLY surprised they didn't hammer him with a HUGE ticket! So how does he steer that thing anyways???? He just kinda pull back the opposite side he wants to go or did he actually do a whole mechanism into the handle? That's CRAZY! That would DEFINATELY NOT go down in Utah! Love the ladies (wife) response! "I think it's stupid personally." lol

[areamike]

Oh my god!!! LMFAO!!! That video is AWESOME! Never seen anything like that. I'm REALLY surprised they didn't hammer him with a HUGE ticket! So how does he steer that thing anyways???? He just kinda pull back the opposite side he wants to go or did he actually do a whole mechanism into the handle? That's CRAZY! That would DEFINATELY NOT go down in Utah! Love the ladies (wife) response! "I think it's stupid personally." lol

Exactly. Want the sea-doo to go left? Ski and pull to the right and vice-versa.

[A7X_LSV_23]

Exactly. Want the sea-doo to go left? Ski and pull to the right and vice-versa.

I don't know why... But I can see this actually being funner then just riding the jet ski around all day! lol Sign me up!

[Wakes]

Cool vids, that cam is sweet. It is unfortunate your buddies contraption failed... is he designing a better one or has the idea been buried by authorities/risk?

[jk13]

Nice videos Mike!

The launch of the Sea Doo was much smoother than I thought--just push down until the ice breaks and drive away. I assume that recovery involved a little speed and sliding on the ice.

Personal favorite: "I'll just follow you." Classic.

[areamike]

Nice videos Mike!

The launch of the Sea Doo was much smoother than I thought--just push down until the ice breaks and drive away. I assume that recovery involved a little speed and sliding on the ice.

Personal favorite: "I'll just follow you." Classic.

Yup. I forgot to turn my camera back on for the ICE landing. Took getting up to about 20mph to pull off that maneuver.

Oh yeah. I forgot about that. That's one of our favorite sayings.

[areamike]

Cool vids, that cam is sweet. It is unfortunate your buddies contraption failed... is he designing a better one or has the idea been buried by authorities/risk?

No new design planned. I think he is on their Watch list.

[areamike]

Found me a fellow idiot to go footing with me this past Saturday. Air was about 50, but water was still cold with some ice along the shorelines.

And another:

[Bill_AirJunky]

Just to elaborate, here's what happened.

If you watched the unmaned sea-doo video you'll notice the kill switch he had rigged up.

>SNIP<

Guess thats why the Solo never took off. They had issues EXACTLY like this during testing, much less when it was being used by any potential customer.

One day we saw the owner of the Seattle MC dealer take it for a test spin on Sammamish. He gassed it, the thing took off, and for some reason he pushed the steering hard right. The Solo spun around, almost hit him, then ran straight up the boat ramp, flipped over & the engine wound up to like 12k RPM before someone pulled the kill switch........ then the little flag popped up.

BTW, Mike Murphy & Gerry Nunn were their professional riders sponsoring the thing. At some point Murph figured out that it was a lot easier to never let go, even on a crash, rather than waiting for the stupid thing to swing back by him. So he'd just crash, NOT let go, and pull the kill switch on the handle. The thing would bog down, he'd pull himself back around, put the lanyard back on the handle, and gas it back up.

[areamike]

OKAY, here's another video from this morning. Air was about 40, water was about COLD still!

Did my typical dock-start and a quick toe hold. If you watch close you'll see I hit something with my left foot. No damage done, but it sure scared me. There was quite a bit of debris out this morning.

I'll post one more in a few of me doing the flip at the end of my run. Learned it from watching Zane DeVilliers.

Enjoy:

[Michigan boarder]

Atta boy, Mike! I'd have loved to be a third idiot out there too! I do like the crab position after dropping - feet and hands poking out of the water, holding motionless waiting for the boat to come back. Been there, hope to be there again soon!