Water Skiing and Small RIBs

wakeup said:
How about, you sit the skier with two skis or one on in a ringo. Ringo not attached to the tow line, just the skier holding the two rope.
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LOL, not a bad idea, I think I'll give it a try this summer.
Could make make a start with double binder much easier.
I'd rather remove completely the tow line from the inflatable, though.
It doesn't serve any purpose, and only increases the risk of getting entangled.
Oh, and there's another thing to consider. With some wind, the ringo alone could easily be blown away.
With some mistral, you might need to go from Antibes to Corsica with the tender just to recover it... :D
 
MapisM said:
LOL, not a bad idea, I think I'll give it a try this summer.
Could make make a start with double binder much easier.
I'd rather remove completely the tow line from the inflatable, though.
It doesn't serve any purpose, and only increases the risk of getting entangled.
Oh, and there's another thing to consider. With some wind, the ringo alone could easily be blown away.
With some mistral, you might need to go from Antibes to Corsica with the tender just to recover it... :D
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Please post a video here ....:D
 
wakeup said:
How about, you sit the skier with two skis or one on in a ringo. Ringo not attached to the tow line, just the skier holding the two rope.
Click to expand...

You can actually do barefoot behind a 50 hp towboat with a similar technique. We did this when I was a bit younger.

We had a hydroslide (one of those boards you ride kneeling down on the board -type of things) on which we sat feet facing forwards. Then full throttle and once the boat had picked up enough speed, we just carefully stood up. No problems at all... I still have the video somewhere to prove it. It's on VHS though :)

Edit: with regards to the original topic I unfortunately have nothing to add, but find this very interesting as we are looking into RIB-options with the same needs.
 
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scubaman said:
We had a hydroslide...
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Niiiice! I wish I used that technique when I first tried barefooting.
We had a sidebar on the skiboat instead, have you ever tried it?
You must grab the tube with the legs loose behind you, and as soon as the boat reaches a proper speed, you must turn yourself and bring the legs in front of you.
Problem is, if while turning one of your feet "grabs" the water surface, you're projected to the sky. Don't ask how I know, my neck still hurts at the thought... :eek:
I also have some tapes btw, one of these long winter nights I must find the time to convert them.

PS for scubaman (or anyone else interested, of course): since you mentioned barefoot, it's easy to guess that you like to try various waterski flavours.
And in this case, my #1 suggestion is the Air Chair, if you didn't try it already. It's the most exhilarating thing on the water, imho.
And doesn't require a lot of power, too. The kind of RIBs we were talking about are more than enough.
 
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MapisM said:
Niiiice! I wish I used that technique when I first tried barefooting.
We had a sidebar on the skiboat instead, have you ever tried it?
You must grab the tube with the legs loose behind you, and as soon as the boat reaches a proper speed, you must turn yourself and bring the legs in front of you.
Problem is, if while turning one of your feet "grabs" the water surface, you're projected to the sky. Don't ask how I know, my neck still hurts at the thought... :eek:
I also have some tapes btw, one of these long winter nights I must find the time to convert them.

PS for scubaman (or anyone else interested, of course): since you mentioned barefoot, it's easy to guess that you like to try various waterski flavours.
And in this case, my #1 suggestion is the Air Chair, if you didn't try it already. It's the most exhilarating thing on the water, imho.
And doesn't require a lot of power, too. The kind of RIBs we were talking about are more than enough.
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I've never tried a sidebar but seen it done on videos. That looks like a lot of fun! Barefooting is certainly prone to bruises. On the same note, I can tell that it's best to begin slightly off the wake where the water is as smooth as possible to give better lift :)

I've also done some wakeboarding but mostly plain old slalom. I've seen that Air Chair at a boatshow 20 odd years ago. Looks insane dude!!! :D
 
scubaman said:
I've seen that Air Chair at a boatshow 20 odd years ago. Looks insane dude!!! :D
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Yeah, insane is the proper definition. Just have a look at this video...
...mind, not that I ever managed to get anywhere near the tricks this guy can handle!
 
Thats a memory from the past, friends used to have an air chair, behind sports boats. Great fun in Poole harbour.... until they hit the mud.

Wish I could ski behind a 20hp, over indulgence of the years means closer to 200hp these days.
 
I would forget trying to learn slalom sking behind a small rib,prob end up spending more time in water than on it and getting very annoyed,unless using a very wide ski to give lift,have to agree with others,use of a com bi set.would also recommend having a lesson at a prof club will save a lot effort and give you good basic position and understanding .
As for double binding slalom skis,unless things have changed, forget these as they were never that common even at competition level,I would stick with a toe wrap for your rear binding,as others have said,beach starts etc will have more control,still not easy though.:)
 
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dj43 said:
As for double binding slalom skis,unless things have changed, forget these as they were never that common even at competition level
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Things have definitely changed.
I said in a previous post that I've seen skiers closing a course at 38' off with the toe wrap, but even those guys would not even think to go to any competition without two bindings.
 
Old age means I am making it up. Having just spoken to my friend to see if they had video footage, it was skis and ringos hitting the mud in teh ski area, they would only use the airchair in deep water.
 
MapisM said:
Things have definitely changed.
I said in a previous post that I've seen skiers closing a course at 38' off with the toe wrap, but even those guys would not even think to go to any competition without two bindings.
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Hi MapisM
I omitted the sentence (back in the ninety's when I last skied competitively )apologize for that,totally agree with you as have been using double bindings since early eighties (kidder red line):)prob be a collectors item now:)
sorry for the thread drift,so many peps have a go at water skiing and end up having a nightmare,when with a little tuition it can be so much fun.
 
dj43 said:
have been using double bindings since early eighties (kidder red line)
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Funny you mention it.
Back in those days, a friend of mine who was probably the only producer of waterskis this side of the Pond, built his top of the line model basically copying a Kidder.
Curiously, he also made a couple of hard shell bindings (coming from an alpine skiing experience), which were very similar to what Connelly is now selling as their "Stealth" system.
But at that time, he couldn't sell any of those, because people thought they were more dangerous than the normal binding+toe wrap, whilst actually the opposite was (and still is) true.
Occurrences and recurrences of history... :)
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