[quote]LittleStrick wrote:
You know…I read your log and, as someone whose times behind a boat can be counted on 1 hand, have a hard time wrapping my mind around the workout. I know that I found it incredibly fatiguing when I did do it. Of course, I weighed 260# at the time. Thought I would drown before the boat ever got me out of the water.[/quote]
Hope this helps:
The slalom course consists of an entrance gate, 6 turn bouys, and an exit gate. To “run” the course, you need to ski through the gates, around all six bouys, and through the exit gates. The two things that make it harder is a faster boat or a shorter rope. When you practice skiing the course, you pick a start speed as slow as 26 mph then increase the boat speed by two miles an hour every time you are successful until you hit the max. 34 mph is the max for old farts, 36mph is the max for the young guns. Then you start taking rope off of a 75’ line. 22off, 28 off, 32off, 35off, 38off, etc. until you miss the pass. A practice “set” is usually six “passes” through the course or three falls, whichever comes first.
The boat speed is governed by a cruise control system that is based off engine rpms that needs to be adjusted by skier and passenger weight and sometimes wind speed. That is the + an - designations I used above for the “perfect pass timing system”–I keep track of that because it tells me about how much wind I was dealing with. There are magnets in the course and an electronic timer that lets the driver know if the boat speed is within a 1/4 mph tolerance on each pass. At 34 mph, it takes the boat 16.95 seconds to travel through the course. A faster time means a fast boat, and a slower time means a slow boat. Thats about it in a nutshell. Its very exhausting and addictive.