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View Full Version : To Ski Or Not to Ski from the Tower...?



North Woods Mobius
06-14-2015, 09:18 AM
Question for you guys - Is there any rule of thumb on skiing from the tower? We have always skied from the pop-up pylon while ONLY wakeboarding and surfing from the tower. With more newbies learning to ski in our 2014 LSV (mostly friends of our kids), I've recently been told that it's easier to pull skiers out of the water from the tower. And with my wife fully intent on getting up on her single ski again this summer (I just bought her a new women's HO Free Ride ski to bribe her!), I'd love to know if there's any truth to that .....

What's conventional wisdom on this??

jimmylsv
06-14-2015, 10:42 AM
We have taught a lot of people to wake board and ski on our LSV. We shorten the rope and connect rope to tower. The angle from the tower extracts the skier/boarder from the water. It makes it much easier on them.

zabooda
06-14-2015, 01:41 PM
IMO, I would limit the weight and skill to less than 125 pounds and a beginner. Anyone beyond a beginner needs to get used to the standard pull. I think the towers are more stout than the earlier models but I'm always concerned on an excessive pull in the turns or in a start dramatized by the rope coming at you so I would limit weight basically for kids who are beginning.

sandm
06-14-2015, 04:58 PM
^this
that's a lot of load to put on a tower. same reason you don't pull tubes from the tower.

gregski
06-15-2015, 10:34 AM
I definitely use the tower when teaching because it gives you that little bit of upward lift. I agree that you want to limit how much you let newbies use it though because it is a crutch.

I don't really subscribe to the weight limit... My boat didn't catch fire when I pulled a skier up that weighed 175 lbs. Seriously though, I think it's really the lateral pull that you need to worry more about.

mmandley
06-15-2015, 02:46 PM
I think the tower weight limit is BS.

I don't see why you can't pull a skier from the tower due to weight.

I pull multiple wake boarders from the tower and no issues there. 1 wake boarder might be less strain then 1 skier but 2 wake boarders has got to be more then 1 water skier.

The guys I do pull wake boarding load my tower up so much I have to counter steer sometimes. They actually cause the boat to roll towards them.

I would never pull a tuber from the tower though LOL

mark540
06-16-2015, 11:34 AM
Agreed, im 275 and have always wakeboarded from the tower, not sure you are going to put much more stress on it than me pulling to the sides a couple of feet off the water. Never had an issue.

New Guy
06-16-2015, 11:44 AM
I completely agree guys. The new towers are so strong I don't think that it is a strength issue as much as the boat rolling over. My buddy is a pretty hard skier and the boat would be all over the place if I tried to pull him from the tower.

Garn
06-17-2015, 11:12 AM
The weight of the skier isn't an issue. But the skill level is HUGE! Even an intermediate skier will put WAY more pressure on your tower than a wakeboarder. Use the tower to teach someone how to do a deep water start. But once they have mastered that I would just move them to the pylon.

Garn