Slalom Ski Setup

Finally got in the water last night after a rough spring. Cool, overcast and dead calm. Awesome skiing weather and glass on the lake. Pulled my son on hiw new Seige for a while, which he loved. He then drove me on my new Triumph. His first time behind the wheel driving a skier so we had our challenges. Got me up on the 5th or 6th try and away we went. Here is where my setup question comes in. The ski felt great and tracked good, but I was getting a face full of water. I initially thought we may have been running slow, but my son swears he was at 34. I've never done any ski setup before or skied on a ski with a wing, so I suspect I may need to do some adjusting. Are there some general rules of thumb on boot position, rudder and wing angle that may help? Other resources I can review while we wait out the rain this morning? Thanks.

First, ensure that you were at 34 mph and not 3400 rpm, that could be about 30-32mph (on my boat 32).
What size ski do you have? How much do you weigh and how tall?

With the boat at speed, your water should break at the heel of your front foot while skiing flat (not turning, accelerating, etc). Given the proper length ski for your weight, your boots may be set up too far back. Was the ski new? Did you set up the bindings, fin, or wing?
If you search the web for ski setup, there are several tips which will help.

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Originally Posted by maxpower220

First, ensure that you were at 34 mph and not 3400 rpm, that could be about 30-32mph (on my boat 32).
What size ski do you have? How much do you weigh and how tall?

With the boat at speed, your water should break at the heel of your front foot while skiing flat (not turning, accelerating, etc). Given the proper length ski for your weight, your boots may be set up too far back. Was the ski new? Did you set up the bindings, fin, or wing?
If you search the web for ski setup, there are several tips which will help.

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Good point about the speed as I don't have cruise or Perfect Pass and it's entirely possible the speedos are off a couple miles an hour. I need to take my GPS out and calibrate them. That being said, we went out again this morning and I got up a lot easier and was much more comfortable on the ski as I had my son take the speed up some. He said the speed was 36 but I still need to calibrate the speedos. I got the ski new and haven't done anything to it but pull it out of the box. I was much happier riding it today and it was all I expected. The ski is a 69" Triumph and I am 6'2" and about 240 (give or take). I think I'm going to ride it some before I mess with it. Only problem I had was that when I dropped the rope, I was so gassed I couldn't get the boot off. I need to work on that.

Just about everybody I've seen who complained about spray is too far forward on the ski for one reason or another.

I tend to agree as i have a 69'' Triumph as well and speed should really only be 34 top end. this ski is fairly bouyant. I've never had spray issues. Now my new Monza on the other hand likes 36 ,which i'm still gettin used to.Possibly some of the fin adjustments are out or something. You could try emailing someone at HO and have them send you a list of factory adjustments for that particular ski. I emailed once before just for some other info and they replyed promptly and were quite helpfull. Good luck . It is and or was a very nice ski for me.

Steve has a lot of good tunign info on this site:

http://www.schnitzskis.com/skitips/skituning.html

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Originally Posted by Mikey

I tend to agree as i have a 69'' Triumph as well and speed should really only be 34 top end. this ski is fairly bouyant. I've never had spray issues. Now my new Monza on the other hand likes 36 ,which i'm still gettin used to.Possibly some of the fin adjustments are out or something. You could try emailing someone at HO and have them send you a list of factory adjustments for that particular ski. I emailed once before just for some other info and they replyed promptly and were quite helpfull. Good luck . It is and or was a very nice ski for me.

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I finally remembered to take a handheld GPS down to the boat and calibrated my speedos. They were about 2-3 mph fast. I've settled in on the Triumph are right about 33 and am loving it.