Water skiing terms

[gt2003]

I'm looking at slalom ski's, have slalomed quite a bit many years ago, used to watch slalom skiing on TV and am getting back into skiing this year. Back in the day I remember the skiiers on TV making "4 buoys at 36 feet" and that made perfect sense. My question is, now that I'm getting back into skiing, I see the term "I ski (X)-feet off" (insert whatever number). What does this mean?

 

[oldjeep]

Re: Water skiing terms

That is the number of feet off a standard 75 ft ski rope

 

[climbabout]

Re: Water skiing terms

Tournament ropes have loops at various intervals as follows:
Tournament ropes have incremented loops to attach the rope to the boat at fixed settings. Each loop is a different color.
The first loop is 15 feet from the rope's original full-length connection point to the boat. This is considered 15 off, which is a rope length of 60 feet (75 - 15 = 60). The following increments are 22, 28, 32, 35, 38, 39.5, and 41 off.
A slalom course has a set of six buoys as follows:
The six buoys are 37.5 feet from the center of the course. At 38 feet off, the rope no longer reaches to these buoys and thus the skier has to use their body to get around them. At 43 off, the rope is 32 feet long, thus five and a half feet inside the buoy.
Tim
Tim

 

[skibrain]

Re: Water skiing terms

Even if you are not or have no intention of skiing in a slalom course, having a sectioned line is nice to experiment with. Assuming that for slalom skiing you are looking for a low wake for quick and smooth wake crossings, the wake behind your boat may be a bit flatter or narrower closer to the boat.