hogg@utcsri.UUCP (John Hogg) (08/21/85)
T. Jones was wondering how best to set a slalom course. While I am not a
waterskier, I have to recover various permanent moorings and anchors every
spring soon after break-up, and have found a simple answer: tie them
together! You seem to have your anchors well set, so when you take in your
floats, replace them with something that sinks, and run a light cord to
each sinker in turn. Now you have a long line lying on the bottom
connecting each mooring line. You can grapple for this very easily, or
even run the end of the line ashore if you're close enough. (But see
below.) I find the easiest sort of grapple to use is the 5-kilo Navy
pattern anchor sold by Canadian Tire and its ilk; the design is so
inefficient that it can pick up a line on the bottom, but will not dig
itself in. They are easy to come by if you dive in popular fishing spots.
Now, in exchange for these pearls of wisdom, please set up your !#&%?!
course somewhere where I'm not - and if you're not using a course, stay the
hell away from shore! Even in glassy weather, skiers seem to prefer to
demonstrate their (in)competence 20 metres off the end of our dock. I am
not impressed. My family is not impressed. Our neighbours are not
impressed. And the narrow-minded laws of this country take a dim view of
the purchase and employment of a small brass cannon loaded with grape, so
there's not much that we can do except ask you to be civilized...
--
John Hogg
Computer Systems Research Institute, UofT
{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsri!hoggtj@utcs.UUCP (tj) (08/22/85)
First some discussion about the retrieval of the course. We actually leave the underwater floats on so if we tied them together we would get them snagged on every fish line that passed by. Maybe there is something interesting here though. Eliminate the underwater floats altogether and just have lines from the anchors to attach surface balls to when we want to use it, tie them all together and sink them when not in use and run a line to shore. just follow the line to each anchor line to set up the course. sounds not bad, will think on it and report back. A couple of notes on where the #$%!.)-- course was set up. It was set up in a chanel in front of a friends cottage (his permission, he wanted to ski too...) and there is only one cottage near him. They are burried so far into a shallow bay that we couldn't get there if we tried... I think the key to co-existance is responsible operators. Just like you don't like me skiing off your dock, I don't like these fishermen taking the fish off the end of my dock. (really, I have a beautiful school of bass that lives near the end of my dock that I feed and watch when I dive) (I don't fish)(I don't even eat fish) There are pros and cons to every activity that each enjoys and we each can find fault with eachother. When I set up a slalom course I really do think long and hard about the people that aren't going to want me around so I find a place that disrupts as few people as possible. Just as there are asshole car drivers that make it bad for others, there are asshole bicyclists that make it bad, and there are asshole boat operators that make people wish that rocket launchers were over-the-counter merchandise. I try not to be any of these. Nuf said... oh well. t.jones