Ski Boat Forum
General Category => Off Topic => Topic started by: chrisheile on July 17, 2010, 09:06:25 PM
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We have two brothers who bring their families up from Pittsburg every summer for a few weeks for vaction. They are wonderful people and I very much enjoy skiing with them or playing a bit of tennis. One of them had been hit by a jet ski a few years back and suffered a head injury. (don't even get me started on that topic. I believe there should be a helmet law for jet skis, a lead helmet!!!). Anyway, the one brother who had been hurt before was skiing the other night and hit some tuber's rollers (another sore spot with me) and took a wicked fall. He was knocked unconscious and did not regain consciouness until in the ambulance. He is still in ICU with bad dizziness, a ruptured eardrum, a minor fracture of the scull, ripped upper ear, and can't hear well. He'll be ok but it is going to be a rough road.
His brother brought up a good point. We all have a "pecking order" when it comes to drivers. If Joe is here, he drives, if not, Sam drives and so on. It usually comes down to, if nobody else will drive my wife drives or xxxx (whoever it is ) drives. We need to build a base of good drivers so that when something bad happens, they can get the boat to us, preferably the platform to us. We need to give everyone drive time to make them better, not just for the bad times but the good time as well. It makes it better all around. Just something to consider.
There is a 17 byear old young man on our lake who just loves to drive my boat. I try to give him drive time as much as possible because it is just the righ tthing to do. He' is responsible, and an all around good young man. There are times when IK need him to drive. If i let him drive when I don't necessarily need him to drive, it makes him a etter oater and helps me out when i really need him.
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Sorry to hear of the injury, & hope he recovers completely & soon.
Drivers are the most important key to minimizing injuries, Dan & I just finished a week of intense skiing with our boys & had plenty of scary crashes & only one requiring a "time-out". I offer the following RULES, the faster the skiing the more important they become:
NO stereo on in the boat while skiing
Large mirror properly adjusted
Clean water spots off windshield often
ENFORCE SKIER "OK" Hand signal when OK asap (allows driver to make low wake returns or quick returns if needed)
ENFORCE SKIER signals at start..."IN GEAR" then "Hit-It" (powerfull boats cause pain when there is 2-3 feet of slack & accelerating)
I'm sure there are a lot more that we do automatically but follow these & you will be heading in the right direction.
(AWSA Former Regular Driver)
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I like the "time out". My friend wanted to try the barefoot boom out the other evening. There were way too many rollers. After watching him skip off the rollers a good 8 inches from butt to water, I instructed him to get back in the boat and wait until morning.