2 August 20231:01665 views on YouTubeWatch on YouTube
Riding laps of open water gets you comfortable. Riding a marked course gets you better, because a gate you have to hit forces a line you would otherwise avoid. The problem is that purpose built waterski course hardware is priced for boat owners, which is why this build skips it entirely.
What the gates are made of
Gates start as a pack of six pool noodles, around twenty five dollars for the set. They are highly visible from the water and, more to the point, they bounce off you if you clip one, the same way an alpine ski race gate does. Anchoring is done with stainless steel cable rated for deck railing, which resists tangling in a propeller and lasts, secured with crimping loop sleeves and a crimp and cut tool. Spring snap carabiners let gates come on and off the line quickly. Anchors can be cinder blocks at about a dollar each if you want to keep the cost as low as possible.
Making the noodles stand up
A noodle floating flat is not a gate. Ballast of roughly seven to ten pounds hung below each noodle keeps it upright, and bricks, rocks or old weights all work. Optional rope floats make setting up, tearing down and adjusting gate height easier, which matters more than it sounds when water levels move through the season.
Laying out the course
The suggested layout is a four point course covering about half a mile. Pick a spot with clear viewing for spectators and away from boat wake. Set two starting gates roughly ten feet apart, positioned about twenty feet off the dock, and treat that pair as both start and finish so timing begins and ends in the same place. Slalom gates one and two go a short distance past the start, about thirty feet apart, one to the left and one to the right of the centre line. Buoy three goes far out, roughly five hundred feet up the course and parallel to gate one. Buoy four sits about five hundred feet from three, set kitty corner to gate two so the return leg becomes a long diagonal sprint.
Why it is worth the afternoon
A course gives you something to measure yourself against, and a diagonal sprint between two distant buoys builds speed in a way that aimless cruising does not. It also gives anyone watching from shore something to follow. Build it once, leave it in for the season, and every ride afterwards has a shape.
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