Happy to explain ...First off take a look at this … as it gives a lot of info on the SkySky.
http://www.boatbanter.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=273Attached is a pic of my SkySki .... you sit on the seat (obvious that) there is a double locking lap strap that passes over you upper thighs, this locks you fully down onto the seat.
Your feet are on foot pads, inside a binding, and there is a locking strap that goes around your ankles .. fully locking your legs to the board.
This locking in is vital for 2 reasons …
1. Safety when you crash you don’t want to come in contact with the wing it would cause serious injury.
2. You become
‘one with the board’ don’t mean this to be anything Zen, but you need the board to move exactly with your movements .. if you were not firmly fixed it would be uncontrollable.
The T-bar goes from the seat through the board to the bottom fuselage .. and attached to that are a large front wing and small rear wing.
The whole idea id base on
aerodynamics – and how a planes wing works.When tow starts it will lift you so board is horizontal and flat on water … with your arms out horizontal in front of you, it then allows you to ride on the water .. bit like a sit on surfboard. As long as you are leaning fwd, the bar is down vertically so the 2 wings are horizontal … zero angle=zero lift.
Now if you change your position, by leaning back very slightly … towards a sitting up position this causes the front wing to go positive in attack angle (leading edge point up) and the board will rise … The issue is lean slightly it will rise, anything more and you will rocket out of the water .. with resulting big slap as you come back in … (take a look at the first url on page 4) you can see myself having a few falls.
It’s all about core balance … no strength required … if your core is perfectly in-line with T-bar, the foil rides where you want it and smoothly, when it comes together, you control your height simply by a small change of pressure on your feet … simply slight downwards pressure on toes will lower the foil.
Because so much is changing all of the time, speed, current, wind, pull may be slightly off centre, you lean only a few % fwd, backwards or to the side and it is amplified to very significant change in wing angle.
You minimise what you can … use speed control on the boat .. in my case set to 22mph, a non-stretch dyneema line .. a normal ski rope acts like a bungee cord for a SkySki. You tow from a tower so pull is upwards.
You tune the foil by adjusting the angle of the rear wing so that foil fly’s happily with you in a nice seated position.
Aerated water drops the lift, so that means where possible you fly the foil outside the wake ‘in the flats’ as the aerated water behind the boat from the prop makes a big difference to the lift …….. so slaloming from one side to other while flying is a really difficult thing to learn as your core balance must constantly change to keep foil at same height.
It is a huge adrenalin rush when you have a good run …. Get back on the boat and you are buzzing … real rush.
If anybody on the forum wants a try – come join me … more than welcome.
It’s not physically hard, but its not easy ………. 2 of my fellow boaters have spent many days trying to get up to basic on water position and not yet succeeded … (more than 2 years so far)
Here are examples of them from Saturday … both show 2 opposites of getting balance wrong … lean back too far take-off, lean fwd – nose dive.
The second one is the longest he has ridden so far ….. very long learning curve.
It was described to me as like juggling whilst riding a unicycle downhill, blindfolded ……. but its not as easy as that.
FourWinns H210, Volvo 280-C-N duoprop, Monster MTK tower, SBS 2600 twin axle trailer
Tow Vehicle - Landrover Discovery Sport
