I took one ride with the PowerVest today.
A number of you guys said the deep water starts were super hard – I guess they could be if you are not paying attention. I am happy someone said something so I paid extra attention but it was not an issue. NOT super hard.
The adjustment is critical on the strap length so I errored on the long side and shortened the straps every few passes. This may not be the best method but it eliminated surprises. I did not actually get the adjustment short enough by the end of the ride but I learned a lot.
I did feel the vest take the load at the wakes but like I said I did not get the adjustment right yet.
Bottom line is it was my first ride so I am just getting started.
More next week. Definitely interesting
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On my first set I had the straps too long. I now have the straps so the vest takes just a bit of load at the wakes if I am stacked. I think they could be a bit shorter to take some more load. It will take a few more rides to work that out.
It seems that when I am in a really stacked position the vest does less. So it is telling me if I am separated or not. I like that. It also gives me a surprising amount of speed on my gate pullout. You need to pull out a little earlier with the PowerVest. Ultimately the vest is intended to take load at the wakes so I will shorten up a little for the next ride.
Funny thing that I love is when you exit the gates you just relax and breath. Silly but that is were you are reminded that you are doing so little work.
The arm straps are a bit of a pain. I skied without a rash guard or wetsuit today and the straps rubbed me a bit and then one of the stainless buckles pinched the underside of my bicep. I have a bruise but nothing to cry about. I will wear a top from now on and move that stainless buckle.
Goode strongly recommends wearing a rash guard over the vest for safetry. I have not gotten my head around that yet.
At this point I do not see any big down side and a lot of upside to the vest.
More to come.
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Please take video!!!
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My ski buddies already laugh at me - the vest doesn't make a difference.
Eric
PS It does scratch up the arms. I wonder if the sleeves over the straps cure that?
I spent $30 today on cyclist Lycra sleeves to go over my forearms for the safety issue.Minor Details.Silly me just looked in the box and Goode sent me sleeves so I did not need my own. Not the dumbest thing I have done this week. So I will always wear a long sleeve rash guard or something underneath and the Goode supplied sleeves over the top.
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The vest may very much help you but I don't know
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Barts ★ Connelly ★ DBSkis ★ Goode ★ Hobe Lake ★ HO Syndicate
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Barts ★ Connelly ★ DBSkis ★ Goode ★ Hobe Lake ★ HO Syndicate
MasterCraft ★ Masterline ★ Performance Ski and Surf ★ Reflex ★ Radar ★ Stokes
@bojans I'm not sure exactly what I do different to get up but there is almost zero load on my back getting up if I am patient, sit back and let the straps and back plate do the work. The lowered load on the starts is one of the best parts of the vest.
@ozski I lost a few buoys with the vest. Perhaps the injuries took a toll. Perhaps I'm just getting old. I'm struggling with my focus now so the vest is certainly not to blame for my current LOFT (lack of ... talent). The vest did limit my comfort with my reach which may have cost a couple buoys. I was never able to add any power to feel earlier or get other advantages. One nice thing was the ability to absorb a huge hit without getting hurt - whether this could help my buoy count ...? But I never did well after the big hits.
Don't jump with it - it's a weird pull.
Eric
1. Molding the back plate makes for a much more comfortable and supportive, (and stylish) fit. Oven at 250, monitor closely, gets very soft very quickly (walk away and you'll wish you hadn't) ... put back in vest and wrap with 6 inch ace til cools.
2. I found deep water ups a real problem at first - Until focused on a couple things - up accompanied by a lot of load on straps, body, boat, and infact kept breaking the back plate. (If that happens, finally found a way to fix and reinforce the plate). Thing that made ups easy for me with PV: make sure straps are long enough to get hands and handle in front of knees as soon as line loads from the boat, use a very firm "up" / acceleration from the boat, and most important - let rear foot heel immediately collapse (fully flexed knee) against rear foot buttock; then ski planes off immediately and all problems and high drag loads go away:)
3. Drag of strap through vest apparatus is the biggest "operational downside" to the vest. This can be greatly diminished by replacing the gizmo that comes with the vest with two small eye bolts with straps through the eyes on the back of the plate, and nut and bolt cut short and padded on the inside. It's also possible to find slipperier straps at hardware store. Also helps to put some packing tape on the margin/edge of the back plate along the axis of the straps to decrease sliding friction and reduce abrasive wear on straps.
4. Strap length: Straps that are too short are dangerous. This has worked for me: with arms at side, extend the wrist and adjust straps til this position just engages tension in the straps - then small adjustments from there. Another check: adjust such that when in "full lean", (try on dry land) straps are tensioned with elbows just a touch shy of full extension - this will allow full stack and really unload unhappy upper extremity joints, and pass load thru the plate to hips.
5. Consider a snap shackle on non dominant end of strap - then can "clip in" to the glove D ring at last moment and unclip at end of set or after crash - much easier in and out of boat, swimming, looking less geeky. The D ring on the glove will rotate 90 degrees - no downside there. By keeping the opening on the snap shackle towards wrist/ forearm - I can't see any way for the rope, handle, or anything else getting tangled in a crash. I have used this for three years .. no issues.
6. With clincher gloves, I do think there is some risk of little finger hanging at junction of handle and rope with conventional handle. I have used radius handle and no problem. Consider sewing or taping glove tip of little finger to the ring finger. Absolutely no downside and will protect little finger. I have not tried without the dowels in the glove, but it seems to me that discarding dowels would remove a lot of the "mechanical advantage" of the whole set up. (But maybe I will try it - as others recommend)
6. I never use the arm bands. Individual user has to decide if that's safe. Never had any incident that even considered "close call". I do ski with shorty. The metal fastener that secures the straps at desired lengths can scratch on wet suit on ups - duck tape prevents.
7. I don't think PV will make anyone ski better, but just a lot longer, while protecting a lot of the things that get wacked as we ski.
8. I have some pics, but still can't quite figure how to post:)
9. Sorry long post. I hope some part of this helps someone exploring PV.
Support BallOfSpray by supporting the companies that support BallOfSpray
Barts ★ Connelly ★ DBSkis ★ Goode ★ Hobe Lake ★ HO Syndicate
MasterCraft ★ Masterline ★ Performance Ski and Surf ★ Reflex ★ Radar ★ Stokes