what does it matter??

[Whitetail15]

i read about having to get used to zero off. i am not a pro skier, just ski for fun. if a boat pulls you threw the coure at 34 mph, what does it matter if they use zero off, pp, or anything as long as the boat is at 34. how does the skier even tell.

[teamseal]

Funny you should ask that question!

Zero Off is the single most contested subject within the tournament world today.
One of the biggest controversy is that for those that have it they have a unfair advantage for training purposes in competition. Their is a different feel to most skiers, some say it is far firmer than that of any other Speed control and does not allow the skier to get in sync with the boat. Others say that their slalom style will not fit in the ZO box (I would have to agree with that one as mine does not). Their are skiers that can ski with PP/StarGazer with exact same time criteria as ZO and loose anywhere from a couple of buoys to a whole pass on the slalom course when they utilize the ZO system.
Then their are the technically sound skiers that prefer ZO and ski well with the system, Most good 36 mph skiers like the ZO system and can not really tell the difference between that and a correct set up PP. The group that seem to have the most problems with the ZO system is the large men 34mph skiers. Out of my family we have had the ZO system in the last two 196's and I have problems with the ZO as does my 19 year old daughter but we are short non textbook slalom skier's, my son on the other hand has great technical slalom skills and loves ZO and ski’s well with the system.
In defense Of Zero Off they are listening to what skiers are requesting as far as betterment of the pull and system. Last year we went to the revQ program that allowed for more of a variety in pull characteristics. Also the ski 200 Zero Off program requires some different gains as to that of the over the counter ZO system.
I have taken a two season layoff from entering tournaments to try and better my technique but I am afraid that for some of us we will need to be happy being open water free skiing non competitors because the advent of ZO has taken us out of the game. Where once we could slam dunk and scrap our way thru the slalom course now some of us are better off not entering competition. I personally have taken harder falls in the last two years than the all the years since the early 80’s learning the course at 36mph. At my age I can not take the hits to try and run 32 and 35 off with ZO.
Hopefully Zero Off and the AWSA are listening to what skiers are feeding back because (IMHO) it is starting to have an effect on membership and tournament participation.
I look for the day of a RPM overlay option in Zero Off that emulates the pull of the Perfect Pass to some degree then maybe I can get back in the game!

[2gofaster]

Oh, you can tell! lol I bitched and moaned about ZO until I bought a boat with it. Within two weeks, I loved it. There is no doubt a different in the pull in comparison to Perfect Pass. If you are light on the line, ZO is light on you. If you are heavy on the line, ZO will freight train you. ZO is going to have a delta from actual of .02. So if you pull it down hard, it's going to gas just as hard. With the Q101 sw, I have absolutely no complaints. The nice thing is you can tailor the pull to your style. With PP/SG, it's pull had the same "bandwidth" no matter what. With ZO you have 3 bandwidths and 3 delays. A lot of 34mph skiers gravitate towards A, while a lot of 36 mph skiers go towards C. If you start at A and feel like you're falling away from the boat at the end of the turn, you can move to B or C and get picked up sooner. And vice versa.

[hourglass]

it's just another thing to make yourself more diverse. just like a wakeboard contest where some riders have different wakes w/ different weights in them. you should be able to so ski with z.o, pp, or just a driver. the pro wakeboard tour is pulled w/o use of speed control. just a bad dude named travis moye