Anyone shatter a windshield from line unloading?

Alright, so I got this awesome job for the summer driving a malibu at resort up here in maine pulling skiers and boarders. We get everyone from first timers to seasoned veterans in all fields.

Anywho, so today I was teaching this guy how to get up on water skiis for the first time. Now he is a BIG STRONG guy, like his bicep was prolly bigger than my head! I started pulling him the line's getting tight... he's plowing water.. the line is getting tighter... and tighter... and POP! The line unloaded into the boat and shattered the center windshield!

Now I know that the line unlaods and pops back towrds the boat from time to time but this time it got slinged back into the boat so fast that the handle snapped the support arm for the driver's side windshield and proceeded on to flying through the center window and shattering it into a thousand pieces! Has anyone ever heard of the handle shattering the windshield like that!?!?! I was stunned! I still can't believe it happened! Crazy day!

holy crap, thank go that thing did not bop you in the head...

Invest in one of these.

http://www.bartswatersports.com/catalog/Ropes_and_Handles/Tow_Rope_Accessories/BART'S_Recoil_Tube/index.asp

I had that happen a few years ago. It was at 32 off and scared the crap outta me(driver).

Spectra!

Next time catch it and throw it back.

Rope Catch 200 points.

Haha! like in WAKEBOARDING UNLEASHED on the XBox!

I saw it happen once, it hit a guy in the boat on the forehead. left a bruise and everything. kinda scary but hilarious after the fact.

Yes, it happens. I use a Tak line for new skiers rather than poly for this exact reason.

Brutal. Glad it didn't hit you.

That happened to me twice. Once it hit me in the back and knocked the wind out of me and I started bleeding where the handle struck me. Second time different day it hit the mirror and broke it into thousands of pieces. I know now why it happend. First off it was on my old Ski Centurion Falcon 8 years ago using a 10' wakeboard pole. The wakeboard pole was cranked to tight toward the bow causing a sling shot affect. Second I was using cheap a$$ rope that was a low stretch rope. Third both guys that were learning how to boarding when this happened held on to the rope till the bitter end when they should of let go.

we had a guy catch it in the forehead. he got like 20 stitches. that is when we bought are no stretch rope

yeah, that's been known to happen using a ski rope. First off, they are shorter and secondly because they stretch. That's why the tourney Master Crafts used to have that netting behind the driver. The re-coil tube is a must if you are pulling a skier and a non-stretch rope is a must for all boarders.

Yeah I've heard of that happening a lot with slalom skiing. They make nets to catch the handles before they enter the boat too.

Had a friend pulling me on a single years ago, long story short rope made it all the way back to the boat hit the pylon and bent the aluminum pipe in the handle making the grip a slight v shape

A friend has had a ski rope go back into the bow of their boat, through the open windshield...

As for that recoil tube- how would it actually prevent this from happening? A water-ski rope is going to stretch no matter what, even if there is a foam tube around the first 3 feet. I had one for a few years until it got lost, seemed like a good idea at the time of purchase, but seemed pointless once I thought about it.

That happened to me.

My dad and brother were tubing and flipped the tube. The tube filled with water and the rope snapped. It hit me in the stomach and got jammed under our wind shield. Knocked the wind out of me and bruised me pretty bad. It wasn't a fun experience

I did that to someone a few years ago. The rope came back and split his lip right down the middle. We have had this happen several times. Most of them were before the use of non streach ropes but we still use regular ski ropes for sking so it happens every so often. We use the recoil tube on our ski rope and it works most of the time.

you need one of the roll bar things that have the net in them that the Protour Mastercrafts used to have a few years ago. Sorry I searched for a pic of one, but came up short

Just yesterday I got cracked in the back of the neck pulling up a slalom skier. I didn't feel the hit, it just felt like my whole body got stuck in a light socket. I could not control my arms to grab the steering wheel or pull back the throttle (and it was all the way down). Pretty much sat there screaming while the boat was accelerating like mad down a 200 ft wide private lake. After about 3 or 4 seconds I managed to toss the throttle back to neutral. Totally crazy, like the whole body funny-bone. I've got a nice lump on the back of my neck today … could have been much worse if we were pointed towards shore.

I also had a rope break once - I got all 60 ft on my back. Felt like getting whipped, nothing like a handle though. I'm going to make something to block the handle since it's always me that gets hit.

a girl i know had that happen and it broke her nose. the entire top half of her face was black and blue for a long time. not good!!

Kevin, the recoil tube works. And I'm a guy with 32 years of experience on the water including previous slalom competition at both the collegiate and individual level. It's an effective $20 insurance policy. IMO, very silly, even foolish NOT to use one with any type of Poly-P or Poly-E line, any slalom, or teaching big people to ski. I'm sure there may have been instances of a handle coming back into the boat even with the tube, but very rarely if ever, and not at the level at which most of us will ever be skiing.

Beth, get the camp to sping for a recoil tube.

It's the same pricipal when using a winch to pull something. If you search the good offroading sites, you will find that they all put a blanket or heavy coat over the line while it's under tension. I don't understand the physics exactly, but I think it dissipates the tension in the line when it suddenly releases.

Wow! I never would have thought a ski line could be so dangerous! Thanx for all the feedback guys!

Ok. now here's another question, the other driver (who is miserable and grumpy everytime I talk to him) said that its my fault and I should have accelerated to out run the rope, is it possible to outrun the rope? Personally I don't think so, the whole thing happened in about half a second, but if I am in the wrong I would like to know. Any thoughts?

ok, interesting...

Broke my sisters cheekbone, eyesocket and nose while she was in the boat and I was waterskiing about 15 years ago. She had to have reconstructive surgery. Stretchy rope with a steel straightline handle was a dangerous combo. Don't think I will ever hear the end of that one. I will post pics if I can get her to send them to me.

Beth, that is utterly ridiculous. It is impossible to outrun that handle (similar to trying to outrun a bullet?), and the unplanned sudden acceleration would be very dangerous. To try and outrun it would be making an already dangerous situation even worse.

That's a purely asinine thing for him to say! You can tell him I said so. Tell him also I was the chief boat driver for Georgia State University for many years, including director of training for all the other boat drivers at the university. To me, his statement sounds like a "know-it-all" effing clown trying to act like he knows his arse from a hole in the water!

Unless you have the worlds fastest boat and some of the quickest reflexes ever its highly unlikely that you would be able to outrun the rope. Theres a lot of force pulling on that rope and when it lets go, its going to slingshot and slingshot fast.

Tell the other driver to see if he can outrun a giant elastic and get him to report his results because thats basically what those ski ropes are.

I agree it would be impossible to outrun the rope, that's retarded. You should rig up something so that he has to outrun the rope with a big heavy handle aimed at his head. He won't be able to, and maybe it will knock some sense into him.

ahahahahaha


out run the rope

funny

I have seen this lots on ski courses, not so much with wakeborders. The handle is loaded with all the tension of the skier. When it springs back, even your spotter can't catch it, it's so fast. Get a rope dampner, that will help absorb the recoil right off the start and help deaden the whiplash back into the boat. Heads up for those spotters.

Basically, the ski rope turns into a long long spring, when it retracts to it's normal position, it does it as fast as the material will allow, hence the recoil into the boat at high speed.

Used to pop back into the boat all the time when I was teaching muscle head new yorkers to ski in Martinique. I always aligned the boat so the rope would pop away from me (we didn't use observers so it was headed towards an open seat). Just be glad the handle didn't hit you in the head. I have heard of drivers getting KO'd by flying handles. Using good ropes helps too.

one time i saw some folks trying to pull a log with a hand come along being pulled by a truck. the cable broke and the come along flew into the back of the truck just missing one person and smashing out the back window. scary.