Cable for the guides. Anchors with subs for the buoys best way all around

Call Ed at EZ-Slalom - he can tell you pretty much anything and all you need to know. 

1-800-216-4461

We have cable mainlines and pvc out to the bouys.  Our situation is almost exactly like yours muddy bottom 5-8 feet of water and we haven't had any problems and the course has been in for years.  In the winter we just take the bouys out with floats at the entrance gates.

We have had the insta-slalom course for 6 years and have had really good luck.  We had fisherman get their anchors caught on it, cut bouy lines, tie onto pvc, etc.  Our main anchor is in 75' of water, the adjustable anchor is in 35' of water and the course floats in a range of 15' to 8' of water.  You just have to keep an eye on it.  If people hook to it go out there and tell them nicely that it's worth $3,000 and if they wouldn't mind hooking too it.  We've even taught people to ski just to teach them about it.  I would recommend short buoy lines 4' to 5'.  People can see the pvc if their anchor catches it plus it floats much straighter with short lines.  We've had pvc kink or break and it's really easy to replace.  We've made sleaves for quick repairs but I'd recommend ordering a few extra parts from insta-slalom.  Also, put 2 zip ties on each bouy, one through the hook and one through the metal loop.  You'll save lots of bouys by doing this, otherwise they pop off easy.  Lastly, we never takes our out.  We take off all the balls in the fall and let it sink.  A couple of our skiers are divers so they raise it in the spring.  We have it marked on a gps system.  This all sounds like alot of info but we are on a busy public lake and it's worked quite well!!  Good luck!!!

We have gone to plastic coated cloths line cable and aluminum crimps because of the amount of abuse our course takes from tubes and wave action.  We loose less buoys this way.  Yes we still loose buoys.