I have read a lot of good post on the forums about water in turn buoys. I did not find on the forums how much water, other than “40%.” I thought I would share what I found through experimenting. I used ½ gallon in the turns and ¾ gallon in the gates. The reason I am using water in the gates is to balance to wind shift with the turns. I would not think there would be much difference in how much the wind displaces a buoy with all air verses partial water filled buoy, but it was easy to do, so why not do it and rule out the debate. I have been skiing a little while now with just the turns with water and had a tip roll over on three occasions and the buoy just dipped and no problem. I thank each every one of you that paved that “water buoy” road ahead of me. Over five years ago I tore up an ankle that started by the tip catching #4 buoy at -38, rear foot came out of Animal then front came out of Animal toe first.
As far as I know TW did the testing on how much weight it takes to hold down the watered turns. I used a 3 lb. hand weight and it confirmed what TW posted was right. He showed using a ball type weight but I had no idea where to get them and thought something slimmer might work better. I am using small bungee now but plan to switch to weighted adjustment soon. I plan to make my weights out of PVC pipe with gravel inside and heat the ends to flatten them out. That should allow the air to escape but keep the rocks in. I will drill a hole in the top to attach the line going up to the buoy. I will try to follow up with the diameter and length of pipe I use for the 3 lbs. I also have an idea of heat shaping a small piece of PVC pipe for the rope to bypass the sub-buoy. I will also try to post a picture of that after I test it. There have already been pictures of tanks posted, but I’ll post mine anyway. I used some epoxy to attach my needle after I cut off part of the stem. I like a tank with a hose because it allows you to do other things while you buoy fills.  I am also attaching a picture to share of a jig I made many years ago to size the buoys.
There is no “safe” but I think there might be fewer injuries from water buoys than the old 100% air buoys.