hi guys,

i just want to share with you some of my experience with ski tuning in cold clean water. I always tought i was doing things wrong with my skiing....and yes there is a lot to improve but i felt mt ski was finishing well the last half of the turn. I search the internet and found the excel sheet from FM site.

I was skiing on a o'brien sixam 1.1 67' (red and purple) on the recoomended  settings from this site. The ski was very good but always felt it could carry more speed trough the turn and finish better.

My lake is around 1 mile 1/2 of very clean water averaging this time of year 72-74. I set my fin to the recommendation from the FM program and my ski tip stayed down a lot more and i had better angle and width. I worked fine with the Sixam better than stock setting.

3 days ago with a new driver started me to fast handle slip and hit my sixam on the nose...splitting it ! duct tape it and finished my set. My best ski ever is broken and my wallet is empty...

Found a compromise in local shop and bought the best ski I could afford...end up with a 67' 2009 RADAR Annex. Cooming from the Sixam a top end machine i felt down a bit. But lets take it for a spin and we will see.

First ride out with the stock setting on FM site. I am not at all impress with the ski...not bad but sure a step down from my Sixam ( a ski i skied for 4 years with total trust). I have to admit i was not confident on the ski ( I also had a wicked fall the night before with my patch Sixam...they all told me it was the duct tape....we had a good laught with that one).

So next morning entered the numbers in FM excel shhet and adjust the Annex to those number. Same thing I did to my Sixam 3 weeks ago....not the same result. The Annex does not behave the same to fin adjustment than my Sixam.....I could not turn and the ski had a very grabby fell. I ended the set early affraid to take a big one .

I went to this site and looked at the proposed setting for the Annex and adjusted my ski to those specs...wich are a bit different than what my ski can with. Went out and hope to have a better set. Wow ! Chris you know those skis because it was a totally different animal....i never skied so smooth..i was earing the ski and fin whistle and i was carrying a lot of speed and angle....without much effort. I love my Annex now!


I need to change a bit my habits since this design want you to be very calm and not crank to much....does not impress the chick as much but on the water very efficacious.


OK what to take from this : Water texture and temp affect skis for sure but not all skis behave the same. If you have a sixam or an F1 ( 2 of my ski buddys are on those and are happy with the adjustment from the FM site excel program) the FM excel sheet works. For Radar skis Chris Rossi set up is working fantastic in my deep cold clean lake go figure. Do yourself a favor and start with Chris number and play from there. 

Radar skis rocks and the Annex is a very good ski, i bought it because I disn't have the money to buy the RS1 but i think this ski will help me acheived my goal this year.

PS.:Chris and Wade you did a good job with my friend Patrick this spring he bought a ski boat and is progressing well. He enjoyed the experience and coaching you gave him.