I filled all ten this year and have not found any cons.

Brian - we don't, we ski all year and the course has never been removed, at least the 12 years I've been here. Can you leave the course in and just remove the buoys? Attach some noodles to the lines to see them in the spring each year when you reattach the buoys.

h20dawg79 wrote:

Need info. regarding water filled Buoy's!

The list of Pro's for the Water filled Buoy's seems Sufficient. But, are there any Con's to filling them?

*Does the wind displace the course or the Buoy's any easier?

*Is Maint. any more of an issue?

*Are there any considerations with regard to the existing set up? i.e. sub buoy changes, etc...?

*Any FYI's would be great!

Thanx for any help!

I've been an advocate of filling skier balls ~ 40% with water for many years, and have dealt with just about all the issues one could expect from a floating course and/or a fixed course  - since I have both kinds on my lake.

1) Any external force can displace "water-filled" buoys more easily than all-air buoys.  That's what makes them safer - they displace easily when you ski over the top of them.  However, as a skier you only really care that the buoy mostly displaces downward (and sideways a bit).  So you can keep them from displacing too easily in the wind by having sub-buoys that are under a good amount of tension, followed by a fairly short tether up to the safety buoy.

2) Replace  (or paint them ) when they fade.  The water can freeze inside over the winter with no negative results.

3) If you're using a floating course you may have to use a little less water so that they are buoyant enough to support the arm.  Any supplemental flotation you add below the surface - foam noodles zip-tied to arms, for example - should not be able to float the arm on its own; you still want some tension on the buoys themselves.

TW

In our experience, if the buoy lines are all the same length and buoyancy is relatively similar for all the arms any minor wind will affect all the buoys pretty much the same - keeping the course basically symmetrical.   In a decade of using them on our floating course (in all kinds of weather) we've never noticed a wind displacement that affected our skiing in any way.  It is, after all,  just practice.... right?

You might also want to remember that according to AWSA rules the total allowable error for buoy position is almost a foot (!) in the lengthwise direction and about 9 inches in width (for each buoy).  If the wind at your site is changing  the buoy position more than that you may have problems beyond the scope of whether or not there's water in your buoys...

TW

There is one very important point we found out in the two years we used H20 Buoys on our course here in Orlando. It is imperative that they are tightly tethered. If the water level goes down slightly the air filled buoys will ride high and it is obvious they need to be tightened down. This is not the case with the water buoys. They ride low in the water all the time and you have to visually inspect them to make sure the line is tight. We had two people hurt after hitting, what we found out, was a loose H20 buoy. One of them was me, and I bounced off that thing like hitting a brick. I had hit the water buoys before to no avail but this time was different. After inspecting the guilty buoy I found out it was the one buoy in our course that had a loose line. It just does not rebound the same with a loose line as it does with a tight one. This was the hardest buoy hit I have ever taken. Actually, it was so violent, it shattered the Powershell Plate as it released. As I said, it is deceptive to the eye, since they float at the same height loose or tight.
I have since replaced them with the Goode Bubble Buoys and feel it was the best decision ever.

Ski Well,   ED