Waterski set (not slalom) for medium height/weight woman?

[steve0617]

Wife wants to ski too. I had previously bought an O'Brien 68" set of skis. Nothing fancy. We're not slalom people. They're fine for me but too unwieldy for my wife.

The skis are just too big and clunky for the missus. The X7 binding that comes with these skis (men's 4.5 - 13) fit okay. She's one notch from fullly small to ensure they're tight enough to get out of the water.

I just purchased a 64" O'Brien set that has the 'X7 Junior' bindings but they're too small for her feet. But she feels the 64" will work but no way to know for sure until it's boating season as we live in Denver. So any purchase now while stuff is in stock or we can wait 2 months is a crap shoot.

We could of course go with custom but I haven't seen pairs of customs - only slalom with sized bindings. I'd rather not spend $800 on a custom set of two slalom skis.

So what all brands/sizes of ski sets have you found that are manageable for a 5'7 140lb woman?

 

[marcham]

Normally, above 120lbs they can manage fine on adult skis. I was going ti sugget that OBRIEN makes a 64 with adult bindings....but you already tried those. sounds like you're starting a collection!

I imagine she has trouble managing the floatation of the skis while getting dragged. Does she have a snug fitting lifejacket that doesn't ride up? It helps to have a good lifejacket with lots of flotation that's snugly fit.

Driver control is very important with beginners. Do you have a rear view mirror to adjust to what the skier is doing? Slow gradual acceleration. Once they have the skis under control accelerate more and pull them out. I get most beginners up on the first try cause they do nothing! Then on the 2nd try to try to stand, pull on the handle, etc.. and it takes another 6 to 10 tries to get them up.

 

[steve0617]

Normally, above 120lbs they can manage fine on adult skis. I was going ti sugget that OBRIEN makes a 64 with adult bindings....but you already tried those. sounds like you're starting a collection!

I imagine she has trouble managing the floatation of the skis while getting dragged. Does she have a snug fitting lifejacket that doesn't ride up? It helps to have a good lifejacket with lots of flotation that's snugly fit.

Driver control is very important with beginners. Do you have a rear view mirror to adjust to what the skier is doing? Slow gradual acceleration. Once they have the skis under control accelerate more and pull them out. I get most beginners up on the first try cause they do nothing! Then on the 2nd try to try to stand, pull on the handle, etc.. and it takes another 6 to 10 tries to get them up.

I haven't yet purchased a 64" with the adult bindings. The 64" ones we tried are the 'jr' bindings and are too small. Her vest is right and fits fine and she knows how to ski. But she needs smaller skis that aren't quite as heavy.

I'm asking what other brands of a pair of skis people have purchased for their wives that aren't O'Brien.