and how far do they skip like a stone down the river??? OMG - cool vid

Falling at that speed must lead to removing your testicles with dental floss.

awesome that has to be a rush!

Is it two different animals?

The Catalina guys put the handle between their legs and kinda sit on it while holding the rope, right? I would think at these speeds you gotta have more fine control? At 120 there is no such thing as calm water.

The first thing that crossed my mind was how many times would you skip and how far you'd go after a crash before you broke through the water and came to a stop. I saw 124 and some change as the highest speed and lots of mid to high teens sustained.
That's a mighty narrow channel of water to eat it in a turn at those speeds.
On the 3rd to last turn the boat never got below 100 and even with the skiers taking the inside arc they're still hauling ass.
One of the turns in the middle of the video had some lane buoys that looked damn close to the shoreline.

Hats off to the competitors in that event.
Grandes cajones indeed !!!

See ya,
Kelly

None of them put the rope/handle between their legs. These guys and the Catalina guys ski in the same stance and type of equipmnet.

It is two different animals....the catalina guys do have the rope between their legs...some wrap the cord around one side of their waist and hold on with the other hand behind their backs....what ever works for them....point is (IMO) that running at 75mph in the ocean where you get swells and chop alot different then runnign at 120 over smooth (albeit churned by a jet) water....anyone who has waterskid behind a boat doesnt mind sitting in the prop wash water behind the boat but hit some swells from a crossing boat and you get nervous....now do the same at 75mph and have a constant bobbing around from waves.....

That's just nuts!

I think a fair number of those boats are LS based twin turbo engines.

That just shows that an LS application can be excellent in a smaller boat.

in this country the marine police would be chasing them cuz the whole stretch is a no-wake zone...another worth watching is jet boat racing in class 5 rapids 75 to 100 miles an hour over huge rocks.