Pulling a tube advice

[Carpani]

First time poster, so please be nice and patient . I have a '16 GTX 300 for reference that I bought new. I have been pulling skiers and tubes with it since we got it. I was pulling a tube the other day and all of a sudden it stopped the ski abruptly, yanked the ski back and under the water and flipped my spotter and myself off. My question is what do think was the main cause of this? Here is my uneducated guess. After a turn I slowed down and there was slack in the line, and/or a that moment the tube went between wakes and dove down ? The main reason I ask is I am not the most agile guy at 42 (and overweight ) and not sure that I could get the ski flipped back over by myself. Thankfully we had a couple 18ish old guys that saw what happened and one of them easily monkeyed over the ski an turned it over. Any help would be appreciated as I am now gun shy to pull with it again with the main fear that I would not be able to shimmy up it to turn in back over.

 

[skiasylum]

Nobody rides my ski unless they are comfortable tipping it over and then righting within two minutes. They are designed to withstand the occasional tip over but are not designed to be left tipped over for more than a few minutes. I would also be gun shy in your situation and I’m trying to be nice here but maybe time to start a get back in shape program. What might have happened if there was no help and your passenger got hurt?

And yes anytime you whip the the rope towing a tube there is a chance of burying the nose of the tube and causing your exact scenario. In a boat you can pull the tower down (seen it) or worse pull the tow hooks out of the boat..

 

[xspook]

I don't tow, but have been towed and have been on boats that were towing. Sounds like your theory on why it happened is correct. Keep the tow line as taught as possible to avoid this in the future. Also practice "righting" the ski when it overturns. There is a sticker on the back of the ski near the pump outlet that shows which direction to flip it over.

 

[skiasylum]

One more thing I will add is that it is very important to keep your tubes properly inflated, hard. This helps buoyancy of the tube and also makes it a lot harder for the rope to bury the nose of the tube. Read the directions that came with you your tow toy.