Last winter, I bought a 2007 closeout HO Monza waterski as my transition from a HO Magnum into something resembling a tournament ski.  It was the largest ski I could buy at the best price, and the purchase decision doesn’t really get much deeper than that.

Little did I realize how painful it would be finding the setup information for the ski.  This year I had a close friend who bought the 2008 HO Monza, also without any information about it.  My quest was put forth to find the fin settings and information regarding how to get the ski back to the original factory settings.  Easier said than done apparently as the lack of information available online has been painful.

The HO website has the “current” ski setup guide, represented in a chart, which is really a picture on their website.  Let me complain about that for a sentence or two.  One would anticipate that having the fin settings for this years Monza would be the same for all the model years, but they are not.  The HO website is one big graphical sales pitch, none of which gives me an ounce of information that I can use to get my ski setup.  Psssst, how about you let the customer service department show up to the table on the next version of the website, instead of only the sales team.  The nerd in me is a little upset that there is an image file representing the setup chart.  Putting it into an image, instead of text or even a PDF document, keeps it off of the search engines, again making the effort to find the information nothing but painful.

I figured out that HO WaterSkis was on Twitter, so I sent them a Tweet, asking for a link to the documents.  I was impressed because they responded, asking me to send them a DM (Direct Message) with my email address. 

I replied back and said I can’t send them a DM, unless they unlock that ability in their security settings, or actually follow me in Twitter.  I actually tried to send a direct message a few times, until I realize it was failing.

While I never heard back from them, after that tweet, I sent an email a couple weeks later asking again for the information.  I am still waiting to get any information out of HO, but I do have a positive spin on an otherwise failed customer service story.

I now have in my possession a copy of a copy of the original owners manual that was supposed to come with my 2007 Monza. At least I think it was the 2007, manual, but there are no dates.   The information in the Quick Setup guide and information in the pamphlet I was supposed to receive, is actually REALLY useful.  It goes over the basics of fin adjustments, how adding or removing fin depth can affect either side of your position in the water, and even how to measure the settings.  Why they don’t want this information to be out there to the world, I have no idea. I will work on scanning it in, as these are just photos I took from the iPhone.  At least you can read them. which is more than you get online with HO.

The final twist in this tale is the last page of information where it tells you to go to hosports.com or hosyndicate.com for more information.

While you already know that going to www.hosports.com will give you the information for the current ski only.  What you do not know is that I can guarantee you that going to www.hosyndicate.com will not give you ANY information and never will.  You see, I own that domain.  After I went there, found a dead site that wasn’t registered, I bought the domain name.  While it would be too easy for ME to start posting information on HOSyndicate.com, I think I would rather leave it dead or perhaps raffle it off to the highest bidder who can send me a ski with an owners manual.