About Us

ABOUT C PRENTICE

Christy and Cindy Prentice are the daughters of Tom & Carrie, original TAC line distributors. Growing up on the water, these two can’t help but be passionate about water sports! Their goal is to provide both a superior customer experience and tremendous value for our customers.

We love our customers and welcome your feedback and suggestions!

HISTORY

¼” 16 strand polyethylene Japanese ski rope was originally sourced from Japan through a past skier of Cypress Gardens. He had been supplying the rope for years to Cypress Gardens and other clubs. In 1994, Tom & Carrie from Lake Elmo Sports started purchasing the rope from him in Winter Haven Florida and started selling the rope to all the ski clubs in the United States. The rope came from a company named Daiei in Japan. In the year 2000 or close to that, Barefoot International started using the same rope from the same source and called it TAC line. Sometime after 2002, the Daiei factory that made the rope in Japan burned down and the rope was no longer available and there were no plans to rebuild.

Creative Sites

In 2011 after many of the ski clubs kept calling Tom to try and source the rope again, he agreed to try to source the rope again and reached out to his contacts in Japan. Since Kurt Carpenter from Ski Otters was one of the people who kept requesting the rope, Kurt agreed to help finance the rope project and help with the sales. They purchased some equipment for the rope makers and started importing the rope again and sourcing to the clubs. The main challenge has been the long lead times, the available colors, and keeping enough on hand to meet the demand. Later on, the Prentice daughters started working as sales representatives for the company.

Design

¼” Japanese 16 strand hollow braid Polyethylene rope- When the manufacturer measures it without a load, they refer to the rope as 8mm, but when you pull it tight it measures ¼”. There are 16 strands and each strand is made up of 15 monofilament filers. Not all polyethylene rope is the same. Like a lot of products, there is some art involved with the filament formulation and the settings on the rope winding machines which remains a trade secret.

History

Polyethylene was first synthesized in 1933 and put into production in 1939. Polyethylene rope has very low stretch, high strength, and is excellent in both chemical and ultraviolet resistance. Similar to Polypropylene rope, but polyethylene retains its memory so that winding a ski rope is made easier. Polyethylene is heavier that polypropylene and offers more abrasion resistance. It also has a high buoyancy, which allows it to float.

Product

Currently in stock is white, blue, and yellow. In order to add a new color, we typically need to order more than 100,000 feet. Each new container from Japan we have tried to add a new color. Summer of 2016, we will be offering new colors to our collection.

Simply Amazing

Be sure to check out our customer reviews page and read what people are saying about our product.

Used by Professionals

Our product is used at many professional shows across the world!

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