[eluser]WanWizard[/eluser]
@benboi,
You haven't defined any validation rules in your model, so no skip_validation() is needed.
The save() method does an UPDATE when $modelobject->id contains a value, and an INSERT if it's NULL. Is this all your code, or are you assigning a value to the 'id' field somehwere?
The idea behind model validation is that you don't have to do that in your controllers. No matter where in your application you update a model, the validation is run. If you do it in your controllers, you have to add validation code everywhere you're updating the model.
Which will become a maintenance nightmare if your application has any size, and you add or change your table structure, you'll have to scan your code to update all your controller-based validation code.