Wakesurfing tips for newbie

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samt

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Jun 5, 2013
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Hey guys I just ordered my first surf board. I went cheap to learn because from my reasearch I need a $750 board Inland surfer red rocket. So we ordered a ronix Huntington. My brother and I are both 6'3 or 4 and 300ish. The ronix should be disable for us, but from what people says its not a real good board.

I figured before dropping some money on a good board we would make sure the boat and us are capable. I have a 96 blue water pro am skier pretty similar to all the common tournament ski boats of the day, very small compared to wake and surf boats of today.
Anyway I can move my passengers around and make a clean 12-15ft surfing area that's knee high or so. Probably bigger on the other side for someone goofy I guess because of my prop rotation. Is that enough? I see people online bragging about a waist high wave that's 15-20', but mine looks real similar to what I see on YouTube.
Any tips? All the how to videos seem over simplified.
 

rallyart

Lieutenant Junior Grade
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Jun 7, 2008
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Your boat will not produce a big wake but it is certainly cable of giving a good enough wake for you to use. It has low freeboard which means you need to pay attention to your driving so the surf wake does not swamp over the transom when you slow to pick up a fallen rider. The more weight you have in the boat the bigger the wake but too much and you wind up with a lot of water in the boat unless you are very careful. Use only water ballast, and people ballast, but not steel or lead.

The first tip is to keep hanging on to the rope. The more time you spend upright behind the boat, the more fun everyone will have. When you can comfortably ride for a minute with a loose line you can try dropping the rope. There is no loss in technique by hanging on to the line. Even learn to slide and to pump while you are with the line.

Next, you need to understand that being big means you need more push and floatation so a big board or a big wake are necessary. Also, it is usually best to drive a straight line. You can get a bit higher wave with a gentle inward turn to the surf side but the wave will have a little less push. It is, very much, a try it and see what works for you sport. Same with speed and weighting. Start about 11.5 mph, or an rpm that gives you that speed on GPS. Try up and down slightly from that. Weight forward in the hull makes the wake longer. Back makes the wake steeper. List makes a big difference if you do not have a wake shaper, as some of the new boats come with. Weight the surf side to get a significant lean to the hull.

There are lots of videos on how to get up and started. Watch some of those. Take your time. Falling is easy, and common. A very constant speed is important and remember it takes a little while for the wake shape to get stable when you are getting up to speed.
Enjoy.
 

rallyart

Lieutenant Junior Grade
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Jun 7, 2008
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1,175
Oh, and your will see many people out there that do not know what they are doing with the boat or the board, so don't just do what everyone else does. Think about why it might work.
 

samt

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
113
Thanks for the suggestions. Yes my boat is definetly shallow. I'll google low freeboard. Working on a tower now because if you move everyone up front to slalom or knee board from the pole you have to be extremely careful. I had water up to the floor this weekend, we were stopped picking up a skier and I wasn't watching. A big wake board boat came by about 100ft from us and sent 2 waves over the nose before I could give it a little gas. It doesn't take much to prevent it, but you get people in the boat that aren't "lake people" and your trying to coach a kid in the water and you just can't watch 100%.
Im about to the point of only taking 4 passengers and cutting a hole in my tube.
For now I think we will use people for ballast, but after we make sure we can do it I'll probably go for some sacks. I had the floor up last week fixing some rot and was hoping there was room for something under there, but no luck.
 
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