Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

[Blue Crabber]

Hey everyone.

Just had a quick question about wakeboarding. I recently purchased a 20' Four Winns bowrider that has a ski towing attachment in the center of the boat at the top of the transom. (NO tower or plyon)

I was thinking about trying wakeboarding and wondering if I will be able to learn the basics and have fun just using the ski attachment and not a "high tie" point.

The previous owner said that he wakeboarded behind the boat (I didn't ask) and that all he did was trim the motor up a little bit for a better wake.

Just wondering what everyone thinks. Don't want to spend the money on a tower before I know that I am going to enjoy it and how the boat is going to perform.

 

[AngelC]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

I see it done all the time.....You'd probably be better off with a four blade prop for that extra pulling power and I think you'd be fine. I to don't have a tower and my kids were able to get up with no problem, the only problem they had was staying up... lol

Good Luck

 

[blouderback]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

Angel, nice boat....

I too will be trying out wakboarding this year without a tower. I've been told that it can be done. However, you won't be getting great air when doing all your cool wake jumps and stuff.

 

[Blue Crabber]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

Angel, nice boat....

I too will be trying out wakboarding this year without a tower. I've been told that it can be done. However, you won't be getting great air when doing all your cool wake jumps and stuff.

I thought that would be the case. Just want to make sure that I can do it and stay up. At least find out if i enjoy it enough to invest more money into it.

I have a Four Winns 190 Freedom open bow with the 4.3L 175HP engine. I was doing 40mph with 4 people in the boat the other day. It gets on plane ok, but not instantly. Do you think the 4 blade prop would be the way to go? I haven't done any watersports with the boat yet so I don't know how it will perform yet.
Thanks!

 

[blouderback]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

4 blade will definitely help. Top speed is not what you want, you want hole shot. You want to get up on plane quickly. With wakeboarding, you're only gonna do 22-25 mph anyway.

 

[Blue Crabber]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

4 blade will definitely help. Top speed is not what you want, you want hole shot. You want to get up on plane quickly. With wakeboarding, you're only gonna do 22-25 mph anyway.

Thats what i was thinking. I know i will be able to do 25 even with a full load and a 4 blade prop. I would rather put trim tabs on but am trying to figure if they would fit.

Does anyone have personal experience with a 4 blade? I will ask this question in the prop section later. Just curious if any wakeboarders used it.

Thanks!

 

[valkcycle]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

I learned very quickly off a ski towing attachment. It certainly can be done. A tower would be great, but not worth th extra expense when learning.
Good luck!

 

[scottkanderson]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

It is no problem at all, you will only want to go between 18-21 mph. I have no tower but thought it would be much easier to get big air with a pylon, so I built one with a fence post and cables to the bow and stern, put a trailer ball on top. Only cost about $25 but did not help out much with catching air on my small wake, and only helped a little with getting up.

The getting up part is easy anyways, and would def just do it from your tow point to see how you like it. It is way funner than skiing.

 

[cube21]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

4 blade will definitely help. Top speed is not what you want, you want hole shot. You want to get up on plane quickly. With wakeboarding, you're only gonna do 22-25 mph anyway.

Depending on the engine sometimes it is necessary to get a four, or even 5 blade prop. As long as people can get up without a great hassle it might not be worth it. I would do some wakeboarding before you invest $$ into a new prop. Who knows? You might have plenty of power. You can always get one later when you decide its needed.

22-25 is even fast. As a beginner in wakeboarding (just started this summer), I shreedd behind a Caravelle without a tower. So far I pretty much stay under 19mph actually. I started around 15 but each time Im going a little faster. The better boarders Ive ridden with are more in the 22-25 range.

Angel, nice boat....

I too will be trying out wakboarding this year without a tower. I've been told that it can be done. However, you won't be getting great air when doing all your cool wake jumps and stuff.

You can get sh!t done without a tower. Ive gone behind both my boat and a boat with a tower. Im not that great...just starting to get little bits of air. You wont really NEED a tower until you get goood. Ive seen some awesome stuff done from the wakes of bowriders without towers.
The main difference, as far as Ive noticed, is just that a tower gives you a more comfortable stance and angle to hold the handle. My back starts to hurt after a while without a tower.

My 2 cents. Have fun.

-CUBE-

 

[bigpoppakdog]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

Heres how you build a pylor for under $50 or a little more than that if you wish. It's easy to put up and it is sturdy(I am over 200 lbs).

1. Buy a floor jack from Menards. They only cost around $17.
2. Buy some eye bolts. 4 of them. 2 that face the back of the boat and one that will face towards the front of the boat for the tie down anchors and one more either high at the top or lower than the back to to attach your ski/wakeboard rope to.
3. Buy 3 tie down ratchet straps. The sturdier you buy the more $$ it will cost. Two long enough to reach from the top of the pylon(pole) to the back ski hooks, and one long enough to reach towards the bow of the boat.
4. One more strap that will go through your bow hook and around the bow of the boat. This will be used to anchor your other tie down strap to.
5. Drill holes in the top of the pole to attach your eye bolts to.
6. Attach pole to a sheet of plywood(2x2 square is fine.) How a guy does this the easiest way to me, is to buy the small boat seat pedastel. I cut the top off so all that is left is the tube and the flat bottom. The pylon pole fits nicely over this. I drilled some holes and bolted the pole to it. Now I can screw the brace to the 2x2 plywood. It might be a nice idea to carpet the wood first to match the color of your boat floor. It would also be good if you attached some velcro strips to the bottom of the wood brace to help secure it to the boat floor. This way you do not have to drill anything into your boat.
7. Now position the pole/pylon where you want in your boat and with your ratchet tie downs you can then attach them to the eye bolts and secure them tight.

Might sound crude, but you have an aluminum pole that is already painted and you do not have to screw anything into your boat and it is easy to make, cheap and sturdy. I have built one and have used it for tubing, skiing and wakeboarding. Makes each one more fun. Rope doesn't get close to the motor. The tube skims a lot faster across the water and it's much easier to pull people out of the water skiing or wakeboarding.

 

[Utahboatnut]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

You can do just fine without a tower, as mentioned a tower does help with stance angle I am 6' 4" and without a tower I feel it in my back after awhile. But with the tower I can go on much longer runs. Try it before you dump a bunch of $ into a new prop you may be fine. The 4 or 5 bladers do work as advertised though I run a HI-5 21 pitch and that thing will pull stumps out, I do loose a bit on the top end but I am all about the watersports not lake cruising so its worth the trade off. Two slalom skiers pulled out no problem at all, with that prop. Remember to stay in a ball with your knees against the insides of your elbows, once you are ontop of the water and the board straightens out then stand up more. Lean back and keep pressure on that rear foot when starting out and get the feel of it for awhile. I grew up and spent my whole life slalom skiing competativley so the transition to a wakeboard was TOUGH because I tried to apply the same principles as skiing which as I found out you can't do they are totally different birds. Good luck and have fun 17 - 20 is really all you need to start, the tough part is keeping the boat at that speed it wants to plane and then you speed up so make sure your driver is watching speed not you or before you know it your doing 25+ and if you wipe out at that speed on a wakeboard

 

[Blue Crabber]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

Thanks everyone for the advice. I think for right now i am going to try my current set-up and see how it works and then go from there. If I really enjoy it than I will consider some other options (prop, homemade tower, etc)

Thanks again everyone and feel free to chime in with and other advice on the subject!

 

[bigpoppakdog]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

I would agree you don't need a tower. Most people who try to wakeboard end up giving it up because it is a little more difficult to get started than skiing. But if you do end up enjoying wakeboarding and advance to getting some "air" then you will probably want to get a pylon or tower.

 

[cube21]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

Heres how you build a pylor for under $50 or a little more than that if you wish. It's easy to put up and it is sturdy(I am over 200 lbs).

Interesting. This would be awesome and a good alternative to a tower, but might offset the look of our boat
Do you have any pics of your set up? Im curious to see what it looks like when put together.

 

[jafo9]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

i wakeboard behind a waverunner all the time just using the stock tow hook. getting up on it is pretty easy. you don't get much of a wake but it makes a great platform to learn on and get some exercise. i also wakeboard behind my pontoon with a low attachment point.

if i had an extra 50K i'd buy a real ski/wake boat. until i win my lawsuit for spilling hot coffee on my pants in mcdonalds, my setup works fine for me.

 

[bigpoppakdog]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

Interesting. This would be awesome and a good alternative to a tower, but might offset the look of our boat
Do you have any pics of your set up? Im curious to see what it looks like when put together.

I'll have a video of the setup later. Probably the end of next week. I'm going to be gone this week through weds. There is an alternative to the tie down straps. Nylon coated steel cables. You have to get your measurements perfect, with no need for tie down straps. You use a different twist tension clamp. Can't remember the name of it. This is more asthetic. I did not make mine using the nylon covered cables, but I think if I make the video I will do that.

 

[texashemi]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

My son learned to wake board this weekend. I have a Bayliner with the 3.0 inboard and it pulled him up no problem. There were several boats pulling boarders with no towers.

 

[redone4x4]

Re: Wakeboarding without a tower or plyon

I learned without a tower, and continue to wakeboard without one. I would like to try it though, its gotta feel better getting pulled "up" behind the boat, not "down" like the eyelet does though. all in all, its still fun and its better than sittin at home lol.