Wakeboard vs wakesurf

[Jgorm]

It seems like most of you enjoy wakesurfing more than wakeboarding. I'm just wondering why. I like wakeboarding much better than wakesurfing. I've ridden a 24 wakesetter, and it was fun, but not like wakeboarding. I always thought it was something to do when the water is too rough to board. What am i missing? I've been surfing on a surf board behind boats for 20+ years, but mostly because it's too rough or I'm in the 5mph zone.

 

[2kwik4u]

I'm gonna subscribe for the answer here. I predominately ride a wakeskate and have the same questions. No judging, just curiosity.

 

[Jameson Clark]

I am intrigued by it but have never done it. I bought my 212x to be able to wakeboard a bit easier than I did with my Monterey and it hasn't disappointed me yet. I want to try wakesurfing but would like to try it on someone else's before investing in one. Maybe one day I'll meet someone around my area that knows what they are doing so I can try.

PS - Answered here to subscribe mostly. I am also very curious.

 

[John Mcpartland]

I too like wakeboarding!! my wife hates wakeboarding and prefers wake surfing because of the speed. After taking a few good wipe outs wakeboarding she quit, that was about 5 years ago and we just started wake surfing last year. Now she is happy

 

[—Яiвs>]

I too like wakeboarding!! my wife hates wakeboarding and prefers wake surfing because of the speed. After taking a few good wipe outs wakeboarding she quit, that was about 5 years ago and we just started wake surfing last year. Now she is happy

Happy Wife Happy Life!!

 

[haknslash]

Because I need to be able to get to work the next day lol. Wake boarding is too risky for me to get hurt (sometimes serious). I'm not in the shape I was when I was younger so I just like it slow and chill and I find surfing easy on the body and fun. Personally I'd love to be able to slalom ski again but those days are sadly long gone.

 

[AboveTheBest]

What I’d like to know is why nobody slalom skis anymore!? First wake-boarding took over, and now that’s been eclipsed by wakesurfing.

My guess is people want to keep going slower and slower behind the boat, maybe this is all driven by high fuel costs...

I’m joking of course, do whatever you want, but I would like to hear someone legitimately answer this question as well.

ETA: just read @haknslash post, that makes sense.

 

[viper15]

I’m in my early 40s and I still slalom ski. Just taught my boys to ski this summer. The older one wants to learn to wakeboard. I’d like to try surfing. But my god! Those wakesurf boats throw a wave across the lake like an oil tanker! Kind of a pain for those of us that ski. But the lake is open to everyone.

 

[AboveTheBest]

I’m in my early 40s and I still slalom ski. Just taught my boys to ski this summer. The older one wants to learn to wakeboard. I’d like to try surfing. But my god! Those wakesurf boats throw a wave across the lake like an oil tanker! Kind of a pain for those of us that ski. But the lake is open to everyone.

While they do horribly churn the water, at least they go in a straight line and are easy to overtake.

Tubers on the other hand...

 

[swatski]

It seems like most of you enjoy wakesurfing more than wakeboarding. I'm just wondering why. I like wakeboarding much better than wakesurfing. I've ridden a 24 wakesetter, and it was fun, but not like wakeboarding. I always thought it was something to do when the water is too rough to board. What am i missing? I've been surfing on a surf board behind boats for 20+ years, but mostly because it's too rough or I'm in the 5mph zone.

Good thread!

I find wake surfing to be just fundamentally more peaceful (especially going ropeless!) than any other water sport. And, riding at 10mph w/o bindings is pretty safe, basically.
(By comparison w/wakeboarding, a face plant at 20mph... I'm done for the day)

The wake the surf boats create can be an issue, no doubt, and one is always responsible for any possible damage caused by one's own wake. But with speeds so low I find most wake boat encounters to be surprisingly "non-annoying".

The one not-so-cool aspect of wake surfing behind a Yamaha is the setup. No matter how hard one can try to make it simple and non-disruptive, there are limits.
Many times it's just so much easier to throw the rope out and start wakeboarding!

--

 

[njmr2fan]

I learned how to waterski back in ... well, I don't remember the year but anyway Kneeboarding took over for a few years and then a curious item turned up in our local Jersey Shore surf shop called a SKURFER.

From there we purchased wakeboards and off we went.

It had easily been almost 23 years since I rode my wakeboard when we got our AR and yet it was like riding a bike. The next day, and for that matter the next few days felt more like I was in a major biking accident. Guess I used muscles I forgot I had! Last year my wife bought us a wake surf board. Sadly we are yet to get it out with us because we don't have a mount for it and we're usually loaded with 2 families. But I have surfed behind a friends boat and enjoyed it a lot. As was mentioned before, Slalom skiing, skurfing, wake boarding are slipping away from me. I may be heading toward low speed surfing these days.

 

[Jgorm]

@njmr2fan that yellow skurfer was the first i rode! Then i got the hyperlight that darin sharpiro was riding. Mid 90s when that first injection molded board changed the industry.

 

[jsawyers33]

I just turned 40 this year and my goal was to still be able to slalom and wakeboard as well as learn to wakesurf. So far I have two out of three and I’m going to give wakesurfing a try this weekend. It is rare to see a slalom ski on the lake, but nothing beats “cracking the whip” on smooth water with a slalom. At 40 I do find once I am up on a ski I can’t ski very far like the old days, but hey I’ll take what I can get.

 

[zipper]

Good thread!

I find wake surfing to be just fundamentally more peaceful (especially going ropeless!) than any other water sport. And, riding at 10mph w/o bindings is pretty safe, basically.
(By comparison w/wakeboarding, a face plant at 20mph... I'm done for the day)

--

I have seen elsewhere on this forum that surfing with flying Carp can be detrimental to your eyesight. Everything has some risk.

 

[2kwik4u]

Interesting posts for certain.

@haknslash and @swatski quote the same reasons for moving to surfing as I had for moving to skating. No bindings, slightly slower speed, and the "effort" from the body is significantly reduced when compared to wakeboarding. If you "faceplant" on the skate, you just fall in the water, there is no leverage from the bindings to slap your head down at speed. Kinda do a "fred flinstone" (lets see the kids get that reference ) across the water until you sink down.

@swatski also hit the nail on the head for me with surfing. So much setup. The "fastest" setup for surfing I've seen is the RAMFill system on my friends centurion. Just drive around with the gates open and the ballast fills up on it's own. Otherwise it's filling bags, and placing bags, and tieing bags and such. Typically I don't have the opportunity to spend the time to get setup to surf, as my wake sports only happen at the end of the day. Until the 7yr old gets up on the skate, or we have more people on the boat that want to learn, I'm the only one doing it. Which means I usually get to skate back to the dock at the end of the day, and that's about it.

Have an adults only trip coming up this weekend. I'm hoping to get more than 2-3 pulls behind my boat. I'll try to get some video of it while I'm out there.

 

[Jameson Clark]

What I’d like to know is why nobody slalom skis anymore!? First wake-boarding took over, and now that’s been eclipsed by wakesurfing.

My guess is people want to keep going slower and slower behind the boat, maybe this is all driven by high fuel costs...

I’m joking of course, do whatever you want, but I would like to hear someone legitimately answer this question as well.

ETA: just read @haknslash post, that makes sense.

While I rarely slalom, I do still ski a ton. We are a skiing family and my brother and sister still slalom about everytime they go out and everyone in my family has taught their kids to ski by age 7. We just took a trip down the Cooper river to Charleston this past weekend and that smooth water on the river was a dream for my brother to throw the slalom around for a while! This picture is also from last weekend while we were having a little fun cutting up together!

 

[MidnightRider]

Although I still love wake boarding I’m getting to that age When body parts take 3 months to heal instead of 3 days. I still wakeboard but I no longer push the limits with it a try new tricks etc. With wakesurfing I can push the limits and try new stuff without the worry of hobbling to work for the next X months. Skim board is interesting to me, never done it but may look into that as well. We also still do a fair amount of slalom skiing.

 

[AboveTheBest]

For those who think they’re too old to slalom take a look at this picture of my 69-year old Dad skiing with me on Halloween last year.



Runs like this are generally followed by aspirin and bourbon, unless you’re out of aspirin...

 

[2kwik4u]

I'll just leave this right here

I'm not that good, but I sure try to be.

 

[DavisAR195]

It's all about trends and appealing to a larger audience is my thought. As most have echoed the higher speeds associated with slalom skiing and wake boarding result in more impact on the body. Similar in the ATV industry, everyone use to ride 4 wheeler's now everyone has razor's or some type of UTV with long travel suspension. It would seem that more industries are coming up with more low impact (on the body) options which consumers are eating up!