Any tips/advice on improving wake?

[TXsweetcheeks]

We are new to owning a jet boat and to wake surfing.
Our kiddos love it and it took them 3 days straight on the lake to figure out how to let go of the rope.
Good thing we were camping there

With that being said, any advice or tips to help our kiddos get the most out of our 195s for surfing?

We have installed TVs and wake booster kit along with additional fat sacks with the following configuration: 400lbs on surf side swim deck, 200 lbs on other side of swim deck, and 400 lbs on surf side rear seat.
FYI - we went by RPM on connext screen for speed since our speedometer quit reading the second time we took her out.
We tried to keep it between 5600-5800 and then set cruise control to adjust speed.

We have Ridesteady on the way and hopefully have it installed by the end of week.

I attached a short clip of our kiddo - first time without the rope

 

[Mesa50]

If the speedometer isn’t working, you can download speed box or some other gps app that will show your speed fairly accurately. I’d try to stay between 10 and 11 mph. You should have plenty of weight, but you might want to experiment with some of the ballast in the bow. Try the 200 and 400 at the rear, and experiment with half full, and completely full with your other 400 in the bow. A couple of adults on surf side helps as well. Surfing is always better when I have a couple of extra adults on board. With what you already have, it’s probably just a matter of figuring out where to put the weight.

 

[TXsweetcheeks]

@J-RAD can you recommend any other boards that might be a better match for our boys other than the HyperLite Rocket 5'4"? It was recommended to us by Sun and Ski as a good beginner board and so far the only board we have.
We do have a smaller wave since we have 195s but both our kiddos can get up and ride without the rope.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[J-RAD]

@J-RAD can you recommend any other boards that might be a better match for our boys other than the HyperLite Rocket 5'4"? It was recommended to us by Sun and Ski as a good beginner board and so far the only board we have.
We do have a smaller wave since we have 195s but both our kiddos can get up and ride without the rope.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Congrats on the new boat and your wakesurfing success! I enjoy seeing my kids try succeed as much as doing the things myself. It's a pretty big deal!

As for the boat, the wave is looking nice and clean. I would say it's lacking just a little bit of height that would maximize push. Consider taking the 200lbs ballast that you're ruining in the non surf side and place it on the floor. You could also try a gradual turn surf side. Lastly, the single engine boats don't suffer quite so badly from jetwash, some would advocate the WakeBooster isn't a necessity. You could experiment with running without so see what effect positive or negative it has.

As for the board, what weight range are your kids?

 

[TXsweetcheeks]

Congrats on the new boat and your wakesurfing success! I enjoy seeing my kids try succeed as much as doing the things myself. It's a pretty big deal!

As for the boat, the wave is looking nice and clean. I would say it's lacking just a little bit of height that would maximize push. Consider taking the 200lbs ballast that you're ruining in the non surf side and place it on the floor. You could also try a gradual turn surf side. Lastly, the single engine boats don't suffer quite so badly from jetwash, some would advocate the WakeBooster isn't a necessity. You could experiment with running without so see what effect positive or negative it has.

As for the board, what weight range are your kids?

Thanks for the feedback @J-RAD.
We tried without the booster and we just couldn't get the shape of the wave as we did with it.
We are going to move the 200lb to the locker today and see what happens.
Our boys are 110lbs and 85lbs.

 

[Awd-turbo]

My daughter uses the gromcast by hyperlite and she loves it... We have a ar195 also, she can ride without the rope. I however, can not figure it out. Any suggestions for the bigger adults? Something I am not trying?

 

[TXsweetcheeks]

@Mesa50 I have to agree with you...extra adults help shape a better wave and they are easier to move around when trying to experiment

The ride steady made a huge difference with keeping the boat at a consistent speed (10.5) especially since our speedometer isn't reading on the connext screen.

Got the LF Primo 4'10" but haven't had a chance to try it out because our oldest has swimmer's ear....maybe this weekend?

 

[Mesa50]

My daughter uses the gromcast by hyperlite and she loves it... We have a ar195 also, she can ride without the rope. I however, can not figure it out. Any suggestions for the bigger adults? Something I am not trying?

Adults usually need a big board. Even when the wave looks pretty good, there isn’t always good push from it. Thicker boards with a lot of volume work decent for adults when surfing behind jet boats. The Yamaha branded Slingshot board looks like it’s almost a full size ocean surfboard. I’ve seen people surfing tiny waves on stand up paddle boards. It’s hard to figure out what size is best just by looking at a website, and picking one. I just purchased my second board in a year and already questioning my choice. Unfortunately, this sport seems to be a lot of trial and error.

 

[3 green tornados]

For the kids, once they get used to pumping to catch back up and doing bottom turns and can “float” for a moment at the top of the wave start moving to a board that is shorter and has “sharper” rails on its sides rather than a smooth radius. The shorter, thinner the board with sharper rails typically the faster the board is and requires a higher skill level in the rider. More or larger fins also make the board “stick” or “track” tighter to the wave. Smaller or fewer fins allow for more maneuverability but a “slippery” feel. For kids that size, once they are really good on your current board I would go down to maybe a 4’8” skim style board, preferably one with three or four fins so you can alter it a bit and make it feel completely different as they get better.

 

[Farny]

We are new to owning a jet boat and to wake surfing.
Our kiddos love it and it took them 3 days straight on the lake to figure out how to let go of the rope.
Good thing we were camping there

With that being said, any advice or tips to help our kiddos get the most out of our 195s for surfing?

We have installed TVs and wake booster kit along with additional fat sacks with the following configuration: 400lbs on surf side swim deck, 200 lbs on other side of swim deck, and 400 lbs on surf side rear seat.
FYI - we went by RPM on connext screen for speed since our speedometer quit reading the second time we took her out.
We tried to keep it between 5600-5800 and then set cruise control to adjust speed.

We have Ridesteady on the way and hopefully have it installed by the end of week.

I attached a short clip of our kiddo - first time without the rope

That’s excellent for new to surfing (both boat setup and the surfing)!

I agree on the adults on the boat

Best wave we have made so far on a 195s=
6 adults - 650 fatsack on swimdeck slightly surf side, 2 adults bow (250lb), 2 mid boat captain and passenger seat (350) and 2 surf side rear seat (250ish). Yea yea yea I know…this is a bit overweight but created no issues. Only a bit of cavitation at startup.

If you don’t have the adults as ballast- I would imagine you can recreate similar using sacs.

FYI we don’t use any other ballasts besides the swim deck fatsac when we have that many passengers.