Show Us Your Wake! (surfing mods comparo)

[jcyamaharider]

View attachment 102942

LMAO!!!! I am stealing that.

 

[swatski]

I replaced my plugs with 2 of these. 1. Lets me use a second pump to fill, 2. Drains way faster and no fear of loosing the plugs. 3. No chance of cross threading the plugs.

That’s what I have for two of my three ports but I find those to have a tendency to spontaneously unplug... and of course -usually at the worst time such as when the boat hits a wake etc.

I’m replacing those with the W743 flyhigh fittings and barbed elbow quick release connectors.

After that, I just want the bag planted - wherein some kind of attachment - clips like boat bumper clips or straps like Yamaha new bag kit - will be helpful.

I find that when it’s just me and Kate, nothing is a big deal as we know exactly what to do. But with a party of several new people in the boat all those things matter - inexplicably there is someone standing in the way at every move!!!

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[Arcadyus]

Had my new boat about a month ago. When I bought her I had a hard time staying in the pocket, wakesurfing is much harder than it looks. It takes a lot of board time plain and simple. This was the last run after a 5 hour surf session. We had 3 riders who took 4 runs then it was next up. So I finally got some much needed time on my board. I'm by no means happy with my surfing but it's getting there. I am having a blast tho.

http://instagr.am/p/B1RWb-AhYMa/

 

[B0at1n]

@Arcadyus looks like you struggle like I do, I seem to do the hopping thing when I want to gain speed back in the wake, if you watch those that are good they do this nice fluid back and fourth thing. I just can’t figure it out! Haha.

 

[Arcadyus]

It's called style lol. When your new you have zero. I have a few nice smooth turns but most are choppy. When you are always smooth that's when style comes out. When I ride the El hefe it's totally different. So you see why I mean when I say I'm not happy with my surfing but am having fun. I need to put 3 days a week in behind my boat. Nice thing is my homies will surf in dry suits.

 

[Arcadyus]

It's all so much to remember when your new. Especially with a wave that will throw you into the swim platform. Once I can get the basics down my mind will go blank. Then I'll be where I want to be. When I snowboard I just go. I never think of anything even my line. It's all very organic and in the moment. When I surf I think of everything im supposed to be doing lol.

 

[B0at1n]

Exactly, I just need more time behind the boat, just need to find some more who want to do it. I always seem to be short a driver. Lol.

 

[swatski]

It's all so much to remember when your new. Especially with a wave that will throw you into the swim platform. Once I can get the basics down my mind will go blank. Then I'll be where I want to be. When I snowboard I just go. I never think of anything even my line. It's all very organic and in the moment. When I surf I think of everything im supposed to be doing lol.

That's exactly right. To really have fun, surfing needs to be done in the "System 1" mode, basically automatic, no thinking all muscle memory.

I have a long way to go, as it takes a bit of finagling to get the wave real good behind a Yammie, and when I surf I constantly look at the boat and think of the setup instead of what I'm doing, lol.

BUT - that is about to end soon!

I'm just about done with the last ballast remodel and at that point - we are gonna start focusing on @swatski having fun .


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[biffdotorg]

We had the best wave yet today! Amazing good time with 6 kids on board and one big fat guy (me). This photo is no indication of the size of the wave. It’s just an example of my daughter’s sheer joy of going ropeless.

We had 400 in the locker, the 850 on the back and 400 on the surf side seat. As the college freshman girls weighed nothing. But the wave curled nice, it was long and the boat didn’t labor. Full tank of fuel and we all surfed. What fun today! Thanks for all your help.

I’m looking forward to the bigger ladder deflector for our TV wakes.

 

[J-RAD]

It's called style lol. When your new you have zero. I have a few nice smooth turns but most are choppy. When you are always smooth that's when style comes out. When I ride the El hefe it's totally different. So you see why I mean when I say I'm not happy with my surfing but am having fun. I need to put 3 days a week in behind my boat. Nice thing is my homies will surf in dry suits.

I call it C.B.D. style.

As in-

Chubby
Balding
Dad

I got plenty!

 

[spatty99]

@Arcadyus try moving your feet closer to the toe side edge of the board, then you can really dig the board rail into the lip of the wake to drive forward. I'm heavy-ish at 210 pounds, and always have my toes at the very edge of the board, really helps with forward speed and climbing the wave.

 

[B0at1n]

@Arcadyus try moving your feet closer to the toe side edge of the board, then you can really dig the board rail into the lip of the wake to drive forward. I'm heavy-ish at 210 pounds, and always have my toes at the very edge of the board, really helps with forward speed and climbing the wave.

I noticed this was true last trip out, I had my back foot toes almost curling the edge of the rubber, my balance and control felt so much better.

 

[DavisAR195]

Finally got a few pics surfing behind the 2017 AR195, I would post the videos if I knew how.

 

[Cambo]

Looks like a bunch of goofy footers riding this week Nice job

 

[biffdotorg]

Looks like a bunch of goofy footers riding this week Nice job

It was refreshing to have a majority (6 of us) riding regular foot and only 2 goofy. So I actually got a chance for a change. But with the tips here, it didn't take long to slide the custom bag across and re-fill. I am impressed by the Supa Tsunami for these quick changes. Folks in the boat were more patient as well, once they saw the results of proper ballast placement.

Of course the kids took the time to get their social media fix while moving them.

 

[swatski]

I spent some time today playing with the ballast, the wedge, ballast timers, trim tabs, various list and speed conditions etc. Fun times.
Want to share some observations
(Gantlin transom bag and center locker bag, both full, no other ballast, one person [me] in the boat, half a tank of fuel).

1. The Gantlin (not Gatlin) Wedge rocks.
In my 2016 240 it makes a huge difference - everything else in the whole setup being exactly the same the Wedge makes a mediocre wake nice and surfable.
No wedge:


With the Wedge:


2. I can not get any consistent and/or substantial benefits from running with split throttles at different RPMs on the two engines. One would think running higher RPM on the non-surf side would force some delayed convergence and some counter-steering benefits but I just don't register any positive effects.

3. Deploying the non-surf side trim tab can smooth out the wake and make it more flat, potentially with benefits for skim-style surfing. Not a huge effect and not terribly consistent though, varies with speed a lot. It may be something to explore further, when trying different style boards.


4. The biggest surprise... the Wedge helps to get going.
I hope someone here can try to reproduce this effect, it is very striking. I have never before paid much attention but today I was taking notes of everything, and I was alone so no distractions!

Basically - with the transom bag and the center locker full with no Wedge the boat was struggling to get up to 10.7mph surfing speed and level off. This was very unusual but I realized I always have the wedge on and usually some people in the boat so the boat is more leveled (today I was listed a lot with just me in the boat).
To resolve that, I would temporarily drop the trim tabs to get up and running super easy, then retract the tabs once at speed (10.7) and proceed as usual.

However, after I mounted the Wedge (adjusted to wake surfing position, 2-2.5 full turns of the turnbuckle) the starts/hole shot became super easy, like - almost effortless, just like I'm used to actually.
I was stunned by this effect of the wedge! The smooth, effortless hole shot with all the ballast and heavy list. Again - the ONLY difference from heavy starts/hole shot minutes before was the wedge.

My take on it is that the Wedge acts like a trim tab to the extent. It does not take a lot of pressure from the jets but being mounted at the edge of the platform it reaches far enough to give noticeable leverage ?

When the wedge is adjusted to a flat position it hardly gets hit by the jets. But when it is tilted (2-3 turns, whatever angle it is, it is still very shallow) it gets a fair amount of water play. Having forgotten to move it up to the flat position a few times I had to replace the rubber clamps that were braking - I'm assuming from the wedge being hit with the jets at planning speeds.

I'm just really amazed at the effect on the hole shot with a lot of ballast and list. I would have never predicted it would make any difference. Well, it makes a huge difference.

If someone could repeat this test, please!

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[Arcadyus]

That's about the best wave I've seen on this forum from a jet boat. WOW that wedge really makes that wave. That's a massive difference.

 

[Scottie]

Yes! the WakeWege is awesome. Here's mine from last year, BEFORE the additional integrated ballast. It's actually quite a bit better now.

 

[MGoMike]

@swatski that is a great looking wave with the wake wedge.

 

[Onserve212X]

Here are some pictures of the last two weeks on the lake. Some of the pictures show where we tried the custom 750lbs transom ballast (big fatty) in the center, and put the 150lbs blue ballast on the surf side. Moving the 150lbs ballast (baby blue fatty) was easier than to move to the other side when it was my turn to surf. The factory center and rear surf side ballast stayed full, and non-surf side empty. One human ballast sitting in the back on the surf side. She was sitting up front and moved to the rear to have the wave clean up nicely. RPMs about 7000 and speed at 10.5mph using the WakeBooster.