Thoughts and demo rides of wake / towsports boats: Moomba Max, Axis A22, MB Sports

[OrangeTJ]

I really doubt that you will be disappointed with the surf wave the F22 can make. Just need to dial it to your preferences.

 

[Dieselmore]

Well I too took the plunge. Retired the AR192 and in with the Moomba Max. Let me know if you have any questions on the max. I too looked at the Axis, supreme, and MB Sports. Axis was cheap feeling to me, supreme was lacking in the storage department. It came down to the B52 MB and the Max, it just so happens that the moomba dealer was easier to deal with so Moomba it was.

 

[Scuba_ref]

Please post some pics and video when you get a chance. Would also love your take on wake assist, if you opted for it.

 

[haknslash]

I found him yesterday by accident while browsing Max vids on YouTube. Didn't even know it was @Dieselmore until he replied telling me who he was lol. Small fish bowl we live in

I keep coming back to the Max as well. The dealer has been in constant contact with me since I took the demo ride. Heck Skiers Choice has made sure they stay in contact with me even from the boat show where I met one of their VP's. The dealer being much closer than the MB Sports dealer also helps sweeten the pot.

Your new Max looks great man! Love the silver flake

 

[OrangeTJ]

I bet you are going to love it!! Looks great!

 

[Dieselmore]

@Scuba_ref Yeah I have the autowake. I messed with it breifly the first day. I have so far found it easier just to make the adjustments manually. I found autowake was dumping water to try to get the right amount of lean to the boat and the wake suffered.

@haknslash whatever boat you pick i'm sure you'll love it.

 

[haknslash]

Water temp has warmed up. Just need it to stop freaking raining for a nice weekend. I follow the MB group on FB and one of their members just posted a sweet video of his 21' Tomcat throwing a nice wave! Rider was able to ride wayyyy back and come close no problem. For a 21' boat that is pretty amazing! The length of the wave looks to be just as long as the boat for size reference which is nuts lol. Can't wait for the demo!

 

[Dulaneyjared]

I share your thought process haknslash. I have been looking into the new Axis A24s for the same reason. I made my Yamaha absolutely surfable with a killer wave but in turn it’s no quick task to set up and then there’s bags all over the seats. Not to mention the huge list of the boat. I would do the same things in both my 242LS and a surf boat except surf a killer wave with the touch of a button and the deck of the boat clear to hang out and sit at the same time. Bonus no listing. It Boils down to how much you like surfing. I got into wake surfing not long after I bought my Yamaha or I wouldn’t have and would have just got a surf boat from the jump. It’s the best water sport in my opinion for all ages and skill on the water. I haven’t checked into Moomba but I def will now. Cause for close to the same price as a 242XE you can get a surf boat it’s a no brainer.

 

[haknslash]

@Dulaneyjared yup once you get bit by the surf bug it's kinda rough

For sure check out the Moomba boats! I think you will find them head and shoulders in quality compared to Axis. There is A LOT of plastic in an Axis and the ride quality was crap at anything above 25 mph. The Moomba Max rode much smoother as its hull is based on the Supra SA hull. It's not a super deep v hull so it will never ride like a Centurion or anything like that but it's also not a six figure boat lol. With an Axis or Malibu their surf system is not customizable. It's set it out and that's it. There is no dialing in the wave unless you get the optional Power Wedge, so what you see is what you get and that's it. Problem with that is not every time you go out the crew will be the same size or people will move around and you need to be able to compensate for that. So having a surf system using tabs or anything adjustable is going to give you more options for shaping the wave on the boat. Yea the wave was bigger on the Axis out of the box but like I said there's no customizing it. The Max has far more potential as its a much larger and deeper boat with an adjustable surf system. I saw a beautiful blue one on the water yesterday and following it around admiring how the boat was effortlessly eating thru the chop while I on the other hand was banging around on top of my seat bolster lol.

 

[Dulaneyjared]

@haknslash thanks for the heads up I’ll deffinatly test them as well!

 

[Cambo]

How would these boats handle salt water? They always have black painted trailers

 

[swatski]

How would these boats handle salt water? They always have black painted trailers

They wouldn't.
Trailers aside, they are not designed for anything but riding in relatively smooth water. You can get those swamped by their own wake... - if not careful when stopping and turning. And the decks are not self bailing, lol.

--

 

[sethman919]

Making me drool over these. I bought my AR230 because i was on a certain budget and with that budget i wanted a boat in excellent condition. The wake boats in that price range were older (2002-2004) and had high hours and just not as nice as newer boats. If i were buying new in the $60-80k range the yamahas, as nice as they are, wouldnt even get a second thought and i would have bought a Moomba Max. Don't get me wrong. I love my AR230. its a heck of a nice boat for what i paid.

 

[haknslash]

@sethman919 the Max is pretty sweet! It's super deep and more storage space than a old Cadillac's trunk!!

Go check out the boat in person and do a demo drive. Really nice boat for the price point. There are two on my lake now. I think you'll like what you see. I still need to take a demo on the MB's but I don't know if I want to torture myself to do so now lol. My wife has not signed off on me spending $70k on a boat but she did give me the ok to replace mine with a budget of $30-40k. So that leads me to looking at older mid to late 2000's boats. The Centurion Enzo's can be had in that price range and they are solid boats with a very deep v hull great for surfing and rough water ride quality. I've seen a few nice SV230's in that price range with anywhere from 200-600 hours. They won't have surf tab systems on those boats but they can still easily be setup to surf so it's not a huge deal for me as long as it surfs and rides good with plenty of space. Later on I could upgrade to a newer used boat that has all the bells and whistles of the modern surf boats.

 

[sethman919]

@sethman919 the Max is pretty sweet! It's super deep and more storage space than a old Cadillac's trunk!!

Go check out the boat in person and do a demo drive. Really nice boat for the price point. There are two on my lake now. I think you'll like what you see. I still need to take a demo on the MB's but I don't know if I want to torture myself to do so now lol. My wife has not signed off on me spending $70k on a boat but she did give me the ok to replace mine with a budget of $30-40k. So that leads me to looking at older mid to late 2000's boats. The Centurion Enzo's can be had in that price range and they are solid boats with a very deep v hull great for surfing and rough water ride quality. I've seen a few nice SV230's in that price range with anywhere from 200-600 hours. They won't have surf tab systems on those boats but they can still easily be setup to surf so it's not a huge deal for me as long as it surfs and rides good with plenty of space. Later on I could upgrade to a newer used boat that has all the bells and whistles of the modern surf boats.

Yeah i was more in the $20-30K range. I could afford more but the wife wasnt going to go for more. even at $30K you were lucky to find a 2006 budget brand wake boat with 400-500 hours. The high end boats of this era were really nice, but the budget manufacturers were still catching up. they were still essentially the same boat as 2001 but with a nicer dash. an 05 X-star still sells for $40k and is a realllly nice machine. $40K is where you start to get more options in used tow boats that are really nice. Either newer budget brands or older high end brands/models. you really need to get to 2010-2012 with the budget brands to get a really nice boat.

 

[SamCF]

@sethman919 the Max is pretty sweet! It's super deep and more storage space than a old Cadillac's trunk!!

Go check out the boat in person and do a demo drive. Really nice boat for the price point. There are two on my lake now. I think you'll like what you see. I still need to take a demo on the MB's but I don't know if I want to torture myself to do so now lol. My wife has not signed off on me spending $70k on a boat but she did give me the ok to replace mine with a budget of $30-40k. So that leads me to looking at older mid to late 2000's boats. The Centurion Enzo's can be had in that price range and they are solid boats with a very deep v hull great for surfing and rough water ride quality. I've seen a few nice SV230's in that price range with anywhere from 200-600 hours. They won't have surf tab systems on those boats but they can still easily be setup to surf so it's not a huge deal for me as long as it surfs and rides good with plenty of space. Later on I could upgrade to a newer used boat that has all the bells and whistles of the modern surf boats.

I've been looking at the older wake boats as well. My requirements are automated hidden ballast and factory surf system. So I guess I'm keeping the Yamaha for a while.

 

[haknslash]

I've been looking at the older wake boats as well. My requirements are automated hidden ballast and factory surf system. So I guess I'm keeping the Yamaha for a while.

You can build the "slapper" Wake system for not a lot of money. Less than trim tabs since you would make the plates yourself. They actuate to the side like Surf Gate on Nautique and Axis boats. A lot of the older MB guys use the DIY slapper and the results are good for that boat. Only issue with a slapper or Surf Gate is there is There's also GSA (GoSurfAssist) and it's pricey (but still cheaper than a newer boat ). If you plan on switching sides a lot or want to surf backside and do transfers then you'll want some kind of automated surf system. I'll likely use a Nauticurl or slapper system if I go used since I'd mainly surf one side of the other but rarely need instant transfer switch ability. Otherwise you're looking at buying newer boats with surf systems.

 

[SamCF]

My new neighbor bought a Moomba Max a few weeks ago. Happened to run into him today at the lake and got offered a ride. This boat throws a huge wave! First time ropeless for me. Looked like very good quality. It's not a Nautique, but its half the price.

I just got a new board, the Doomswell El Jefe. It was way too fast for that wave. Everyone that tried it couldn't keep it off the back of the boat. I tried one of their boards and was able to stay in the wave pretty comfortably.

Probably going to be checking out the boat shows before next summer.

 

[Midnight2V]

I used to own a wakeboard boat and I looked at and boarded behind all the brands they had at the time. I took two years to evaluate what I wanted in my boat and I rode in and behind every major brand out at the time - Natique, Mastercraft, Tige, Moomba, even Cobalt. I bought a Malibu 247RX in the end. I was single with a lot of friends at the time and money was not a concern at the time due to a windfall property sale. If I were to buy another wake boat it would be an Axis or Malibu without question.

The reason I went with the Malibu (Axis did not exist at the time) was because they alone possess and have continued to maintain their patent on the two most productive pieces of wake generating equipment ever designed. The power wedge is simply the best wake generating piece of equipment ever released...period. Ballast can't hold a candle to the wake shaping capability of the wedge, and trim tabs aren't even in the same league. When the power wedge became available, the tailor shaping of the wake left and continues to leave all other designs in a completely inferior category. The surf gate extended the superiority to the surfing crowd and puts it, in my opinion well ahead of any other technology available. Having the more recent ability to control boat speed from the board is just icing on the cake.

While I owned my Malibu, I had dozens of wakeboarders and surfers behind my boat with far more experience and skill than myself, including people participating in wakeboarding championship competitions. All of them agreed that there was nothing that compared to a Malibu generated wake. It wasn't even close.

If the quality of wake generated was my largest concern, Malibu/Axis is where I would look without any doubt.

 

[SamCF]

I used to own a wakeboard boat and I looked at and boarded behind all the brands they had at the time. I took two years to evaluate what I wanted in my boat and I rode in and behind every major brand out at the time - Natique, Mastercraft, Tige, Moomba, even Cobalt. I bought a Malibu 247RX in the end. I was single with a lot of friends at the time and money was not a concern at the time due to a windfall property sale. If I were to buy another wake boat it would be an Axis or Malibu without question.

The reason I went with the Malibu (Axis did not exist at the time) was because they alone possess and have continued to maintain their patent on the two most productive pieces of wake generating equipment ever designed. The power wedge is simply the best wake generating piece of equipment ever released...period. Ballast can't hold a candle to the wake shaping capability of the wedge, and trim tabs aren't even in the same league. When the power wedge became available, the tailor shaping of the wake left and continues to leave all other designs in a completely inferior category. The surf gate extended the superiority to the surfing crowd and puts it, in my opinion well ahead of any other technology available. Having the more recent ability to control boat speed from the board is just icing on the cake.

While I owned my Malibu, I had dozens of wakeboarders and surfers behind my boat with far more experience and skill than myself, including people participating in wakeboarding championship competitions. All of them agreed that there was nothing that compared to a Malibu generated wake. It wasn't even close.

If the quality of wake generated was my largest concern, Malibu/Axis is where I would look without any doubt.

Just watching YouTube videos. It seemed like the Malibu had to work a lot harder while surfing. Engine noise and fuel efficiency were not on par with others.