Wake Surfing

[Maas]

So I am now looking for a winter project. I can not afford do to everything this year, but would like to know what's the best start so I can enjoy it this up coming summer. A part of me is thinking wake wedge and perfect pass. Then I think ballast and perfect pass........ Any thoughts?

 

[buckbuck]

You can fill the boat with lots of hefty friends to partially offset the ballast.
You can drive the boat pretty easily at 10 mph to partially offset Perfect Pass.
To my knowledge there is not anything you can do to shape the wave except getting the Wedge.
So my opinion is buy a Wedge and tell your friends to start eating very well over the winter.

 

[Shuck Water]

Point of clarification, perfect pass has nothing to do with others wakesurfing. It has everything to do with YOU wakesurfing. It is the marriage saver.

 

[buckbuck]

Ah yes. I forgot about that. I may need to buy it because my "daughter-pass" will be going to college next year and I don't want to trust my wifes' speed management.

 

[Scottintexas]

it really is nice to "set it and forget it" it takes all the attention away from the speed issue and I just worry about traffic and my surfer,

 

[Scuba_ref]

@Scottintexas we have similar boats, would you mind sharing with me what your ballast distribution is? I think I need to reposition or add more weight. I have 4 Fat Sacs that are the 400 - 500lb size depending on how much you fill the bag. My usual distribution is one bag in the bow, one bag on the swim platform (surf side), one bag in the cockpit rear (surf side) and one on the seat (surf side). I feel like I could use more push and I wish that the pocket was longer and farther from the boat. We often end up so close to the boat that we bump into the swim platform from time to time. I don't have a wake wedge as it is not available for my model year. We are all able to go ropeless, just looking to make the experience better.

 

[Chillypilot]

I don't have perfect pass and I have no problems with holding a constant speed while surfing. Several others have driven the boat and they have had no problems either. Sports such as wakeboarding and waterskiing are more difficult to hold a coststant speed because of the pull of the athlete as they cut back across the wake. If your throttle creeps back as mine did I highly recommend reading @Speedling throttle drop fix. That really made a huge improvement.

When it comes to surfing, I see perfect pass as a luxury item. I would spend my money on a good board, ballast and a wake wedge before I purchased perfect pass. If you into wakeboarding and watersking I think perfect pass would be more important.

 

[jcyamahariders wife]

Wife perspective - I never had huge problems maintaining speed without perfect pass when driving while my husband surfed.(ok I don't think so anyway husband might say different) It did help a lot once we installed but now I find myself throttling it up to fast and pp not engaging then I'm left by myself figuring out what to do. Another issue we hope to correct as a winter mode is to replace the impellers since we have so much weight the pp keeps asking for me to increase throttle but I cannot as its at max rpm. All I can say is I would never give up the wedge,ballast, and my favorite board but yes perfect pass is a luxury item once I get fully trained that is ! Ok I'll stop the wife ranting and don't even get me started on the thrust vector discussion that is a whole other can of worms ! Lol

 

[Maas]

Thanks for the input all. Keep it coming. The reason I have perfect pass as a #1 in because of two things. We boat in a river where current can come n go within 100 yards. Second it frees up a hand for my beer.......

 

[Scottintexas]

@Scuba_ref I use 400 on the back deck surf side, 400 under the seat next to battery and 800 on top of the rear seat surf side and usually not much for extra people,

the younger girls can ride way back on the wave but I am also closer to the boat, we use a 5'6" LF fish,

 

[wschmidt05]

If you want to get serious about wakesurfing/wakeboarding, get Perfect Pass. As you add weight and/or people, trying to maintain a certain speed will be a PITA especially for someone who isn't used to driving your boat. One mph difference can change the pocket considerably. Consistency is key, that's why all dedicated wake boats have it. It was by far the best mod I've done.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Weight as follows for our setup:

2 400 lbs bags under the surf side seat, 750 bag on top of the surf side seat, 800 lbs in the ski locker and 550 lbs on the starboard side of the swim deck. We list the boat hard and this puts my starboard jet back in the water for more thrust. The bags under the seat and in the locker are all controlled by my Bluetooth touch screen setup and allows me to empty and fill when I need less weight or to move weight around a little bit.



Last piece of the puzzle is the Wedge of course!

 

[Maas]

Where did you puchase the Bluetooth touch screen set up?

 

[jcyamaharider]

Where did you puchase the Bluetooth touch screen set up?

I made it with some help and MIT app Inventor.

https://jetboaters.net/threads/bluetooth-controlled-ballast-set-up.4958/

 

[prorider17]

What's a good amount of ballast I'd need in my boat? I feel like 1,500 is ample and 3,000 is too much. I wanted to run an 800 in the ski locker and 500 under each side on the back. 2011 AR240

 

[Chillypilot]

I think you're going want more than 1500 if you want to go ropeless. I run 800 on the swim platform, 800 under the seat surf side, 1000 centre of the boat and 300 in the bow. Here's my wake.

 

[jcyamaharider]

What's a good amount of ballast I'd need in my boat? I feel like 1,500 is ample and 3,000 is too much. I wanted to run an 800 in the ski locker and 500 under each side on the back. 2011 AR240

With a Wake Wedge you want to work on wave height first and not wave length. Since the wedge gives you a little more wiggle room behind the boat the locker weight isn't necessary at first. I always tell me 240 customers a minimum of 800 swim deck and 800 surf side seat to start with. After that you can start adding locker weight which will increase your wave length. But remember when increasing wave length you will loose wave height.

I run 800 locker, 800 under the surf side seat, 750 on top of the surf side seat and 550 starboard side on the swim deck.

 

[Maas]

Man that's a good looking wave!!!!

 

[bobbie]

This is my wake with custom bags from wakemakers and a 450 on the back deck.

 

[paratrooper39]

@bobbie - what weights are in the custom bags?