What do you need to get started with wakesurf?

[dansshin]

I'm thinking of trying wake surfing with my family. What do you need in terms of gear and boat setup? Are you able to do it with stock setup of 212X? What rack are you using to hold both wake board and surf boards? When looking for Wakesurf board what do you look for and how do you know which size/type is right?

My preference is to get a single board (less cost and less to haul around) that could be used by everyone in the family and I was looking at this one but I'm not even sure if this is appropriate for someone starting out and if everyone in my family (height between 5'.0 - 5'7" & weight between 100lbs - 160lbs.) is able to use this. Also would prefer something we can grow into as we get better so not strictly entry level board.

http://www.evo.com/outlet/wakesurf-boards/ronix-koal-fish-board-2015.aspx

Or

http://www.evo.com/outlet/wakesurf-boards/ronix-carbon-power-tail-board.aspx

Or

http://www.evo.com/outlet/wakesurf-boards/ronix-carbon-thruster-board.aspx


I believe you also need a wakesurf rope which I was thinking about getting this.
https://www.amazon.com/Proline-Surf-Rope-Package-Orange/dp/B00GYZ49R0/ref=sr_1_2?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1467499933&sr=1-2&keywords=wakesurf+rope

Anything else?

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Thank you.

 

[Julian]

I'm no wake surf expert....but ballast is king....so you may want to look into a couple of extra bags...one for the swim deck and one for on the surf side seat.

That rope looks fine...but a little on the expensive side...think I paid 20-25 for mine.

As small and light as you all are....board size will be less of an issue. I'd look around for folks in your area into surfing and see if you can try one of their boards (this is what I did).

 

[jawsf16]

Did someone say ballast??

https://jetboaters.net/threads/fly-high-ballast-bags-tsunami-elevate-pump-dallas-lake-texoma.9933/

 

[dansshin]

I'm no wake surf expert....but ballast is king....so you may want to look into a couple of extra bags...one for the swim deck and one for on the surf side seat.

That rope looks fine...but a little on the expensive side...think I paid 20-25 for mine.

As small and light as you all are....board size will be less of an issue. I'd look around for folks in your area into surfing and see if you can try one of their boards (this is what I did).

@Julian Thanks for the input but I'm really hoping I can just get by with what comes with 212x. I believe it comes with 750lbs bag. I'm not sure if that's total or each side but I'm hoping having that would be enough. For wake surfing do you fill both sides or just one side? You mentioned surf side. Is that the side where the person surfs on? Does it matter which side? How big of wake is good enough? I'm going to try to fill my bags and see what kind of wake it produces.

While I think it's a great idea to try first, unfortunately I don't know anyone who has wakesurf board that I could borrow from. What do you think of the boards in that link? I did some research and it seems there is no set size board for a person. It seems bigger boards help you float better but at the expense of agility. I'll look for more reasonably priced rope. Is there anything that I'm forgetting?

 

[buckbuck]

My opinion is a bit different then others. I believe you have enough ballast to get started and to determine if you want to get more serious. I just run with stock ballast and we can surf without the rope.
I would recommend you look at the Hyperlite Broadcast surf board. It is less expensive and a popular pick. The rope you chose is fine. You may need a rack as the board is thicker than a wakeboard. Make sure you invite friends and encourage them to eat a lot before coming. Have everyone sit on the port side. The one in the rear corner is to be given the "Rope Master" title and is responsible for pulling the rope on the swim deck whenever anyone falls. It is pretty easy to maintain 9-10 mph surf speed. Much easier then maintaining wakeboard speeds. A camera is an absolute necessity to capture the fun.
Just keep horsing around and laughing with each other. It does not need to be perfect. It is relatively easy to get up so the successes come quickly.
If you find it as addicting as many of us have, then consider a Wake Wedge as it really shapes the wave and cleans up the wash. You can also install some valves to fill only the port side bag. But these things come later, just get started with what you have.

 

[Julian]

@RightStuff and @d_coyne1984 are both in your neck of the woods and I think they both Surf....perhaps they'd be willing to take you out and give you some pointers on getting started...that is the beauty of the user map....

@buckbuck is right....try stock first....and work from there for sure. If you like it you'll likely want more wave. The hyperlite is what I have and I enjoy it.

The surf side (where the person is surfing) is where you will want more weight. It also helps to surf in a circle with the person surfing on the inside of the circle (makes a cleaner wave.

As buckbuck says...experiment and have fun. Its a nice slow speed sport where you can talk to and interact with the boarder. But having someone help you/show you how to get started would be a faster way to get hooked! @buckbuck @007 @OperationROL @jcyamaharider @jcyamahariders wife were all intrumental in getting us hooked (and the jcs helped get my daughter hooked on it!)

 

[RiverRat]

I have a Hyperlite Broadcast and am very happy with it. It will fit in stock 212x racks, as that's what I have on my 192. I also made my own rope and bought one. My friends all prefer the one I made, as it has a fatter grip further up the rope.

 

[biglar155]

Oh, the Irony!

 

[007]

So, you can start with one board and the stock ballast. You may or may not be able to let go of the rope.

A few key points:
1. Ballast is your freind in any surfing endevour. Don't want to pony of for ballast untill you know if you like it? Grab a couple of plastic 20+ gallon storage bins from home/the store. Fill with water and experiment with placement. I'd suggest 2 on on the surf side swim deck (strapped down somehow). and one in the center walkthrough to the bow to start.
2. Alternatively, grab the heaviest freinds you can find who will not be insulted by you using them as ballast. Offering beer helps, so does letting them surf! Pile them all in the rear corner to start and experiement with moving one or two forward or to the opposite side. Moving 1 person in the boat can make a huge difference in the wave once you learn to tune it.
3. Unless you are @bobbie and have a ton of ballast in your boat or you buy the Wake Wedge from @jcyamaharider and @ar240owner, you will be much more successful going in circles, leaning into the side the rider is surfin on.
4. Without perfect pass, holding speed in a circle is a little bit of a challenge. Don't throttle up so fast the boat want to try to plane. Throttle up fast enough to pop the rider up but then throttle it up to somewhere between 9.5 and 11mph (I'd aim for 10mph to start) moderately and see what that gets you. You want the tail of the boat to stay settled in the water!
5. Any of the boards you listed should be good all arounders. If a board is too big, especially for kids, it is hard for them to start. Sounds like you are all close to the same weight/height, so one board would be ok to start. That doesn't work in my house, I'm alot bigger than everyone else.
6. If you can wakeboard, you can get a surf board out of the water. Start about 30/45 degrees off the back of the boat. Rope centered between knees, connect to tower. Push the board down with your heals when the boat starts to pull you. You want to resistance of the water to pop the board up onto your feet and then stand up using the boats pull. You'll be amazed at how fast you can stand up when you got used to it. After you are up you can mess with foot placement to get better balance.
7. Lefties are usually goofie footers (ride right foot forward on Starboard side) and righties are usually standard or natural footers (left foot forward riding on port side)
8. I guarantee you will make a better wave on the goofy/starboard side just due to the impeller rotation.
9. Once up, pressure on front foot is gas. Back foot is brake. Try to ride for awhile with slack in the rope for awhile before letting go, otherwise you'll just be frustrated when you do. Somepeople get the balance faster than others, don't worry if it takes awhile
10. DON'T wrap the rope around your hand, etc., If you wipe out teach the kids to cover their head just incase the board lands on them. Surfing is a low impact sport, but nothing ruins a day like rope burn or a busted lip.

HAVE FUN.

You may laugh at the plastic totes, but @ar240owner and @trace learned to weight our boats that way long before we all had ballast systems. Cheap and FAST! Hillbilly ballast my wife called it...

 

[dansshin]

Thank you all for all the great advices. There are lots of it here so I'll have to read through it few times to take it all in. I'll definitely take a look at the Hyperlite Broadcast. Reason I was thinking Ronix carbon board was that I read other foam core boards get damaged easily. Is that not true?

My family and I spent the whole day at the lake today and tried out the stock ballasts. It was bit of hassle to get it filled out because my system took long time (and multiple attempts) to fill it but once it was I did notice that wakes were bigger. However strangely none of us could wakeboard behind it. We had lot of trouble getting up out of the water with ballasts filled. Not something I was expecting. So it seems switching between wake boarding and wake surfing will be lots of filling and emptying ballasts if my family does both sports. LOL!

@RiverRat Thanks for confirming that Hyperlite Broadcast fits on stock 212x rack. Is your rack same as my 2013? It looks little different. Bottom space looks wider and mine I think both are same size. Also I've never seen two people wake surf on the same board before. Wow, that must take lots of skillz!

 

[RiverRat]

The rack I have is pretty "custom." The base mount is made by Aerial, but the fingers are off a 2013 212x.

Ha, I don't know how good our skills are, but we sure like to try things, and my buddy refused to not get his girlfriend up on the board that day!

 

[RightStuff]

@RightStuff and @d_coyne1984 are both in your neck of the woods and I think they both Surf....perhaps they'd be willing to take you out and give you some pointers on getting started...that is the beauty of the user map..

Thanks @Julian, I'll remember that when I'm in your neck of the woods and want a ride on that new 242. Lol!

@dansshin looks like you got a lot of info above, so hopefully that'll give you a good start. If you want to look at some boards and talk to someone in person I have heard (never been myself) that the that The House over in St. Paul has really good service. Just PM me if you have any specific questions, always happy to talk boats/surfing.

BTW, what lake do you usually go out on?

 

[Julian]

Thanks @Julian, I'll remember that when I'm in your neck of the woods and want a ride on that new 242. Lol!

@dansshin looks like you got a lot of info above, so hopefully that'll give you a good start. If you want to look at some boards and talk to someone in person I have heard (never been myself) that the that The House over in St. Paul has really good service. Just PM me if you have any specific questions, always happy to talk boats/surfing.

BTW, what lake do you usually go out on?

You are welcome to come for a ride anytime you are in Raleigh! Did you like the way I volunteered your boat? I'm generous that way! LOL

 

[buckbuck]

@dansshin , help us understand the problems you had with full ballast. The boat should not have given you any problem except maybe a tad bit slower pulling you up. And it may drive like a big fat pig instead of a go cart. Those tanks should fill in less then 10 minutes. We bump the switch a couple times to fill them completely. Pulling the cup holder in the corner allows you to reach down and check how plump they are. So was it the boat or you guys just not accustom yet to the wave?

 

[dansshin]

Thanks @Julian, I'll remember that when I'm in your neck of the woods and want a ride on that new 242. Lol!

@dansshin looks like you got a lot of info above, so hopefully that'll give you a good start. If you want to look at some boards and talk to someone in person I have heard (never been myself) that the that The House over in St. Paul has really good service. Just PM me if you have any specific questions, always happy to talk boats/surfing.

BTW, what lake do you usually go out on?

@RightStuff It's supposed to rain coupled days this week so I may stop over at The House to look and get some surf board info. Thanks for the tip!

I prefer not to travel too far and like the smaller lakes so I usually go to Medicine Lake just few minutes south of my home. Although lately it seems that place is getting more crowded and trying to leave at the end of the day has been stressful and requires good amount of patience as people behind us kept cutting in.

 

[dansshin]

@dansshin , help us understand the problems you had with full ballast. The boat should not have given you any problem except maybe a tad bit slower pulling you up. And it may drive like a big fat pig instead of a go cart. Those tanks should fill in less then 10 minutes. We bump the switch a couple times to fill them completely. Pulling the cup holder in the corner allows you to reach down and check how plump they are. So was it the boat or you guys just not accustom yet to the wave?

@buckbuck Thank you so much for all your inputs. It's very helpful as I tried to figure the ballast system out on my boat. I'm still not sure if it's me or the dang system. It could be little of both I guess, wanting instance gratification after I hit that button and didn't get it. LOL! I'll have to try it again next time I'm out with bit more patience.

After we finally got it filled we could check how much water was there by just opening the seat covers. I definitely noticed a lot of water there but I don't think the bags were completely full. Is the stock ballast supposed to completely fill the space under the seats? If not I guess that may be an easy upgrade to get bigger bags to replace the stock bags that do to add more weight if needed.

So you guys don't have any trouble getting out of the water when doing wake boarding with ballasts filled? At first I thought perhaps my wife was not accelerating fast enough due to the extra weight of the boat so we tried to adjust but I think I tried 4 times and I couldn't get up out of the water until we emptied the ballast. After that I did get up but by then my forearms were done from trying to get up earlier and no one else wanted to do the wake board anymore so we moved on to the tubing which is another ordeal filling and emptying the band wagon tube which is like bigger than half of our boat. LOL! But kids always want to do tubing so we do that usually as our last event of the day and my wife and I are getting pretty good at it now but it is still hard work!

 

[dansshin]

The rack I have is pretty "custom." The base mount is made by Aerial, but the fingers are off a 2013 212x.

Ha, I don't know how good our skills are, but we sure like to try things, and my buddy refused to not get his girlfriend up on the board that day!

I think you have start of brand new twist to wake surfing. One day we'll see whole family getting on a single wake surfboard enjoying the fun together and we'll all know where that originated from!

 

[dansshin]

I noticed Hyperlite Broadcast Wakesurf board comes in two sizes, 4'8" & 5'4". Since this is mainly for my family and I don't expect anyone to be over 170lbs in the near future what would be the better size to purchase? Would 4'8" be ok even with stock ballasts on 212x? I noticed these are different than the one @RiverRat stated fits in stock 2013 212x racks so can anyone confirm these new ones will also fit?

https://www.amazon.com/Hyperlite-Broadcast-Wakesurfer-5ft-4in/dp/B0064FXW4Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467878182&sr=8-1&keywords=hyperlite+broadcast+wakesurfer

 

[RightStuff]

So here's my thoughts... In order to get started it's nice to have a somewhat big/floaty board to learn on. You aren't going to be doing tricks, etc. to get use to surfing. Now the other side to that is you don't want to go too big either because then it's hard to manage the board in the water when you are getting up. So it's a bit of a balance, but until you know what you like it's tough to get a board to fit everything/everyone as well as future riding preferences.

We have 2 boards, a 5'6" Ronix Koal Fish and a 4'4" Liquid Force Happy Pill. The Fish is my board, and the Pill is my wife's (basically). I'm about a foot taller and much heavier than her... I can ride both just fine, the Happy Pill is just harder for me to keep in the pocket, if I put more weight on the front to move forward in the wake I push the nose underwater and that usually doesn't work out all that well for me. The Fish is big/floaty and can move around just fine, just not as quick it's more of a 'cruiser' in my mind.

I would look at that 4'6" Koal Fish in your first post, it's a great board, and I think the 4' version would be a good board based on what you said about your family, I think everyone could use it without too much trouble. The Fish is a thicker board, so it might not fit in the stock rack on the 212, since those appear to be more for wakeboards, not surf boards. The Carbon's are good boards as well, saw them in person at the boat show, haven't ridden one though. They are thinner and much lighter, so if you are willing to pay the diff. it might fit in your racks.

 

[dansshin]

@RightStuff Thanks for your input. I think I would like to stick with something that wouldn't require me to get another rack. It's hard for us to take our kneeboard with right now because there is no good place to store that in the boat so I'm not looking for another equipment that's going to be hard to carry around. So with confirmation that Hyperlite Broadcast fits on stock racks, right now that is my first choice. If I could get a confirmation on the other boards fitting on the stock rack I would consider them as well. Hyperlite Broadcast also has good price and my only concern is if we would out grow it too quickly.