Wakes surf speed? is 12mph to fast?

[bharris6]

I have a 2007 220 and started wake surfing last fall. I liked the speed at 12 mph but feel this is mighty fast. Im only running stock ballast right now. Is this speed to fast?

[1sicknautique]

I have a 2007 220 and started wake surfing last fall. I liked the speed at 12 mph but feel this is mighty fast. Im only running stock ballast right now. Is this speed to fast?

we ran at about 8-12mph depending on the ballast and how many people are riding.

[Bevan]

Experiment...found around 10.5mph is best for our boat & weighting.

[1sicknautique]

also depends on the size of the boat. my buddy has a 230 and 11mph with 2000 pounds of ballast make a 3ft wake

[saceone]

way too fast for stock weight.


12mph is good speed if you're running tons of weight, 4k I'd say. (on my 210 anyways)

try 8.5-9.5

[uncalumx2]

Experiment...found around 10.5mph is best for our boat & weighting.

We usually are at 10.0 -11.2 depending on the weight.

Old boat was 2004 SAN 210,

The new one is coming this month and speed TBD

[HS]

way too fast for stock weight.


12mph is good speed if you're running tons of weight, 4k I'd say. (on my 210 anyways)

try 8.5-9.5

^^Oui, c'est bon.

The speed needs to be in proportion to the ballast, in my experience. If the wave is too small it can be a challenge to get enough "push" to keep up with the boat speed.

I think it also has a lot to do with the weight of the rider -- with the same ballast, a 120 lb rider can ride at 12 on a skim board but a heavier rider might lose the wave even on a surf style board. This is based on my son riding his IS Black Pearl compared with me riding an IS Swallow v.2 -- but then my ballast set up is about 2k

[bharris6]

So if I was a 6'3" 220 guy riding a byerly 5'4" 12 is to fast?

[ES]

Unfortunately the answer is: you need to experiment. What I found on our 210 is that with just stock ballast, we had to increase the speed to compensate. I am 190 lbs and we were running around 11.5mph with just stock...the wave did not have enough push for me. My wife is about 110 lbs and she could surf at 9.5.
The other issue we found was that with just stock, the sweet spot is really small. So if you are trying to experiment new tricks, you really have a small margin for error.
We since added a wakemakers 750 lbs on top of our ballast and that made a HUGE difference. We now both ride around 9.5mph, wake has enough push and a larger sweet spot

[scottb7]

ES, to to clarify, you added the 750 to stock, and then just run fully stock belly tank? Nothing else?

[ES]

Correct.
May need to add some more bow weight for even better results (see my separate thread from a few minutes ago), but what we have now is very surfable. I highly recommend the Wakemakers "piggyback" system. I don't have any ties with them, but just love the system - I just cycle a few times my stock pump to fill both ballast tank and extra sack.

[scottb7]

Thanks much...This is first year we will be surfing. End of last season I pulled my hard tanks on my 210 and put in 1100 sacs in back on each side. I have an old ski locker sac that I am indecisive about piggyback to belly tank. I think maybe I will wait and see if it is necessary. Although If I put it in with sacs in the back the wake boarding wake would be epic!

[LakeTarponGator]

We run 10.6 mph in '06 220, stock ballast with a couple of people in the boat. It can vary some with other factors but we always seem to be between about 10.3 - 11.2.