G23 450 NSS Review

[nyryan2001]

OK, finally got to spend some decent time playing with all the different configurations on my 450 G23 with NSS. I am coming from a surf monster in the Malibu, so I had high expectations going in. I had 1100s plumbed off the factory Jabscos using valves and this time I bought my 1100 bow sac with Tsunami to add to that. Bottom line I was VERY pleased. Very very solid wave quality, Steep and TONS of push. OK when you are looking at surf pics of a G23, you have to take into consideration how deep the hull is in the water. Its a good 9-12" deeper than most other wakeboats. you wont get appreciation for how big and how steep the wave is until you get down on the platform at wave level while the boat is underway. I mean this, especially coming from the Malibu. The wave is big thick and powerful, what you are used to seeing on pics like this is attributed to what you have ridden behind, think the hull of the boat is 9-12" deeper in the water... so the wave ramp leading up to the back of the boat is bigtime steep! Its going to be fast coming down the wave. I am 6'1" and the biggest waves on here are waist high and 15-20ft long. The water temp was 55degs or I would have been in. Regular sided guys--- you need to get Fresh Air Exhaust asap, its real bad over there. Best setup I found was full 3 tank OEM ballast, 1100 full in the surfside locker, 1100 1/3 full in the other locker and about 700-900lbs in the bow. Slight cheat to the preferred surfside. Now, with just OEM ballast and one 1100 in the surfside trunk was about 90% of this, all that extra weight didn't add that much more, we will probably surf that way a lot. All were 11-12mph, NCRS at 5, Surf Vert at 0. we

[jrz1]

Very cool and great pics. thanks for posting. Wave looks huge.

[nyryan2001]

Very cool and great pics. thanks for posting. Wave looks huge.

Thanks, this is just the beginning. Need some more demo time, and get the right prop on there.

[shawndoggy]

Thanks, this is just the beginning. Need some more demo time, and get the right prop on there.

Ryan is it kinda double-lippy? What's the sharp angle in the middle of
the wave? Optical illusion?

[santelee]

Big wave for sure! Any issue w 450 getting speed slammed? Very nice review

[JamesHawk101]

You probably know this but the opposite surf tab extends then the side your surfing on so maybe if you weight it a bit more evenly it would clean up a bit? Just a thought. I have just started surfing behind my G with the Nss with just stock ballast so I haven't gotten to mess with it much. I usually surf the the Nss at 3-4 and Ncrs at 4-5.

[jrz1]

James - time to update your sig....

[1sicknautique]

little more weight and you could ride the barrel!!!

[iamcdn]

Thanks for the review and pics. I'm sure with some more time you will have it dialed in. I don't like the looks of that double lip though.

[swankster]

That's a great wave. I was hoping to get out of the extra sac business with the G23 but in looking at those pictures, I may not.

[nyryan2001]

Shawn- yes, when you cheat it a little to one side, the rear corner stepped hull corners shape the wave that way. Not so pronounced when its weighted evenly, but the wave isn't as big or as impressive.

whats really hard to show in these pics is how thick and steep the downward slope towards the boat is with the iPhone camera... That's over 10k lbs of downward slope. Looks how the swim platform it at water level while underway.... The look at the pic of the rear of the G23 on the trailer, and look how far down below the swim platform the NCRS is. Goes waaaay far under there compared to other wakeboats. The G23 wave has TONS of push, it's not a thin peaky wave.

this was all done using the Acme 2249. It didn't have enough grab to get OEM ballast and both 1100s up to 12mph. Bottom line, best hole shot on the 450 G23 will be using the 2315 or the 2419. I'm going to give the 2419 a try next.

[pboltonmd]

Great pics of the wake/wave. My initial feelings of, "Holy crap how fun" turn to fear when I imagine one of these waves rolling into (onto is more appropriate) my dock. My poor little 210 SANTE will get chucked around and my dock will experience stresses it is not designed to withstand. Hope to see a lot of G's, just not at my end of the lake.

[shawndoggy]

yeah with the weight you are pushing, I'd want the lowest pitched prop possible. The G alone is quite the water plow, even compared to your 'bu, and with an additional 3K+ over stock you won't be doing the motor any favors lugging it.

How does the wave change if you pull in the NSS from the max setting a little?

Double lip or not that wave looks pretty fun. Reason I asked whether it was an optical illusion is that our MB does that in a way, but I've never had that much weight in our boat so don't know what a comparable wave would look like. When I say "in a way" I mean that the wave shapes up farther away from the swim platform than on the other boats I've been behind, kinda like how it looks in your pics. On ours, with less weight, it's not so much that it's a double lip, but more like a "flat area" before the wash. It's actually a cool table of sorts for lip slides.

Love to see a goofy dedicated surfer too!

[nyryan2001]

Shawn-

I have the NCRS at 5 and the Surf setting at 0 in all these photos.

we played around with these a ton, and kept coming back to these 2 settings.

you can bring the NCRS down to about 3, it lengthens the pocket some, but you loose height, push and form. I can't see using the NcRS anywhere but in the 3-5 range.

Surf Vert- adjusts how far out the surf tabs/gates go. 0 was best, 1-2 steepened the wave some.... IMO it's already a super steep wave.... The higher surf vert setting caused the barrel to move closer to the boat and made an already steep wave too steep IMO.


seriously though, G23 regular sides surfers are gonna need the FAE, turn down pipes or something. It's horrible over there. I would almost say dangerous and unrideable. Even being on the transom underway is bad. I wish Nautique had put some thought into this, gonna be an issue for folks. They need a quick bolt on turn down pipe solution not as extreme and awkward/ bulky as FAE.

[shawndoggy]

I'd be interested to see what your results are with the lower pitched prop. Seems like maybe you could run faster given how much water you are pushing, for the mega long wave.