Surfing a GS20?

[Evening Shade]

Just to add a contrarian comment: We have found the best (longest, cleanest) surf wave was using the stock nss/ncrs settings, increasing the speed to 11.6 and decreasing both rear lockers to 80%. I surf on a phase 5 hammerhead and have found even bigger friends can surf it, but I needed to buy a larger fin then the stock fin. I haven't played with ballast shift as we we're so happy with the above configuration. The GS20 is a different animal and I don't think "just add weight" is the solution. I look forward to hearing other GS20 configurations for surfing.


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Thanks for the advice!

[JoeA]

Evening,

Dont let this get you down. Enjoy the experience of dialing in the wave. I am confident it can be done.

Joe

[btouchstone01]

I surf behind a Sport 200 and find that the push occurs much closer to the swim platform than you might think. Try moving closer to the boat and stay forward on the board.

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[JoeA]

I rode behind a GS20 last week and was very impressed with the surf wave for a 20' boat. Full factory ballast plus 8 people and factory surf settings. I think weight is the answer for this gem.

Tomorrow I'll be riding behind a Heyday and Sea Ray's new surf boat. I'm not in the market to buy but the dealer wants me to surf and share my opinion.

[Evening Shade]

I rode behind a GS20 last week and was very impressed with the surf wave for a 20' boat. Full factory ballast plus 8 people and factory surf settings. I think weight is the answer for this gem.

Tomorrow I'll be riding behind a Heyday and Sea Ray's new surf boat. I'm not in the market to buy but the dealer wants me to surf and share my opinion.

I surfed my GS20 last weekend. 3 adults and one child in the boat. 500# sack in the bow and 600# sacks in rear compartments, all about 3/4 full. I could finally surf without the rope, but the sweet spot was small and easy to lose the push. I'm a very novice surf and probably not doing it right, I didn't ever get the feeling that I was gonna catch the surfing bug. Just seems too boring to me. Maybe if I had a G23 I would feel differently.

[cbeitel123]

Evening: Post some vids of your surfing and also your board. I think you should be fine behind the GS......


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[J_DUB33]

Spent the last 4 days surfing behind our gs20. Mostly port side. Everything from 3 people in the boat to 11 people. More weight does not make things better. We found the best wake at NCRS 3-5 depending on how steep you like your face and NSS 0. We slowed the speed to 10.8 mph and ran 100% port, 70-80% star, 80-100% belly (depending on number of people). Best wake was with my daughter behind the boat and 3 people in the boat. She prefers a steep face so we ran 5/0 with 100 p, 70 s, 80 belly. Am trying to get the wake longer. There is a nice curl but it seems to break too far forward. There is also a step that we are currently trying to improve. Great push. Great boat! Love it. If anyone finds the magic settings let us know.

[tcaviness]

Surfed a friends gs20 this weekend, that step in the wave is pretty significant. I was impressed with the push of the wave but the pocket felt pretty short. Seemed to have a better shape with 10.6-10.8 compared to 11+ on speed. As I recall, we were surfing as slow as 9.8 mph with our moomba mondo (20ft) a few years ago. Agree with prior post that the gs20 is a completely different animal, most af the changes we made failed to produce the effect desired. Just glad to have this forum resource so each owner doesn't have to blindly figure it out.

[HVL2010]

I had my wife driving me, so we went with the stock surf settings. She was only able to really fuss with the speed as she isnt familiar with the touch screen and where things are. Sadly, was never able to get it dialed to where I could let go of the rope. Our normal lake strongly discourages anything that generates a sizeable wake, so it'll be a while before I can try to surf again. Wife and her friend had a phenominal time slalom skiing behind this boat. They normally rec ski at 25mph. The bump was a little big @ 65-70' but they both had huge grins. Didnt wakeboard, because I was really focused on surf this outing. Should have brought that board with me too.

[funkster]

I wouldn't stress to much. I don't know about the G20 but Surfing in general takes some fine tuning. I'm sure if I could get a rope-less wave out of my 87', you should be able to produce a nice wave behind your G.

Surfing my 210 we evenly sack it out and use a surf device. 750's in the rear lockers(soon to be 910), 600 in the belly and 400 in the bow. This produces a clean rope less wave on both the port and starboard side by just switching the surf device. I'm sure you can electronically do this with NSS. We had 1st time teenagers surfing rope-less after about 20mins. Don't fear the ballast!


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[Jim Foley]

I have a 2018 gs20...love the boat, am new to surf...still trying how to figure out the adjustments and purposes of/between NSS and NCRS settings. I’m finding it’s lots of work to leave the rope. Been told it should not be that difficult to leave the rope. Suspect I need suggestions for settings. I’m goofy foot and my wife is regular. Suggestions?

[MikeC]

All of the current Nautique G series boats can be surfed with stock ballast and settings. It can be fine tuned and tweaked with extra, weight, or changing weight and adding people (people=portaballast, and if they help pay for gas, cheaper than steel shot bags, easier to move around too), but you can easily surf without a rope behind any GS, G or 210/230. What's easiest is to find someone that's surfed before, don't let them comment on your wave, just let them teach you how to move the board into and out of the surf pocket. There are some threads on here that talk about using a good board, foot placement and technique. Have patience and enjoy the time on the water - surfing without the rope will come.

[Evening Shade]

I am new to surfing too, but you definitely can go ropeless behind the GS20 with stock ballast. I'm finding that there is a lot more technique involved with surfing than I ever imagined. I'm not talking about skills to do tricks, I'm talking about technique for staying in the pocket and modulating speed so that you can stay in the pocket.

I the proper board makes a big difference when learning. You need a very boyant board. One made for heavy surfers. This will help with going ropeless. Also a tip that has helped me alot is moving around on the board. There is more push from the wave when you move forward on the board and less push when you move to the rear of the board. In other words, forward on the board is the accelerator and back on the board is the brake. Also keep your feet closer to the toe edge of the board.

Factory surf settings on the GS 20 are NCRS=5, NSS=0, and speed=11.2. This is a good place to start, but I think the wave is too short with NCRS at 5. I like 3 or 4 better because it lengthens the wave, however it wont be as tall or steep. Also try slowing the boat down a little to 10.8 or so and try letting 15-25% of the ballast out on the opposite side you are surfing.

[Evening Shade]

I have a 2018 gs20...love the boat, am new to surf...still trying how to figure out the adjustments and purposes of/between NSS and NCRS settings. I’m finding it’s lots of work to leave the rope. Been told it should not be that difficult to leave the rope. Suspect I need suggestions for settings. I’m goofy foot and my wife is regular. Suggestions?

I meant to quote you on my previous post, but accidentally didn't. I wanted to share the above tips with you.

[Infinity]

x2, does not matter how good a wave you have, to go rope-less you gotta put a little time behind the boat with the rope AND have the right board for you if you wanna stay ropeless for more than 30-60 seconds. Right board is just important as dialing the wave while you are learning. Once you learn how to maneuver, you can use just about any board and be fine....but like any other sport, you gotta practice. Its not hard at all, but there are some tricks to it and you learn and get better by doing....and falling 100 times first. Once you get feel for the wave and it "clicks"... you can start progressing very fast.
My brother is very athletic and had been behind my boat 12-15 times this summer using a skim board....(my wave is dialed).....he could drop rope, but after 30-60 seconds he would end up washing out back and lose it. He finally got a surf style board (and first couple times up was like, "dang, this does not feel right" cause board feels so much more bouyant). I told him to stick with it cause that is how it goes. By 2nd-3rd set, he was dropping rope and riding for 3-4mins. Now he has been out with this board 3 more times and is carving, pumping forward on wave on demand and starting to try new things. Huge difference with right board, putting in some time and getting the feel for it.