Wakeboarding/ballast questions

[Stevo1989]

So I have a 1990 ski nautique and am slowly getting better at wake boarding and starting to go wake to wake however there is little room inside of my boy for multiple people and currently no ballast. Would it be recommended to get a 750 lb fat sack for the back or getting multiple smaller ones to place in different areas. Also thinking about investing on one of the wedges and trying to wake surf. Any input or recommendations are greatly appreciated this being my first actual ski boat I’m still some what new to all of this .
thank you in advance

[Stevo1989]

Second question what do some of you do to afford these newer boats I apparently am in the wrong line of business to acquire the things I want :-p tips on this would be helpful as well lol either way I hope everyone has a safe fun summer and gets to enjoy their boating time

[functionoverfashion]

VERY briefly on ballast, it's best to have multiple fat sacs if you can, so you can distribute the weight around the boat. Generally speaking, you want the whole boat to be lower, not just the stern. There's no substitute for experimentation, bring a crew out and have people move around, you can see what looks best. Then when you don't have a full crew, you know where your ballast needs to go.

For surfing, look up the DIY surf gate. Your boat probably won't be amazing for surfing, but it could work.

Also learn to drive the boat carefully with ballast, it's easy to nose under your own wave!

[hal2814]

Until last year I had a 1983 Ski Nautique. We put 800lb bags on either side of the engine but they probably only filled to 500lbs or so. That gave us a great wakeboard wake and a surf wave that was surfable but pretty disappointing. You could probably do the same. We were running into similar issues with space for people, ballast, and gear.

You don’t necessarily need a newer boat for a good wake/wave. I bought a 1995 Super Sport last year. It’s the same hull as the Super Air Nautique 210 up until 2006 or 2007 I think. I paid $16k but they gave me $6k on trade for my 83 Ski. I’ve spent about $1,800 in additional ballast bags, reversible pumps, a new prop, and ballast fittings/wiring. The boat already had a tower. Now I have one of the best wakeboard wakes ever made, a decent surf wave, and we don’t trip all over each other with the bags and pumps in the boat. I’d rather have a newer boat but what i have is a great boat for the money.

[Stevo1989]

Thank you very much appreciated so far I have one 800lb bag and a swell wale creator that I’m going to try out my brother just bought a pontoon so we may be able to not have to worry so much about people and gear. I’ll defiantly experiment and maybe get a couple smaller bags as well. I don’t expect it to be amazing for what I’m looking for since it was designed mainly for solam skiing but like you said it’s what I have for now until I can bank up enough to upgrade to something that caters more to what I am trying to use t for

[Stevo1989]

Figured I would pick some brains before I put to much Into it. There seems to be a vast wealth of knowledge on these forums and I greatly appreciate it

[Stevo1989]

So so far I ended up with 1x 800lb bag for the stern and I just ordered 2x 350lb bags one for each side of the engine box plus a swell wake creator 2.0 wedge. Haven’t gotten to try anything out yet hoping to get on the water next week and I’ll post back with how it turns out

[Beach-TJ]

You can also use some lead heads/ lead weights. The nice thing about them is they take up little room and can be stuffed way to bow or stern, as needed.

[03SANTE]

Fatsac brick is nice too. It's a 16" cube with handles on top and is like an extra 155lb passenger that will sit wherever you tell them to.

Regarding surfing the other thing to mention is the board type. If you read around there are definitely differences with board types and certain ones will do better with a wave that's not perfect. I bought my kids a "skim hybrid" over the winter and they like it but for larger or newer riders we have an older one that is more forgiving and easier to stay on the wave. It's a bit larger and thicker...and works better for riders who are larger and thicker.