wake size has a ton to do with water depth

[rickharp]

Maybe everyone knows this, and i just found out as i moved from a 94' 196 to a 07 211. The wake changes dramatically when the water depth is over 4 to 5 feet. In shallow water the wave height is liike less than half of what it is when its more than 5 feet deep. It didnt take us too long to figure it out, but we were amazed at the difference. Wake surfing and wakeboarding speeds.

just a fyi, later

[Andrew]

RE: wake size has a ton to do with water depth

huh?

[Luke]

RE: wake size has a ton to do with water depth

Yep. I think I remember reading somewhere that water needs to be between 7-13 feet for the wake to reach its full potential.

If you ride in shallow water, 4-5 feet, your wake will be much smaller and take a lot more weight to beef up.

The difference is night and day when riding in shallow water versus a deeper body of water.

[Nautiqueman]

RE: wake size has a ton to do with water depth

With that being said, slalom lakes that are 4-6 feet, should have better wakes than deeper lakes?

[Andrew]

RE: wake size has a ton to do with water depth

never heard of such. anyone know the physics explanation to this? doesnt make sense to me

[Luke]

RE: wake size has a ton to do with water depth

Hmm...All I could find with a quick search was this:
http://www.wakeworld.com/tricklist/PerfectWake.swf (See Step 3)

But if you search on Wakeworld there are numerous discussions of it.

[MNSuperAir]

RE: wake size has a ton to do with water depth

It's true. You can watch your wake washout if you hit a shallow spot.

[craigb]

Slalom skiers want deeper water also. Slalom skies ride deep in the turns and shalow water doesn't allow for the ski to compress as easily, don't ask me about the physics, I just know we have several slalom tournaments on our private man-made lakes and all the open skiers love our lakes because they're deep 11-14 feet. They all say it skis slower than the shallow man-made lakes.

[wakefun]

It all has to do with fluid dynamics and how the wake reacts with the bottom of the lake, river, etc. There was a long discussion about this on WakeWorld a while ago. Bottom line is - shallow water (3-6') means smaller wake because of the reaction of the push of the boat through the water and push back from the bottom of the lake... (I think - someone out there must have taken some fluid dynamic courses in college and can do a better job of explaining the physical reaction of the hull of a boat and its resulting wake as it relates to depth.)
Wakefun

[MNSuperAir]

I've taken the courses but don't remember much on that subject. Must have been boring

[Andrew]

guess i've never rode in a shallow lake, but that pic on wakeworld kinda made some sense to me. although i still wanna find sumthin a little more in depth. i'm the kinda person that wants to understand everything about anything lol.

[88mars2001]

So it sounds like shallow water would feel faster throught the course? What about the bottom of the lake river? Does it make a difference if its mud or sand?

[lbz99smp]

Not sure if this is the exact physics but a similar thing happens in aircraft, it called ground effect.

When your flying close to the ground its quite noticable, we often fly along beaches at a low level, typically you can reduce the power by 15-20% and maintain the same cruise speed.

I'm guessing its the same effect in boats. the turbulance or downward force created by the hull going through the water actually bounces back in shallow water and in turn lifts the boat out of the water (reducing the size of the wake) :???:

I'd say the firmer & smoother the bottom the greater effect because more turbulance is bounced back.

check this out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect.

[Andrew]

makes sense

[redelf75]

Agreed. If the boat is moving from deep water to shallow, the boat will displace less water and wake characteristics will change. As the stern of the boat is much less shallow on a ski boat than a wakeboard boat, or boat set up for wakeboarding, the effect would not be so great and maybe not even noticable. Who wants to try taking their $40,000 196 into 2-feet deep water at 36mph to see if the wake changes. :grin: Better watch out for snapping turtles!