Did that grab your attention? We want this to be an editorial, you can agree or disagree, but mostly realize it’s for discussion purposes and meant to cause folks to think and to challenge some and their thinking on what’s a good surf wake. Here is our premise, if the best wakesurfers in the world can’t do their hardest tricks behind your surf wake, then your surf wake sucks. Professionals can pretty much adapt to any wake out there, but if most or all of those pros can’t do their hardest tricks behind your surf wake, that isn’t the fault of the rider, it’s the boat or the organizer that weights the boat improperly.
BUT, wouldn’t the very best wake EVER be the one that allows infinite adjustability so that ams can land their 3′s ALL the dang time and the pro’s can do bigger spins, every dang time?
You bet’cha.
If you want an ugly deep trough with a vertical wall, super hard lip and a pocket that is 12 feet long that should be doable with the flick of a button and the next rider up, if they want a 30 foot long pocket, with rounded lip and almost no height that should be doable with the touch of a button and NOT require adding or unloading ballast. If the best riders in the world are limited by your wake, stop calling it the best or contest level, call it what it is: a limited wake that you can do SOME stuff on. PERIOD.
Ok, end of our rant, but keep that in mind when you go to buy a boat, go look at some contest footage and see who’s landing what or more importantly who’s NOT landing what behind the boat you’re considering.
James Walker behind our Supreme V226, what we consider the best of what’s available in surf wakes.
So speaking of contest footage here are all of the videos from James Walker’s winning run at the NWWSA Open in the men’s pro surf
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Sweet, huh? Thanks for following along and for listening to our rant. We’ve got some board building coming up next and you’ll want to see the uni carbon we’re working with!
3 comments
1 ping
Michael
August 1, 2012 at 8:07 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
How is your V226 weighted? Do you use a larger prop? In your opinion, what is the perfect wake shape, length, height for surfing? I have an 08 Malibu LSV 247. We added internal pumps and sacks that we use in addition to stock ballast. The wake is inconsistent but we usually have no trouble surfing it. Actually, I would describe the wake as HUGE. I’m not sure if this is the best for surfing…
Author
August 1, 2012 at 8:21 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hey Michael, thanks so much for following along and your question. Our Supreme V226 is very simple to weight. We have a 1,400 pound custom sac on the port side full. The center tank which is 380 pounds full and then a driver at 100 pounds and one person acting as observer at 200 pounds in the rear corner. We have a trim tab that we set starting out at 25% and that’s it. On your ‘bu and the 247 is a great boat by the way, HUGE may be perfect for some and absolutely SUCK for others. That is the point we want to make. If that HUGE wake is limiting your ability to learn new tricks (say a surface 1080) or consistently do the tricks you KNOW how to do, then the ‘bu wake SUCKS. It sounds like you don’t have the ability to adjust it much and for the most part every single boat out there that claims to be surf worthy has that same issue. For the most part, we believe that HUGE isn’t best and most likely is negatively impacting your ability to progress. What we feel is best is a wake that can accomodate that super steep walled up wake like you are most likley getting AND also a relatively mellow, long and rounded lip sort of wake without requiring major ballasting changes. That is to say, a wake that allows a myriad of adjustments. Thanks again for the question and for following along!
Kevin Allen
August 19, 2012 at 4:10 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hey guys, just to start out, I am a HUGE fan of James’ surfing, he has an economy of motion and effort that is astounding. The one big hop from the back of the wave to throwing his trick, just brilliant. Kudo’s indeed!!!
I am a novice surfer and am trying to emulate his style. Kind of like a toddler learning to walk would pattern his walk after someone he saw do it. Silly, I know, but it’s been a fun learning curve.
We shopped boats and looked at many of them, including a test drive in a Centurion which we liked. We ended up with a Supra 242 and have been very happy with it so far. We have a custom sack coming to replace our multiple sacks stuffed under the seats approach which will be a great improvement in. if nothing else, convenience. The wake seems to be very good, lots of push and we can shape it either tall and peaky or very long and smooth.
We talked to Supreme and to be honest, if we had a dealer close at all where we could have looked at one, we might have ended up with it instead. But we are very happy with our choice.
Hope to see you again at another competition next year. Ask James how he liked the H2O Overdrive Hydrate he tried in Florida,,,,, and if he ever taped a bottle to his chest like we talked about!!!
Congrats on your recent wins James, too cool man!!!
Unidirectional carbon fiber and wake surf board delirium.
August 2, 2012 at 4:31 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
[...] « Dear boat manufacturer, your surf wake sucks. [...]