Surfing 24ve w/o Ballast?

[murphini]

We're wakeboarders, but Surfin' newbies. Just got a CWB Razr 5.0, and also tried a friends 5'6" Venture. Have a surfrope and Tige24ve.

Taps set@ 8, 10mph, no other ballast besides maybe 300-500# of people sitting on the side of the boat where the person is surfing. (Sorry, no pictures of us surfing or wake.)

We've watched the video from CWB, and lots of Youtube videos and are surfing toeside facing the wake WITH lifejackets on.

Me (6' 195) and kids (17 yr old @ 5'10" 150 and 13 yr old @ 5'4" 130) easily got up, pulled into the wave, but couldn't find the sweet spot with either board. Razr faster, twitchier. Venture more stable--semi sluggish.

Surfed both Saturday and Sunday. We all started out with too much weight on back foot like wakeboarding, and trying to learn/find the balance thing.

I know we'll get it with practice, but looking for the "ah-ha!" moment.

Questions:

1. Wake/Ballast
@ 10mph, TAPS 8, no other ballast, wake looks big/tall like other pics I've seen on this and other sites, but maybe not long. With more people/ballast I know we'll be able to get it more focused.

My hope with a 24ve I should be able to surf ok without extra ballast besides people. I understand more ballast will make it even better--- Anyone surfing behind that boat w-o ballast, if so speed/taps would be appreciated.

2. Balance Point:
When I try to shift my weight to the front of board, I submarine the front. If the board was like standing on a "teeter-totter" where is best position for feet?

3. Where do you point board?
Should I be trying to aim board toward back corner of the boat with the toe edge on the wave keeping me in pocket? Or at the transom...? We all seem to just float out of the wake away from the boat after we have slack and then finally let go of the rope. Any tips/hints on where to focus surfing toward?

4. Speed:
When I watch the videos on uTube, speed looks faster than 10mph. Love to get an idea of speed people surf best at.

4. Anything else:
Looking for the "ah-ha" ideas.

[da.bell]

1. Wake/Ballast
@ 10mph, TAPS 8, no other ballast, wake looks big/tall like other pics I've seen on this and other sites, but maybe not long. With more people/ballast I know we'll be able to get it more focused.

My hope with a 24ve I should be able to surf ok without extra ballast besides people. I understand more ballast will make it even better--- Anyone surfing behind that boat w-o ballast, if so speed/taps would be appreciated.

We did it a few times on the 24Ve that I own. I remember having to put the TAPS at 4-6 but also adding people to the bow to create a longer wave length.

[rob-dude]

We surfed all last year on our 22ve without ballast. Here are some hints:

You said you had a few people in the boat. Make sure you put them on the side of the boat that you plan to ride the wake on. You can even have someone sit on the activity center lid with their feet on the swim platform. Just make sure they don't fall off and get run over by the surfer.

You asked a great question related to the "direction" you should surf. If you listen to nothing else, trust me on this one. Point the nose of the surf board to the center of the transom. It helps to focus your eyes on the Tige sticker. This makes you surf along the curl of the wave where the pocket lies. If you do it wrong and point towards the corner of the boat, you will surf down the wave into flat water and stall.

Lastly, play with the speed setting in .2 mile per hour increments. We found 9.8 mph might work great but 10.0 might be a crummy wave. You need to experiment with your boat, Taps setting and load.

Hope this helps,
Rob

[ragboy]

We're wakeboarders, but Surfin' newbies. Just got a CWB Razr 5.0, and also tried a friends 5'6" Venture. Have a surfrope and Tige24ve.

Taps set@ 8, 10mph, no other ballast besides maybe 300-500# of people sitting on the side of the boat where the person is surfing. (Sorry, no pictures of us surfing or wake.)

We've watched the video from CWB, and lots of Youtube videos and are surfing toeside facing the wake WITH lifejackets on.

Me (6' 195) and kids (17 yr old @ 5'10" 150 and 13 yr old @ 5'4" 130) easily got up, pulled into the wave, but couldn't find the sweet spot with either board. Razr faster, twitchier. Venture more stable--semi sluggish.

Surfed both Saturday and Sunday. We all started out with too much weight on back foot like wakeboarding, and trying to learn/find the balance thing.

I know we'll get it with practice, but looking for the "ah-ha!" moment.

Questions:

1. Wake/Ballast
@ 10mph, TAPS 8, no other ballast, wake looks big/tall like other pics I've seen on this and other sites, but maybe not long. With more people/ballast I know we'll be able to get it more focused.

My hope with a 24ve I should be able to surf ok without extra ballast besides people. I understand more ballast will make it even better--- Anyone surfing behind that boat w-o ballast, if so speed/taps would be appreciated.

2. Balance Point:
When I try to shift my weight to the front of board, I submarine the front. If the board was like standing on a "teeter-totter" where is best position for feet?

3. Where do you point board?
Should I be trying to aim board toward back corner of the boat with the toe edge on the wave keeping me in pocket? Or at the transom...? We all seem to just float out of the wake away from the boat after we have slack and then finally let go of the rope. Any tips/hints on where to focus surfing toward?

4. Speed:
When I watch the videos on uTube, speed looks faster than 10mph. Love to get an idea of speed people surf best at.

4. Anything else:
Looking for the "ah-ha" ideas.

We started surfing our 24Ve without ballast. It works, and fun. But it just gets better with ballast. And to do tricks, you need speed. So you have to run a bit faster, and need more weight. This allows you to have a decent sized wave, but with a long enough pocket to go to the back of the pocket, and boost speed to the front and throw your 360, or whatever, and then gives you the room you need to recover. You can't do that without the weight. But if you just like casual surfing, you don't need it. Also, the funner shorter boards, like the green loogie, or 4 ft skims, need a bigger wake unless you are under 140 or so.