Wake9/Tige Photoshoot - Behind the Scenes

[ragboy]

Still sorting through all the pro shots, but I made a flickr set from a bunch of photos whitney took from the pontoon boat we were chasing from. Here is a link to a couple of full screen slideshows.

http://wake9.com/blogs/blog/category...ring-festival/

But here are a few of the great ones.

The water was glass.


The wake was long and excellent, James headed out for his set for the camera.


James was killing it on that Flyboy Wakesurf board.




The wake was equally great on both sides, same boat, same weight.


It was a great day, even if you were just a spectator.


We have lots of other images, and other pros. The pro photog is still sorting...

[ragboy]

I love this one, should be a part of a wakesurfing quiz.

Which of these boats is preparing to wakesurf?

[dingleberry]

I love this one, should be a part of a wakesurfing quiz.

Which of these boats is preparing to wakesurf?

Abandon ship! She's capsizing!

Seriously - you have a ton of sweet pics from that event, ragboy. Looks like a great time.

[ajholt7]

Great pics!

[Guapo]

Great pics!

X2

[Timmy!]

Awesome pics! Can you tell us more about the total weight setup? How much did you fill in the nose, the non-surf side, surf side, lead, etc.? I couldn't get a clear picture in the other thread.

[ragboy]

Sure. Basically Dennis altered the configuration based on how many people would be in the boat. The photoshoot saw the most non-people weight, since we were just having a few models in the boat, but you can see the AMAZING wake, with like 500 lbs only of people in the boat. To do that, he had the stock PRO ballast full on rear side of surf. That is 200# in hull tank and 350 in that zip out sac. He added about 700 lbs of lead into the rear surf side, but NOT all in the corner, much of it was positioned to simulate a big guy in the ballast boy seat. Then he had 300-400 lbs in front on surf side. Normally, we don't put weight in the front, because we have 2 girls up there, but it was empty, and also, when you weight the corner hard, you have to get some weight in the front, or the bow will not come down. Its like the convex v hull will just sink in permanently. At this configuration, taps at 4-5 seemed to work great, but the wake lacked a bit of push, which is really necessary for getting momentum for tricks, and also for recovery after a trick. Took the taps down to 3, and bam it was perfect. James literally said the wake seemed to boot him higher than he has ever been. There really is a trick to not just making a wake LOOK good, but work perfectly for a pro surfer. The RZ2 was a great platform and Dennis, the wake9 wakeologist ;-) was able to figure it out quickly, the boat worked that well, and on both sides.

During the contest, with judges and stuff in the boat, and dennis sitting in corner, he reduced lead.

I plan to do some R&D with the pro ballast, replacing the top zip out sac with a much larger one, and see how close we get to the wake you see in the pics.

[Timmy!]

Thanks Robert! I've noticed that I can get a taller wave with the taps at like 6 or so but it always seems faster with the taps at 3-4, guess that's the push you are talking about.

[ragboy]

Y, well it isn't a general rule, it really depends on the day, and how its weighted. But that is what is great about taps, you can change it instantly and get feedback from the rider. We usually run about 4-5, but it depends.

[Big Kahuna]

To correct the weighting that Robert posted. I used the stock ballast in front on the surf side during the photo shoots. I never had more than 700 pounds of lead. When we added people for the contest with 2 big guys in back and another judge, photographer and technician I moved 250 pounds up in the locker just in front of the driver. The RZ2 likes a balance of weight front to back. Not sure if it is 30% front 70% back but something like that.