Which Tige to Buy???

[NickWWS]

I VOTE GREY AND WHITE!!!!!!!!!

[konajay]

I'm partial to the grey & white as well...matches my truck!

[ecutter]

I VOTE GREY AND WHITE!!!!!!!!!

Nick, your the dealer trying to sell me the Grey and White one so you dont get to vote! lol. When was that pic taken. 2011 boat show?

Disagree (respectfully). I would say the opposite is true, if you are a pro, you won't mind so much, and if you are not, you will DEF notice the difference. Here are some points to consider, and remember that the Z3 was engineered with these issues in mind.

1. The Z3 is as easy or easier to weight.

2. Z3 is not only more tolerant of weight on the opposite side, but likes it. It doesn't matter how much room you have when you have to keep most or all weight on the surf side. You lose a lot of the room on your boat. On the Z3, it NEEDED weight on both sides, allowing you to place people all over, huge benefit.

3. Z3 requires only about 7 degrees of list and everyone will feel much safer.

4. Z3 has higher rub rail, so added freeboard and feeling of safety surfing. But there is also a much safer perception due to the lack of the walkthrough down the side. When you have the walkthrough down the side and surfing goofy, water comes up from the back sometimes a bit, but also the seat is lower on your back when sitting in that corner. The Z3 walkthrough in the center and seating config makes the entire boat, even that corner feel safer. As an added benefit that corner is SO MUCH more comfortable. That is ragboy's seat, and this one was a huge deal to me. The Z3 is THE most comfortable boat to ride in while surfing, hands down.

5. The Z3 wake is MUCH more adjustable. The 24Ve wake is more adjustable than the RZ2, and the Z3 was more adjustable than the 24Ve. I have LOTS of video of newer riders, especially skim riders and kids that have a hard time on the RZ2 steepness. Get a skimmer with not so much fin on that steep wall and they can't hold an edge, same with kids at times. I took one lady, good skim surfer on our 24Ve and she loved it, we had taps all the way down for her to shallow the wake. Then we took here the very next week on the RZ4, same steepness as RZ2 and about the same in adjustability as the RZ2. Should couldn't surf the RZ4, too steep. Couldn't hold her edge. This is one of the videos that we showed to tige in development of the Z3 and one of the things we stressed to them. A boat that could adjust from shallow for skim to steep for surf. The Z3 does that. In my opinion, this is huge for those of you that want to share your awesome surf wake with lots of folks.

We had the RZ2 for over a year, the 24Ve since 2007, the RZ4 for about a month or so, and have tested several times with the new Z3, we want the Z3.

I would agree on the 409, we didn't get a lot of time on it, but it does seem very efficient, and LOTS more power.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your purchase.

Ragboy, when do you get your Z3.. Would like to hear more feed back from you after you spend more time with the boat.
Do you plan on hitting the water anymore this year or early
next year? Or are you done until spring?

[ragboy]

Not sure yet on the new Z3, should find out soon. We just went out on Saturday on the RZ4, but I have a feeling that is the last time til maybe march or so. Going to have to winterize the boat before the snow really hits.

We are also looking forward to getting more time on it, and especially putting it in blue water. Don't know how you Texas guys surf in that soup! ;-)

[NickWWS]

[QUOTE=ecutter;557689]Nick, your the dealer trying to sell me the Grey and White one so you dont get to vote! lol. When was that pic taken. 2011 boat show?


Yeah at the 2011 Denver Boat show!

[Timmy!]

Since it's from the 2011 show ecutter, you should be able to get a better deal BTW - I don't recall Bill ever having a boat this long before...

[Ewok]

We are also looking forward to getting more time on it, and especially putting it in blue water. Don't know how you Texas guys surf in that soup! ;-)

That little retention pond they call a test lake in Abilene is not a good representative of the water in TX. Here is Lake Amistad from my neighborhood boat launch.

[ragboy]

Holy crap its blue! We saw a few lakes in Texas, plus seen lots of pictures from others and I think other than that possum lake, they have all been brown. I need my mountains man.

This is from this past Saturday, blue and mountains and trees, nice to be home! RJ on the 2012 RZ4


IMG_8522 by wake9, on Flickr


IMG_8529 by wake9, on Flickr

[Ewok]

Nice pics, I can't wait to see the blog post on the RZ4 and your inevitable surf mods

[ragboy]

The RZ4 just took a while to find the right setup, it didn't weight like the RZ2 or the 24Ve at all. RJ is in the middle of finals, but hopefully next week.

[IDBoating]

Don't know how you Texas guys surf in that soup!

Yes, I have to suppress a bit of gag reflex every time I see a photo here where I can't see through the water. Some of those water surfaces look like they'd be thick enough to walk across!

[murphini]

I have to suppress a giggle reflex every time I see Ragboy post a wake/wave/curl photo. Holy crap those waves look good.

[ragboy]

Thanks, hehe. The RZ4 was more difficult to setup. It wants to make a fat curl right where you don't want it, the trick is to adjust to get the curl to move UP, and back, and as flat as possible. This was one of the main issues with the 1st Z3 also, but you couldn't adjust it out. And the latest Z3, the curl was easy to get up and back and flat.

The RZ4, once adjusted to get that shape and curl right, made a great wake with lots of push. I would just put custom sacs in here, then fill up all of front, all of surf side, and then place people and fill opposite side to about 9 degrees of list at rest. That seemed about right. I used an app on my iPhone called a clinometer. I wouldn't be surprised if some app like that showed up some day on the tige touch. ;-)

The only other thing I would do to an RZ4 is fill in the bottom of the swim deck to make perfectly smooth. Going back to the 24Ve and also the new Z3 with smooth bottom, you really see and RJ feels the difference.

Lastly, I believe Tige is working on taps plates for new models, at least the Z3, that will help remove that wash that can show its ugly head.

The commitment from Tige in this area is amazing, and I think you will continue to see huge steps forward related to surfing.

[IDBoating]

The only other thing I would do to an RZ4 is fill in the bottom of the swim deck to make perfectly smooth.

My 24Ve's swim deck is "smooth" but still has a tiny bit of lip around the edge where the sides extend down below the smooth undersurface. It seems to me I could flip the swim deck upside down and pour something into there, kind of like the self-leveling compound you use with concrete floors.

I'm pretty happy with how my swim deck is shaping my wave, but experimentation continues... anyone have suggestions on something that would bond well and leave it perfectly smooth?

[duffymahoney]

Why would you smooth the swim deck instead of just making it not touch the wave. Even if it's smooth it will still disrupt the wave. Cut it down and make it smaller