Wake9's new 2015 Tige Z3 with AVX and Surf XL

[jslayde1]

Dang that's a good looking boat. Very nice Robert!

[trace]

@25cents If that is all it took, you might as well go get one now. When I show the wake and my gas receipts, you will be done. ;-)

That is most definitely true Robert. Our '15 Z1 is a sipper on the gas gauge, we were on the water about 5+ hours the other day and the gas gauge moved 1 bar. It uses more fuel cruising than it does surfing.

[Duncan]

Beautiful boat. Cannot wait to see the (full range of) wave

[JLG]

Congrats Robert and RJ. Hope they gave the boat to ya for all the time and good reviews you give Tige boats Can't wait to see the mods you put on it. I better start saving up for mine as I'm sure you will leave us drooling over yours

[Timmy!]

Love that color combo! Just screams Tige with the orange and black! Good luck with the dial in, can't wait for the other videos.

[Ewok]

Great looking boat guys and nice video editing. Did you use some type of a steady cam or gyro stabilized or weighted handle for the camera? I can't wait to see what you can wring out of it beauty.

[ragboy]

@ewok No. I LOVE doing this stuff using what I call "ghettopro" techniques.

First, the entire thing was shot with an iPhone 6 and by my 14 yr old son Thomas. Its hard to see, but you can see what we are doing in these frames of the video:

Here he is in a yellow shirt, holding the iPhone low and stable. He is sitting on an office chair with wheels, and I am pushing and pointing him. He is managing tilt up and down and I told him not to turn left or right, I would do that with the chair. He holds his legs out and we go, got it on like the 3rd take.


On this frame you can see he is holding it high and angled in for interior, he is standing on the chair and I am pushing him and holding his belt so he doesn't fall.


And here you can see me pushing him.


All of this took only 15 mins or so. You can use anything with wheels, even a skateboard works, but the office chair is great cuz I can also turn it. On less than smooth pavement you can use something like a wheel chair.

It looks perfectly stead because I just use Final Cut Pro X and when I edited, I just checked ON the default stabilizer with no extra settings. Since we were fairly stable, it didn't have much work to do and made it look great.

I use the iPhone for this for several reasons.

1. The iPhone 6 takes great video.
2. The Canon 60D we have is better video but doesn't do 120FPS. You need that for the stead slow and playing with the speed.
3. The iPhone will even do 240fps is you have good light.
4. The go pro looks horrible with this stuff IMHO because of the wide angle, the iPhone and the canon feel more natural.
5. The iPhone takes less time because you can instantly play back and view at various speeds and see what you got, this is the biggest reason I use it for most everything.

I have a hero 4, hero 3 black, and several 3 silvers, but instead of buying a better hero 4, I got the iPhone 6 with 128GB of storage and its my goto camera. For the stuff I am doing the quality is great and the slomo is impeccable.

Try the dolly shots, they are fun.

[Ewok]

That's impressive steady hands you all have there. I have the iPhone 6 as well and it works well for us too. I was just wondering since weighted style camera handles are getting cheaper and into the hands of more users. Looks like you guys don't need one but I figured you were using something like this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=REG&A=details

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/St...7/N/3907816575

I've used skateboards before for dolly shots, and bicycles on pavement, and I have done a few shots with my iPhone, handheld while skiing with the kids. The anti-shake processing in iMovie is pretty good do but I've heard that FinalCut Pro is a little better.

[talltigeguy]

I missed something...what is surf XL?

[ragboy]

They did the Surf X system, which is the AVX and more ballast than pro from before. But it still wasn't a great wake, and tige worked hard to bring something that is close to comp weighting. The Surf XL system on the Z3 uses the same size (exactly) as our goofy bag on both sides of the boat. I am finishing pictures and video today, and will show you. Its excellent.

[mnpracing]

They did the Surf X system, which is the AVX and more ballast than pro from before. But it still wasn't a great wake, and tige worked hard to bring something that is close to comp weighting. The Surf XL system on the Z3 uses the same size (exactly) as our goofy bag on both sides of the boat. I am finishing pictures and video today, and will show you. Its excellent.

same size bag...but per corner would be 250 lighter due to removal of the hard tank right?

[ragboy]

Yes, but the engine is heavier, by 200 or 250 lbs.

We have new bags we are installing, and another solution we are working on for simple hop up to the setup we will use at the event.

[Z3CO23]

Robert I was wondering if you could clarify something for me. I pulled Chase's comments from another thread from the Polar Bear.

"At the Polar Bear event, I set the Z3 up Saturday with 100% front ballast and 100% surf side ballast, and 0% counter weight. I also had 7-8 people in the boat. I ran taps at 4, AVX from 1-5, and speed from 10.7-11.2. The surfers loved the adjustability and the style and look of the boat itself. The wake was also super clean, but the surfers thought the wave was lacking push. Surfers complained because the back of the wave lacked push (meat).
On Sunday, RJ Garcia and I set the boat up similar to the Garcia’s Z3 used for EWT. We filled the front to 100%, surf side to 100% and counter weight to about 50%. (Counter weight was 4-6 inches of water in the surf x bag) (approx. 550 lbs) This could be decreased or increased depending on the number of people you have in the boat. I had 7-8 people in the boat. We also added 400 lbs of lead. 100 pounds under each rear ballast bag and 200 lbs on the surf side toward the front. After running the boat we found that the extra weight was unnecessary for 99% of the wake surfers in the world. I ran taps at 1-3, AVX from 6-10, and speed 10.4 – 11.5 MPH. (Optimal setting on the goofy side was taps 2, AVX 9-10, and speed 11) (Optimal setting on the regular side was taps 3, AVX 8) (For the optimal skim wave simply move taps and AVX down 1 position and slow the boat approximately .4 mph.)
The opinion after Sunday was a different story. Everyone loved the wave, and many people told me that it was the wave/boat of the weekend. Everyone was also very impressed with the AVX and being able to dial in the wave between regular and goofy. I also took some of the disappointed riders from Saturday out Sunday evening, and they were amazed. Most of them said it was the best boat of the weekend.
Las Vegas
In Vegas with Offshore Marine, I did the demo similar to the setup on Sunday. I filled the front to 100%, surf side to 100% and counter to 40% since I only had 4 people in the boat. This was just stock ballast, and the wake was very similar to the Polar bear event on Sunday.
Fuel Burn - This was running the boat constantly with very little idle time.
Saturday from 9-1:30 the Z3 burned 21 gallons. (4.67 gph) RPMs 2800-2900
Saturday from 1:30-6 the Z3 burned 22 gallons (4.89 gph) RPMs 2800-2900
Sunday from 8:15- 9:30 and 10-2 the Z3 burned approx. 29 gallons (5.52 gph) RPMs 3100-3200"

I am curious if you were including the weight of the people in the boat for the numbers listed in video..... 2700 for saturday and 3600 for sunday?

When i calculate it I get the following:

Saturday:
Config with 900 bags : 550+550+900 =2000
Config with 1200 bags: 550+550+1200 =2300

Sunday:
Config with 900 bags : 550+550+900+450 = 2450
Config with 1200 bags: 550+550+1200+600 = 2900
900 bags with added lead: 2450+400 = 2850
1200 bags with added lead: 2900+400 = 3300

My assumption is that the 900 bags were in the boat during the Polar bear.... if your weights in the video include the weight of the people then I'm all good... if not, then I'm very confused.

[ragboy]

They do not include people, and you are not including any opposite weight in your saturday configuration. I don't remember how I calculated at the time, and I think Tige still had not settled on the Surf X or Surf XL system yet. But I asked Chase how much weight was in the corners and I calculated 100% full on surf corner, 50% in opposite corner then 1100 up front. So that means, for whatever reason, I had understood 1000 lbs in the corner on Saturday. I definitely was not counting people.

[Greeko]

I enjoyed the 2015 z3 at polar bear. It was the reason I bought a z3. so far I have ran full factory regular surf ballast, 25 percent counter. Full front ballast. 360 lbs of lead I the rear quarter and an 1100 sack on the floor. I listed approx 6 degrees, ran taps at 4 and avx at 5. had a wave I was quite haPay with. I will keep on tweaking it to get the max out of her.
IMG_2163.jpgIMG_2160.jpgIMG_2158.jpg