Wake Just Right...

[ragboy]

I have been experimenting with weighting my 24Ve to get the best wake, both surf and wakeboard. My sac inventory is as follows:

2 FlyHigh V-drive sacs in each rear locker, 400 lbs each.
1 Integrated bow sac in the bow, 600 lbs.
1 750 sac that I can place in the center of the boat
2 155 lb fat brick for adjustment and such.

My first experience was with just the huge 750 in the center of the boat. This gave me a great surf wake, and a monster wb wake. Boat also handled well. The only problem is this huge sac in the middle of the boat:



Here are a couple of pictures of the wake with that setup, surfing.


and the goofy side:


The wake was big, longer than normal, and clean, compared to stock wake. Much more room to surf in.

Then I bought the vdrive sacs and bow sacs, to replace the 750. I was very dissapointed. First, any more than like 350 lbs in the bow, and the boat starts to handle like a tank. I even tried vdrives filled, 500 in the bow, and the 750 in rear center of the boat. The wake was long, but not very big, and the boat didn't handle so well. Sorry, don't have pictures of this setup. Or I probably do, but don't know which ones exactly.

So this last tuesday, I am towing a bunch of kids at Lake Almanor. I volunteered to teach HS kids in the youth group how to WB and WS. There were 14 of us in the boat, and so I only filled the vdrive sacs, nothing else. I put 2-3 people in the bow, and the rest in the cockpit. Most on one side, the small ones, that didn't fit on surf side say anywhere. The wake was huge, long, and the best I have ever seen. Putting almost all the sac weight in the back really made a difference. I made sure I only had 3 kids (prob 130 each) up front to keep the bow light. Boat handled great, and monster wake. Sorry I don't have great pics, but we forgot the normal lens for the Canon, and only had the 75-300 zoom.

Here is WB wake:


Here is surf wake, but too tight:


So I go out today with just my family. Its been 2 weeks since its been just us. A lot of entertaining. I just fill the 2 vdrives, and the fat brick. I put the fat brick on the seat with us, and we all get on one side. I would guess with the fat brick, about 800 lbs on one side with the cooler, FB and all my family. The wake was great, just about as good as almanor. Just maybe a bit less. But just as long and big. The thing is, I think with my hull, the extra weight up front, just negates what the taps plate is doing. I mean, you can push the bow down with the taps plate regardless of the weight. There is a lot of pressure on the plate pushing the bow down. But if you have a bunch of weight in the bow, putting taps up to 8, is not going to raise the bow as much as it would if it was light. I noticed with this better wake, I was definitely running with the bow higher than normal. I actually had to sit up sometimes to see, and almost pulled out the bolster seat. So, I may be wrong, and open for discussion, but I think too much weight in the bow, just negates the flexibility of the convexV hull and the taps. Better off with more weight in back, and use the taps to bring the bow down if you need to. When I had the big 750 in the center, or the sac filled in the bow, I could not get the bow up, and wake suffered. I am seriously considering getting 550s for the back now and experimenting with that.

Ok, now for the pictures (11.2 mph, taps at 7):
Reg side:




Goofy:







And now the WB wake, with taps at 4, 22mph:






Anyway, I have been having a blast experimenting and playing. And the Tige just seems to be a great platform to shape your wake with weight, and still have so much adjustment with TAPS. But I would def rethink the 60/40 stuff I have read many places. It SEEMS to me (IMHO) that you def want to keep the bow unloaded enough to give you the ability to keep the bow up and displace more water. This may be more of a issue with the Tige ConvexV, or maybe even the 24Ve, I don't know. But I thought I would share.

If you feel like seeing all of the images we took today, if you are a pic junky:

http://www.bighead.net/pics/2007-07-13_WB_WS/

[ragboy]

And lastly, as a footnote....

My 11 yr old RJ says to me, "Dad, I have been watching the pros all weekend, and I think I can throw a back roll." "Hmm. OK. Well, if you want to try, ghead." So its getting dark, and I tell him in the P.A., "give it a shot, just be careful, and remember what I told you about your head. Wherever it goes, your body will follow." His first attempt, he got upside down but that was it. On his sixth attempt, he did the complete roll, looked AWESOME, landed on his feet but couldn't stick it. He wanted to keep trying, but it was already 9pm and I told him we would have to wait to sunday.

My wife and I were in shock. The kid almost did it. DUDE! I am guessing he lands it by the end of next week. Being rope boy at INT for the pros this last weekend REALLY inspired him, and in turn he got our whole family on our feet cheering, and inspired by him. Great night on the lake. Good thing I got those lights. The pics are only of his first attempts, and get more blurry, because the shutter had to stay open to allow more light, it was dark.

Just a great shot of him W2W:


Setting up:


Off the wake:


Not to bad:


ABORT!:


Another ABORT, getting dark:




This one was better:


Well, the good ones, you just can't see, I will get some pics of him in the light.


Anyway, let me know what you guys think about the weight and stuff.

[dogbert]

That's awesome! My son's trying to learn a 360.

[ragboy]

That's awesome! My son's trying to learn a 360.

He has all his surface 180s down. He can also do ts and hs one wake 180s. Still has to nail his ollie 180 to finish the entire ENTRO trick list from INT. He was supposed to be working on the ollie 180 and w2w 180, but decided to attempt the backroll.

[tigeblue]

Bro that pic of the goofy side is super clean!

[ragboy]

Bro that pic of the goofy side is super clean!

I can never get the reg side quite as clean, but at almanor, it was just as clean, and yesterday, 95% as clean, just not as good pictures. Only one of my kids is regular. Maybe someone like surfdad can chime in, is it possible that my hull/boat just makes a better wake on the goofy side?

[wakeboarder247]

Ragboy this is exactly what I have found on my '07 22Ve. My parents and I are all goofy so we surf the starboard side the most. But most of my friends are regular and when they are out with us, the starboard side is always cleaner and better than the port side. I thought the port side was supposed to be the better side because of the prop rotation.

We ride w/ the factory ballast, front sac full and rear hard tank full for whichever side we're riding and all the people on the side of the rider.

On the starboard side we ride with taps at 6-7 and go from 10.6 to 11.6.

On the port side we ride with taps at 4 and 10.4-11.0.

Anything more than 4 on the TAPS on the port side and the wake washes out. What happens when you drop the TAPS on the port side?

[ragboy]

Ragboy this is exactly what I have found on my '07 22Ve. My parents and I are all goofy so we surf the starboard side the most. But most of my friends are regular and when they are out with us, the starboard side is always cleaner and better than the port side. I thought the port side was supposed to be the better side because of the prop rotation.

We ride w/ the factory ballast, front sac full and rear hard tank full for whichever side we're riding and all the people on the side of the rider.

On the starboard side we ride with taps at 6-7 and go from 10.6 to 11.6.

On the port side we ride with taps at 4 and 10.4-11.0.

Anything more than 4 on the TAPS on the port side and the wake washes out. What happens when you drop the TAPS on the port side?

I will give it a shot on sunday. Also, try loading both tanks on the back, and then putting all people on one side. Seems to make it bigger and cleaner for me. I will try adjusting taps tomorrow on the port side. I think I have tried, and didn't make much difference, but I can't remember.

[dogbert]

He has all his surface 180s down. He can also do ts and hs one wake 180s. Still has to nail his ollie 180 to finish the entire ENTRO trick list from INT. He was supposed to be working on the ollie 180 and w2w 180, but decided to attempt the backroll.

That's awesome.

Ryan's doing the ts 180 w2w and now starting on a hs 360 w2w. He's getting pretty close. He's got the ollie 180's down and makes me find some moorings for him to ollie over. He wants to do a competition next weekend down at the Texas Ski Ranch.

[LovinPowell]

What kind of camera are you using?

[dogbert]

Man, I wish I had my camera with me this morning. I changed up our normal ballast on my 21v. This morning, we had about 600 lbs in the bow sac, a 150lb in the walkway, a 350 in the ski locker (port side) and a 350 V-Drive sac in the cockpit floor. The water was pure glass all the way down the middle of our wake and my 12 year old was getting huge air both hs and ts...landing in the flats most of the time.

He finally landed a ts 180 method grab. He was stoked.

[ragboy]

What kind of camera are you using?

Canon Rebel XT with the 18-55mm lens, and we just got an additional 75-30mm lens that helps us get tight on wakeboarding. We use the 18-55 for surf shots and the 75-300 when boarding. It takes great shots, but a steeper learning curve. My daughter showed an interest, and was taking great pics with our other small digital camera (Fuji F700). She said she wanted to be a photographer when she grows up. So I bought her the rebel for her bday last year. After months of pictures out of focus, we have some great pics. She has an eye for framing cool shots. She is very creative and just looks at things differently. When the kids are surfing, she lies down in the back, in weird positions to get cool angles.

[ragboy]

Man, I wish I had my camera with me this morning. I changed up our normal ballast on my 21v. This morning, we had about 600 lbs in the bow sac, a 150lb in the walkway, a 350 in the ski locker (port side) and a 350 V-Drive sac in the cockpit floor. The water was pure glass all the way down the middle of our wake and my 12 year old was getting huge air both hs and ts...landing in the flats most of the time.

He finally landed a ts 180 method grab. He was stoked.

Very cool. Gotta bring the cam. I have grounded my daughter for not remembering the camera, or forgetting to charge a battery. Its important.

My kids know to wave in and let us know if they are going to try something big, so we can get it on camera.

[LovinPowell]

That is cool. I have just recently been bitten by the Camera "bug" just like your daughter. I bought a Canon Rebel XTI, used it in Hawaii at the Pipeline Masters surf competition last December, took over 1,000 pics and fell in love with it. I have a polarizing filter that really makes the clarity come out in the pictures.

[ragboy]

That is cool. I have just recently been bitten by the Camera "bug" just like your daughter. I bought a Canon Rebel XTI, used it in Hawaii at the Pipeline Masters surf competition last December, took over 1,000 pics and fell in love with it. I have a polarizing filter that really makes the clarity come out in the pictures.

Y, I write software for a bunch of photographers, and a photog mag. So I went to the editor and also the ceo of the mag to get advice for which to buy. They both said Canon Rebel XT as a starter, hands down.

http://www.rangefindermag.com/index2.tml