Lights Question

[eaglites2005]

I just got a Tige 22ve right before the end of the season last year. I love it. Can not wait until it warms up al little to get back out there. Anyways, my question is I have never owned a wakeboard boat before and I was wondering how bright the lights are on a normal light bar. That seems to be the only thing I do not have for my boat. Can you really wakeboard in complete darkness? I have heard they are not bright enough to navigate a lake at night. If they are good, can anyone recommend a good setup? Thanks for the help everyone. I love this site.

[dogbert]

I just got a Tige 22ve right before the end of the season last year. I love it. Can not wait until it warms up al little to get back out there. Anyways, my question is I have never owned a wakeboard boat before and I was wondering how bright the lights are on a normal light bar. That seems to be the only thing I do not have for my boat. Can you really wakeboard in complete darkness? I have heard they are not bright enough to navigate a lake at night. If they are good, can anyone recommend a good setup? Thanks for the help everyone. I love this site.

Welcome to the site and let's see some pics of that bad boy!

As for riding at night, I wouldn't recommend it. It's illegal in most states. You're going to want to get used to driving an inboard before I'd start pulling folks at night.

As for navigating at night, I would only recommend it on lakes where you know the topology. Even then it's easy to get disoriented. I don't think light bars or docking lights help you one bit, except for when you're docking. They cause you to lose your night vision, which is what you need for driving at night.

[da.bell]

^^^ Agreed. Logs and floating debris is harder to spot at nite. IMO, stay at 5 mph or off the lake.

[chpthril]

As noted, water-sport after dark are typically a no-no in most states, but night surfing, from what i've heard , is A BLAST .

Using light at night to navigate is actually counter productive IMO, let your eye adjust to the dark and go slow. Knowing the lake is better then a light any day

[eaglites2005]

Thanks for the help guys. You know I never even looked to see if it was illegal or not. I never even thought about wakeboarding at night until I saw light bars. Thanks for the help and I won't being boarding at night.

[Domsz06]

I wanna try surfing at night sometime, I think that could be fun

[malarson]

Last 4th of July we had been out at night watching the fireworks. After the show we motored back to the dock in the dark. We had parked the trailer at a farther away dock to avoid the crowds and we thought we had enough lights to make the trip ok. We had 4 tower forward lights plus the boat docking lights. Even though we knew the river very well we still almost ran smack into the rock wall.
My suggestion...Don't try to navigate at night unless there is ambient lighting like city lights, light poles or at least a bright moon.

[KonaKing]

I wanna try surfing at night sometime, I think that could be fun

It is a blast, but we also have a spot light to find the surfer when he or she is down

[chpthril]

We used a lite-stick onthe surfer's life jacket and one tied to the board using the empty front fin hole. Worked great.

[Domsz06]

Great Ideas CHP and Kona. That's cool!! I would for sure wanna do something to be safe. No interest in getting anyone hurt.

[chpthril]

Great Ideas CHP and Kona. That's cool!! I would for sure wanna do something to be safe. No interest in getting anyone hurt.

It can deff be done safe

[Domsz06]

It can deff be done safe

oh yeah, I figured a light of some sort on the rider, but never thought about the board, but for sure makes sense so u don't loose it. I need a new board, I need to get rid of my two I have now. Maybe I should list them up. yeah I'll do that

[Kito]

Has anyone ever used a tether on their board like ocean surf boards have? I thought maybe it would work great for surfing at night.

[chpthril]

Has anyone ever used a tether on their board like ocean surf boards have? I thought maybe it would work great for surfing at night.

Yes, it's great for newbies that fall alot. They spend less time swimming after the board.

[mtnsmith]

Yup, spotter gets a q-beam that comes on as soon as the rider falls down. Of course, it really makes all the gator eyes glow nicely in the night! We've only ridden a handful of times in the dark. Too many things that feed at night around here to do it lots. Other than that a gps with a breadcrumb trail to follow is utilized so my night vision doesn't get killed constantly using a spotlight. Some of our channels on the intracoastal are not marked very well.