Wakesurf board recommendations?

[Surfdad]

I was just at Cal Marine Sports and they had several in the pro shop. You can give Mitch a call there and see what their availability is. I believe that Towanza has them also, but don't quote me on that.

Not sure what's up with his website, you might look them up on Facebook, I see Mike there all the time.

[IDBoating]

I was just at Cal Marine Sports and they had several in the pro shop. You can give Mitch a call there and see what their availability is.

I'll do that, thanks.

BTW, earlier I was trying to check out CMS's inventory but their online store didn't show ANY wakesurf boards at all. Very strange. I'll just call them.

[IDBoating]

Quick followup question: Should we get a dedicated "kid's board" for our 8YO, or just accept that the early learning curve will be a bit steeper and start him on a more standard board (currently leaning toward the IS 4Skim Infectious)?

I've seen things like the Phase 5 Scamp which is a dedicated kid's board, but I'm concerned that he'll quickly outgrow it and then it will be ~$200 just sitting around while he uses the larger board(s). On the other hand, I don't want him getting frustrated right at the start by working with a too-large (perhaps too buoyant is a better way to put it) board.

When he was working on getting up on a wakesurf board, we found he had a bit of trouble pulling the board to vertical during the start. If someone was in the water with him and held the board vertical at first, he got up instantly - but he had trouble pressing down hard enough to do it alone. At the time I didn't know enough to notice if the board he was using was more surf style (thicker, more buoyant) or skim style (thinner, less buoyant). If we have an IS Infectious (skim style, so less buoyant), perhaps he will be able to apply enough force to get it vertical. Or maybe he just needs more than one hour's worth of trying. Or, maybe he really does need a dedicated kid's board to develop the muscle memory before moving up.

Basically, I'm presuming we're going to get a skim style and one other board. The second board can either be a kid's board, or a surf-style board to give us better access to air moves. If he doesn't need a kid's board we'd much rather have the surf-style, but not at the expense of him getting frustrated early on.

Opinions?

[IDBoating]

Thought I'd share the outcome of this thread.

I was pretty confident in my choice of the IS Infectious, so I figured I'd start there while continuing to research kid's and surf-style boards. I narrowed down the vendor options to Evo and Towanza, and contacted both to discuss things.

Towanza's phone dropped me into voicemail, but within minutes Todd called me back and spend about 45 minutes with me going over everything. In the end, his recommendations were as follows:

* The Infectious is ideal for our application. We could go ever so slightly shorter (perhaps the Moss) but this board should be good for our family and also work for those occasional visitors who just want to give it a try. I had been strongly considering some other skim-styles, and I discussed those with Todd. He said several others would work OK for us but I had basically happened upon one that would work really well given our range of ages and weights.

* He recommended starting with just the skim-style board and waiting until we have some experience before buying a surf-style board. Once we have a feel for what we (want to) do and how we (want to) do it, it will help refine our choice of a surf-style. Furthermore, he claims that IS's skim-style boards have a surf-style influence and will therefore allow us to edge into surf-style aerial moves a bit better than other skim-styles.

* He felt the Scamp was simply too small for our 8YO 70# wakeboarder. Since our son has already been able to get and stay up (briefly) on a Phase 5 Drew Danielo, and 70# is just barely within the weight range for the Infectious, Todd felt the Infectious would get him started. However, he cautioned that our son will quickly move past what the Infectious will allow him to do. When he's stuck just cruising around and not able to push the (somewhat too large) board anymore, it will be time to get him something that is specific to him - probably mid-summer next year.

So I've ordered the Infectious. And Spring/Summer cannot get here fast enough.

Thanks again for all the advice on this thread. It helped a LOT.

[islander033]

Great choice in the infectious.

I just picked up a Moss from a local shop for my ol lady and kids for next season.

[IDBoating]

Great choice in the infectious. I just picked up a Moss from a local shop for my ol lady and kids for next season.

I almost, almost went with the Moss. However, the Infectious supports up to three fins as compared to the Moss's one, and there's just four inches of length difference. I figured the Infectious was probably the more versatile board. Close call, though.