Test drove/rode behind a Tige Z3 last night - impressions and pics
 

The following is my personal review, your opinions and experiences may vary
Boat
Last night I had the pleasure of going out with Nick and Whitney from WWS in Denver and test driving and surfing behind a new Z3.
First impression - Wow! This boat is huge and the sculpted hull is amazing! I own an '07 RZ2 and I feel like it's a pretty big boat inside and out but once you step down into the Z3, you can't believe how big and deep it is compared to an RZ2. There are a lot of "deceiving" features on this boat but the first one is that it doesn't seem that big at first and that's because you sit so far down in and the seat cushions are so tall that it makes the interior look small for a second and then you look to the bow and realize that it's a good 18'-19' away from you when sitting down at the back of the boat.

Ride/Handling/Performance
I was expecting the handling to be less than that of my RZ2 but was shocked when Nick took us up to almost 46 mph and cranked the wheel as hard as he could. Yep, same Tige handling that my RZ2 has, spun right around like it should. Next we chopped up the lake pretty good and rode through it and the hull just absorbs the chop and the PCM 409 effortlessly propels the boat towards the mid 40's top speed. When I first started driving it, I thought the 409 lacked low end punch until I realized that this boat is a lot smoother than my '07 RZ2 and that we were already at 25 mph but it felt like 15. The Z3 yet again deceiving you. Even at 40+ mph, the boat feels solid, quiet and smooth. The Catanium PCM engines are a lot quieter than my old Marine Power 340hp engine in the RZ2.

Slow speed driving...this boat is ~24' long and as such it required a little more turning radius than my RZ2. My buddy almost ran Nick over because he was used to the turning radius of the RZ2

Surf Wave
This boat is equipped with the 1,600 lb surf ballast package. For the surf wave, Nick filled the front full, starboard side with 25% and port side with 100%. The wave looked great for a stock ballast boat! There is very little list on this boat, you don't even notice that the surf side is ready to go from inside the boat because it isn't leaning over hard to one side. You also don't have worry about dunking the nose when picking up the rider because the boat is leaning hard enough to worry about anything.

From inside the boat, the pocket looks like any other wave until you stand up and realize that it's actually about 6' longer than it looks due your seating position in the boat. Since you sit so deep in this boat, you can't see the transom due to the step down and point of reference is now lower thus making the wave look shorter.
Surfing the wave is awesome. I was blown away by the push and power that this wave has. With stock ballast and only 3 people in the boat, I was able to ride at the very back of the wave without even trying. One thing I had trouble with is that my natural tendency is to ride up closer to the boat where the real push of my RZ2's wave is and then I would fall back and think that I needed to move forward but I didn't! I would fall back and get out of my "comfort zone" because I was so far away from the boat only to realize that I was "on the brakes" 15' away and I was still being pulled forward. Never experienced that before.

"Surfing behind this boat is like cheating" - quote from my buddy who rode the "goofy" side wave. He said that because he felt like you could probably put a brand new rider on a cruizer board and they could stand there and just get pulled around the lake without even trying due to the push of the wave.

NOTE: I am not sure where the double lip came from in the one pic, we may have run into a shallow spot because it was not normally there.

Wakeboarding Wake
Unfortunately, my wakeboard was about 60 miles away so I was not able to demo the wakeboarding wake. Even without ballast, the wake is clean and has a nice ramp to it. Passenger position didn't seem to affect the wake at all like it does on my boat. The TAPS really does adjust the wake too. Running at 23 mph with TAPS at 5 and no ballast, the wake looked bigger than my RZ2 while running some ballast. I should have brought my 12 year old daughter and had her wakeboard since she is our primary wakeboarder but I have a feeling that the wake might have scared her due to it being so much bigger than what she is used to. LOL

All in all, I'm sold! This boat is a step forward in wakesurfing, there's no doubt about it! From the deep seating, small list and the long pocket with incredible drive, it's definitely the boat that I personally would use as the standard on what I feel that a surf boat should be. I just need to figure out how to get my CFO (wife) to sign off on a new boat purchase! Go test drive one today!
Tim

And that is why I won't test drive a boat...cause then I'm really gonna want a new one.

Sounds like one awesome boat Timmy!

Great write up!

Most people when they ride behind our Z3, first response is to ask to slow down, they think they are going to fast. The wake just propels you forward more than most are used to. When you get that cut in the wake, just add a tad more to the surf side until its gone, just when it goes away is what we have considered the sweet spot.

That's great Timmy that you enjoyed the boat. My 30 hours of driving Ragboys Z3 was a blast. It was so nice driving a boat that was barely listed. The 409 is smooth and the boat un-ballasted handled the chop amazingly well and was just fun to drive. The whole comp and all the clinics I never took any water over the bow but did make a mistake when pulling RJ one evening that took a little over. My only complaints would be I missed the Visoin air seat although the new seat is very comfortable and I found the touch screen was cumbersome at times. I did enjoy the way Ragboy had the rear cameras wired to the screen it allowed me to peak over once in a while to see the action.

Going along with Ragboys comments above the contest riders were constantly asking me to slow down. In fact one of the skim riders was riding at 10.2. The couple of rides I was fortunate to sneak in we're a blast with the amount of push that boat has. I will hopefully get a few more runs in this summer behind the Z3.

Man I want one... so bad

I had them set it at 11 to start with figuring that my boat is usually at 11.2 and this wave might not be as big and then I could go up or down from there. We wound up at 10.4 on the speedo and I was in shock. I've never ridden my boat that slow.

I got a chance to surf behind a Z3 this past week. It was amazing how much push the wave had everywhere.The other thing i couldn't believe was how little list this boat had when surf weighted.It had the Surf ballast in it 1600 lbs. It was weighted as follows Front Ballast FULL.Surf side rear Full.Off side rear hard tank full and locker bag 25%.Driver and one passenger on Starboard side.I ride Goofy.We could just switch sides and one passenger [me at 165 lbs] for Regular side.Both me and my friend could surf 12 to 15 foot behind the boat.I am new to surfing,started in August of last year.My friend started this year.So we are both beginners.The wake looked very similar to Timmys wake above.I plan on Wakeboarding behind the boat next week fully weighted to see ,what i've heard is a monster wake, is like.
When we were sitting still or idling the surf side of the swim platform was about 2 to 3 inches lower in the water than the off side.Only when under way could you really tell the boat was surf weighted,but even then it was maybe 5 to 7 degrees of list.The boat has tons of room and a killer stereo too.I would recommend a demo of one if your considering a surf boat.As for wake boarding i'll have to let you know next week!