Does water depth have any effect on wake size shape??

yep, a huge effect...more on size than shape, but it will take away a little lip

How does it effect the wake? Deep verse shallow.

shallow=wake smaller <BR>deeper = wake larger. <BR> <BR>Bigger boats need deeper water for their wakes to reach their potnetial.

yea the only affect is that its not there! need at least 8-10 ft of water

THe diffrence was very evident at the Central INT event this weekend, The Private late it was at is only about 5' deep and the wake (witch is usually very steep and rampy) was lacking its luster. It remained similar in shape and hardness but just a miniture version. 10' deep is the starting point for getting your true wake size. Everything I have read says 15' is optimal.

I was talking to an MC rep and he said for the big boats 16ft and deaper is best. I ride in a spot that goes to 4.5ft and the wake is tiny.

cool, the lake I boat on ranges between 70 and 200 feet. I was just wondering if the deep water screwed up the wake at all.

you need water to displace...

If the water is at least twice as deep as the wake is tall then the depth isn't going to make any signifcant difference. <BR> <BR>Consider going to the beach. Out in the ocean a "wave" is a gentle swell. Once the swell reaches the beach, where the water depth will no longer support the swell then things change. <BR> <BR>If you are in 70 feet of water then I can assure you that the depth is not an issue. <BR> <BR>If you are attempting to ride in 3 feet of water then it will.

If you're surfing, you NEED to have a min of 6-8 feet under the boat to get displacement of water to form up the wake. I was surfing in 5 ft and you could really tell the wake wan't setting up right or as big.

The lake that I ride in averages about 5-6 feet deep. There is a section of lake that is about 10 feet deep, and the wake is only about 3-4 inches taller there than in the shallow side. The shape of the wake stays the same, it may shrink a little, but it also hardens up A LOT. Even in the shallow side, its still knee to mid-thigh in height.

Maybe it's just on certain types of boats or wakes, but depth makes a HUGE difference on our VLX. Anything under 10-12 ft. deep and the wake shrinks noticably. At one of the lakes I ride at, one side of the run is 30+ feet, the other is 4-6. You can literally see the wake morphing as the depth finder changes. I drive a mean double-up and, on the deep side, I can get a bone-jarring "THUD, THUD, THUD" as we cross the rollers. On the shallow end, we're lucky to get a "<i>pat, pat, pat</i>."