04, the year of innovation

I think this upcomming season has a lot of promise, I'm noticing a whole lot of innovation as I'm sure everyone else has as well, I wanna start a list of innovations for 04 just for the helluvit and curiosity sake, anyone notice anything else yet?
The Hyperlite Gate
The Hyperlite Byerly
The Temet directional bottom from Hyperlite
Nvert Board Racks
The new CWB Capped fin system

..... what else have you guys noticed?

Bess,
I noticed (since I run the company) the Skireel WakePro adjsutable towrope system. Adjust the mainline instantly to whatever length you want. Try it and you will love it. Plug baby plug.

WakePro, were you at the Tige Owners Reunion and dealers meeting a few weeks ago at Lake Lewisville? I saw your boat there, pretty cool idea!

Wakepro, How much for a skireel?

Dan,
The Skireel starts at $595 ready to use. You can add custom features like specialty ropes, clamps, lights, etc. to the base model.

Pierce,
We had a blast at the reunion. There were some fine 04 Tiges there.

Couldn’t agree more about the innovation - got to be good for the sport and the companies involved of course. It’s good to see wakeboarding benefiting from some fresh thinking. As a design engineering student its also good to see it in the industry - maybe some of my ideas will too one day.

Skireel is a great invention. Just curious, what brand of rope comes with it and is it easy to get the rope out of the reel for taking those pesky knots out of the line.

RE: The Hyperlite Gate & The Hyperlite Byerly
Innovations...well, I'd say, more like crossover adaptations...or even borrowed design elements.

The Hyperlite Gate
Kick tail...borrowed from skatebaords of course. But...An actual molded kick tail design (on both ends of the board) was used by Wake Tech in the early days of the boarding.

The Hyperlite Byerly
Again Skateboarding...longboards often have cutouts for the wheels.



Original design...no
Adaptation...yeah

Skireel...is it new this year or a shameless plug?
My records show you bought the domain for your website in 2000...hmmm. Looks like you cheated on this one... Innovations "this year".

I hate to poo poo the party Bes...sorry

Canadian Roll!

Dude, its been around for years!!

Sounds Like someone is jealous about a good invention and great design.

Andrew,
masterline provides Skireel with a special version of the ProFusion. It is 85 feet all one length with colored markers every five feet starting at 60 feet. Straightline, Accurate, and WakeCord also provide us with 85 feet all in length rope. However, you can run your existing sectioned line in our Skireel with no problems. The rope connects to a T bar that is exposed once you reel the entire rope out so it is very easy to change out. As far as knots, they will be very rare or none at all because the Skireel reels the rope completely in on a concentric spool.

Greg,
Come on one runs on water one on land - sure the inspiration for the new byerly may come from the skate board shapes. But the mechanics of making it work (if it works of course) are totally different – the byerly tail is designed to force water up over the tail to suck it onto the water – you can’t tell me a skate board shape was designed to do that. Wakeboard shapes that work are more complicated than just copied skate board shapes. You have a good point though – nothing is ever really 100% new, at best it’s the intelligent application of something used elsewhere - the byerly tail is similar in principal to an aerodynamic mechanism in F1 race cars. Of course all this assumes the features actually work and aren’t just marketing gimmicks.

it sounds like its gonna be a year for gear to do somethin changing....but ive already seen the 04 x-star it hasnt changed cept for miner details and the other boats arent changing that much either

Rich, I was totally on board (no pun intended) with the new Hyperlite design...until about 2 weeks ago when I saw this skateboad at the mall. That's when it hit me..."holy crap...it's a gimmick...just like phasers".

on the other hand...
It may very well work just fine...
I would demo a board...but I suck so bad I probably couldn't tell the difference.
Therefore, in the land of black and blue, if it is so subtle that only a pro can tell the difference, it, for all intents and purposes, is cosmetic.

Oh yah, and did I do OK with the Gate vs Wake Tech comparison?

WakePro, Does the manufacturer of skireel also market an autopilot product for boats? I don't see anyone in the driver's seat!!! Now that would be innovation.

We have a midget troll that skippers the boat.

Thats a good observation with that skateboard design, I wonder if thats where scott got the idea? Although i have to say, it is a drastic change in wakeboards and was kinda of a ballsy move to put it into action. Cause you know they probably got a lot of crap for, as they still are. I must admit I am a little skeptical, I think it would be too edgy, you would think it would make Ollies a little harder... who knows, can't wait to demo it though.

actually i think they got the idea for the byerly from doctors...... they have been circumsizing guys for years, and now they are doing it to wakeboards

demo before you buy !
my shop charges $ 30 for a weekend and then applies that to the purchase....
we have demo byerly available and the rest will be here soon !

oh yeah,

lately the videos and dvd's have been pretty darn innovative

Gregg, you are insane with your comparison with the new Byerly and the long skateboard. The longboard is cutout so the wheels dont hit the skate deck when making tight turns. The byerly is cutout for the purpose of sinking the tail deeper in the water and holding sharp cuts. They did not copy the skateboard and then say "Gee whiz, this board we just made rides deeper and cuts sharper on turns now that we made it look like a skateboard." Next you will try to justify that the skireel is just a knockoff of a zebco fishing reel. Heck, they look similar but one is just larger.

(Message edited by colorider on August 27, 2003)

LOL Andrew...
Ah yes...As I recall, wakeboards don't have wheels...but the design is so cool that boarders will buy it for the look alone...maybe, with a "manufactured" yet credible "function", this design will sell more than ANY OTHER BOARD! Wooo Hooo!

Ahhh, sometime the insane are the only ones to see through the fog that clutters the sane mind.

So my question to you
RE: They did not copy the skateboard and then say "Gee whiz, this board we just made rides deeper and cuts sharper on turns now that we made it look like a skateboard."
How is it that you KNOW this. Were you there? Show me your evidence, otherwise we are both just riding wild suppositions (doubles, if you will...you suppose they are telling the truth, I suppose they are in Marketing... Ha ha ha ).

Oh yeah Andrew, do you agree with the Skireel being older than this year and thus the post was a commercial? Or am I crazy here too?

Don't forget "The Winch"

Man is this heating up. Correction for Greg though, the Skireel is new this year as a commercial product as it went on sale in May03. Any prior post about the Skireel were of prototypes we had been testing.

I like the Byerly boards and I do think they went for the "out of the box" look first and then found some performance features to add.

One product I think has imporved through innovation are life jackets. They look good, they work great and the cost a ton of cash.

Don't forget the Canadian roll. Kris is just jealous that I invented the trick for the 04 season, meanwhile all those other people that do it are just plagiarizing and not giving credit where credit is due.

About the Byerly, I don't think any of you all have ridden it yet so you don't know what you're talking about. I've got a friend who rode it and he said...yeah, take that.

Greg,
I can’t agree more with the other comparison. I too probably wont be able to tell the difference between that which works and that which is there to sell stuff. It would be nice to think that we're not being bs'ed completely though hey? Iam gonna put some different board shapes and fins and test them scientifically for my engineering project for uni and see if they actually work or not. I'll see if I can post the results here or not - but I doubt if it will stay up for long!

WakePro - Where's the driver in the bottom pic? Now that's an innovation!

if the skireel was a 2003 product then it is not a 2004 innovation

Kung Fu Wake, Very Original Post. Please read all posts before commenting. Thank You!

Greg, what Wake Tech board had kicktails? Perhaps you're confused with neptune's "six" deck. That thing had kicktails....

No chance...
In the image below, in the circled area, please note the highlight on the tail. This displays the obvious bend.
I know this is not the best and most telling image but I think you'll see what I mean.


Sorry,
If I had the time, I'd dig up more, and better images.

But the Gate has more than just a bend, its like a bend then a step down... or thats what it looks like anyway.

I see what you're trying to say, but there is a minimal "bend", at best. I think the lighting on that picture is sort of creating an optical illusion, making it look like it curves more than it does. Anyway, that board is the same shape as the first flight 69 and if you've seen any pics of that, you'll notice that it doesn't have kicktails. I mean, I have the wake tech catalog with that board and I have a ton of mags with different views of that board, so I could clearly see that there isn't a kicktail.

The neptune six (models from 1995 and 1996) have about an inch and a half of board that juts up at something like a 45 degree angle. Now THOSE are kicktails.

The Wake Tech tail (and nose) was like 3 or so inches long if I remember correctly. As far as I can tell from the picture I posted and with what I know about light and images that would be consistent with the above picture. You might think that the highlight appears at the base of what I call the kick tail but I think it is really closer to the middle....
Like I said, sorry the picture sucks. It was truly difficult for me to post such a lousy image.

Honestly, I think it was a gimmick as well. It was supposed to keep the nose from going under. Oh yeah...it looked cool 2. Woah, Deja Vu...
I'll see if I can find some better pics.

The biggest innovation is gonna be the winch. Its gonna change the whole sport.

I'd like to see the winch in more places... quick question: can you use a 5hp outboard engine from a boat to power it?

Chris I agree with u though, I think the winch will change the sport a lot, its gonna open a lot of doors.

I dont know if youd be able to use that engine but i do know that the bigger engine that it will come with can tow a rider up to 28mph supposedly. Its just gonna be flat out fun when you can go sesh a kicker, a rail or land gap at any local pond. Rumors got it also that take off and landing pools are being made also so you can go use the winch and pools at any local ledge or handrail and whatever you can think of.

The original Neptue Six (before they lopped off the tip and tail) would be a better comparison for the Gate's tale shape. Really, it's a combination of that and the old K2 boards, which had a similar step in the base.