WBM: Driving Tips that SAVE GAS

I know that power turns have been discussed here many times, but I thought the "Turnarounds" and "Correct Driving Pattern" were good tips in the July issue of WBM.

To Quote WBM:
"TURNAROUNDS
No one appreciates the one boat the always does those giant turnarounds to pick up its riders. After the rider falls, make sure you come off plane while still going straight. As the boat falls off plane, turn toward the driver's side so the wave taht rolls up the back of the boat helps push the tail so the boat spins back toward the rider. Idle back to the rider, and always make the pickup on the driver's side. Doing this every time will save you a TON of gas and keep the line clean of your turn around rollers."

The Correct Driving paragraph is a little obscure in the text, but the picture says it all. See below:

"CORRECT DRIVING PATTERN
When driving, help keep things calm by creating a path that doesn't send rollsers down your line. You can do this by making your first turn away from shore at about a 60-degree angle. Turning any more than 60 degrees will send rollers down the line. Since the wakes coming off the sides of the boat are angled as well, the boat will send water distrubance away from your line and not down it. For a left-hand turnarund, you would turn right, away from shore, at 60 degrees. Then left, back toward shore, to turn around. As you turn, a circle, look for the kink where you made your first 60-degree turn. Here the wakes will be the smallest, so when you re-enter your line, and cut through the wakes there won't be such a big bounce. When you spot that kink, aim the nose to go through the kink and right down the white foamy strip left in the water by the prop before the turn around. This should put you right back in the middle of your old rollers, and the line should be calm for your trip back down. When you get to the other side of your line, you would do the opposite for a right-handed turn around. Turn 60-dgrees left, away from the shore, then back around right, toward shore, to make the circle."




There's some other good tips, so I would recommend picking up a copy of WBM. No I don't work for them.

Does it really matter which direction we turn around, though? I do the same thing, but I turn to the right. That puts my rider to my right (I always do a clockwise turn around my rider so I can keep them in sight at all times).

I guess I'm doing what the "wrong" picture illustrates - but I'm not creating rollers as I do it "wrong."

(Message edited by swass on June 01, 2004)

I think what is 'wrong' is that in the clockwise pic, the boat didn't first kick out to the left to thread the needle.

I turn to the right and putt putt back to the rider. I guess I'm also doing it wrong, for safety reasons I will continue to turn to the right so I have the rider in veiw at all times.

do you have a weblink for the article?

I think right is okay if you do the loop to the left first so you are going down your lane after you turn around instead of turing back into it. Cause thasts what i do.

i always turn around to the right to pick someone up, always want to keep the rider in view and i never send rollers down the riders line

I agree - to the right to keep the boarder in view. Also, for some of us old skiers - it's called a keyhole turn.

In the picture, turning right then left helps to knock down the wake so you don't swamp the front of the boat. It looks like a question mark. This technique works great! You can do the same thing by turning left then right back to the skier. It just looks like a backwards question mark.

When picking up a rider, I also come off plane, then turn to the right. My boat seems to swing around better that direction and I also like to keep the rider in view.

When a rider goes down, I try and turn to the direction that I see them fall in the mirror. I see them fall to the left in the mirror, I pull the throttle back to let the boat come off plane and as the boat settles into the water I will turn the boat to the left. The wake helps push the boat around for a nice tight turn and then I idle back to rider and pick him/ her on the drivers side.

The reason I turn to the side I see the rider fall, is it puts me in the same line as the rider. That way we do not end up on opposite sides of the channel. In the delta, it is nice to have some cover for the rider.

That picture is for turning around while the rider is still up, to minimize the rollers on the next pass. They had no illustration for turning around to pick up the rider.

I received my copy of WBM saturday, and tried the above turnaround for the newbies that I had out yesterday. It worked great. No rollers down the riders path, and when we crossed our own wake on the way back into our path, they were almost non-existent when the rider was between the wakes.

to point out the obvious, this is what they are highlighting in this picture.... the right way puts the rollers travelling out and away from your path the wrong way sends a set travelling 90 degrees the entire length of your run.

Lets say I am in a boat behind you and the law says I should overtake on the right. If you turn to the right to pick up your fallen skier there is the better chance you are going to run into me. Maybe that is the reason it is recommended to turn to the left.

Once again, the article recommends turning TO THE RIGHT to pick up the rider. This is consistent with what everyone likes to do.

The picture is for TURNING AT THE END OF THE RUN (if you don't want to do a double up. For that just hit the wake instead of the kink).

Just to be perfectly clear because there seems to be some confusion.

There are TWO DIFFERENT driving tips here:
1. For picking up your rider where you essentially stay within your own wake by staying straight, coming off plane, and using your own wake to do a 180 degree spin of the boat at idle in a manner of speaking.
2. Turning around while still towing your rider to preserve smooth water in your riding line is the other driving tip for which we have all of the graphics.

If you want to save gas then tell everyone that rides not to fall. I notice alot more gas is wasted trying to teach someone to wakeboard. Everytime they fall and we have to pick them up and take off again.. The gauge ready.."damn"