Tower Height?

I don't know a whole lot about this but I'm curious. Why don't people put taller towers on their boats? It would obviously help gain more height on tricks.

Is there a designated tower height in competitions?

Nobody knows anything about tower height regulations? C'mon guys!!

There are tower extensions made by Fly High. At some point, the tower acts like a big lever and pulls the boat from side to side when an aggressive rider edges out. This changes your line and thus changes the wake. Technique has a lot to do with how much height you can get to a certain extent. I would think that if the tower extensions made any difference, every pro out there would have one on their boat.

i have wondered about this too.
I see a good foot or more of difference from brand to brand... or at least it looks that way.

I have been behind a tower extension and it is true that the boat gets pulled over. but i went on a hand made tower extension that you had to climb on the tower to put the rope up and the boat was an older mobius (one of the first ones) so it was kinda small

I think people need to stop relying heavily on towers to do all the work. What really matters is the wake. I'm not trying to complain by any means, I'm just used to riding with no tower.

What i learned from riding with the great Rob Reid is this, anyone can put a lot of weight in a boat and a giant pole and get tons of air, it proper edge and line loading technique that really makes the difference, and i know this because I watched him DESTROY the boundries of what i thought was possible behind a 97 tige with no weight

the Fly High Tower extension is made for tryin new tricks at slower speeds to reduce the risk of injury.. got a chance to talk to a rep about them. they pull you upward to aid in gettin more air at slower speeds <--- something like that.. it was about a year ago and im just tryin to put the convo back together.

I usually ride behind a crownline with no tower so I know what you mean about improving technique. It just seems to make sense though to add height to the point your rope attaches. I've only ridden behind a tower once and the difference was unreal. I can only assume the same would be true for raising the tower.

I think The Ronix Surreal sessoin shows that a truly skilled rider can throw down in any conditions. HOWEVER, I'm not Parks Bonifay and would like a large wake to aid me.

I don't know about anyone else but when I'm edging my tower does cause the boat to shift side to side, but I thought that that is a good thing because it makes the side your on bigger and the other side smaller. ...

You don't want the boat to be pulled side to side even more then a hefty cut already does

An Even better way to get "Pro-sized-air"... WAKEKITE
but i am being serious too... though i have not been able to try one yet

I'm with peter I usually ride behind a 17' center console outboard with no tower or ski bar of any kind and it makes it hard to get any height when you are being pulled downward to begin with.

I've seen the video of (I think Murray) at a very young age riding a directional board with no tower and it was incredible.

....But, doesn't it still make sense to have an attachment point that is as high up as possible? Obviously at some point it doesn't help but I would think that point would be higher than 6 feet...or whatever standard tower height is.

peter

i think the video your talking about is scott byerly

maybe wrong though, dont know

get a tower, it gets the boards up out of the way and gives you an excuse to buy some new tower speakers.and yes it does help with height, but it really depends mostley on your ability to get pop off the wake.

For some reason I don't think anyone is understanding what I'm asking.....I'm not trying to get more height or pop for myself. I'm wondering why pro's (who know how to get maximum height) don't have taller towers. Everyone talks about improving the wake with more ballest etc. but, I've never heard tower height mentioned. I just want to know why PROS don't have taller towers.

Again, either they have never tried it, or they have tried it and it doesn't have a positive effect on their riding. I would think that if it really did help while having minimal downsides that most of these pros would have them on their towers. It may affect line tension or as mentioned earlier the pitch of the boat, etc. The better riders I have pulled like nice straight lines and no fluctuations in the wake, this extension will act like a lever and pull the boat off of it's straight line.
You see pros and a few other riders that exceed the height of their towers with jumps and double ups, but how much higher can they go without starting to cause serious damage to their bodies?

obviously they don't need a higher tower, by the way it would probably would look ridiculous, in my opinion anyway

peter when watching videos, besides a massive d-up, riders are not going over the height of the current towers to the point where they are being brought down earlier than the normal momentum. The concept behind the tower is not to raise the rider up, but to stop the pull downward, which can happen when riding from a ski hook.

By the way, just because someone can rip behind that i/o, doesn't mean they would prefer to ride behind that i/o. Also, it takes years of consistent riding (meaning riding all the time), to get that consistent pop. Regardless of the rider and their skill, there will always be tricks they are not able to throw behind the i/o that they can behind a pro-size wake, otherwise they are not using the wake correctly.