keeping momentum without rope?

I can get up and surf all day holding onto the rope but as soon as I let go I lose momentum and sink. The longest I've been able to go without the rope is about 10 seconds.

I always wait until the rope doesn't have tension and then let go, but then I just sink. I seem to be in the right place and can speed up by pressuring the front on the board but then the nose dives about half of the time.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

FYI....

Boat: 2005 Malibu VLX; center tank full and I've tried one and both rear tanks full with people sitting on on the transom. Tried with and without wedge. Have not filled the bow tank based on what I've been told.

Board: Hyperlite Broadcast 5'6"

Speed: 11mph

Me: 190 lbs.

Hey Chad, Try slowing the boat down to 9.5 and get your toe's closer to the edge of the board also when you get slack in the rope just hold it don't be so quick to get rid of it.

yeah 11mph is way to fast! 10mph at the most, probably around 9.5mph like scott said. also sometimes you need a lot of weight on your front foot, you can't just lean back and ride it like a wakeboard

Chad, what Scott said. Plus, move your front foot forward on the board and put more weight on your front foot. You might find there is a fine line between weight on your front foot and catching the wave and burrying the nose of the board.

As you put more weight on your front foot you should move towards the back of the boat, if you get to close apply pressure to you back leg to slow you down. Good luck...

Chad, you didn't mention any other added weight ie; fat sacks, lead etc.

I haven't been using extra weight except for for two buddies that weigh about 225 each.

When were moving less than about 10.5 or 11mph the wake is really dirty; what I mean by that is lots of white water , not a clean pipeline type wave.

Then I would say; slow down, add weight, and change foot position.

Chad, your 10 MPH might really be 8-9, thus the white water wake. Every boat is different. Only way to tell is check with a GPS....

Chad it sounds like you aren't going fast enough. As Bryan points out the speedo's are notoriously "off" at that speed. My suggestions are to try speeding the boat up, very slowly and see if that doesn't clean up the face of the wake. If it does and you can surf it, you're done. Note the speed then just reference that on PP or whomever is working the throttle.

If you find the wake only cleans up at such a speeed that you still can't surf it, I'd do as Markj suggests and add some additional weight to that side of the boat, then start the speed adjust over again.

I have found on many boats that you have to speed up a bit to clean the wake up and then let it settle down to a slower speed.

The bottom line though is you need a clean face. You can surf the white wash, but it's REALLY hard.

I calibrated the PP and speedometer with GPS at 20mph, just assumimng it's accurate at 10mph. I know I get a three mph difference at 40mph between the two.

I do have do about 11mph top get a clean face. Guess I need to check it with GPS at 10mph to see if that's the true speed.