Speed

the boat I ride behind the driver has trouble keeping an a consitent speed. Is there anyway to work around this? How fast should you ride at? And is there any big tecniques pull a rider? and does a prestreched rope comparing to a stretchy rope makes that much of a difference? sorry for all the questions in a row. just trying to become better riders..thanks guys

What kind (not brand) of boat? Speed control on an outboard or an I/O will be a lot harder than on an inboard. On my old I/O wake boarding speed was right where the boat wanted to either come on plane or drop off of plane. When it did go on plane it was too fast, and when it came off plane it was too slow. Controlling speed for riders was a full time job, really difficult if the driver doesn’t board since they don’t a good feel for what’s going on. To control speed again on my old I/O we were constantly sawing the throttle back and forth. I mainly used the tach rather than the speedometer to control throttle.

You could get Perfect Pass – kind of a cruise control for water sports boats, but that would run over $1,000 I think. For wakeboarding Perfect Pass monitors boat speed, but can use RPMs, rather than of what I used to do manually.

I have an inboard now; it’s a whole different story.

Good luck!

I usually ride at around 23-25, but you should ride at whatever speed you feel comfortable at. Also try to see at what speed your wake is the best. As far as the driver is concerned, what Edward said is right on. I use the tachometer much more than the speedometer when I'm pulling someone. A spectra rope(aka non-stretch) will dramatically improve your pop off the wake, because you won't lose the tension you create on the rope when you are cutting in, which will help snap you off the wake. On a nylon(strechy) rope, it is much harder load the line(create tension on the rope) which will translate into less air. Hope that helped.

I had the same problem in my old boat. I was the only one that could drive the boat and it sucked to ride because I couldn't teach my friends how to control the boat. So I figured out that if I told the driver to just keep the boat on plane and even go as fast as 26 0r 27, then I could cut out and right before my approach I could load the line hard enough to slow the boat down myself to where I wanted it. It might not work if you have a very big boat. But it's worth a shot. You won't be able to do as many runs because it is pretty draining.