Wake Size

I ride primailry on a small private lake. This lake has weight restrictions on its boats and restrictions on wake enhancers. The boats are not allowed to weigh over 2400 lbs (mine weighs 2350 lbs) and your not allowed to have any kind of wake enhancers (fat sac, wedge, etc) Due to this, the wake I ride on is fairly small (about 1 and 1/2 feet or less). I am fairly new to the sport ( 3 months) and I am having a hard time getting huge air and going wake to wake. I can easily jump and get some height and I can jump the wake to wake occasionally. I was wondering if the small wake is going to limit me, or if almost any trick can be performed on a smaller wake like this? Is this wake big enough, or is larger wake so important that I should try and sneak a fat sac or two on to my boat? Also if i am to put a fat sac in about how much weight do you need before you can tell a noticable difference in wake size? Lastly, how big of a wake do you all ride on?

Anyone?

Do you have pylon or a tower? If not, personally I think a pylon helps more then wakesize. I know some people on here would disagree and say it's all in your technique. Which is true in some cases. But I think I have decent technique, and I dont have any problem clearing the wake without a pylon. But the pylon helped immensely with my hang time. Our boat doesnt really put off a big wake at all, and without the pylon, I felt completely off balance in air when trying to go really big. It would start pulling me down before my board height had peaked. Basically sending me in the a Raley. So if you dont have one, go with the pylon. If you have one. Work on your technique. Edge all the way through the wake and stand tall.

(Message edited by r_dub on July 12, 2004)

It might be worthwhile in your situation to shorten the rope a bit and drive slower.
(of course I don't know your current rope length or speed, so the point may be moot...)

I do this occasionally when I don't have the time to fill the fat seat, not too bad. Should be good enough to learn al the basics. My boat also weight 2400lbs.

How about filling your boat to capacity with a bunch of buddies?

If you can't have fat sacs, then get some spare gas tanks. Most people don't seem to mind you having spare tanks on you. You could even cheat and fill them with water (water is more dense than gasoline).

My wake is pretty small (outboard on a tri-hull), but I still manage to get five or six feet of air as long as I use proper technique. I do have a slalom pole. As Ryan pointed out, having some sort of pole is important (probably moreso than wake size).

What are they gonna do, lift your boat up and put it on a big bathroom scale?

Get some lead, and hide it.

Get some big friends, large coolers, load 'em up, move 'em to the rear = big (|) wake.

I also live @ a private small community lake....21ft. limit 140hp I/O or 90hp OB. I have a 2001 Sylvan 2080 with a Monsoon tower and a 600lbs. fat sac in under the back seat.....Now with what Dante said about the spare gas containers.....I use 4 five gallon ones filled with sand......I bought the sand @ Wal-mart and they each weight about 72lbs!!! So, right there is an added 280+lbs! So, there are little things that you can do.....Give it a try! I understand the pain of being "underpowered" and "underweighted" GOOD LUCK