Wakesurfing

just wanted some more people to view my footage

http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php?medid=7535

http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php?medid=7536

http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php?medid=7545

Tim, pretty cool, it is wierd cause we can't seem to find the spot where we can release the handle and stay in the wake. And the wake off my VLX is a lot bigger than what you are surfing off. Your wake seems to get behind you and follow more, which makes me think maybe I am going too fast (we ride at about 12-14mph). Do you have any advice?

I learned behind a VLX. Weight one side of your boat and ride on your toe edge. You might try a little slower. Once you find the spot, you can just stand there and cruz.

Seems like most people go about 8-10 mph. We used to do it along time ago with an 89 Ski Nautique with ony one 500 pound sack in the boat. So... it's just getting the right speed and getting the feel for trimming the board. It's easy if you know how to surf but I feel for the guys who can't!

You went wakesurfing behind the '89 nautique 2001?

Kristian My uncle would start by hanging on to the swimstep, paddle into the wave and go around Sail bay (He's goofy foot so he can make the turns) and he'd drop where we started. The wake was small. I hadn't done it in years, then I went out with Dave Williams for the Inland Surfer Demo days and I couldn't believe it. The wake size was at least double that of the old Nautique!

But it is so fun to slash up and down the wake at 14 mph! I usually keep 1 hand on the handle and just give it a nudge now and then to pull myself back on. The rooster tail is some what of an anatomy washer at that speed though, I am sure anyone that has done this knows what I am talking about!!!

The boat speed we used in those videos was 8mph or less. Anything above 8mph made it hard to stay with the boat. If you watch carefully, you'll notice that we're also in a continuous turn. Another thing I noticed is that the boards that are made specifically for wakesurfing appear to have the built-in assumption that you'll never want to generate speed in a turn, which I'm sure wouldn't have worked so well when we tried this behind my boat, because, as you can see, we didn't get that big or steap of a wake. Anyway, not wanting to spend much time redistributing the weight, I just assumed that I'd be using the board to generate speed where needed, which you can do on a good shortboard. Unfortunately, a normal surfboard isn't as squirley as a wakesurfing board, so that makes it a little less fun.

-Monkey

Our speed varies from about 9.5 to 11. Any faster and the wake gets much smaller and the pocket disappears. I just adjust the speed based on how the wake looks, trying to get a big clean face. This pic was taken at 10.5mph. Mik is 6'3" for reference.

I just picked up a landlock last week. We were surfing behind a centurion air warrior with about 1000# including people with just about 200 more on the surfing side. On my 4th try i was surfing for 30 sec. or so with out the handle. Same thing for the other guys i was with. I find it help full to drag your hand to slow down instead of leaning back. We would lean to far back on loose the wave. The worst thing about it is how adictive it is we would spend 2 hours at a time surfing 3 times a day.

We were at McClure this past week and picked up the new wakesurfing mag and saw some of the guys out there after the championships. Its cool to see a mellow vibe going on at the lake instead of the "Look at how many flips I can do" attitude. I think we put about 30 hours on our boards.

I have found that the landlock has to be the worst wake surfing board out there. Anyone want to buy one? Definitely looking into a different board.

Bill, thats a great wake, is it a Tige?

I have heard people saying how bad the landlock is but i had no trouble surfing on it. I havent rode any of the other boards but i cant see them being much easier. Plus the price and the avalabilty makes wakesurfing easier for more people to enjoy. Mabey its not a true surfboard but this isnt truly surfing.

That wake looks PERFECT!

Its not that the landlock is hard to ride, its just that the design of the board decreases the sweet spot on your wave. Some other boards like inland and shred stixx have a better shape to use more of the wave and transition more smoothly from front to back. I agree that the popout boards make it easy to get into but I wouldn't be surprised if you see a lot of used ones for sale as people try out different brands and realize they can do much more on it. I don't see a lot of peole shelling out 4-500 hundred for their first board though so that does open it up to others. It is kind of a bummer board for anyone near 200lbs or more. Hopefully HL will come out with a bigger size for bigger guys.

I personally think the Landlock is a much better board than the Inland Surfer. In my opinion the Inland Surfer is a big tank of a board. All you can do is surf - no 360s, shove-it's and so on. For beginners it might be fun, but when you are trying new tricks it blows. We put Premier fins on our Landlock and it's super loose and really fun. I'm 6'4", 200 pounds and the landlock is fin - in fact I'd even go smaller. That new smaller Hyperlite should be killer.

This is a really killer wakesurfing/crash video from our Orlando trip back in October. Lot's of progress has been made since then surf-wise, but there's still some killer footage:

http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php?medid=5568