1998 malibu sportster lx

what do you guys think about this kind of boat???

It is a very small boat with a shallow freeboard. I have never ridden one, but I would imagine the wake is very small. That being said, we own a malibu response which is about a foot longer and our boat can put out a decent wake when weighted.

I think it's the same hull as the response. You can wedge it also. Wedge down, and a bag on each side of the engine box would be pretty good. Any more weight and you take on a lot of water. I had a 97 Echelon, which is similar in hull to those boats.

It may be the same hull shape, but definately not the same size. The sportster is a 19' boat and the response is a 20.5' boat. When we bought our boat from the dealer, they had a response and sportster side by side. The response is kind of small, but the sportster is miniature in comparison.

Our club at Tech has one. We have had 3000+ lbs in it and the rub rails were under water. The wake still wasn't comparable to other boats. I wish we had a picture from that day the boat probably looked more like it was sinking. No floor space either. See example

So all in all, its not really a good boat for what I want to do! I wakeskate most of the time, the boat I looking at has a wedge, tower, board racks. I supposed to get pics today or monday. I post them when I get them! I wakeskate most of the time, but I want to be able to throw a nice wake too!

I used to ride behind a newer sportster (2004 maybe). If it has a wedge or you are willing to put a wedge on it, it is a great boat. Wedge plus a pair of fat buddies on either side of the engine and you have a very nice poppy wake. Since it is small, it doesn't take much to weight it down. Only downside is there isn't much room. Perfect for 3 people though.

the boat i am looking at has the open bow, a wedge and tower with racks! So that helps! is there any storage under the back seat? Is there any storage?

Hey Zach, if you wakeskate, I would say that is a decent boat. You won't have a huge wake, but the wake will be clean for wakeskating. But if you want a wakeskate boat that throws a small/clean wake, there are tons of choices out there.

No storage under the backseat. It's just a bench. But if you want more room, you can pull it out. No screws or anything, you just lift it out. There is storage behind the passenger seat and that's about it. The open bow is not your normal walkthrough, you have to climb over the dash, so we would usually use the small open bow for storage. It is very nice to drive since it is not a huge wakeboat. I think it would be a perfect boat for wakeskating and occaisonal wakeboarding. Again, with the wedge, the wake is not as small as many people think. However, if you want to surf, you may want to look for something bigger.

I owned a 2000 Sportster with a wedge. I surfed behind it all the time. However I sold it and bought a Sanger V210 to surf behind. The Sportster was a blast to drive and had a decent wake with a couple of fat sacks and the wedge down. Heres an old picture of me surfing behind it. It's a little blurry since I took it off a movie.