Finally signed up on here

I am a brand new registered user here, but have been around stalking and lurking some of the threads. First a little about me and my water sports history.

I grew up knee boarding behind a jet boat, but stopped riding about 25 years ago. We got our first boat (96 Bayliner) about four years ago. I knee boarded behind it a little here and there, but focused on getting our 5 kids in the water. We upgraded to a 2005 Chaparral 2 years ago and I did a touch of knee boarding, but got a hand me down wake board from a buddy. With much aggrevation and trying I stood up on it at the end of last season. A few weeks ago we traded that I/O in on a 2006 Centurion Elite V C4 Lightning. Second pull behind that boat and I was up wake boarding. I can now get up easy cut in and out of the wake and do surface 180's.

I have self taught myself a great deal about the boat and done some upgrades and maintenance already, so I hope to add to the forum with at least my mechanical knowledge.

Now the problems (I will save you some pain and only list a few of the many). I do not feel comfortable coming back into the wake TS. Is this just a mental block to get over? I think the only reason I did my first surface 180 was to avoid trying to re-enter the wake TS.

I am considering taking the center fins off of the board I have (A used Hyperlite something I picked up a couple weeks ago) it does not have outer fins you can remove, but has some molded grooves on it. Is this going to make things more sketchy for me or could it help with control/edging?

Last one for now! Roughly what speed should I ride at and what rope length? I want to jump W2W, by the end of the year, but haven't really jumped at all yet (on purpose).