Need Some Help

So I was able to get out on my new board this weekend and had a blast on it but was never able to throw the rope and keep going. I ride a 5'6" HL Broadcast behind a 96 Malibu Response. We had 2 small side sacs (about 250 each) on one side along with 300 lbs of people. I tried the board with all three fins in and with the center removed and couldn't keep up. I am 5'11" 210. Any help would be appreciated.

Tom, do you have any pictures. One of the biggest problems I see is beginners try to ride the surf board like a wakeboard. On a wakeboard you do a lot of heelside riding. On a surfboard you need to mainly do toe side riding. Also lean slightly forward and into the wave.

Keep trying, it takes time. I'd start with your ballast setup. Most boats need more than 500 lbs on one side. I usually use at least 1500 lbs to get a great wake. The broadcast needs a decent wake to ride with you at 210lbs. As soon as I started getting the right ballast setup it got a lot easier to feel the push of the wave so I could throw the rope in. I teach the beginners on my boat on a broadcast and its very rare that they ride ropeless on their first time out. For me it took several tries before I could keep the board stable enough not to loose the wake. If you're moving at all on the board at first you will be loosing momentum. Keep at it, it takes time.

Here are some pics of that weekend. Thanks for all the help and any more is appreciated.

You've almost got it! Your wake looks good. Now, just ride closer to the boat and just a hair up on the wake. You've still got that rear leg heavy wakeboarder stance - equal weight both feet. In that first picture you're surfing with the slack in the rope - just change the location you're trying to surf to THIS (or thereabouts):

Later that day we started with a shorter rope, but still had some trouble. We would get slack for a couple seconds then the board would slow down and we would get a big tug from the boat. Hopefully we are close!

Lookin good, definitely getting close, just need more weight. Bu's take a lot of weight to put them in the water. We run around 1800 lbs in sacs in a '00 VLX, wake is always waist high, but also pretty rampy so we still have some light tweaking to do. It will take a few times of moving bags around to get it right, it took us about 3 weekends but now its absolutely awesome. Focus on getting your rear port and port side down in the water with some more weight, just build it up slowly till you get it where you're happy. It doesnt look like you would need much more to have a nice wake to play on.

Jeffs advice is spot on for where you should try and put yourself and your riding position.

Keep at it, you'll get it dialed in and once you do, you get it everytime. Oh and you'll also want to speed up a little bit as you add weight to help keep it clean

whats your speed in those pics? Looks a little fast to me.

We don't have PP and don't really trust our speedos when we are going that slow but we are running about 1600 rpms.