Still can't w/o rope!

I still cant go with out th rope!
Ive tried evrything.
Anybody have any suggestions?

There are so many variables to consider...

how much weight is the in boat and where?
which board and what size are you riding?
how much do you weight?

When you're riding your weight distribution on the board is critical. If you're too far back then you won't be able to stay in the pocket. Moving your feet up even a few inches can make a huge difference. It's also very important to move your stance towards the toeside edge of the board (assuming you're riding frontside ie. facing the wake) and bend your knees in order to edge properly.

2005 Air Nautique Team. Standard tanks.
5'4" Liquid Force Inlander
230

What speed are you going? What is your stance on the board? Those are two things that made a difference for me.

On an Air Nautique it's alot easier to ride on the starboard side (driver side) because of the direction the prop spins. You will get a much cleaner wave which will make everything easier. It's kinda hard at first for regular foot riders. Goofy footers are happy.

All right Ill try that

Hey Danny, did you get a chance to try it yet?

I don't know if anyone else did this, but the wake SIZE changed things. Seemed like the bigger it got, he faster the boat had to be, and the farther (is that a word?) back my rear foot went.

Are you loading weight on one side. I hear that's one thing yoour supposed to do.

I finnally got a chance to try all of this....

and it didn't work.



We were going 10mph.
Center ballast and starboard ballast filled.
I started on the left side, then I rode across the wake to the right side.
I moved my feet and weight to the front of te board. No luck.

Danny--are you trying to edge like its a wakeboard? Surfing is more of a momentum problem till u get used to it. I used to edge too hard and lean to much, and ended up over-correcting till I crashed...Also bend you knees!! Leaning while straight up tilts the board, but crouching shifts the weight without tilting it...the more you bend your knees the lower your center of gravity. Take your time learning....don't hurry to throw the rope

Danny - Joe is right about the crouching... that tip got me ropeless for the first time last week. (Thanks again, Joe!) Think "tubed" and get down low.

You might also experiment more with weighting and boat speed. I had much better results with the center tank only 1/2 full and port tank full on my '04 X-Star as opposed to center tank and port tank both completely full. Biasing the weight towards the rear 60/40 gives me a bigger, steeper wake. Upping the speed from 9.5 to 10.5 also helped.

I did some good surfing this weekend. My configuration was this:

2002 SANTE

All tanks full.
600 pounds lead in bow.
Ten people in boat and one surfer.
One person in bow.
One on edge of the boat hanging on the tower.
Four people sitting on gunnel behind driver and deck.
One driver.
One person in the rear center seat.
One person on the deck in the center.
One in the observer's seat.

The wake was great, and everybody that surfed could throw in the rope.

We used a Hyperlite landlock, and the surfers ranged in weight from 180 to 240 pounds.

The only thing that sucked is the boat does not handle at all with that much weight, and the bow dips under almost any wake when idling.

What is the technique? Me and some friends think we got close in figuring it out. It seemed like you'd ride up to the top of the wake, then push yourself down the wake, and then let the wake catch back up to you as rode up the top of the wake again. Then repeat. Is that the correct way to ride the wake?

ok, I have had the chance to wakesurf once, and the only reason I was able to lose the rope was with some excellent coaching. Here was the secret for me...lean forward. If you've ever been on one of those indo boards, that's what it feels like. The more you lean forward, the closer you'll stay to the boat. That's basically the biggest thing that will effect your surfin'

Keep in mind that forward momentum is slow, but breaking is quick. It can be hard to catch up with the boat, cuz you stayed on your back foot a little too long.

Sometimes a quick shift to, and off your back foot, will stop your momentum just enough to let the boat pull away a little.

Take your time, and get used to STAYING in the "pocket" without a lot of carving. I had to learn with stock ballast only (Pro-V), one driver, one passenger in the back corner, in 10 feet of water, with no coaching

You guys are using ALOT of weight.
It's possible for a 180lbs guy to surf behind a SAN with only standard ballast and driver. My brother and I surfed many times this way in about 8-10feet water. We're surfing with a LiquidForce Skimskate, this is one of the smallest surfboards availeble. Just going about 9.3Mph.

The wake is clean and big enough to do 180-360 with standard ballast and 3-5 people on the back deck. You don't need to overload the boat!

It takes a while for getting the right feeling and finding the sweetspot. Once you found it, you never loose it and you increase the sweetspot every ride (I'm talking about surfing, alright !)