2004 Malibu XTI

I am curious to see if anyone has experience with this boat. I may be looking into buying one in the spring. Does this boat have the Diamond hull? How is the wakeboard wake? Surf wake? We will be using it for wakeboarding most of the time with the occasional surf sets. The interior setup is a bit different, has anyone been in this boat? How did you like the seating arrangement? Does it seem small inside with the larger motor box? Thanks in advance for the info.

You could get them with either hull (determined by Wakesetter or Sunsetter model). I've spent a good amount of time in both the 23' and 21' wake versions. They don't really seem small, but the driver & observer are kind of isolated from the rear seating. They are good boats, but if you run extra sacks the seating arrangement makes them even harder to weight than a direct drive IMO. We had to basically fill the entire rear seating area up to the top of the gunwales with sacks to get a surf wake out of the 23', but it has pretty good size & shape. Wakeboarding wake is fine, but you'll have a sack in the floor on the port side, and filling/draining the one in the stbd storage is a pain.

I just sold a 05 xti to get a 09 Epic. The XTI is a good beginner boat. As I advanced I had to sac it out, 1500# in the back and 500 extra in the front. It was a huge hassle and took away all of the seating except one seat. So you could have a driver, a passenger, and a rider. But it did throw a great wake for a Malibu. Upgrade to a V-drive if your going to wakeboard mainly. You will thank yourself in the long run. Just a lil fyi, my old Malibu sac'd out didnt throw as good of a wake as my Epic with NO ballast. And then you can add 4000#'s... Check them out before you buy

I chose that layout and it suits my needs very well. There are lots of rear facing seats and it works for my family, or family and guests, to have separate seating lounges. The large center sunpad we like and often use it as a table. The kids can stand on it and get there own boards in and out.
The disadvantage is the narrow walkway on one side only. Often you have to ask someone to move.
Mine is the Sanger D215 not the Malibu, but is about the same as the 21 XTi

To determine if it does have the diamond hull look at the outside chines, if they are turned down = diamond hull it flat = nondiamond hull (wakehull).

You can get a wakesetter with a diamon hull. Malidude is correct

Appreciate all the info guys. Sounds like there's not much room once you start adding extra weight.