New Wakeboarding Family w/Questions

Hello,

Well, the time has come to compile all of those nit-noid questions that have come along with being new to wakeboarding. The prerequisites: 2005 MC X-2 bought last year, boards and bindings bought first of this summer, The Book bought last month, and a new rope bought a few weeks ago.

1) Any recommendations for dialing in the wake as far as boat speed, the length of rope, and ballast? With all of the stock tanks full, and the boat speed at 20mph, the wake at approx. 75' appears good (almost went w2w while practicing the "hop-in" drill, mmmmm faceplant feel good). Are these parameters within the range of "normal?" Hopefully, when wife and I go out next weekend alone, we will spend some time working on the wake. But, if anyone can help, it might give us a head start.

2) After about 7-10 minutes of riding the outside edge (pinky toe side) of my left foot (I ride reg.) starts to hurt. The size is correct (my toes just start to come out of the top side of the bindings) and when I put them on they feel perfect. I recently increased the distance between the bindings which made a great deal of difference in overall control and comfort. I have each binding angled out ever so slightly and at the same angle on each boot.

3) If anyone is in (west) Knoxville, Tn, where is a good place to go? Concord, on Ft. Loudon, is plagued by tubers and TWRA (get to that later) on the weekend and our one little "smooth" spot is just that; little. We would love to visit Norris. But, with kids and such, we sacrifice water quality for time on water. Where should we go if we decide to venture to Norris from Knoxville?

4) Any food/meal ideas would be great. We have all but exhausted all of our ideas.

We received a citation, no warning, a few weeks ago from the TWRA for not having the registration numbers on the boat. It was my fault, I will not argue. But, this was the first time that I have been stopped after being seen by numerous TWRA officers. I got the numbers put on the boat and we still got stopped today. This time we actually received free coupons for ice cream at McDonalds for being safe boaters. The time we got stopped before and today the TWRA officers were stopping EVERY single craft on the lake. So, what am I trying to say? If in this neck of the woods, be on your toes. The TWRA is hanging out around Concord.

I apologize for the wordiness of this post. I could of included much more information. We are progressing well and we just need some help "tweaking" what we know. If anyone from this area would like to join us to help us along, please feel free to email me at jsaulpaw@yahoo.com.

James

i can't help you with too much except for the meal thing and the binding thing, for the binding thing:

my suggestion is to keep messing around with the tightness/looseness of your boots, keep messing around with the angle of your boots and the width they are apart, there is no true "answer" to your problem, but a variety of possible solutions and the only way to get there is for you to just keep tweaking and keep riding..so on and so forth..

for the meal problem:

what we usually try to do when we are blessed with going during the week where we can have butter in the afternoon is to eat a lunch, and then take some chips and dip and some other stuff out on the boat, along with a packed cooler, when we have to get up and go in the morning, we try and eat a quick breakfast and then have a cooler packed from the night before with sandwiches, chips, cookies, dip, just all sorts of snacks you see in the grocery store and say "huh, wouldn't those be good for a picnic" along with a variety of beveridges. If we go in the evening, we usually go after dinner and don't take much food aside from beveridges packed in a cooler.

That's about all I have for now.

Sorry if it didn't help much or just further confused you,

There's a bunch of great guys and gals on this site and i'm sure you'll get a plethera of information to answer any and all of your questions

keep boarding

First requirement... ship that X-2 to me and give up wakeboarding all together... its really not fun and will be nothing but a hassle

Western TN? Take a weekend trip to Bull Shoals on MO AR boarder...

My left toe always hurt until I increased the duck on my binding mounting. I didn't change it slightly, it was changed until the pressure went off my little toe.

I have an 02 x-star, which I beleive has the same hull as your boat, and I ride at 70', 21.5 mph. The wake is a little bigger if you are down at 20 mph, but the increase in speed makes it a little more firm. I use this speed and length for any water under 10 feet (which is pretty much 95% of the time)
In deeper water, I will go further out and a little faster.

Thanks guys.

I was actually hoping for specific foods. We usually eat lunch at home and have a pseudo dinner on the water.

Blair, I will be happy to ship you the boat. Let's see, shipping and handling will be right around $50,000. We take cash.

As far as the wake goes, I was curious if there were some givens. Let's say you maintain the same ballast, what will changing the speed do to the wake? I assume that it will decrease in size, yet occur further back and wider. Stuff like that.

Guy from Memphis area. Would love for you to email me. Might be getting a job in that direction in the next few years. Would love to know more.

Thanks a lot guys!!!!!

I'm not from Memphis but live in MO. Bull Shoals is a pretty big lake with glass all day.