Wakesurfing Ropes

I am looking to get a wakesurfing rope so I do not have to convert my wakeboarding rope over every time. Does anyone have any suggestions on which ropes are better. Ropes with handles, ropes with knots, or is it easier just to make a rope? Any suggestions would be great thanks.

Jon T

Jonathan; My favorite rope is the Straightline as shown. I'mnot a fan of knotted ropes at all. I don't see the point of all the knots. You drop the rope after your up anyway.

I purchased my first rope and then went to making them myself. I have found that a line for a four person tube is nice and thick and works great. You can make two or three ropes from one of these ropes. Have put some knots in them, but they are not for getting up, just for holding onto a shorter line.

I have made handles out of 1 inch dowel rod and painted the handle black. The handles are about 8 inches long. I use 3/8 or 1/2 inch poly rope for the handle.

The nice part about having multiple lines is the ability to pull multiple people. We do this at the end of a session while riding back to the house. It is just fun messing around and trying new things.

got the same setup as the hammer , ready to replace the line with some spectra i have. the red line is wore out after 2 years.

Get a cheap waterski rope and just tie it short. That is what we do.

Inland Surfer has always had nice handles/ropes (great customer service, too!). Helium and Ronix (I think) have nice handle/ropes as well. I've always disliked the knotted rope styles. A simple handle is much more comfortable and secure; even the T-handle that someone sells (Straight-line?) would be better than the knots, and would minimize ever getting a hand or limb caught up.

y, I much prefer this type over knotted myself, but make sure you get the little handle, not big enough to get any body part, like your head caught in it.

I have a knotted T handle for sale if your still looking

Nice, thanks everyone for the info!

Brian, how much are you selling your rope for?

Brand new $ 20.00

The Straight Line is the best Handle. It is light and doesn't have a big bulky rope. And the handle is the perfect size. so you can't fall in it.

Bit of a hijack here, but why all the concern for falling into the rope? It seems to me that it would be less of a concern when riding at slower speeds (compared to the huge handles and high speed of wakeboarding)?

because when you surf, you "choke up" on the rope, and the handle will dangle behind you, which you don't do in wakeboarding. It is still a danger in WB, but surfing, the handle can be hanging down by your feet, or even behind you.

Just as a heads up, my wife bought me the straightline and I thought it stunk. Especially for beginners who do a lot of rope pulling...it will eat your hands alive. Take a look at the accurate. Basically the same thing but OH so much better in the rope department. Its thicker, has built in padding and everything. I have one of these straightlines sitting in my shed right now. Dont do it....go accurate and do it right the first time. You wont regret it. Just my two cents.

Hey by the way, since I just read Drew's post, some of this all depends on how much rope handling you and your crew are doing. If you have a bunch of beginners...I vote accurate. If you are all rope droppers, then go with the straighline since some of the benefits Drew listed there are true for advanced riders. When you hold the rope for 15 seconds...some of this doesnt really matter

I have both the liquid force t-handle surf rope and the accurate triangle handle surf rope. The t-handle is a little bit harder for beginners to get up with, but MUCH safer than a traditional small triangle handle on the accurate or straightline. Unfortunately, have had a few leg and arm burns with the triangle handle, but again, triangle handle is easier for beginners to get up with. Another benefit with the t-handle is that you can drop the rope in the top of the wake next to you and pick up back up if needed while riding. The triangle handle tends to catch and flip around in the wake and not stay in place as easy as the t-handle. Haven't noticed a big difference in the 'roughness' of the ropes on your hands.

Each is to his own on safety concerns but I highly recommend not laying the rope beside you in the water. If you fall it is very easy to fall onto the rope and get a nice burn or handle in the armpit. Throw the rope to the opposite side of the wake and let the crew deal with the rope. Also using a ski handle or wakeboard handle is an accident waiting to happen.

I custom build all of my surf ropes. I use two different ropes (8 feet long 5/8 or 1/2 braided nylon rope and a ski rope) to do this. I build a small handle (PVC wrapped with the padded handle off of a old intertube handle) for the nylon rope and then I put knots in the rope about every 6 inches. This allows a surfer to shorten the rope to help them find the sweet spot. I attach this rope to the ski rope. On the ski rope I put loops every foot, which allows me to easily adjust the length of the rope. Rope works great and when my kids go on somebody else's boat, they always bring their own rope. I also never allow a user to loop slacked rope around their hand.

(Message edited by Norris_laker on April 20, 2009)

With our beginners we are not dangling the handle behind us, we just loop it up in the front hand and get them to let go when they fall. Is this safe?

It is tough to say which method is more safe. If you loop the rope in your hand, you have the chance of falling and getting one of the loops around your arm, wrist, or fingers. If you dangle the rope behind you, you take the chance of landing on the rope, and possibly getting caught in the rope when you fall. Both ways seem to have their advantages and disadvantages. I would just make sure to express safety more than surfing itself no matter how you hold the rope to a beginner.

When the beginners do start to let go of the rope, I would highly recommend getting the rope as far away from the rider as possible. If it is throwing the rope to the other side of the wake, or into the boat, just make sure that your spotter is taking care of the rope at all times to insure the riders safety.

Also, if you are finding that your rope is long most of the time you are riding, I would shorten it so you have less rope in your hands.

Under no circumstances should riders be allowed to loop the rope. Seriously, looping the rope is without a doubt the most dangerous thing you can do wakesurfing (without riding behind an outboard). My sister is lucky to still have her arm from doing this very thing. Her husband (by some twist of fate) cut the boat at the same time she was falling and she still ended up needing emergency surgury to save her arm. A normal fall would have took it off completely

(Message edited by CAskimmer on April 20, 2009)

I am new to the sport so I am just asking. So holding a rope like this is dangerous? I was thinking that if it was in the water behind me it would be more dangerous.

Yeah, we did that a lot when starting out too. (until the incident) It's a natural thing to do when getting use to where the sweet spot is but extremely dangerous. Your example isn't nearly as bad as the pics I see with 2 or 3 coils in the rope though.