Favorite platform material. Teak or Composite?

Well what is it teak or composite?

I noticed people with teak steps don't really mind people jumping of the step but people with composite ask that you don't scratch their step.


Easier to keep the teak looking good but a little more work,once you scratch the composite step...it takes more care to get it looking like new again.


I like them both! Maybe the teak a little more because it's usually bigger and easier to keep looking like new.

(Message edited by big_ed_x2 on July 03, 2005)

Composite for sure. I like the non-slip grip.. you just have to ask boarders to not stand on it with their boards on.

^^^^^See retrofridge,that's what I mean^^^^^^

Like my Teak. Looks great when oiled up, and I can and have fixed certain mishaps that have happened.

I have been thinking of getting a composite step due to slip issues with my teak. However not being able to stand on the composite due to scratching sucks. Thats what its for. How else due you get your board on?

teak looks classic and you can make it look new very easy.

where your guyz put your board if you dont want them to put them on the boat, dont tell me you put your board inside the water, what's happend when the water temp is very very cold ?

You can put your board on and stand on the composite step, just ask that the boarder not to go crazy sliding around etc..

AND teak it is for all the convinience.



Don't step on my swimstep so hard you might scratch it,and don't slide around either.....Just jump in the water and put on the board and when you are done I let you step on my composite step if you promise to be careful and not to scratch it.

Now you guys tell me what is the point of you swim step or you boat for that matter.

(Message edited by big_ed_x2 on July 04, 2005)

If you don't mind some minor scratching, they can stand on it all day long. It's not that big of a deal. Personally, I don't care. I like the fact that they aren't gonna sue me for slipping on their asses and I don't have anything to maintain. So keep on with the wood and your teak oil and i'll put up with my nice grip and some minor scratches. Not to mention it looks better on a 50k boat than a chunk of wood.

Looking better??That is opinion!


Tell me how much it will be to get the dings and the scratches out?Not to mention that once it's scratched up....It definetly doesn't look better that a teak.

This may be a really stupid question. Sorry in advance. Why are you slipping on the teak?
Teak or Composite? Teak for us.

I'm always slipping on the Teak. Composite is the wave of the future.

Fiberglass is real cutting edge let me tell ya...

I cut a piece of marine carpet and then strapped it to my fiberglass platform. Works great, no more scratches, no slipping, and more comfortable for getting on and off. I also rolled it up the back of the boat to act as a transom guard.

The wood looks nice on this boat http://www.oldboatworks.com/new_page_3.htm

I've owned both, and the composite is by far the better, imo

I'm with Big Ed, looks are just an opinion. Wood, wood, wood.....it only takes minimal maintenance and it looks classy. If you guys are gonna have to worry about scratches on your fiberglass platform, then you are in the wrong sport. That is like sayin, "Hey, you can drive my mudbog truck, but don't get it dirty." Do ya make em dry off before they get back in the boat too? If all your buddies are slippin all over the teak, make em stay in the boat, maybe they don't need to ride then.

Call me old fashion, but I down graded my Team to Teak, I guess it is just tradition.

no jim your just Old BTW get back home the lake is back to butter she was from front to back on sat.

"teak or composite?", Kinda both!

The stock teak step is safely stored while I have a rhino lined step on the boat that I carpeted with marine carpet. I have a yellow, white and black boat, the black swim step fits in well. The carpeting takes care of the maintenace, makes for a comffy step to sit on and use, easy on the bottom of boards.

When I sell the boat, the next owner will get both, but the teak step will have very little use on it.

Having had both, I prefer the teak for the following reasons:

1) Cooler on the feet when dry and in the sun.
2) Drains water better than solid composite platform.
3) Takes more abuse / easier to restore finish.
4) I love the smell of teak oil and enjoy oiling t every so often!

you guys are pounces when it comes to scratching ya deck. Thats what its there for, to be used. When someone buys a second hand boat, they're gunna understand that its been used, and shouldnt expect a brand new boat at second hand prices.

[1) Cooler on the feet when dry and in the sun]

if the platforms dry arnie, you need to put more weight in the boat!

I tried a fiberglass platform on my last boat, but went back to teak on my current one.

Sometimes old ideas are good. Love the teak.

IMHO Composite all the way!! The swim platform is just one of those areas we boat owners need to concede to having scratches. It will happen. I personally like composite. One, you can get it to match the color of the boat. I'm surprised to hear everyone liking the look of a platform that doesn't match their boat. Especially as much as we all pimp out our boats with bling bling and color match everything! Two, the composite has great grip on them. Love the grip on my platform. Three, maintenance FREE!!! That alone should sell everyone on it!

Just my .02 cents!

color match....YES

Concede to having scratches???

Scratches don't match my boat too well!

Good point Big Ed!! My scratches don't show that much. Besides, I wet sand mine out!! I'm on my second season on my platform and I have no cuts in my grip rubber and few scratches. And I don't tell anyone to be careful to the platform. I do tell them to not bang the back of the boat. My platform looks great. Have fun and don't worry about a few scratches on something that is meant to take the beating! With newbies on the boat I will go back, sit with them and hold down their board with my feet as a precaution to help them and teach them to NOT bang the back of the boat.

And yes, transom guard is next on the "To Do" list.

This is one that has always baffled me from an appearance standpoint. People go to such lengths to trick out their boats with the most modern accessories and do whatever they can to make it look better than the next guy's...then they attach a piece of wood to the back!

Sometimes I think that the teak swimstep has been around for so long and has been such an integral part of waketerskiing/wakeboarding that people don't take the time to step back and look at the big picture. Doesn't a nice new boat with all the chrome, gelcoat, paint and other fancy stuff look strange with a wood plank hanging off the back.

What if you saw a Porcshe driving down the road looking as sleek and expensive as can be with a classic hand-carved teak spoiler hanging off the back. I'm sure that in some sense this wooden work of art would be an amazing piece of handiwork, but when you step back and look at the bright red Porche as it revs its engine, doesn't that chunk of wood look a little out of place?

Call me crazy Larry, but I think the look of a composite swimstep is what goes best with today's modern wakeboard boats. The new one on our Malibu is completely covered with a rubber top, so the only place you could get scratches are around the edges. You can dance a jig on mine for all I care. I'm not sure why so many fiberglass swimstep owners are afraid of scratches. Maybe they aren't all solid like this one and have more exposed paint/gelcoat.

As far as maintenance goes, there is just no way I'm going to spend time oiling a piece of wood on the back of my boat when I have another option. Even if my fiberglass step does get scratched up, I'd rather pay to have it repaired or replaced when I sell the boat than spend so much time maintaining a wood step. It's hard enough just to find time to clean the boat.

Drawbacks to the fiberglass would probably be the fact that it's hotter due to the black rubber on it. However, it's usually wet, so this is really only a drawback when it's in my driveway or if I don't have any weight in it. Plus, you could always do a different color of rubber to cool it down. A light gray would probably go nicely with my boat and keep the step considerably cooler.

Pluses would be that you can shape it to accommodate your needs like Malibu did with the new models. It's bowed up in the middle so that you aren't standing on your fins while you're putting your board on. Plus that makes sure that the water drains quickly.

Sorry if I've offended any teak lovers. This is just one that's always confused me.

Here are some pics of the swimstep on the 2006 Malibu Wakesetter VLX. Obviously, the first two are with no weight in the boat ...

Can I wear my spike heals while dancing a jig?

I do like the shape to accommodate fins.

Hey Crazy Larry - Yeah, the fiberglass step may look better in some eyes, but that black does get freaking hot if it's not under water. Also, I have no problem backing my teak step right up to a dock or something without any worry of scratching that nice chrome rubrail or the fiberglass. How hard is it to spend a couple of minutes rubbing some oil in every once in a while? Just my $.02.

Why is everyone slipping on the teak steps?

(Message edited by socalwakepunk on July 05, 2005)

You can wear your golf spikes if you want. It's pretty tough stuff.

P.S. Spikes cause more injuries than they "heal."

I've eaten it hard on a teak step before, but I suspect it had something other than teak oil going for the finish.

The bottom line is that I would be fully confident jumping three feet from the dock onto a wet rubber swimstep such as the one pictured above, but there is no way in hell I'd make that leap onto a wet teak deck.

Yes, I'd probably be a little more careful backing into a dock with my swimstep than a teak one, but I think you'd want to be careful either way. Both could sustain some damage.

If I had it my way, there would be no chrome trim around the outside and the rubber would wrap around the edges. That would make it a perfect swimstep.

I think the raised hump in the BU platform is genius. Hey David Williams Wakeworld should have yearly design inovation awards in several catagories that members can vote on.

shape to accomodate fins????

Who has fins on these days?? J\K with you dave!

You couldn't shape teak to accomodate foins??



Bottom line is there are pros and cons,Dave brought up a couple good points and all us teak lovers pointed out few good points as well.The way that new Malibu step is,I would have to agree it would be pretty difficult to scratch and it's nice and big which is super nice.I really don't care too much for the shape to accomodate fins but it is a nice feature that other people with fins can enjoy plus is innovation.

Retro, check out the Riders Choice Awards, which start on 8/1. There is a category called Innovation of the Year.

Ed, I've still got my little outer fins on the Trip even though I run without the center fins. I agree with you though. That hump on the swimstep would have been more relevant back in the day of 2.5" fins.

And, yes, you could definitely do a hump with wood, but it would be a little more difficult and would probably take away from that "classic" look!

Ok Dave in four years what's your platform going to look like compared to mine? At the start of the 2009 season mine will look like the day I got the boat. Pretty sure yours won't...

Dave...post pictures of that rubber stuff getting tracked into your interior when it starts melting and deteriorating.

I like my teak that i have on my 04 wakesetter but if i get an 06 which we are looking at i want to go with the composite.

Actually don't much care for the hump in the step. Like the board to stay flat when I'm squeezing my dogs into the bindings.

Teak!

Go ahead and put your sneakers in the sand and grind them on my platform, I don't mind.

Go ahead and put your sandy bottom cooler on the platform, I don't mine.

Metal board fins on my platform, no worries.

Slalom fin on my platform, no worries.

Whoops your ski's binding screws are too long poking my teak platform, hmmmm good thing I didn't check that composite platform option box on the order sheet.

Unloading off the back to a houseboat with platform bumping into the houseboat, no worries.

Stepping in the mud before loading the boat, just clean off while standing on the platform before boarding.

Yes, I have a belt sander and it gets used on my Teak. I must have sanded 1/4" off the top of the old platform.

With that said some composite platforms are designed better than others. The Nautique platform with raised composite ribs and a stainless edge is not suitable with my usage patterns.

Pat, If we treated the platforms exactly the same (no maintenance like oiling), I'm guessing that mine would be pretty much the same as it is now probably with a few scratches around the edges and on the stainless steel strip. Yours would probably be a little more scratched up and dented, due to it being a softer material, and it would be as white as the gelcoat on the top of your boat. I have personal experience because that's exactly what my swimstep looked like on the Wakesetter I just sold. Five years of no teaking bleached it out to match the boat very nicely!

Seriously though, J-Rod probably has the best point against the rubber coated swimstep. After spending a lot of time in the sun, it might start coming off on your feet. I guess time will tell. I definitely wouldn't leave it in the sun between visits to the lake, but I guess you could say that about teak as well.

We make fun of the classic wood swim step but yet the porcshe has woodgrain interior? That has got to say something right there, something like BRING ON THE WOOD. Unless you ordered the custom gator grip interior for you porcshe. Oh never mind, they do not offer that, I wonder why.

I find it interesting that when I bought a Moomba in 2001 a fiberglass platform was standard and many people said that it was because Moomba's were cheap. Now Malibu, Nautique, and Mastercraft have discovered that they can charge $500 (I was quoted extra on a Malibu) for Moomba's cheap fiberglass platform.

I started with the fiberglass and now have teak. We find that it is very easy to slip on the teak and hit the transom. I will be adding a transom guard on my new boat soon.

I have always used teak but was on a wakesetter 23 lsv with a fiber platform and I about biffed it trying to jump off the platform. The thing was like a suction cup on my board.

Go teak.

One of the dealers here in town said it best. Fiberglass for the boat show, Teak for the lake.

There's a 99% chance after 4 years a fiberglass platform will have a big chunk taken out of it because you backed into something or it was dropped. Those of you that keep your boat in the water, have you noticed that the bird crap stains your platforms as well? My buddy has big white stains all over his platform from birds hanging out on his platform. There's no way anyone could convince me that Fiberglass is the way to go.

I'd have to agree Pat that that in some ways the FG looks nicer on a modern boat, but on the lake, where you interact with the platform all day long, I love the teak.

It feels better, my dog loves it too.

Oh, if you have to take it off in the middle of the lake, it also floats. Don't ask me how I know, but this is a good thing.

I found out that my fiberglass swimstep floats on my second trip to the lake! I looked in the rear view mirror of my truck when I was launching and couldn't figure out what those metal bars were sticking out of the water behind my boat. I guess I'm lucky it didn't drop off on the windy road to the lake! Oops!

Dave how could your platform fall off?

My buddy didn't put the pins in his platform last year and it kept slamming up and down all day. By the end of the day it stripped the screws in the wood and his platform floated off. Floated is the key word, a couple of bigger screws later it was as good as new. He doesn't forget to put the pins in now though...

It's kind of hard to explain how it attaches, so here are some pics of the mounts and the swimstep bracket that attaches to it.

To take it off, you pull the pins out of the bottom. Then you lift up the back of the step and then lift the whole thing off. It kind of hangs on that interlocking edge, so if I hit a big bump just right, it could bounce it off if the pins aren't in. It will definitely always come off in the water without the pins because it floats.

I see how it attaches. All the platforms I've ever seen have the grooves that the platform slides in. You're lucky you didn't lose it on the road for sure!! I'm thinking you would only make that mistake once. Does it move up and down at all or have any play it in? Mine has about a 1/4 inch of play which can be kind of annoying if you're just floating around the lake on a choppy day.

With that design can you take it off by yourself? I can put mine on by myself but I don't think I can remove it. It's a two person job to take it off.

No, it doesn't have any play in it. See that little aluminum square piece that the pin goes through? That locks into the cutout on the bottom of the mount and it's solid once you put the pin in place.

I take it off and put it on by myself, but I'm 6'4", so the long arms help. It's a pretty big and pretty heavy swimstep. If it wasn't for the little Wedge door, it might be a two man operation.

It's actually harder to put it on than take it off because it's like putting two puzzle piece together and you can't really see them while you're doing it.

I found out mine floated one day when I ran over my rope (first and last time I've done that.) I didn't have goggles at the time, so decided to take the platform off in the middle of the lake to better reach the prop area. Lots of waves, and every time I'd dive under the platform it was bashing on my head.

Anyway, it floated, which I thought was cool, heh. (1992 MC Prostar 205)