shallow water surfing????

The lake I frequent is not very deep. On average it is 6-8 feet deep with some area's up to 11 foot max. From what I am reading on this forum it is difficult to get a good wave in shallow water????? Am I wasting my time or can I get a decent wave to surf? Thanks!

It is not ideal, but you should be able to get a rideable wake.

Possible, but a lot of work for little wake. I never go in less than 14 ft.

14+ feet would be BEST, but over the years my team of experts Dennis, Jerry and Mike have been able to develop pretty good wakes in water depths of a maximum of 8 feet. We hosted contests for the folks at the NorCal INT League several times up at Villa Lagos, a man-made wakeboarding lake. It's maximum depth, as I said, is 8 feet and I'd guess shallower than that, more often than not.

The key seems to be more about "sinking" the entire boat, rather than just focusing on the one rear corner. A more even distribution of the weight gave better results.

Like Matt points out, not ideal, but doable.

This is a link to last years contest so you can see some of the pictures:

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/87668/355203.html

One picture so you don't have to slog through that thread.

i was surfing last night and the wife was driving and she doesn't know the shallow spots like i do so the water went from like the 20+ ft to like 6ft and the wake was like 1/2 the size

can someone explain to me why shallow water does this?

less compression of the water under the boat. Basically when the water compresses under the bottom of the boat, it rebounds like on a trampoline, shallower water = less rebound. This is a very basic concept at least...

Hey BigCatPT, I saw on your profile you're from utah? Where at? I suppose you're talking about Utah Lake. I can be on the water from my house in 5 minutes but I end up driving up to Deer Creek most of the time due to the depth of Utah Lake. Early season at Utah lake is ridable when the depths are about 10-11 ft. But I've noticed that by June the depth drops just 1 foot and its not worth going for surfing. We've been going up to Deer Creek and have loved it this year if you don't mind launching off the beach. We get a great wake up there. There's usually only 3-4 boats on the lake with us.

Hey Trash4life. You guessed it, Utah Lake. Its too tough to pass up when I can be launching in less than 10 minutes and can usually find nice flat water for wakeboarding. I'm new to surfing so I haven't tried anywhere else but UL. I haven't been to DC for about 6 weeks (just before they closed the state park ramp) but I didn't have my Centurion Avalanche then anyway so surfing wasn't an option behind my old boats I/O motor. The whole beach launch make me a little nervous... Is it pretty solid? What size boat are you launching? I'm headed to UL tomorrow (sat) and have another 1000# of sac to add to what I already had. So I will give it a try and maybe try out DC on monday. Tell me more about the beach launch there! Thanks!

here in Clermont Florida we surf in 6-8 feet of water all the time with a Direct Drive Moomba Outback. It's no big deal. Just need two 600 lb fat sacs.

Our lake varies in depth from 8 to 25 feet, while we are surfing and hit a spot that is less than 12 feet deep the wave shrinks before our eyes/boards.

If you head up to DC tomorrow (I should be up there too, look for my yellow MB) then you will be able to see the difference from saturday to monday on your boat. I think there's a huge difference in the size of the wakes at the two lakes. The beach is solid at the island resort. They have a tractor down there that looks like it has been smoothing and packing it down. I called the ranger and he said he has only seen guys getting stuck who are launching huge boats and never a ski boat. Maybe we'll see ya there.

kenny,
I am heading to DC tomorrow. Hopefully be there around 930 or so. I'll keep an eye out for a yellow MB. I'm in a black with silver trim Centurion Avalanche.