? about rope length and neone that rides behind X1

So I ride behind an X1 (07) and I always hear about people riding at rope lengths up to 80 feet long. I usually ride 65 feet but its not because I'm not comfortable with a longer rope length, I would rather ride farther out because I feel its easier to ride behind a longer rope but...even at 70 feet Im behind the crest of the wake (where the wake begins to curl over). This is with the balasts full and we ride with an additional 500 lbs of fat sacs every now and then (where we're not being lazy and feel like filling em up). So my question to you guys is, can you only ride at 75+ feet behind a bigger boat (like the xstar or X2) or are we doing something wrong??? I usually ride at 22mph, if that helps.

(Message edited by hskrfan2187 on March 09, 2009)

If I can remember correctly, I had about 1500lbs of additional ballast on top of the stock ballast in my '05 X-2. We rode at 24-25mph at 80'-85'. The wake was perfect. So the answer to your question is no, you can ride at a longer rope length behind any boat, it just depends on how the boat is set up ballast wise and the speed you feel comfortable riding at. Play around with different ballast configurations and different speeds until you find what you're looking for. Hope this helps, I'm sure others will chime in...

Speed it up to 23-24, you should be able to ride 85 feet no problem if you dump it, and 75 feet should be perfect if you only have "standard" ballast (I consider standard ballast to be stock ballast full and a v drive bag up front- you need the bag up front in this boat, or any boat for that matter)

Matt... The faster you go and the longer your rope the more speed you can get into the wake and the bigger you can go... most likely it will make the tricks you know a little bit harder until you get used to it. Add some more weight kick up the speed a mph or 2 and lenghten one section. get used to that, till you feel solid, and repeat the process... most important thing is don't be trying to ride at 80+ ft just cause thats what other people are doing and it's the cool thing to do, it can easily kill your progression. I will slow the boat down and shorten the rope when I'm learning something new every time. Then when I feel comfortable with whatever i'm learning I go back to where I usually ride.

I have an 03'X-2 (same boat hull basically). I ride 75 but Violator, Brodie, and some of he other guys ride 80 and even 85, 88. We ride approx 2300-2600 lbs ballast(including stock)....and the Perf Pass is set to anywhere from 24.7 to 25.5 depending on the rider. If we have that much weight in the boat and more than 3 or 4 heads in the boat maybe even a bit faster.

I second TFD above. On "Progression Days" we slow the boat, empty some weight, and shorten the rope. Stay where you are at until you are blasting into the flats on all your tricks.

Last point.....with that much weight you need to re-prop. The 14.5 x 14.25 or whatever is the shiz.

more ballast + faster speed = longer line

We also run about 2500 #s in my friends X-1, speed is around 25 mph and line length at 80'.

i got the same ride and usually board at 27 mph, 87 ft, 4000+ ballast, and 3 or 4 people. i agree with the comments above about slowing down and shortening the rope when learning new things.

Matt, sounds like you either need to drive a bit faster, or put more weight in the bow, or both.

to get that far back you either gotta go way faster or lots and lots of bow weight...

The x-1's I've been on was around 25mph and 75ft

+1 on short/slower for learning...and a someone driving a little dump turn for you to ease line tension and fall

You don't necessarily need a massive wake to ride with a long rope. This weekend i rode 82.5 feet behind an unweighted 1990 prostar 190 and was still able to clear the wake. Although, I wasn't able to get very much air. I normally wouldn't ride that far back on boat like that though

2500lbs, 25-26mph and 85' is about right for me. Like everyone said; More speed, more weight, and more line length.

Just because you can do it, doesn't mean it's the best, though. For learning tricks 75' is usually plenty. Once you're dialed 80' is good. After riding a X-star or LSV (or something with a wide wake) you'll get used to chargning it and may want to go to 85'.

When I had my X2 I usually rode 80'.