Towable Trick Rail

Has anyone ever heard of a towable trick rail? I came across this in a recent search on wakeboarding. This looks like so much fun and totally adds a whole new dimension to the sport. What do you think? http://www.barewest.com/accessories.php

(Message edited by jdub420 on June 02, 2003)

Its funny, I actually was thinking of this idea yesterday.

The only problem I see with this is people having their line to short. If you fall in front of it it's going to take a part of your body off. I can't imagine what would happen if you fell and the rail hit you in the neck. I think our sport has to many people trying to make a dollar on it. They see something in the mags and instantly try to market it to the public. I feel this way with lake surfing too.

you could make that for less then 595 or whatever they were asking. tubes not included??? cheap cheap cheap. hey corey i don't want to rip on you but wakeboarding is dangerous. i think we like the fun of it but their are people that hit sik kickers, rails, docks,and anything possible. i'd slide it and if it hit me in the head you could say i told you so and i'd say that you were right and i'd apoligize and i then would hit it again til it knocked me unconcious and my body floated so you'd pull me out and when i woke up i'd hit it again!

Yeah everyone knows theres a risk, but a simple change to the design would make it alot safer. If there was a flat sheet of something instead of monkeybars, it would be alot better.

even more simple, put the contraption on quick release pin. if rider falls forward, spotter pulls pin, contraption is disconnected from the boat and stops moving.

http://www.browsermanaged.com/sites/folder8478/index.cfm?fuseaction=detail&id=18753&product=136

I already have the single version of this on my boat.

Maybe I am just getting old. I think when I see new things come out it reminds me of when we would try things on the bay and constantly get hassled by the water cops. It's not that the product isn't rad, it's just my train of thought when I see things like it. Being that I sold products for so long I remember the ginny pig days of wakeboarding. As far as the sport being dangerous, personally from being in board sports my whole life I still think it's pretty safe. Not that it hasn't sent me to the hospital on occasion.

I think they should mount a huge razor-sharp blade on the front of it. This way, if you fall in front of it, that's it, no hitting it again.

i agree with j-rod. i mean come on.......no pain, no gain. who needs limbs anyways! Extremities are for posers!

After seeing this yesterday, a friend and I were inspired to build our own. Cost $40 to make and man is it sweet. It's got two 3" PVC tubs on top to slide and is in three pieces so that is can be transported in the boat. The three pieces are: The slide rails, and 2 bases that go into the tube. 40 bucks is much better than 600! We are taking it out tonight if the weather holds up and we'll post some pictures.

That price looks way high. How much could it cost to mount what looks like a bike rack to a couple of tubes (which aren't included for that price).

Craig-
Can you post some pics? Thinking of building my own towable rail but wanted some ideas for a single tube design. Thinking about about using a home-made pontoon to support the down-rails of either side of hte tube.

Yea, this ought to be interesting Craig. I've got my tube and camera. All I want to know is who's going first?

hit it Mike!! How's everything going bro?

Here's an idea to make it safe. Velcro the ends into the tubes. That way when you're hitting it properly, it will work just fine. But if you bail and get hung up on it, it will break away. This is assuming that it's filled with foam or something so that it floats.

I'm requesting that the company send us one for testing, so we'll let you know how it goes.

Scott, it's going well. How bout you? Been riding much? I may hit it but I want to see someone else hit that thing first!

you could actually do a stall trick on the rail. like ride up behind it, ollie up on it while pulling the rope in, nose press, then hop back off it (while doing a 360) as you let the rope out. aww yeah.

I would like to see that one done...would be a sick trick indeed. You would need a Skireel and a very skilled operator to pull that off I think.

yeah man, I've been riding a lot lately, actually. I finished building my dock and I'm working on the fence right now.... I'll have to come over to smelinole and ride with ya.

LAdson, I think you could easily do it with one of those handles that had the wrap "t" thing

Sounds like a plan Just let me know when.

I see your point...again...would enjoy some video of people attempting the stall. I can see it now, the first person splits their chin backing off the rail. been there done that...no fun!

Is that wake analyzer II?

That thing is a lawsuit waiting to happen. I would never sell something like that. The safety issues are out of this world.

Ladson, definitely posting some photos tomorrow. I jsut hope this weather holds up. It's super windy right now, and a good chance of rain...but it was the same yesterday.

Here is a quick sketch as to what we made:



Here's the shopping list:
4 - 2X4's 8' long
2 - 10' pieces of 3" PVC tubing
1 box galvanizing drywall screws
4 - Zinc 8" bolts (washers and nuts too)
1 - 4X4 (shortest size possible)
12 - Galvanized lag screws (for securing PVC to 2X4)
1 - 4X8 sheet of plywood

$40 will get you there.

You'll see int he diagram those 2 bases go into the tube cover, then place the tube inside the cover on top of the base. Then inflate the tubes. Take the rail assembly and place it on the bases and run the 8" long blots through the holes in the legs and bases to secure it together.

This sucker is strong and I am confident will last a long time.

Craig-
It looks sweet...let me know how it holds up. Did you already have (2) inner tubes or did you have to go buy the second one? I only have (1) inner tube at the moment...tack on another $80-100, I guess.

Craig,
I was thinking of building one the same way before I saw your diagram. Glad to see that it works, you have hit it right? Got some ?'s for ya, do you attach the rope to the center of it or do you have a line running to each tube? Secondly is ten feet a good length? I built a 10 foot ghetto slider a couple summers ago and it was way to short you were on and off it before you had time to blink, I turned it into a 20 footer shortly after. I was thinking of making mine around 14/15 feet, but maybe thats to wide what do you think? I ride at 70 ft but shorten way up for wksk8n and want to use if for that also. Your .02 cents is appreciated. Thankx

Craig, how big are the tubes that you are using?

...also how tall will it stand?

Here are some shots from last night...






Ok, well, it didn't work out to good last night. The weather was horrible. There were 1 foot rollers blowing in. So the slider was out of the question. But just doing a plactice pull we broke the round tube. It was old and was waiting to go. The cover popped off from around the tube. I am going to get another triangle shaped one like the red and blue one ($40 from Walmart). I think that will fix it. But I an worried now that the playwood may not work on the bottom. I may need to make it so the plywood circle go on top of the tube and strap around the tube inside the cover. But it floated well. We stood on in the water and it wasn't moving.

The slider is 8 feet long. I wouldn't go any longer than that. I am questioning that length now. Maybe 7 feet. You have to give yourself room to be able to pop off the wake and get onto this thing, so it has to be much less than 10 feet wide. If you ride at 70', then 8 feet is good. Just look at your wake close one day when riding and try to determine how far across it is. Then subtract like 2 feet from that. That'll give you 1 foot on either side of the rail.

I think we are going to make some changes on ours so that the rail sticks out further on the tubes. Ss when you come off you don't accidentally hit them.

you know, on one of my few game breaks last night, I almost called Mike and asked him how the adventure went. Sorry it didn't fly on the first try, but I'm sure you'll hammer it out. Good luck.

Scott, do you have a new e-mail address at work? I had one returned yesterday. I didn't cuss, I swear!

no, what happened is our DMZ's external router took a dump and all our inbound email and web services were down for about an hour.

when you get this thing going I might have to make a trip out to the 'west coast'

St.Pete Crew:
What's the latest on your towable rail?

I didn't get a chance to ask Craig over the weekend so I'm not sure. Hopefully he'll give us an update.

I basically built the same towable as Craig with a few differences and it works great. My PVC is ten feet long and has a five-inch width. Instead of putting the plywood disks in the tubes I put them on top and tied them down to the handles, my 4x4 posts are only 11 inches high since they are sitting on top of the tubes. I used two eight-foot 2x4's to connect the posts so the PVC hangs over each side a foot. The PVC extends out about 6 to 8 inches past the end of the tube so you don’t hit in on the way down. Since the tubes are so close together I did have to tie down a cinder block to the outside edge of the plywood to prevent a teeter-totter effect. Found that out real quick after the first attempt. Ten feet is a good width for riden on a 70-foot rope, could probably even be longer 12 or 13 feet. Its a good design and easy to make. Only problem that I had was that one tube was a little taller then the other so it's not perfectly level but it really didn’t make a difference. I stole the building materials from "Habitat For Humanity" and the tubes from the "Children with Special Needs Camp" so basically it was free to build. J/K. I already had most of the materials but excluding the tubes I think you could build it for 30 to 40 bucks. Anyway that’s the story of my towable, sorry I don’t have any pics but we were riding without a third. I'll have some soon.

No updates. It's sitting in the driveway. It's been so windy here I have resorted to Wakeboarding Unleashed.

here is another pic of one.

Thats awesome!