What am I doing wrong?

I decided I wanted to try wakesurfing, so I bought a used board off e-bay and took it out yesterday. I am 6' and weigh about 205, and I have a 2004 Malibu WS 23LSV. I have replaced the read hard tanks with 750-lb sacs on each side. I ride goofyh on my wakeboard, so I drained most of the water out of the port rear tank and left all the others filled. This gives me 750 in the starboard rear, plus a total of 750 in the Malibu center and front tanks. I additionally have about 400 pounds in lead, which I stacked all on the right side, evenly from front to rear. I also had the wedge down. The surf wake was not too impressive at 9-10 mph; very washy. At about 12 mph it cleaned up, but I get the impression this is too fast because the boat would just outrun me. At about 10 mph I still had to hold the rope; I got into the "pocket" and could ride with very little tension on the rope, but never completely without the rope. Unfortunately this "pocket" had the tip of my board only about 18" off the back of the swim platform. I tried shifting my weight from more back to more forward but still couldn't get it right. I bought a CWB tsunami, which I think only came in one size. Do I need a different board, different weight configuration, or just learn how to do it correctly?

try everything on the port side. i have a malibu response and i surf on the port side.

Howdy Sam

Your Malibu's propellor rotates left so the port side is better, but riding your Starboard wake is possible. I'm goofy and can ride a friends VLX no drama. My boats a 210 (Right rotating prop) so it suits me fine but with the VLX we move more weight forward to clean up the wake and ride starboard.

By the sounds of your post (....could ride with very little tension....) you are close so don't despair.

I'm the same size as you and when I first started out at the beginning of this season I was having the same problem (riding too close and struggling to find the pocket). After asking a heap of questions I concluded the board I was using was too small. I then changed up to bigger board (Phase 5 Oogle) and my world changed. I can now freeride easily, 10ft+ back and have just about dialed in 3's.

Hope this helps and good luck.....

We ran a VLX at the Scioto Wakefest last year. We set up the VLX for both regular and goofy (Port and Starboard) wakes. The VLX gave us very good wakes on both sides. We filled the center tank, and the port or starboard tank, sat people on the weighted side and we had a 400 pound sack. The boat wasn’t equipped with a front tank. Set up was easy and almost any configuration of weight worked well.

On Jeff Page's (of Inland Surfer) advice, we didn't use the wedge. I've heard people say that we should have used the wedge, but intuitively and from my experience on my boat I'd suggest that setting the wedge would be a bad for surfing.

Wake surfers put weight on one side of the boat to build a good surf wake. Putting all the weight on one side should make your boat list to the surf side of the wake. I think the wedge flattens out the the back of the boat and kills the list which defeats your other efforts. I could be wrong on this; I have only very limited experiences with Malibu boats.

I did surf behind an LSV at a competition in Indiana last year; I had the most difficult time surfing behind that boat. The boat was weighted to the port side and had the wedge down. The other problem with at the competition was the water depth. The depth of the lake at competition site was only about 10 feet. I’ve found that my wake falls a part when the lake depth is less than 14 feet.

I would expect the LSV to make as good or better surf wake than the VLX, I think my experience is similar to yours. Make sure your in deep water and try picking up the wedge and see if that helps.

Good luck let us know how it goes.

I have a vlx and I put the wedge down about halfway. I have tried surfing without it and the power of the wake just disappears. I surf on the starboard side and can get a great wake.

Believe it or not, you can wash the wake out with too much weight in the back.

I surf the VLX on the right (starboard) side (I'm goofy) and we don't use any rope at all. I have the standard ballast tanks plus 8x75 lbs bars throughout the boat. On each side we have 2 upfront, 1 midship, and 1 in the rear.

So the only weight we have besides people is the starboard tank, the mid tanks, and the wedge.

It works great.

Sam. Theres a big difference between 10 mph and 12. Try 11 or 11.2 and put alittle weight back on the port side. At some point if you want to cross back and forth you will have to even the weight anyway.

(Message edited by saroberts70 on January 12, 2007)

Sam...I have never surfed that board but I am the same size as you...maybe weigh 5 more lbs. I had a rough time with some of the wakeboard manufacturer surfboards while my lighter friends were surfing them ropeless with out much trouble.
They were all giving me grief saying that they were just better at it etc..., blah blah blah!
Then I got my hands on an Inland Surfer Blue...
The first time I got up on it the rope went slack immediately and I tossed it in the boat and surfed for what seemed like ages (probably about 3 minutes!) It was like night and day. I have since tried the Inland Yellow and can surf it as well. I would say if you can to demo one of those two. They are very buoyant and easily support the extra weight. As a matter of fact I was the first in my group to pull off a 360 spin on the blue board. Still don't know how I did it and haven't done it since but I have witnesses if not video!

Good Luck

Thanks everyone! I will play around with the boat and try the port side, then look at other boards as necessary. Can I surf with my right foot forward on the port side surf wake?

Yes. As you cross just transfer your weight from toes to heals. Once you get across its not bad at all. I've gotten to where I can do it with a 3 year old on my shoulders.

We have a 2004 LSV and I can tell you that for whatever reason, it is much easier to get a clean wake on the starboard side. See the Malibu 23 LSV surf thread.

I have the 06 LSV and Port is better IMO. Try the wedge 1/2 down and surf in deep water. I never surf with it all the way down. It sounds like you have enough weight but that is a big boat and it can handle a lot more. I run all tanks (but starboard rear full), 750lb fat sack and 600 lbs of lead.

Check out this thread.

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/87668/349450.html?1154333226

(Message edited by jrodhyco on January 19, 2007)

(Message edited by jrodhyco on January 19, 2007)