I have owned both, a 2011 vlx without surfgate and now a 2013 with surfgate. For us, I will never own a boat without surfgate again... we have 120 hours on our vlx this season and we surf a bunch. There are more advantages to SG equipped boats than just being able to switch riders immediately from goofy to regular. You weight the boat evenly, it drives MUCH better and level, people can sit comfortably in the boat, and you instantly switch wakes on the fly while surfing. My boat does not produce a world class wake, but that is also not our goal with surfgate. We wanted something that would be easy to dial in, have fun on, completely hidden ballast and we could switch disciplines very quickly and easily along with different riders immediately. If you want a massive wake you can get it with SG as seen above, but the amount of weight you will need will start taking up your boat.
Here is my friend on our 21' VLX, all hard tanks filled, (2) 600lb sumo sacs in each locker, wedge all the way down at 11 mph. Its a super easy wake to ride ropeless and have a great time on and takes about 4 mins from completely empty to ready to surf. This ballast is completely hidden, no bags on the floor or any of the seats. I would encourage you to go demo the NSS from Nautique and SG from Malibu, both are nice systems, imo, well worth the upgrade.
Last edited by fman; 08-13-2013 at 9:01 PM.
|