what changes my wake

My wake is unbelievable when on the river(15-20 ft. depths), but on the lake it is considerably smaller and more sensitive to balancing the weight (8-12 ft.). Is the depth making the difference? Or are there other factors such as width of water, or maybe shape of the bottom of the water body? Any help?

yes the depth may have something to do with it. this should help: [http://www.wakeworld.com/Tricklist/TrickTip029.asp]

Depth makes a HUGE difference... but it shouldn't so much in water over 8' or so.

when we get to the end of our cove you can see the wake physically shrink right in front of you...it's weird for sure. but i agree with paul that 8'-12' should still be deep enough to get full potential unless there is something happening under the surface of the water.

you will def see a differenct in 8-12 of water as compared to 15-20, a NOTICIBLE one as Steven has stated.

Water depth has a major effect on the shape and size anything shallower then 12-15 feet your wake will be inconsistent as the depth changes so does the wake. The hydrodynamics of the boat and the prop pushing off the bottom are what cause this problem. In a perfect world 25 feet would be best the angle of the prop and the thrust would not reach the bottom and allow the boat a consistent push with no reflection. This problem gets worse when you are wakesurfing due to the angle of the boat in the water and the prop is pushing directly at the bottom thus lifting the back of the boat and shrinking the wake. I ride in a lagoon in Carlsbad, CA and we only surf on high tide and any negative tide the wake is like riding behind a direct drive with no weight. It's amazing to watch a wake go from pro big to nothing in a second..

^^^^ The surf wave will have a huge and noticable difference going from 8' to 15', but at wake speeds, the difference is much smaller. We really do not notice much difference at wake speed riding in water that varies between 6' and 20', not saying there isn't a difference, just not very noticable.

if youre running a bunch of weight then the difference is VERY noticible. by a bunch i'm talking anything over 2500#'s. which is what we normally run in our x1 if not much much more. if you're already mico-wakin it then you're not going to notice a big difference in the size at shallower depths (8-15 ft.)