For a riverboard go as short as you are able to ride (your wave allowing). I know some guys that ride 4’11’s on the river. You’ll need lots of width; I’d go about 23". For my riverboards I go with a thruster style shortboard. How small is small? Other guys use longboards for small waves though.
Is this the downtown German wave, right below a bridge? If so I’ve seen it. Check it out on youtube and see the boards they’re using. Most are short and wide.
I am also in the process of building a river board. I am 6’3" and 250lbs . The board I just shaped is 6’x 23"x 3.75". I have a fair bit of rocker 5" nose and 3" tail with a very flat bottom, and the rails curve up more like a kayak bottom than standard thruster. It is a swallow squash tail and will be twin fin. Also search the fellow mentioned he is light years ahead.
What about something like this. It’s a wakesurfboard. We free ride behind weighted boats. James, in the picture, is about 150 pounds and the wake is maybe waist high the boat runs at about 11 mph.
That board is 4’5", 19 11/16" wide, 1 13/16" thick. It’s setup loosely as a twinzer, can’t wait to get Rich Sanders assistance in fin development.
Relatively speaking, that would be a pretty big board. Inland Surfer is probably the biggest independent manufacturer of wakesurfboards and their Red Tide, which is considered a beginner board for BIG guys in the 220+ pound range shares those dimensions.
How much do you weight and is your wake small or large?
The boat is a 87 19’ Ski Supreme with a 351 Ford. I am going to be running a 600 Lb Sack in the rear, a 300 on the side of the engine and a 300 in the bow. I never wakesurfed before only wakeboarded. We tried using a 30" skimboard but it simply didn’t work out. Weighting advice is appreciated. The wake looks about 2-3’ but a bit washed out.
Most riders are 20 something guys and weights range from 150 to 180. Some of the ladies might give it a try so I thought a larger more buoyant board would be helpful. You think I should go to a smaller board?
Direct drives are a bit of a challenge to weight for wakesurfing. I’d try it without the bow weight first and see if that cleans up the face of the wake. It’ll shorten it considerably, but changing the bias to the rear might be enough to clean up the face. If that doesn’t work, turning a bit INTO the wake side may do the trick.
The 30" skimmer is crazy small. Probably the shortest you can go for that weight range is 4’6". You can make the 5’6" but it’ll feel very sluggish and tend to catch the nose on any sort of turn. Also, with that much width and bouyancy, the ladies and smaller riders will have a hard time flipping the board up on a deep water start. Getting up is just like on a wakeskate, it’s easier when your heels are closer to the rail facing the rider. A 125 pound woman will struggle trying to flip up a 5.5 foot x two foot wide board.
If you get a chance run by a pro shop, look at the dimesnions of a CWB Ride or HP Broadcast. I think you would be better served by a board in the area of 5 foot x 20"'ish x 2".
Two other sources for setting up your boat and checking wakesurfers are: wakeworld.com - the wakesurf forum. Most likely there is someone that has details on weighting a DD like yours. Also, Wakeoutlaws.com has quite a bit of info on boards and ballasting.
Probably the shortest you can go for that weight range is 4’6". You can make the 5’6" but it’ll feel very sluggish and tend to catch the nose on any sort of turn. Also, with that much width and bouyancy, the ladies and smaller riders will have a hard time flipping the board up on a deep water start. Getting up is just like on a wakeskate, it’s easier when your heels are closer to the rail facing the rider. A 125 pound woman will struggle trying to flip up a 5.5 foot x two foot wide board.