I posted this on youtube a few days ago and included it in another thread, but since I’ve talked about this before, and have been asked to post something showing it… here you go:
This is what we call sissy-surfing. I did this as a kid in So Cal behind friends boats, then when I lived on this lagoon I took it up again as a break from wakeboarding. There is no paddling… just an endless mini-wave. Your’e close enough to the boat that your friends can hand you snacks and beer. You can have a goofy footer and a regular footer on the same wave. It’s a great way to teach beginers how to ride a wave too… because it’s all riding, and you can give them tips from the boat. I’ve got friends who rip behind the boat that have never surfed in the ocean.
The conditions on this particular day were pretty sucky, but we had a guy on the boat with a camera so… on a glassy day with the right boat filled with fatsacks and your fatest (hopefully non-surfing so you get more ride-time) friends the wave gets about twice this size.
We’ve been toying with the idea of tricking out a boat to just work for this, but none of us have ponied up yet. I took one of the Golden Gate Ferry Boat captains for a spin and got him totally stoked. Unfortunately, he pilots a hydrofoil that doesn’t make much of a wake.
My longest ride so far is about four miles. After that I couldn’t move my legs for awhile. I had to pull myself back onto the boat with my legs dangling uselessly. I figure if I just stood there without making too many turns, I could ride for twenty miles or more.
The best boat we’ve found to date is a Super Air Nautique, loaded with about 1,500 lbs of dead weight (it’s rated for 1,200 max). Boat speed is between 9mph and 14mph depending on conditions and the rider. This has become a really popular sport. They even have contests that pay more than most pro surf contests do. A lot of riders are using thin compression molded boards that are more like modified wakeboards, but I prefer small surfboards.
The powerband is so small that you have to pay close attention to it at all times. This really helps when you get out into the ocean. When you get on real waves, finding the power is cinchy.
Is he any relation to the guy who married thousands at once at the cow palace?
That was the Reverend JJ Moon. He created “Moonies” and married them to their old-school logs so they could go take over Malibu on full moon nights. I was driving past Malibu a few moons ago around midnight, and thought it would be fun to paddle out. I couldn’t even find parking. There must’ve bee sixty people in the water… at midnight!
they use them wake boarding to weigh down the back of the boat with water thus creating a bigger wake when underway… you use lots of fuel but the wakes are bigger and cleaner.
oh man… do we have fat sacks, and phat sacks… as many as we can fit… plus lead weights… plus as many fat friends as we can get to come along - who hopefully just want to watch and not ride (more for me). This video doesn’t illustrate the best conditions. We had wind, chop, only a couple sacks, and not too many people on the boat. I don’t usually think about taking a camera though, so this is what you get to see for now. When everything is working the wave is about twice as nice
I sold my Nautique a few years ago. So have three of my friends. We’re into slim pickins now… my main wakesurfing buddy went for a v-bottom on his last purchase to have something more family friendly… I think it was a big mistake. Plus Bel Marin Keys - where this video was shot, and where I used to live - has banned wakesurfing in the lagoons. Now we have to go out into the bay which requires a trip through the locks… and we’re further away from the hot tub and BBQ.
Im a skater from way back… started when I was 6 in '84 on a little fibreglass thing… my current board is a birdhouse blank… actually started surfing last on the list after snowboarding and wakeboarding but now I probably do it most… it doesnt hurt as bad as skating when youre trying to nail a new trick… I also made boards for a while… downhill carve boards… still have about 30 in the garage… wife keeps buggin me to sell em but they have to be gripped and buit and Im lazy when it comes to gripping boards…
a 4’6" Hyperlight wakesurfer that’s made like a wakeboard with three 2" fins
wakeskates that are made from plywood with kicked nose and tail - symetrical usually around 135cm with no fins
a 4’10" Blast quad-finned kneeboard
Various thrusters from about 5’10" to 6’6"
a 6’0" single fin noserider that I made for wakesurfing with a bahne box and a 6" fin
You can use almost anything really since you don’t have to paddle to catch the wave. We’ve even surfed 10’ mals, but they get in their own way. I prefer shortboards that would normally be a bit small for me in the ocean. They feel the most like surfing. The “wakesurfers” don’t have much volume, so they don’t float on their own. They just get up to plane then skim along above the water. They work good for things like 360s, but it doesn’t feel like surfing - more like wakeboarding with no rope and no power. The 4’10" Blast kneeboard is one of the most fun boards we have. It’s thick, wide, and fishy, but short enough to whip around some. The board I’m riding in the video is a 6’2" Hydro Epic Brewer (from Myles Padaka’s comp template). Most wakesurfing specific boards are designed by wakeboarders. They have a different mentality about what works for them. I’m out there to fool myself into thinking I’m surfing, so I like surfboards.
The bigger the wave your boat makes, the smaller the board you can ride. I’ve been thinking it’s almost time to make some new boards for the boat. Next one will be around 5’0" x 19 or 20" x about 2-1/2" with a noseridable front end. I’m 190 lbs. Not something I’d take to the beach, but it will work great behind the boat. Extra glass makes them more ding resistant, and traction pads on top keep the boat from getting wax all over, but both add weight. EPS/Epoxy would be the perfect tech.
Sorry Kendall, I can’t get excited about that. It does look like fun, but I know they rate the large power boats gas mileage in gallons per minute. Just not a very eco friendly sport. Sorry to be the party pooper. Plus, you’re back there sucking all those fumes in. That can’t be good.
Now, I’ve seen them water skiing behind a Hobie cat. That I could live with. Or I recently saw an America’s Cup crew winching in a guy at the end of a line so fast he was cruising on a wake board.
If you can’t tell, I’m a sailing guy and there’s a on going fued between sailors and power boaters that started way back when the black belching steamers started replacing the majestic clippers. Am I biased or what?
Send some dimensions, your ideal wake board in composite. Footstraps?
Hey Josh… you guys wanna make some? It’s amazing how fast the sport is growing… you don’t have to live by the beach to do it. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some commercial boards for awhile.
Almost anything works behind the boat. The ideal board for me is something smaller that my regular thruster - somewhere between 4’6" and 5’6", wider - between 19" and 21", thinner - 2" to 2-1/4" or so, with small fins 1-3/4" to 2", and a noseridable front end. The wake is in no way scary, but the critical part is how narrow the power band is. You’ve got to be right on it to keep from losing the boat. It’s also fun to do things like spinning 360s, hang 5s, floaters, and hoppies… so the board should be really loose. You don’t need footstraps, because it’s fun to walk around a bit. Boat speed is usually no faster than 14 mph.
We’ve talked about modifying a boat hull to have an exagerated spiral V with a lip that would direct the wake into a rolling tube. We’ve also talked about a bolt on foil that would direct the water into the perfect wave. Bigger, heavier boats throw bigger wakes, but a lot of waterskiing areas have a limit of 22’ for tow boats.
Chek out this guy… this is typical of the wake a wakeboard specifc boat makes:
The board he’s riding is what is selling most… mostly because it’s wakeboard companies selling wakesurfers to wakeboarders. It’s around 4’6"x19"x3/4" and is compression molded in a wakeboard press. Notice how the thing slips around on the surface of the wave? These boards are fun, but they don’t feel so much like surfboards. They’re heavy and barely float on their own. They get up on plane, then feel more like skimboarding than surfing.
I’ve heard of wakesurfing contests where the purse is $20k (!). This is really a sport now. In fact Darrin Shapiro - the Kelly Slater of wakeboarding - recently moved from Florida to Kauai so he could spend more time surfing. It’s just got so much more soul. He spends a lot of time wakesurfing too.
I used to hang with a lot of pro wakeboarders… if you want, we could get some boards into the market. Bert knows some of the stuff I’m up to in the surf industry.
These contests are sponsored by Conoco and Exxon, aren’t they?
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