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How do you stand up?
Tow right in the wake belly down and pop up?
craftee
You can get up a number of ways, the rope length should be adjusted to have the handle (or a spot to grab hold of) where the wave is most intense:
On your belly - once the boat reaches speed, turn away from the boat to get some tension on the rope… then turn into the wake to make the rope slack. You’ll feel the board go on its own. At this point, stand as you would at the beach.
Standing start - this works best with wakeboard style wakesurfers. You start like you would on a wakeboard, but with no straps. Legs beneath you, with your feet on top of the board (which is under water). You just have to hold the board down enough to keep it from getting away from you. Once the boat starts to pull, you direct the board to the surface to get on plane.
“Ski Show Start” - let the board float between you and the boat with your feet holding it in place. The board should be perpendicular to the boat, and you should be in a seated position with your butt in the water and your heels resting on the deck of the board (which is floating on top of the water). When the boat starts to go, the board will resist and tilt up to rest against your feet. Then all you do is keep the board in front of you until the boat pulls you up.
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Did you see Kelly Slater riding his tow board in the back of a boat in the Young Guns video?
Rio
I didn’t, but I’ve heard it’s cool. I’ve used my towboard behind the boat a few times. It’s too heavy (17lbs for a 6’1") to use for boat surfing, but it’s a blast getting pulled at 50mph. That board is so stable at that speed it doesn’t even feel like you’re moving.
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Can you pump up the board speed to the point you can step off onto the transom?
LeeV
Yes you can. It’s easy to catch up to the boat… the hardest part is not getting too far back and losing the wake. A competent driver is critical. It’s a little sketch getting too close the the back of a stern-drive, because the prop is right there with the potential to do very bad things to you or your board - it’s kinda hard to hit though since the boat is always traveling away from you, and if you fall, it’s usually backwards. On V-drives like wakeboard boats, it’s no problem since the prop is separated from you by the rudder and swim deck.
My all time most spectacular ride was at a crowded lake a couple years ago. I started my ride standing on the board on the swim deck with the tail of the board hanging off into the water. I held the rope tight and just reeled myself back and let the board find the spot. Then I threw the rope in and rode for a couple miles. Towards the end of my ride, we came back to our starting point, and as JR (my driver) slowed the boat, I surfed up to the swim deck, stepped off, grabbed my board, and walked right into the boat with my board under my arm. Dry hair… in front of a giant crowd… to hoots and hollers.
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I have been trying to get my 9'6" out there
with no wax as it will melt before you get the boat off the ramp
I needed to go waaay shorter…
flipflopfrank
Wax is a pain on boats. Astrodeck is a beautiful thing on wakesurfers.
Big boards just get in their own way… and they’re a hassle to stow on the boat when you’re not using them. The power band is so small that you’re allways trying not to run into the boat if the board is too big… although you can do some really fun tandem stuff on big boards.
I tell people to think of the boat like it was a fat lady on a boogie board. Just don’t run into her, and everything will be fine.