Excellent article on Dallaswakeboarding.com

[blindside]

An Article submitted by Justin Harrelson
?Kill Two Birds with One Stone?

  Gas is expensive and wakeboarding is dangerous. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west?it?s a fact. There is no way around it. Your boat needs gas to run and if you are going to improve you are going to take a few knocks....


But if you will keep an open mind and listen closely I have one stone that can shatter, or at least mitigate, these two problems plaguing Dallaswakeboarding.com today.

USE LESS WEIGHT IN YOUR BOAT.

I started wakeboarding almost 10 years ago in a completely different world. If you had a boat with a working motor you were pretty much sorted. I learned a back-roll, 540, roll-to-revert, toe side back roll, front-roll, scarecrow, raley, crypt, front-flip and more before I ever rode behind a wakeboard boat. Heck, for most of them I didn?t even have a high pylon.

Contrary to what most people would like to imagine huge wakes are a relatively new thing.

First, let?s discuss the gas bill. Gas prices are outrageous right now, but there are ways to cut costs. When I lived in College Station I was broke as a joke, but I never asked for more than five bucks at the pump (not per ride, per day). Gas is a lot higher now than it was two years ago, and I won?t take the time to make the conversion, but we managed to take three rides each, on five bucks each.

Here is how we did it. Take a warm up round with no weight and learn to ride your board. If you do the math even the most seasoned riders with a trick lists as long as their arm spend about 99 percent of their time on the water and only one percent in the air. What separates the experts from the masters is board control. Have you ever tried a switch toe side Indy backside 180? They?re pretty tough and all you need is an anthill of a wake. A smaller wake will help you progress faster and more thoroughly.

Above all, I would rather ride three times behind a small wake versus once behind a big one.

Second, if you wakeboard long enough you are going to get hurt, it is a rough sport, but what is going on in Dallas today is nonsense. It seems that every weekend claims another rider and that is ridiculous. A big wake will not help you learn faster it will only get you hurt if you are not ready for it. When I lived at Bennett?s Water-ski School in Louisiana I had an X-2 on-call at all times. After a few weeks of two-to-three hard rides a day I tore my ACL. There were other factors leading to my injury, but I will say that having the boat filled with sacs up to the gills everyday did not help. A big wake even when you are not crashing will beat you down.

In the end, I have to say I love big huge wakes, but I also know that my love for them greatly increases my chances of catching that boot that ends my wakeboarding forever. A big wake may be fun and it may make your tricks seem more effortless, but you have to decide which would you rather have a back roll this summer or a 720 six years from now. I love wakeboarding and I am in it for the long haul.

Rising gas prices and the current spike in injuries threatens the magic that is Dallaswakeboarding.com. It is time everyone starts to rethink how they use their boats to keep this thing going. I am tired of people getting hurt and I can?t afford $20 a ski ride. The answer may be hard to swallow, but to me it seems obvious. If you use less weight in your boat you will spend more time on the water and less time in the hospital and you can afford to take more sets.

I am not a radical. I want to be a voice of reason. Take a set without weight and one with when you go out. Trust me you will see results in your riding and feel the results in your back and in your wallet.

[Bitzco]

You know, this is probably truth. I have had these crazy semipro 17 and 18 year olds out with me a lot and they have thrown some amazing inverts and spins with no ballast at all or with only the factory 700lbs. I'm not good enough to need a big wake anyway.

[phenom_1819]

It's totally true, but big wakes make it much easier.  But how much of it is mental?  I landed my first 360 behind a 14' Whaler with a 40-hp motor.  My first tantrum was behind a 17' Whaler with a 90-horse and four cement buckets in the back (any more and we couldn't get onto a plane).  I still wakeboard behind Whalers for at least a week every year, when my family cruises up into Desolation Sound in the Inside Passage of Vancouver Island.  And it's my favorite week of wakeboarding for the entire year...!

That being said, I'm in the market for one more bag and a 2000 gph pump...need more ballast!!!

[cyclone]

My pal has a 19 ft Ski Brendella closed bow, it throws a teeny wake with no weight. He can get pretty good air off of it. I think that technique is at least 85% of how much air you get. The only people that NEED gobs of weight are pro wakeboarders for pulling big tricks. My skills have improved a lot riding with no weight, it exposes flaws in your ability to control your speed and edging into the wake.

It is fun hitting a giant wake, you don't have to crank into it as hard, and don't get pulled out of shape trying to get every bit of pop you can get. I weigh about 205 and I punch right through a stock wake, so my form has to be perfect to clear a small wake.

People flame the crap out of you if you bring it up on the big wakeboarding sites, but I think that 95% of wakeboarders should work on their skills with no weight before they get hung up on loading their boat down. I always take the first set or two with no weight just to warm up a bit.

[toyotafreak]

It's been a while since I rode empty, but I do recall coming in on my edge and just watching the wake go away right before I hit it. Only took a couple instances of that and I was like, "NEEEED WEIGHT". With the 1500 and a small crew, the wake's a little taller, a little steeper and much firmer. More consistent, I'd say. Less chance of it disappearing in chop.

However, even with that little maount of weight, the wake can really launch you if you carry a strong edge. Gas consumption is still really good at that weight and boat manners are okay. Maybe there's a midway spot between empty and 1500 that'll help firm up the wake a little from stock and yet leave the walkway open, the trunk mostly empty, etc.

[cyclone]

You mean, like a bag in the trunk and a couple of people? Sounds, well.. Stock!!

That's what I do these days. Got tired of dicking with all the pumps and weight and bags that didn't want to empty. Lifes too short!! I've got basically a stock ballast system for an X22, running off the same dash switches. I may hook up my Simer for a fill pump, so I have a closed system when it is off. Exactly like a stock '99 X22, except they used a Waterpuppy. Funny how I keep coming back to what works. I'll use the other Rule 1100for a second drain pump, so it squirts out both sides for about 10 ft:)