First Ski Boat

[ams]

I am looking to buy our first ski boat. My son, 15, wants to learn to wakeboard. I am looking at a 1999 Epic 21. Some people are telling me that the lexus engine is not good for wakeboarding because of low torque (does not produce enough tourque at low rpms). What can anyone tell me about this? Do you have trouble with parts or service since the boats are no longer in production? Thanks for any advice you can give me!

[re-pete]

Welcome!  Hopefully you've looked through some of the threads on this site to get an idea of what we think of our boats, the build quality, reliability,and some of the potential parts issues could be in the long run.  Plus I'm sure lot's of people will weigh in on your question on this thread.

But to answer your question about where to find an Epic 21 (closed bow tournament class ski boat) or any other Toyota Epic, go to www.boattraderonline.com and click on 'boat search', type  'Toyota' in the 'Manufacturer'  field and have a look.  There is usually anywhere from 10-20 Toyota from around the country listed there.  The Epic 21's are usually the most reasonably priced.  The big question is whether that is really the boat you want if you are going to be doing wakeboarding.  We don mostly skiing with our Epic 22, so I am not an expert on which boat is best for what, but I think most people would tell you that either the Epic 22 /X22 (Direct drive) or S22/SX (v-drive) with a tower are the best wakeboarding Toyotas.

I'm sure you'll get lot's of good advice.  My own personal opinion is that the Epic 22 or X22 are probably the best all-around boat in the line, and for what you get in the way of quality and reliability for the money, you'd be hard pressed to find a better boat out there.    Good luck!

[toyotafreak]

Very nice, Pete. Ditto on all that.


Take the time to read every thread here (wasn't around when I was making the decision, and wish it was :-)

Also, do a search on Epic and Toyota on wakeworld.com just for some color commentary. Spend some time looking at the wakeworld "which boat should I buy" and "what makes a great wakeboard boat" threads.

For the money, a Toy will give you an amazing ride. Toe to toe, the Epic will stand with the best on build quality.


Most of all, make sure you consider just sampling boats (more on that later) this summer - spring/summer is not the best time to buy ANYTHING boat related. If you're not a member of wakeworld, become one and after doing you homework, try the "find a third" topic to find some people in your area with some of the boats you might want to consider. With a resource like that and epicmarine, there's no excuse for making an uninformed decision.