Wake.

TomOgorman · Criminal Joined: 09 Jul 2005 Posts: 92 City: England

I ride behind an outboard with no ballast tanks. The problem with our wake is that its to washy and quite small. There is only one decent bit of the wake but that is about 20ft from the boat and i don't want my rope that short. Any suggestions?

fmf · Criminal Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 62 City: Olympia

TomOgorman,
I also ride behind a boat with a small washy wake. There isn't alot you can do about it except try trimming the engine up a little(if you can). We have tried to shorten the rope and it seems to help a little, don't try and shorten it to the 20' length but if your riding at 70' try 60' or 55'. I caution you based on experience that you should only shorten the rope once your really comfortable with crossing the wake with speed and jumping with speed. When we shortened the rope we found that we had a lot less room to manuever (sp?) and less time to make adjustments. We went back to the full length until everyone was really good at crossing and jumping, now we are experimenting with different distances to see what works the best.
How small is the wake? Unless it's totally flat you still have room to do some things.

TomOgorman · Criminal Joined: 09 Jul 2005 Posts: 92 City: England

its not like a water skiing wake but it just doesn't seem powerful or formed enough to do much for me becuase im quite a big guy 184 pnds and 6ft

fmf · Criminal Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 62 City: Olympia

Shorten the rope a little, and work on technique. I have seen pictures of wakes smaller than mine and people with good technique can clear them pretty well even washed out. I am going out tonight with the sole purpose of getting my technique changed around, found out I have no pop cause I am attacking the wake the wrong way. Just so you know the riders and I are not light (200- 185 lbs) and we can almost clear the wake distance wise but we don't get alot of height due to bad technique. We are gonna go crash a lot and go for height. If I don't get any better height with the correct technique I'll let you know cause then it will be the fault of the wake size and we'll just have to live with it. Keep tryin Very Happy

jmac2173 · Outlaw Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 145 City: h-town

yea even if you didnt have to, shorten the rope. b/c it forces you to use technique rather than speed i shortened my rope and got frustrated b/c i couldnt get much air b/c my technique wasnt too good and i was just using the speed from the cut with a longer line but i practiced with a shorter line and my technique got alot better and when i let it out again i could jump alot better. so def. shorten ur rope and practice

TomOgorman · Criminal Joined: 09 Jul 2005 Posts: 92 City: England

thanks