Bye Bye ballast

AndyAndy · Addict Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 660 City: cutchogue

Lets face it, gas prices are going insane. Out here in long island, im paying 3 20 a gallon for 93 octane. Now as you might imagine this puts quite a strain on my wallet, and in order to lessen the ammount of money im pumping into my boat, ive begun to actually ride without ballast (aside from the 300#s of sand in the front of my boat) I figure it will force me to improve my technique jumping, and ill save money. Has anyone else started doing this

Entrust Clothing · Soul Rider Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 279 City: Portland

yeah i feel you, i was riding without ballast the other day, i can land into the flats with no problem with no ballast, so i don't really need them, i'll just stop surfing for a while and wakeskate more

bsaaron · Outlaw Joined: 21 Feb 2005 Posts: 100 City: Calgary

That works out to be about 85cents a liter, up in canada i fill up the boat at $1.10 /liter, you know gas is high when the price gauge is climbing faster than the liter gauge.

DunDunDun · Posted: Aug 12, 2005 4:49 pm Post subject:

yea normal gas was 99.9 in toronto today. Bubb Rubbing crazy

kmagnuss · Posted: Aug 12, 2005 5:47 pm Post subject:

Dude...I'm with you. I took out all of my sand (1000 #'s) and I've been wakeskating most of the time now...just to save a little coin. It's amazing how much less gas I use without the extra sand and without the stock ballast full (1000 lbs extra on top of the sand). Oh well...at least I still have the good ole wedge.

Boomer · Outlaw Joined: 14 Jun 2004 Posts: 109 City: Austin

I did the same thing last week, and cut my average fuel from 6 gph down to just over 4 gph.

Wake is pretty damn good without ballast, so I'm cool with it.

AndyAndy · Addict Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 660 City: cutchogue

yea i ride on an x2 so the wake is great no matter what, and just keeping that little bit of sand in the bow makes it nice and lippy, and im saving a ton of money by not dragging that weight around.

ballywho · Wakeboarder.Commie Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 1725

Well I never rode with ballast so I guess I've been saving big!!! Laughing

I dont care, personally If I had the option I would do anything for a bigger wake. I ride behind a 17' outboard so any little thing helps.
_________________
Mercedes MB100

p e ski · Newbie Joined: 09 Oct 2004 Posts: 13 City: Boonsboro

Here in Western MD, wakeboarding season is so short that I don't care. We only really have about a month and a half left, so we are lettin it fly. I,m already spendin so much money on motels and rental houses and food and ice and drinks and truck gas and everything else, a little more gas money ain't gonna put me on the street (I hope). Don't get me wrong, it really sucks to see those prices go up every week, but we wait all winter to be able to board so it is kinda hard to cut it short on purpose. So far, our high price has been 2.61 so we still got it pretty good.

RiverRatBoarder · Posted: Aug 13, 2005 2:40 pm Post subject:

I cant and hate to ride with out any weight in the boat. I run 2500lbs in my MC and anything less is uncivilized. I would rather ride less. But I have a wake school and I have to pay for gas no matter what. Smaller wake definately makes things more difficult. Remember, QUALITY not Quanity. Kind of like women.

markymarc · Posted: Aug 13, 2005 3:27 pm Post subject:

We were kinda pondering wether to not fill the balast (~2000 lbs) but I think we will for a lil more.. As long as we take other people out who can help out with gas it isnt too horible.

AndyAndy · Addict Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 660 City: cutchogue

hhahahaha uncivilized ahhaha. Another question, whats the stock ballast on a mastercraft x2 (04), just curious

LFADAM · Posted: Aug 13, 2005 4:22 pm Post subject:

Well since I got my VLX, it seems like a huge wake even unweighted so I usually run about half ballast (625 pounds) and wedge and 1-5 people. When its just me and my dad I run full ballast but when I have some people you really dont need it. Last week I had 8 people, full ballast, and wedge and the wake was so huge, I DIDNT like it! Who would ever think you could have a wake thats too big! You dont need the extra 300-500 pounds. I bet if someone told you that you had full ballast but it was half or 3/4s, you wouldnt notice.

leo0648 · Newbie Joined: 25 Apr 2004 Posts: 25 City: new orleans

I did the same. I used to put 4 sacs in my boat = 2000lbs. Now I only ride with 2 small ones =750lbs. The wake is actually not smaller by much. Weight in our boat doesnt do much, but the wedge does.

bmartin · Addict Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 794

I'm still running 1500lbs but even with the weight I still use less than 5GPH of gas. I will probably be using a PWC and skating more. If gas stays high - I may be trading my 315HP Ski Centurion for an I/O 4 banger and say good bye to my surfboard. I hope it doesn't get to that point.

justin h. · Outlaw Joined: 07 Nov 2003 Posts: 117 City: Katy

Gas prices have been killing me for a while. I wrote an article on dallaswakeboarding.com in the spring to this affect--check it out if you have time.

Dpierce37 · Ladies Man Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 7659 City: Austin

justin h., a link for the lazy folks! Mr. Green

AndyAndy · Addict Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 660 City: cutchogue

yea link us up

J_DOGG · Posted: Aug 16, 2005 10:43 am Post subject:

The price of gas is still clearly NOT an issue for most people....

Every weekend I still see.....
People getting on a jet ski to bombing around the lake mindlessly for a few hours every weekend.
Tubers out there just going and going and going.
Pontoon boats that insist on cruising the lake at full speed in order to stay in front of the wakeboats.
Bayliners being the local lake idiots.

I basically still see boats on the lake doing the same thing as always with no concern for the waste of gas or cost incurred.

I pray for the day the Gas prices actually drive people away from the sport or lake period.... I'm confident I can survive with out them and with the added cost associated with my sport.

Smokinheels07 · Posted: Aug 16, 2005 11:48 am Post subject:

i thought in most sports you want the industry to grow and more people to join in on the fun....but if everyone is driven away...the sport won't grow..people won't be exposed to wakeboarding and won't want to try it....i hope gas doesn't get that rediculous..its on 2.39 for reg here..

bmartin · Addict Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 794

I am kind of like J_dogg - I'm not sure I want any water sport to grow more - well at least not on the lake I live. If gas prices keep getting higher though, I will be the one sitting on the shore more often leaving the lake to the J-Doggs with more money to burn.

J_DOGG · Posted: Aug 17, 2005 8:40 am Post subject:

Smokinheels07, I see your point, but from my view....

I've been riding for a long time now, I've seen the sport grow from almost nothing to where it is today. I remember the days when my group of friends were the only people in the STATE of NH wakeboarding. Sure with the demand and money the sport brings to the table now we have better equipment and state of the art boats but the be completely honest I was riding just fine in my old boat sacked out with the gear available at the time.

So what benefit do I have if more people get into the sport? better equipment? I'll trade that in in a flash to get the lake back.

As the sayn on our lake goes "Every one wants to be a wakeboarder, most have no chance and or no clue!"

Look what popularity did to the sport of snowboarding, now every soccer mom thinks they are snowboarders cuz they dress the part. The slopes are full of kids with PUNK attitudes that do nothing but disrespect the sport and the people that are truly passionate about it. If I see one more kid with a bad lieutenant helmet that can not even hit a jump I'm going to run him off the slopes into a tree. the sport of snowboarding is officially PIMPED, to the max, with posers!

Please., I beg the wakeboarding community. Don't let this happen to wakeboarding!

I'm not going to give you the CORE speech as that is lame as well but for the most part people need to regain the passion old school board sport guys have like myself have for the sport and do it fo tha love, not cuz everyone else is doing it and it looks cool.

If it takes the price of gas to weed out the deadwood (posers) then I'm all for it..... They guys that want to ride after the fact will find a way, I was a poor slob once also and would never miss a day on the slopes, you find ways to ride if you are passionate about it.

J_DOGG · Posted: Aug 17, 2005 8:41 am Post subject:

Wow I'm a wind bag......

AndyAndy · Addict Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 660 City: cutchogue

^ nah man everything u just said is absolutely right, i completely agree with all of that. And i myself am a big skier (twin tips) and the same thing is happening to skiing that happened to snowboarding its terrible

LFADAM · Posted: Aug 17, 2005 1:06 pm Post subject:

J_DOGG, its sad...we are too late. The pontoon boats and bayliners that normally would pull tubers or kneeboarders in orange life jackets are now dragging wakeboarders. Its inevitable, we just have to live it and maybe educate them on how to drive to keep the water as good as possible. Its not endless growth. It eventually plateaus like skateboarding or basketball. Its not going to get so bad that you cant fit your boat on the lake (like a traffic jam) because simply, there arent enough people in the world with enough money to do that.

jon4pres · Addict Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 589 City: Fort Scott

I agree and it really isnt that much more money. Say you spend 55 instead of 45 it was already a bad idea to spend 45 so whats another 10 bucs as long as you can afford it.

Any of you guys want to sell me a couple of side sacks??
PM me

Jon.