General ski vs wake boat question

[bgaddis88]

I've been casually wakeboarding (maybe 5 times a year) for about 5 years now and just at the end of this last summer I was starting to really get into it more, going out 3 or 4 times a week. All of my wakeboarding had been done behind my parents 22 foot Mariah Shabah. It's a ski boat with a large engine (can't remember the size but it's got a v there is no tower on the boat, we've just been using the ski line connector on the back. My friends and I are able to clear the wake but that's about it, we don't get a whole lot of pop and can't really do much. I went on a friend's boat who got a tower and has some ballasts in his ski/wake boat and was getting significantly more pop and it was a lot more fun. I was wondering what exactly is the difference between a ski boat and a wake boat. I wasn't sure if I should just slap a tower and add some ballasts to my parents boat since they've pretty much just given it to me and it's a pretty nice boat, or if it would be worth the money to invest in an actual wake boat with an inboard... oh forgot to mention, the boat we've been using is an I/O... I'm not exactly sure what difference I/O vs inboard makes in wake size or if it just makes a difference in consistency...

sorry if i was rambling on, I just basically want to know if I can expect to have a decent wake boat from a 22 ft mariah shabah ski boat with a v8 by just adding a tower and ballasts... thanks!

EDIT: by "decent wake boat" i'm meaning can I expect it to be nearly as good as what I could get from a 10k wake boat? 10k would be my budget and it would involve me probably selling my car =/ lol

[FlyZone CR]

Slam a tower on it, throw some sacks in it and enjoy it! Sure an inboard will throw a better wake but you can have tons of fun with what you have. Then when you have some more money and your skills on the board are starting to outgrow your wake upgrade to an inboard.
My 2 cents...

[pet575]

^This

[pet575]

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