Wake boarding

[Sixball]

Just watched the Myth Busters ( on T.V.) wakeboard behind a cruise ship. It made a 247 look small. The ship needed more ballist the wake su--ed! What do you use to pull it to the lake?

[BlastRlxi]

Sounds pretty cool. What myth were they trying to bust?

[Sixball]

Sounds pretty cool. What myth were they trying to bust?

You can ski or board behind a cruise ship. ( yes you can do it. )

[hyperlitenerd]

They said that the boat was going at 18mph, so I don't see why this would be a hard myth to bust, as my little brother said, that's how fast I ride.

[Malibudude]

It's a repeat kinda of lame the way they went about it. In the end proved nothing.

[WakeGirl]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought that it was lame. I generally really enjoy the show, but I know a lot of people that could easily pull that one off. Hardly a myth IMO.

[BlastRlxi]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought that it was lame. I generally really enjoy the show, but I know a lot of people that could easily pull that one off. Hardly a myth IMO.

Yeah, I think Banana George did it some years ago.

[wienrdog]

Missed that episode, but it's not too hard to imagine...

We spent a day and a half cruising at 20.5 knots last week on the Carnival Glory.

IIRC, that's about 23.5 MPH, just a little faster than I typically wakeboard...

Of course staying upright in 7 - 12 ft seas is an entirely different story. Well, that and the turn around/pick-up time in the boat is pretty significant.

[hrybls]

I wakeboarded behind a house boat, it was only going about 12 mph.

[LS-One]

How long was the rope ?

Edited January 3, 2008 by LS-One

[Malibudude]

How long was the rope ?

I forget exactly, to be honest I'm not sure they state the exact length, but it's some distance away. Originally they were supposed to waterski but at such slow speeds couldn't get it to work, so they changed to wakeboarding.

[CedarLakeSkier]

How long was the rope ?

I think they said 300 feet.

Even if they couldn't do it, I don't think it would prove anything. The guy that did the wakeboarding (even though they called it waterskiing for the entire show) had never wakeboarded before and had only tried waterskiing once.

The guy had to come up on the rope while wakeboarding behind another boat and reach down to grab the rope behind the cruise ship. He ended up grabbing the rope way ahead of the handle (maybe 30 feet or so) and so he was wakeboarding just holding a bare rope.

It was pretty lame. However, they did blow up a car with two rocket engines on the same show. That was pretty cool.

[WakeGirl]

It was 300'. And not only that, they kept saying that the degree of difficulty would be so much higher because he'd be on a wakeboard instead of a ski. Ignorant. The thing about the dolphins & sharks was pretty cool though. I also really, really enjoyed how they flipped the taxi, school bus & airplane that they drug behind a 747.

Mythbusters is one of those shows that amazes me at times, & then other times will confound me at their stupidity. The one that they did about waterskiing behind a rowing scull was equally lame. They had Jamie learn how to waterski on doubles, then try to get up behind a rowing scull. Why not get someone that actually knows what they're doing to give the best chance at success? Or maybe they're afraid that it will be proven that what they're going after is not in fact a myth to those that know anything about it?

[winddawg]

I think one of these tow rigs would have made much more of an impact. Achieving enough speed to ski or even foot would not have been an issue. The hole shot might not be to impressive though.

http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,1463...hShips,,00.html

-Dave

[Chef23]

More impressive would be could you get up behind a cruise ship.

[BlastRlxi]

I wonder, if you fall, how long would it take them to circle back around for you to grab the handle for another pass?

Seriously, it must be pretty intimidating to be behind a ship on a wakeboard.