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Surfing with Diamond Hull


Squag Mon

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I have done a lot of reasearch and have read many discussions about surfing and ballast setup. What I haven't found is much discussion about setup differences between the wake and diamond hulls. I have a 21 foot sunscape with much of the wakesetter options i.e. illusion tower, center ballast, power wedge. We usually get our best performance with the wedge about midway and speeds around 9.6mph. I rarely get more than a 10 or so seconds where I'm ropeless. Lighter riders obviously get more time when using the same board.

We tried adding ballast this year--450lbs to the bow and 450lbs to to rear locker of the surf side. I didn't get much more of a difference. We are very near the swim deck to get any push of the wave.

I was thinking about adding more ballast and have seen many threads but I'm wondering if it is worth the $$.

Are there any Diamond Hull boats going ropeless out there???

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Oh yeah! We were surfing this weekend with our VTX Diamond Hull. We had to tweak the wedge and add some weight to the bow tank but it was do-able with only a driver and spotter.

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I've got a 21 LSV on a diamond. With the wedge down, 400 in the rear locker and 400 on the rear seat (both surf side) and 6 or 8 people in the boat all on surf side we can surf for miles. I've never surfed a boat with a wake hull, so ive got nothing to compare it too. It is sometimes a little tricky to find the sweet spot and stay in it, but we've gotten pretty good at it. I think a bag in the midship locker would improve things quite a bit too.

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I've got a 21 LSV on a diamond. With the wedge down, 400 in the rear locker and 400 on the rear seat (both surf side) and 6 or 8 people in the boat all on surf side we can surf for miles. I've never surfed a boat with a wake hull, so ive got nothing to compare it too. It is sometimes a little tricky to find the sweet spot and stay in it, but we've gotten pretty good at it. I think a bag in the midship locker would improve things quite a bit too.

I have a center ballast. Where do you place your wedge? How long of a board do you use?

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the diamond hull is just fine for surfing.. you will need alot of weight. I have the diamond hull on my wake setter and I surf ropless no problem. heres my set up. stock tank (center)full. rear tank surf side full(250#). 750# sack on top of that in the locker. 350#sack under the seats on the surf side and another 350# sack on top of the seats surf side. and last a 350# sack in the bow. wedge in the 9 o`clock position. 10 mph. the only thing i change is the sac on top of the seats if my crew is larger than 3 people i wont use it but typically I ride with the little woman and kid so its there the pic below is that set up and my bro is about 5-6 feet off the platform. If you need more info hit me up. I have done a ton of different setups with the diamond hull.

post-3478-1211928626_thumb.jpg

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Add mine to the list of Kewlpics.gif on Diamond Hull wakes!

He's right...it can be accomplished but just takes a bit more weight, especially on the 23 LSV.

PS...sorry for the crappy rez...it started out as a 1.3 meg pic I had to resize down to 140k to upload.

post-2658-1211931007_thumb.jpg

Edited by WaveMake'nLSV
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I've surfed ropeless with LilJohn, and his wake is lots of fun! Like him, I also have a '07 VLX with the diamond hull (so basically the same boat as your Sunscape) and I use a very similar setup to LilJohn. My wedge is probably around 10:30 though.

Here is a pic of a surfing buddy of mine behind my boat.

post-2646-1211937839_thumb.jpg

Thanks.

Don

post-2646-1211937839_thumb.jpg

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I can go ropeless for a long time behind my sv23 diamond. I have a manual wedge, so it can only be full down. I didn't have any ballast either, only people in the boat. About 7 people to be exact, all on the surf side. I added ballast this year but have yet to try it out. One thing I've heard, and I think my experience shows the same, but are you goofy or regular? Due to prop rotation, there seems to be a better surf wake behind Malibu's on the goofy side, which is where I'm at. This is the driver's side if you are unfamiliar.

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Oh yeah! We were surfing this weekend with our VTX Diamond Hull. We had to tweak the wedge and add some weight to the bow tank but it was do-able with only a driver and spotter.

2wayskier,

What is your surf setting (wedge, ballast, speed, etc...)? I was out this past weekend and went surfing for the first time. I was able to go ropeless but had to play around quite a bit with the wedge and speed. I found that just under 8.8 mph worked better than 9.8 mph and wedge in all the way down position (guage pointing straight down) seemed to be the best setting. It also seemed to have a better regular side wake than goofy side (drivers side).

I would prefer to not add extra ballast to surf. I have ad diamond cut VTX with the 4 tanks and was able to surf with 2 adults and 4 young kids in the boat. I surf goofy so I put the 3 biggest kids behind the driver and the little one was in the arms of the passenger asleep (actually I think they were both asleep). I have the Inland Surfer Blue Lake (5'4" board). I filled the starboard ballast and put in 3/4 in the center and 1/2 in the front. Like I said I'm not sure if this was right but after an hour of messing around I was able to surf without the rope but lost it after about 5 minutes.

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I've got a 21 LSV on a diamond. With the wedge down, 400 in the rear locker and 400 on the rear seat (both surf side) and 6 or 8 people in the boat all on surf side we can surf for miles. I've never surfed a boat with a wake hull, so ive got nothing to compare it too. It is sometimes a little tricky to find the sweet spot and stay in it, but we've gotten pretty good at it. I think a bag in the midship locker would improve things quite a bit too.

I have a center ballast. Where do you place your wedge? How long of a board do you use?

I've got an old school wedge, it can only be up or down, so I put it down. We surf on an inland surfer red tide, which is a begginner board. I weight 200 and am about 6' tall. I have been on other various boards behind the boat and actually they performed better then the red tide. Easier to ride for longer.

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I have the same hull as Brad B. My setup is two 400 lb fat sacs in the surf-side rear locker, one tube sac (350 lbs) under the seats on the surf side, and if I have 6 people or less (not an exact science), I put a bow triangle sac in the bow (1200 lbs or so). The wake is fantastic on the regular side and good on the goofy side. My boat seems to be opposite of most people's in that regard. I'd prefer to have the bow sac in the front at all times, but with more than 6 people or so, seating space becomes an issue. In that case I fill my center ballast (350 lbs) in the center locker.

Oddly enough, I've found on my boat that people sitting on the sun deck actually messes up our wake and makes the boat work a lot harder. Not sure why it messes up the wake. I've also found that we have to run a little faster than most (at least according to our speedo), 11.5 to 12.5 mph. Brad B doesn't seem to have those problems.

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I have the same hull as Brad B. My setup is two 400 lb fat sacs in the surf-side rear locker, one tube sac (350 lbs) under the seats on the surf side, and if I have 6 people or less (not an exact science), I put a bow triangle sac in the bow (1200 lbs or so). The wake is fantastic on the regular side and good on the goofy side. My boat seems to be opposite of most people's in that regard. I'd prefer to have the bow sac in the front at all times, but with more than 6 people or so, seating space becomes an issue. In that case I fill my center ballast (350 lbs) in the center locker.

Oddly enough, I've found on my boat that people sitting on the sun deck actually messes up our wake and makes the boat work a lot harder. Not sure why it messes up the wake. I've also found that we have to run a little faster than most (at least according to our speedo), 11.5 to 12.5 mph. Brad B doesn't seem to have those problems.

When adding ballast to the bow--I have wondered if the bow triangle would be too much. 1200 Lbs seems to be a lot. I've taken water over the bow 2-3 times and it can scare the crap out of you. I have heard that with a triangle you should put your window divider (plexiglass wind deflector) in--which if you did get water in the bow most of it would go back out. I then worry about getting water in the air intake below the windshield. I haven't totally checked the path of the air intake lines but I assume there is a low drop for water?? It's just fresh air going to the engine compartment--right??

Edited by Squag Mon
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ICBW...but I am pretty sure they just vent down into the Bilge Area and then passively into the engine compartment. Dontknow.gif From what I can tell...the hoses just go into the abyss of the floor and disappear. Whistling.gif

I haven't totally checked the path of the air intake lines but I assume there is a low drop for water?? It's just fresh air going to the engine compartment--right??
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ICBW...but I am pretty sure they just vent down into the Bilge Area and then passively into the engine compartment. Dontknow.gif From what I can tell...the hoses just go into the abyss of the floor and disappear. Whistling.gif
I haven't totally checked the path of the air intake lines but I assume there is a low drop for water?? It's just fresh air going to the engine compartment--right??

Yep, you're right. They just open up in the engine compartment, straight into the bilge. No concern with that.

You definitely have to be careful when driving with that much weight up there, but on my hull it still rides fairly high in the water, in fact, probably the biggest problem with the 23-foot diamond is bow-rise in general. You can chili-dip, but if you're careful it's not too big of a deal. The biggest problem is when you're crossing your own wake, but if you take it slow and not try to power-turn back to your rider it's fine. I'm not sure what the divider would do to help. Whatever water makes it into the boat is going to flow into the bilge one way or another.

If I fill up both the bow sac and my center ballast, the bow rides a little too low for my comfort, and it doesn't really benefit the wake, so I don't fill up the center ballast unless the bow sac is empty.

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Thanks again for the discussion. I'll experiment some more and get back with you. Surfing.gif

Edited by Squag Mon
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Also just because it holds 1200 lbs full doesn't mean you have to till it all the way. If you only want 600, or 800, you can guesstimate that too.

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We use the bow triangle too.

To avoid chili dips - when rider drops go to neutral and wait for the wave to roll - just takes a few seconds - then turn the wheel all the way in the direction of your "high side". Idle thru turn and back to rider. Your wake has already passed you so you shouldn't have to cross it but often there are other's wakes then you may need to power over them a bit.

Along with the triangle we use a 750 in the trunk - we also 1/2 fill the 750 in the opposite trunk and 2 of the 350's under the passenger seats (regular side) and fill the ski locker sac. When we switch over to goofy side one of the sacs will hafta go in the seat and the other under. Not using "the sling" as much these days.

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Not really a cop problem - yet - I do always fear they may turn on us.

I don't have the parasail anymore and that seat was an important part.

We have another seat but its just not the same - its a cushion thing.

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