surfing a 99 wakesetter

[99setter]

i have recently decided to try surfing and need some help on how make a good wake. a friend just gave me a fly high ballast seat and i have a 99 wakesetter dd with a wedge and no other ballast. i am not planning on becoming a avid surfer so the wear on the boat an inconvenience of losing floor space is somewhat of a concern. Thanks for the input.

[nevertwobig]

I dont think the seat will do much good unless you have about 5-6 friends that you could load on one side of the boat. I have a 97 DD with a wedge and i run 400 between the motor and rear seat, 1100 between the motor and portside gunnel, and i run a 400 in the locker and 250 in the walkway. And I usually have 2 people sit in the back corner also. The wake is great. The key is to weight the back corner as much as possible. I have the water rolling over the very corner of the boat. I hope this helps.

[DontPanic]

i have recently decided to try surfing and need some help on how make a good wake. a friend just gave me a fly high ballast seat and i have a 99 wakesetter dd with a wedge and no other ballast. i am not planning on becoming a avid surfer so the wear on the boat an inconvenience of losing floor space is somewhat of a concern. Thanks for the input.

First and foremost learn to surf on someone else's boat if this is at all possible. It is a bit harder to both learn to surf and tune a boat for surfing concomitantly.

People will tell you you have *got* to have a v-drive and a non-diamond hull to surf... The reason is that v-drives start out relatively stern heavy and usually have convenient storage lockers next to the engine providing an easy place to add ballast. As they are newer they tend to have larger stock ballast systems and on average are bigger, heavier boats and make larger wakes. The mantra about non-diamond hulls is just plain wrong (I wonder if people are just repeating what they have heard elsewhere form someone who does not understand how it works) - I can assure you there is no difference in diamond vs non-diamond at surfing speeds and it's even debatable whether it makes a difference at recreational wakeboarding speeds.

Surfing is all about displacing water. I'll save you a lot of trouble by telling you you will be crawling and stumbling over ballast bags.

Rest assured direct drives are "surfable" but I wouldn't go out trying to match the wave of 24 foot wakemonster. Out of the box I prefer the shape of a direct drive surf wake's longer pocket (v drives can tend to have a short, tall wave right behind the swim platform forcing more speed to be used to lift the rear or more weight to be put forward to lengthen the pocket). The issue with DD's wakes are the size/energy. The first place I would add weight is just in front of the surf-side rear seat along the motor-box: at least 750... 1100 is better (remember you do not have to fill all the way and likely you will not be filling the bag to capacity as it takes the shape of your boat. You will want your wedge down. then you take the boat out and see what you've got running at about 8-10 mph (bring an accomplished surfer with you to teach you and help you get tuned). play around with speed to see the changes to the wave.

The next two places to add weight are the ski-locker and under the rear seat (due to size restrictions a lot of people will put lead or iron weights under the seat on the surf side (not in the rear locker over the fuel tank). You should now be in the neighborhood of 1250-1500 lbs which is plenty of "cake". Get a couple of "fat-bricks" or even better flesh sacs (people) to move around as needed to tune your wave for some "icing".

Your boat will handle horribly and should only be turned toward the ballasted side. You will dread oncoming wakes and waves. Your boat will get drenched and possibly damaged due to all the ballast in places it wasn't meant to be. Doubling up and upsizing bilge pumps is not a bad idea. You may find you need a shorter prop. Perfect pass makes surfing a lot easier.

Be prepared to form an addiction as surfing is A LOT of fun!

There are plenty of threads on this site with other surf specific advice.

Edited December 4, 2010 by DontPanic

[Levi900RR]

This thread talks a lot about surfing a DD, might be worth a look. Edited December 4, 2010 by Levi900RR

[99setter]

thanks for the advice. sounds like that seat isn't going to work out real well. i guess i will start looking for a couple 750's and give them a try