Wakesetter VTX or VLX?

[notorious_benny]

Greetings from Australia!!

I am hoping to hear some recent opinions from fellow crew members on current hull VTX and VLX wakesetters.

My wife and I both ski and board. We are both beginner boarders (boarding for 2 seasons now).

My wife has been skiing for about 20 years ( since she was 10) while I have only been skiing for 2. Neither of us are into competition skiing, we both ski at 32 mph and at 15 off but purely recreational.

From reading around this site I had made up my mind to pursue a VTX on the diamond hull, however I have also read comments here that the VLX on the diamond hull is fine for social skiin above 30mph.

We aren't restricted for storage space or towing and here in oz late model VLX's are quite plentiful used.

My wife barely skis anymore since discovering boarding while I like to ski about 30% of the time.

I want to hear peoples opinions on the VLX slalom wake, is it really that disastrous for the occasional open water ski?

I envisage that we will end up boarding far more than we ski and would like a boat that will allow us to progress for many years to come without making us feel we need to upgrade.

I know the best way to decide is to go out and demo, demos can be a little difficult here as dealers don't always carry all the different hulls at once so opinions from crew members would be great.

Also if anyone has experience please comment on the slalom wake of a VTX wake hull.

Thank you in advance for your opinions

Benny.

[nemalibu]

You can touch base with Chadwick02. He tested out an 09 VTX on the wake hull (very similar to the VLX) and found it to be a poor choice for slalom.

I went with the VTX over the VLX for the ski wake but I went with the VTX over the Sunscape 20 to get the under floor ballast system.

I personally think that the VTX on the Cut Diamond hull is the best choice for people looking to ski and wakeboard.

[chadwick02]

You can touch base with Chadwick02. He tested out an 09 VTX on the wake hull (very similar to the VLX) and found it to be a poor choice for slalom.

I went with the VTX over the VLX for the ski wake but I went with the VTX over the Sunscape 20 to get the under floor ballast system.

I personally think that the VTX on the Cut Diamond hull is the best choice for people looking to ski and wakeboard.

VTX on a diamond hull is a good ski machine. After that would be a VLX on a diamond hull. Then would come a VTX and VLX on a wake hull, bigger ski wake than I was comfortable with, thats for sure!

I let it boil down to: how much skiing you will be doing, how big a crew and how much gear you typically have. In reality the seating area of a VTX isnt THAT much smaller than a VLX, but it seems much smaller, especially because it has a lower free board - makes the whole boat seem smaller. So, if you typically go on long day trips with a large crew, then seriously consider the larger boat. If you have small crews, or live on a lake and go back and forth to the dock all day, size isnt as important. Also, the VTX wake is much more sensitive to weight than the VLX. Yes, its got a great slalom wake, but as soon as you put 4 or 5 people in it + a ton of gear you are where you'd be with a VLX on a diamond hull. See what I'm saying? Also, the lower freeboard makes it a bit tougher to use in rough water, and makes taking waves over the bow a bit easier than a VLX.

Tell us a bit more about your useage? Typical sized crew, if you go out for long days with big crews, or short trips..etc?

Also, do you plan on keeping the boat for a long time? And if so, as you age will your boarding diminish and will you trend back more towards skiing?

Worth mentioning: if you typically have a smaller crew (under 6) than a response could be a good option - great slalom wake, especially with a few people in the boat, and can be weighted and weddged to give a pretty acceptable wakeboard wake too!

[notorious_benny]

Hi chadwick02, thanks for the detailed response.

We boat on all types of water-ways from smooth flat, narrow rivers to large dams that can blow up and get rough.

Crews are often small, only 3 or 4 people and a quick afternoon session after work, but we also like to get away to some bigger lakes and stay out on the boat all day with family onboard. Having said that I would say we would rarely have anymore than 6 on the boat at one time.

We are looking to keep the boat for at least 10 years, and as we get older will probably still mostly board, also if/when kids come along I am pretty sure they will want to board... I only learnt to ski to prove to my father in-law that I could .... and I have found I kinda like it!! But boarding is what I learnt first and what I want to really get good at.

We both want a v-drive for the layout and also the added board wake it provides so while the response FXI is a nice looking machine for me with the Malibu's its between the VTX and VLX, I am mostly concerned with not having enough board wake in 5 years time and then needing to upgrade if I do go with the VTX now instead of the VLX.

Thanks again for your thoguhts.

Cheers

Benny.

[obski]

Sounds like the VTX on a cut diamond hull is what would work best for you. The wake for wakeboarding doesn't suffer much as compared to the VLX, but the wake for slalom skiing is really no comparison. You don't have a large crew, so my advice is to go for the VTX! That's what I did.

[Slayer]

I'm with obski on this one. If I could have had my way, I would have bought a new RFXI and if we were going to move into that financial territory, my wife would prefer a v-drive in which case, we would have went with a VTX.