Surfgatewave

[Live2Ride]

Fathers Day weekend I had a house full of people. None of them had surfed behind a boat before.

All the guys hit the lake early, I went first and it was epic!

Everyone took a turn and got up in one or two tries. It was awesome!

two of my friends live on the ocean and surf probably everyday, if not multiple times a day.

After they were done they said it was the coolest thing since sliced bread, endless wave, got beers passed to them. It was awesome.

We have a 96 response with lots of weight, and it is still more fun than boarding. Don't get me wrong, I love a good wake board at sun down when the water is glass but, the surfing thing is so much more interactive with everyone.

I am looking at buying an Axis boat, mainly for the wakeboard and surf wake. I don't ski, and never will, just boring to me. Surfing and boarding is where its at for us.

[Chattwake]

As you can imagine, those who developed the product have a plan on what details to release when. I'm not going to disclose any details, because that would be a douche move on my part. I can tell you that anyone who likes to wakesurf is going to be thrilled with this. What I will say, is that I firmly believe that it's going to do for wakesurfing what the tower and perfect pass did for wakeboarding.

[Vettesetter]

I'm old and fat so surfing is what I like. Surfing allows me to walk almost pain free the next day which is nice. I still need my boat to be able to ski, board and surf though just in case they invent a pill that fixes old and fat.

[TheKiwi]

^Hahaha.

I don't get why people think you need a massive boat to wakeboard? Currently we are surfing behind a 2012 RZR and it's got the best stock wakesurf wake I've been behind. It's AMAZING. The RZ2 we demo'd was a little better, but I honestly couldn't tell that much of a difference and it only had an extra 400lbs.

If you put a 1k sac in the RZR the wave would be 4.5 ft high.

[UWSkier]

Ten years ago there were wakeboarders all over on my lake. Now all that's left is slalom skiers, tubers, one guy who hasn't given up his kneeboard, and the odd wake surfer. You see barefooters more often than you see wakeboards up by us these days.

[augie09]

I thought I read in past few days that 2013 malibu's will have to move the swimdeck ladder option to the middle of the swim deck, instead of off to the side, but can't recall where I saw that. I am imagining things? Anyone else see that info somewhere?

Just thinking maybe this is because of the surf gate?

[Tyger]

I thought I read in past few days that 2013 malibu's will have to move the swimdeck ladder option to the middle of the swim deck, instead of off to the side, but can't recall where I saw that. I am imagining things? Anyone else see that info somewhere?

Just thinking maybe this is because of the surf gate?

If you are imagining things, we both are. :D I believe you saw this on the intlmalibuboats.com website, which has now been taken down. I think someone posted the text in a thread, but I can't find it now.

[srintx]

If you are imagining things, we both are. :D I believe you saw this on the intlmalibuboats.com website, which has now been taken down. I think someone posted the text in a thread, but I can't find it now.

Seems like this would be a question that Malibudude could answer???

[Pistol Pete]

Foiling is the future of wakesports?

I said the "pain free future".

When your son is my age, he'll be foilin'.

[mrnate450r]

Looks to be about a $3,000 option as I spec'd out a new one today with my dealer.

[martinarcher]

I said the "pain free future".

When your son is my age, he'll be foilin'.

I just can't see an over rotated front flip on a foil being painless. I remember seeing some pics of a pretty big gash in Bill's leg from a foil too.

[Pistol Pete]

No brain, no pain.

Oh, wait, that didn't come out right.

[martinarcher]

No brain, no pain.

Oh, wait, that didn't come out right.

[Cory]

Found this on the internet:

Surf Gate:

1. 
   1.Clean up the surf wake with push of a button
   
2. 
   2.The task of creating surf wakes is simplified...you’ll now weight it as if you were wakeboarding, nice and balanced!
   
3. 
   3.You have the ability to switch to the opposite wake with a push of a botton.
   
4. 
   4.Extreme leaning of the boat is no longer necessary.
   
5. 
   5.Surf Gate eliminates the need to fill bunch of extra sacks.
   

It appears you won't have to make the boat list anymore. Must be a foil of some sort to do this... Perhaps redirects the water jet from the prop up to create a wave???

Edited June 27, 2012 by Cory

[Cory]

I'm taking a guess that the "gate" is some sort of a circular, oval, or rectangular ring that can be hydraulically positioned (or opened/closed) behind the prop and can be angled or tilted (on the fly) to redirect the jet wash left or right (maybe a little up also). This causes the boat to list when underway along with the redirected jet wash creating a surfing wave. This is just my guess... I know nothing more than what is posted on this thread.

Think about taking the existing power wedge and bending the bottom foil into a circle or oval shape and then providing some sort of pitch and tilt control. Blind guessing on the record is fun (until we find out I'm totally wrong).

Edited June 27, 2012 by Cory

[JB-FOOT]

diverting the water thrust to one side or the other would cause the boat to TURN.....like what a jet boat does or a rudder does....

now adding trim tabs on both sides and operating them independently.....now would THAT work!?!!!

just thinking out-loud.....

I have also thought about mounting a Tige' TAPS plate on my Echelon to change the barefoot table on the fly......

Trim Tabs have been around forever....had them on my 1st SeaRay.....and loved them.....

[skurfer]

I wonder if it is going to be 2 additional wedges. One at the transom on the port side and one on the starboard side. When you surf port side, the power wedge and the port wedge deploy. Switch to starboard and the starboard wedge and power wedge deploy. The middle power wedge may or may not deploy???

[jtrovato]

The site that was taken down said that it creates the wave without listing. A wedge on one side would pull the boat down making it list. I don't think that's what it is.

Think about what we're trying to do when we list the boat, we try to get more of the hull in the water to displace more water that in turn will come back up behind the boat creating a wave. I bet these new surf gates will be some kind of plate that comes out off each side of the transom simulating the hull being further down in the water and displacing the water that a sunk hull normally would. Similar to a trim tab but would go much further down past the bottom of the transom and be shaped specifically to shape a surf wave. This would accomplish the same thing without making the boat list and without weighting it down. It actually seems pretty simple and wonder why it's taken so long to do this!

[skurfer]

The site that was taken down said that it creates the wave without listing. A wedge on one side would pull the boat down making it list. I don't think that's what it is.

Think about what we're trying to do when we list the boat, we try to get more of the hull in the water to displace more water that in turn will come back up behind the boat creating a wave. I bet these new surf gates will be some kind of plate that comes out off each side of the transom simulating the hull being further down in the water and displacing the water that a sunk hull normally would. Similar to a trim tab but would go much further down past the bottom of the transom and be shaped specifically to shape a surf wave. This would accomplish the same thing without making the boat list and without weighting it down. It actually seems pretty simple and wonder why it's taken so long to do this!

I think you are onto something. Maybe 2 or more hydrogates. I don't know why, but I still think the boat will list a bit. Just looks that way from the limited videos I have seen. For surfing port side you fill ALL ballast and the port surfgate deploys to get a nice wave on the port side. If the boat only lists a bit, then the BU lawyers are happy. However, my money is on the fact that if you leave the tank empty on the side you aren't surfing on, add weight to the side you are surfing on, with the surfgate, the wave will be better

[oceanbu]

I think you are onto something. Maybe 2 or more hydrogates. I don't know why, but I still think the boat will list a bit. Just looks that way from the limited videos I have seen. For surfing port side you fill ALL ballast and the port surfgate deploys to get a nice wave on the port side. If the boat only lists a bit, then the BU lawyers are happy. However, my money is on the fact that if you leave the tank empty on the side you aren't surfing on, add weight to the side you are surfing on, with the surfgate, the wave will be better

I think it would absolutely list to one side somewhat. We also have a 30ft Bayliner with trim tabs on both sides that can be operated independently of each other. If I put one down farther than the other the boat will list to that side. Perhaps having the wedge down in the middle would counteract the listing effect enough to keep the boat fairly level while the tab enhanced the surf wave. I would think trim tabs would be the only way to switch sides on the fly. Would be nice to same time filling up sacs. This would be my bet as to the type of system they would use. It makes sense based on my experience with the trim tabs on our other boat.

[Murphy8166]

I just have a hard time believing it will be the "be all and end all" of wakesurfing.

For those that ride at little more advanced level, you know that you have to put a little more wieght in the VLX to get the wake to a nice size and shape. The 4 tank stock ballast and the wedge put way to much weight in the rear of the boat and leaves the wake lacking IMO.

The statement that the Surfgate will eliminate the need for extra sacs and weight is the same statement made when Malibu went to 4 tanks and the wedge.

Im a bit skeptical and looking foward to seeing what it is all about.

[Brett B]

Found this on the internet:

Surf Gate:

1. 
   1.Clean up the surf wake with push of a button
   
2. 
   2.The task of creating surf wakes is simplified...you’ll now weight it as if you were wakeboarding, nice and balanced!
   
3. 
   3.You have the ability to switch to the opposite wake with a push of a botton.
   
4. 
   4.Extreme leaning of the boat is no longer necessary.
   
5. 
   5.Surf Gate eliminates the need to fill bunch of extra sacks.
   

It appears you won't have to make the boat list anymore. Must be a foil of some sort to do this... Perhaps redirects the water jet from the prop up to create a wave???

I could have swore I remember mike murphy having a patent on a system that had a passage through the very back corner of the hull on each side.

So it acted sort of like a jet boats pump path but was just a passthrough.

It had a intake flap and a exit diverter so you could close it and the boat runs high or open it and divert the flow up forcing the boat deep into the water.

For what they are describing it has to be along the lines of what cowboy posted. It's similar to what the wedge does (a reverse hydrofoil), but it is built into the hull. It probably looks very similar to the inlets/ducting on a jet boat as they can move quite a bit of water through those. They key is it has to displace enough water with enough force to counteract the lift the hull makes. That's why at slow speeds (like 18 mph) the wedge makes a big difference on the overall wake size, but at higher speeds (such as 23 mph) it works mostly just to shape the wave by altering the attitude of the boat. It just can't displace enough water at those speeds to counteract the lift generated by the hull, but it can change the running angle. This is also why trim tabs can only do so much, because the natural lift of the hull only lets the boat tip so far before just raising higher up out of the water no matter how much you try and tip it.

At only 10 mph, a reverse hydrofoil can do a lot to sink the rear of the hull as we have seen with the wedge since the hull lift is so much less. Adding 3 wedges to the transom would be a packaging nightmare though, so they looked at ways to integrate it into the hull. This also allows you to close the gate inlets for wakeboarding speeds and keep the wakeboarding wake clean and unchanged. You also don't want to sink just the rear of the hull since this would make the wave steep but short, just like putting the wedge at max. So they probably have the inlets further forward of the transom to sink the middle of the hull more rather than just the rear. The boat will still list a bit, but only once it's moving.

I would image the surf gate also allows the boat to "crab-walk" a bit. We all know that turning the boat slightly can improve the size and length of a surf pocket. So the surf gate is likely angled so it crabs the boat slightly which creates a constant "turning" affect while letting the boat actually travel in a straight line via rudder counter steer.

I know it will be revealed soon, but it's fun to speculate. Just my theory, but if it were me this is how I would do it.

Edited June 28, 2012 by Brett B

[skurfer]

Yeah, only problem I see with that is they would have to modify the hulls in the entire line up right? That would be expensive...

[malibudog]

The original patent for the wedge included the concept of two wedges or scoops, operating independently on opposite sides of the boat, so that could be what is coming. Excited to see what they have done, even if it just lessens the need for ballast, rather than eliminates it.

Edited June 28, 2012 by malibudog

[Cory]

diverting the water thrust to one side or the other would cause the boat to TURN.....like what a jet boat does or a rudder does....

now adding trim tabs on both sides and operating them independently.....now would THAT work!?!!!

just thinking out-loud.....

I have also thought about mounting a Tige' TAPS plate on my Echelon to change the barefoot table on the fly......

Trim Tabs have been around forever....had them on my 1st SeaRay.....and loved them.....

My idea was not well thought out...