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Surf Gate - My experience - not impressed.


JustinOSU

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I read all the post about the Surf Gate and how awesome it is and how it's a must have on a new boat. Well in my one experience with it it wasn't that great and I wasn't impressed. Let me start by saying I am by no means a novice to wakeboard/ski boats, wakeboarding or surfing. I mostly wakeboard and put around 100+ hours a year on my 04 VLX with 1123+ hours on it. It's a great boat and does everything well, it surfs just fine and even last night I switched sides while the boat was moving just by having the driver fill the other rear sack and having the two passengers switch sides.

Now to my experience with the surf gate, a month ago while at lake Powell the neighboring house boat had a new 2013 23 LSV with Surf Gate, and only 14 hours on it. They where new to Wakeboard/ski boats so we offered to teach them to surf and they gladly accepted. First my friend who pretty much only surfs went, with the boat set to the advanced surf configurations on the screen the surf wake wasn't good, it was really washy, we had 7 adults and 4 kids in the boat and we confirmed that the surf gate was deployed to the opposite side. To improve the surf wake I asked them drain the opposite ballast and for the adults to move to the surf side then bam the surf wake was good just like on my non surf gate boat. I also surfed this setup and the surf wake was good but whenever we would fill both rear ballasts the surf wake wasn't near as good. So If I was considering another boat the surf gate definitely would not be my determing factor, but that's just my experience with it, to me it does a little bit but not near as much as the hype would lead you to believe. A good surf wake comes from proper weighting of the boat more than the surf gate.

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Or you don't know how to setup the weight for a surfgate boat. Too many pictures/videos here of SG boats putting out huge/clean wakes to belive what you are saying. Even the boats that have an issue with spray (mostly the MXZ's) still have a strong SG wake.

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I'm not discrediting your experience but a few things may have caused this. The program could have been set up wrong in the advanced position. Speed needed to be changed and I'm sure others with SG will have more possibilities.

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Or you don't know how to setup the weight for a surfgate boat. Too many pictures/videos here of SG boats putting out huge/clean wakes to belive what you are saying. Even the boats that have an issue with spray (mostly the MXZ's) still have a strong SG wake.

Spray? I don't read all posts what spray?

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At the AL INT event this past weekend, when they ran the surf competition, they did it without any ballast and roughly 7 people on board. Initially the wave wasn't that good; they moved three people to the nose of the boat and it was money then.

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Whether it's a surfgate boat or not, it usually takes people a while (read, more than one outing) to dial in their wake configuration. It took me the better part of a full season to get it dialed on my VLX, but by 2007 I had one of the best waves that you'll ever see behind a boat that size. Seems to be jumping the gun just a bit to say that you're not impressed with it, but maybe it's just me.

  • Like 3
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The surf wave did get good but it wasn't because of the surf gate it was because we drained the opposite rear ballast and moved people just like a non surf gate boat. We did adjust speed as well, this isn't my first time surfing. Both my friend and I had high expectations for the surf gate, and we where let down so much so that my surfing friend is no longer considering a new boat with surf gate and he has a 99 direct drive wakesetter.

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At the AL INT event this past weekend, when they ran the surf competition, they did it without any ballast and roughly 7 people on board. Initially the wave wasn't that good; they moved three people to the nose of the boat and it was money then.

I would also bet both rears wheren't full.

Edited by JustinOSU
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I have a 2013 LSV with SG and it does take some time to set it up properly. And just filling the stock ballast does not fill the bill for it. I have 2 x 750's in the rear lockers and with just 1 rider and 2 adults in the boat we can surf all day on the wave on both sides no problem. I weigh 240 and am riding an Inland Surfer Black Pearl and a Drew Danielo Phase 5 skim board and can ride back. There is a difference on how you ride on the SG vs. other boats I have surfed behind. Addtionally, having weight in the front helps with making the wake longer and the more people you add the less weight you need and the stock settings are too slow for surfing we ride with the boat set at 11mph and works great.

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Did the boat have PNP? Honestly I've surfed a 13 LSV with PNP 500Lbs ontop of stock with an extra 750 in the bow and it was the best surf wave I've ever ridden. We ran at 11.2mph with the wedge 2 clicks up, and both lockers full 3 people in the boat. This sounds to me more like no one on this boat knew how to weight it properly. My buddy, who has a tige and is a huge tige fan, rode an LSV over the 4th with stock ballast and the 500lbs pnp bags and he's seriously thinking about switching to an LSV with surf gate now, he said it was the best surf wake he's ever ridden also.

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All you have said regarding setup is using the "advanced surf configuration". To my knowledge, there is, in fact, not even a "advanced surf configuration" on Malivue. There is surf right and surf left, and advanced WAKE, intermediate WAKE, etc as I recall on my 13. you alos don't mention at what that program was running: Where was wedge? Front ballast? speed? So you tried one outing using ONE preset and were not impressed. I'm not impressed with your dissection of the problem. Does surf gate just allow you a good wave no matter your speed and other settings not to mention people? Of course not. Really fail to see the validity of this post.

I've had like 5 vdrives of varying sizes and can confirm without hesitation that surf gate IS all its cracked up to be.

Edited by 85 Barefoot
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Justin: Don't give up on Surf Gate until you have ridden with someone who has had lots of experience setting up a surf gate boat. It might just change your mind. It certainly changed mine.

  • Like 1
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The surf wave did get good but it wasn't because of the surf gate it was because we drained the opposite rear ballast and moved people just like a non surf gate boat. We did adjust speed as well, this isn't my first time surfing. Both my friend and I had high expectations for the surf gate, and we where let down so much so that my surfing friend is no longer considering a new boat with surf gate and he has a 99 direct drive wakesetter.

If you dumped the opposite rear ballast and moved people the gate probably wasn't even in the water!

Edited by 85 Barefoot
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Let me state what my expectations where: I expected that with full ballast "4 tanks" and wedge it wouldn't matter where people set and that the wake would be good and clean on either side depending of course upon the surf gate deployment.

If it won't do that then in my opinion it's not much different "better" than my 04 VLX.

Edited by JustinOSU
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If you dumped the opposite rear ballast and moved people the gate probably wasn't even in the water!

. We saw it in the water but I don't know how much, we could feel it in-gage at take off around 7 mph. Edited by JustinOSU
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Let me state what my expectations where: I expected that with full ballast "4 tanks" and wedge it wouldn't matter where people set and that the wake would be good and clean on either side depending of course upon the surf gate deployment.

It will, pending optimal wedge position (close to max with just factory weight) and correct speed.

Edited by 85 Barefoot
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I played with the wedge angle when I was driving for my friend and at full deployment the wake wasn't near as good as with around 70% deployment.

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Let me state what my expectations where: I expected that with full ballast "4 tanks" and wedge it wouldn't matter where people set and that the wake would be good and clean on either side depending of course upon the surf gate deployment.

If it won't do that then in my opinion it's not much different "better" than my 04 VLX.

Your expectations are far too high for a stock boat set up a boat for surfing. it takes more weight to get a solid wave on any boat, especially a bigger boat. The big plus is you can throw more weight at the wave. If you expect any boat to surf great with 1200lbs of ballast you're fooling yourself.

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I played with the wedge angle when I was driving for my friend and at full deployment the wake wasn't near as good as with around 70% deployment.

NO kidding! Didn't I just say close to max?! You realize full deployment is "minimum" wedge, right?

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I played with the wedge angle when I was driving for my friend and at full deployment the wake wasn't near as good as with around 70% deployment.

Honestly my exp with the wedge is that less is more for surfing. On my boat we put it all the way down, on the LSV 2 clicks up was perfect. Too much wedge washes the face of the wave badly

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Justin: Don't give up on Surf Gate until you have ridden with someone who has had lots of experience setting up a surf gate boat. It might just change your mind. It certainly changed mine.

. But why, because I can switch sides on the fly to a nice clean wake or because in your experience it creates a better wake on which ever side it's optimized "weight and people" for at the time? Edited by JustinOSU
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. But why, because I can switch sides on the fly to a nice clean wake or because in your experience it creates a better wake on which ever side it's optimized "weight and people" for at the time?

In my experience both. The switching sides is great, but the wave it produces, when weighted and ran correctly, is far superior to any LSV wave I've been on without it.

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I am about as critical as they get... a 23LSV with SG will straight slam a terrific surfwave. Even with a base 350 motor. I dont think you had that boat set up correctly.

I cant speak for the other models, as some are rumored to be tough to dial in, spray etc...... But I can say for certain the 23 SG wave is legit:

I try not to describe surf waves with words:

7E6DE0AB-E138-49F9-9653-FC8DBE02E831-463

  • Like 1
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Your expectations are far too high for a stock boat set up a boat for surfing. it takes more weight to get a solid wave on any boat, especially a bigger boat. The big plus is you can throw more weight at the wave. If you expect any boat to surf great with 1200lbs of ballast you're fooling yourself.

HE didn't say he expected it to surf "great", but, in fact, that 23 will easily meet what he defined as his expectations. Heck my VTX did. I took all kind of flack on here telling me I didn't know what a great surf wave was, yadda yadda, when in fcat, it was. My factory VTX SG was better wake than my buddy's 11 wakesetter with some additional weight all day long.

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In my experience both. The switching sides is great, but the wave it produces, when weighted and ran correctly, is far superior to any LSV wave I've been on without it.

The wake was good better than my vlx but it was do to weighting and people moving more than the surf gate.

An the "surf advance" setting was just my bad memory from a month ago. Your correct surf right and surf left and we had to drain the opposite ballast.

We had a boat full so much so that the boat would not plane out at the wakeboard advance pre-set and the wedge 100% down. I am sure it was partly due to the altitude .

Edited by JustinOSU
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