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Water Depth


dbb143

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Hi all, I am a new Malibu owner (2000 Escape LSV) and I was wondering what depths of water people have typically found as the limit of how shallow they feel comfortable towing in (with and w/o ballast). Just trying to get a sense of whether or not the river where I grew up water skiing with my dad's smaller boat might be too shallow, or if I will be okay.

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Thanks for the feedback. My plan tonight is to troll the river channels with my dad tonight (who has been boating that river area for 30 years) and check out what depth readings I get. I feel like there are definitely areas where the "deeper" parts are only 7 or 8 feet.

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Our river is routinely only 4-6ft and there are a lot of LSV's, G23's, etc wakeboarding and surfing. Like above if you know the river it shouldn't be a problem.

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our river is anywhere from 3-35 feet deep. I know where all the sub 5' areas are and avoid them, but if the depth gauge gets below 10', I start veering towards deep water.

If it's keeping you up at night, get the iNavX app and install navionics fishing hot map from xtraverse.

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My stretch of the river runs anywhere from 3-15ft. with an average of 4-5 ft. No big deal if your just wakeboarding, but if wakesurfing I goto a stretch of the river where i know its about 5-8ft consistently for the best wave possible.

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You generally are in the clear if you know the waterway and stay above 5 feet. Also make sure your depth finder is correct and set a shallow water alarm. This time of year my lake can drop a couple feet in a week so make sure you keep that in mind.

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The river/lake I frequent has a shallow section that drops to about 4ft at one point and that's if you know where you are going and stay in the deep part. I used to slow down to idle through there and stare at the depth gauge the whole time. Then the boat got older and I now hammer through there at about 35 lol. Drawing a lot less water at that speed!

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At exactly 13ft my wave starts to change while surfing. Really need to be in 15ft+.

I agree. We surf in 8-10 feet, but have stretches of 15-20+. When you hit those 6-8 foot sections you notice the wave isn't as firm.

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yall are nuts. lol

If I see less than 30 I'm moving towards deeper water. hahahaha

Then again, I have the luxury of towing someone in 50-100'... and even 150-200' in other places.

What do you think is going to happen? Your draft is less than 3 feet. From the bottom of the boat (which is where your sensor is) you really only need 18" of water.

Unless you know there are stumps or rocks, you can run boats in very shallow water. Then again, I grew up on the coast with an outboard boat. Ran that thing on ground quite a few times and constantly ran it through 2.5-3 feet of water.

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