2002 Wakesetter LSV Surf set up

[Kevin81]

Hey Malibu Crew I'm new here and just purchased a 02 LSV with stock MLS the end of last season. My son is dying to surf behind it this summer. Does anyone out there have a set up to get started with without adding more ballast? Not looking to make it a surf only machine as I have a mix of family that does all sports and want to keep the boat as multi sport as possible.  

[CBray4]

14 minutes ago, Kevin81 said:

Hey Malibu Crew I'm new here and just purchased a 02 LSV with stock MLS the end of last season. My son is dying to surf behind it this summer. Does anyone out there have a set up to get started with without adding more ballast? Not looking to make it a surf only machine as I have a mix of family that does all sports and want to keep the boat as multi sport as possible.  

We have had a 2001 21 VLX the past several years. So a little different than yours but this should at least give you some ideas. 

I will say we did not have the most impressive wave ever but it definitely was "surfable" and extremely fun and easy to learn on.

We did not have any MLS system in ours, all of our ballast were filled by throwing a pump over the side. Which took about 10-15 minutes. 

We had 2 400lb sacs in the rear lockers(still had plenty of room for vests on top), and 2 150lb sacs in the bow under the seats. That is all we used if we had a decent crew on board(5-10 people). If we had less than 5 people we would add a 800lb sac on the floor up against the rear seat. 

Like I said, our wave was no competition surfing boat wave but it was super fun and very good to learn on. We could have added weight and made it bigger but we never saw that to be necessary. 

The key for these older boats is what kind of surf device you are using. There are TONS of threads on this forum for all different kinds of them. We decided to make our own "suck gate" and it worked like a dream! We built it for about $30 and about 1 hour of work. 

Hope this helps! If you want to talk more details you can shoot me a PM. 

This place is full of guys and gals that have been doing this a lot longer than I have. Hopefully people with your same boat can chime in. 

You can see a video of my wife surfing behind our boat in the link below. She is only 5'4" so the wave looks massive next to her. haha

https://flic.kr/p/Duz1Ee

Edited January 23, 2018 by CBray4
video

[JulioEstevez]

We have a 2002 21lsv, no MLS, so we have 800lbs in each rear locker and a 540lbs in the bow. We use the nauticurl surf device. The surf device is essential to getting a big wave, it allows you to fill both rear lockers with ballast, so either build one or buy one. 

We have to cheat a little when surfing port side because of the rotation on the prop, so we usually empty about a third of the starboard locker ballast. 

We have a manual wedge, it is always down when surfing, it makes the wave noticeably larger.

The trick is trial and error, shifting a 100lbs of weight from one side to the other or from back to front will have a big impact on perfecting your wave, so move people around and try different configurations and you will find your sweetspot for a good surfable wave.

[MadMan]

I agree with the above comments^^^^. 

I have the same boat as yours ('00 23 LSV), what I have found is that more is better (bigger, easier).  The more ballast you add, the easier it gets to surf.

[cowwboy]

I have an 02 vlx and run 1100's in the back, stock 400 in the center, and depending on the crew 100-400 lbs of lead in the nose. 
The 1100's don't completely fill but they take up every last inch of possible space in the back. 
You won't get nearly the wave listing as you will with a surf system. I have used the kids bike ramp, and now have 2 or 3 different suction cup based ones that we use. Honestly, I haven't noticed some difference in the shape and angle of our gates but the most difference has been from how far forward or rearwards we have it mounted. When nearly at the rear most of the hull made it hard to steer, yet move it about to were the cleats are and it makes the wave a bit nicer and it steers almost as if it wasn't there.