New boat, new surf board, new to surfing... video inside!

Hey there. Bought a 92' sunsport about two months ago with the goal of having an affordable surf boat. We've been playing with the ballast, best wave so far seems to be with about 1400 pounds on the surf side (two 800s stacked on top of each other on the left side of the motor... top one about 2/3s full). This puts the top of the colored gelcoat just about in the water when the boat is at rest. I've also got about 500 pounds of solid ballast in the boat (70 pound sand bags, three in the nose, one under the spotters seat, and three in the ski locker on the surf side).

The board is a 5'11" hyperlite.

This is my third day surfing, so be nice... and as you can see, I lose all concentration once beer gets involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiayAo7V9ts

I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding ballast placement, boat speed, surf technique, etc. We're new at this but having a ball!

How fast are you surfing? From the youtube video looks like you are hauling a$$. Should be surfing around 11 MPH.

As far as ballast goes, I have surfed a 22 foot Tige with a direct drive and currently on a 24 foot Supra V-drive. I would revmove the back seat and ballast the Tige with a bag (about 1100lbs) on the back left side of the boat, as far back as I could get it. It would throw a good 3 or 4 foot wave. The supra has a single 850 lbs sack in the rear locker. It throws a decent wave, but I want to put an 1100 pounder back there.

As far as technique.... looks like you are off to a good start. Just remember the more weight you put on the front of the board the faster it will go, and weight on the back will slow you down. I have found on both boats that there is a pocket between the prop wash and the left side of the boat. If you get out too far to the left you really have to stomp on the front of the board to get back into the pocket. Often too much weight on the front of the board will cause its nose to submerge and the board will stop.

The biggest thing is have fun with it and be safe! You have to remember that you are dangerously close to the back of the boat. I had one rider that fell and hit his hand on the swim platform. The other thing to remember is that with all of that weight on one side of the boat she will not handle normally. Avoid sudden direction changes, and don't jerk the power off. When the rider falls, we slowly retard the throttle and let the surf wave pass, and then return slowly for the rider.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rtpaxton2

don't jerk the power off.

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hahaha sorry I had to.

Power jerk off's are the worst! :D