Help me optimize the ballast for my 92 Sunsport DD for a surf wake.

[2500HD]

The wheelie is fairly normal. Out of curiosity, what is your swim platform doing to your wave. Can you tell if it's dragging in the water much? It could be squashing the wave.

[trayson]

The wheelie is fairly normal. Out of curiosity, what is your swim platform doing to your wave. Can you tell if it's dragging in the water much? It could be squashing the wave.

Yes, the platform is definitely dragging. If you look at the picture above, take the point on the platform that is halfway along the depth of the platform on the outside surf edge and draw a line at a 45 degree angle toward the Stern of the platform. That's where the platform is cutting into the wake. And you know I have a big lip on my platform...

We have been looking into making a surf platform, but the outside two of the three metal braces Are really close to the outside edges of the platform, so it would be tough to cut much down on the sides if I did make a custom platform.

I will draw a picture later...

[trayson]

Okay, here's a graphic. The blue line is about where the wake is on the swim platform. And unfortunately the yellow line is where the platform brackets are, so it would make it difficult to put a smaller platform on. Not sure what the solution is for this platform... At the minimum, something with a smooth bottom even if I can't cut the width as much as I'd like...

[twisterad3]

I have a 90 Sunsport which has a better wake than the pervious boats I've surfed behind. One was a 96 Ski Nautique (I prefer that boat for wake board wake) and the other was a 01 Sanger v210.
I just have 2 350# bags currently that are not hidden. We had 2 people in the boat the other day with 1/4 tank of gas, I stuck one bag on the floor next to the motor, the other bag on the rear seat. That seemed to create a decent wake that I could surf about 6feet behind the platform.
Later that week, I had 6 people on the boat, used 1 350# bag on the floor parallel to the seats.
I attached a photo taken from our time lapse Contour Plus. Since it's mounted on the windshield, it doesn't advertise the best wake shape, but it at least illustrates the point.
FILE0907.jpg

[trayson]

I have a 90 Sunsport which has a better wake than the pervious boats I've surfed behind. One was a 96 Ski Nautique (I prefer that boat for wake board wake) and the other was a 01 Sanger v210.
I just have 2 350# bags currently that are not hidden. We had 2 people in the boat the other day with 1/4 tank of gas, I stuck one bag on the floor next to the motor, the other bag on the rear seat. That seemed to create a decent wake that I could surf about 6feet behind the platform.
Later that week, I had 6 people on the boat, used 1 350# bag on the floor parallel to the seats.
I attached a photo taken from our time lapse Contour Plus. Since it's mounted on the windshield, it doesn't advertise the best wake shape, but it at least illustrates the point.
FILE0907.jpg

Thanks. It's always good to hear what others are doing and what's working for them. We'll be going out tonight and reconfiguring our bag setup. We'll also have 2 more people than normal, so I'm sure it'll be better regardless of how we configure things.

[trayson]

More pics from this weekend... We'll see how much improvement we can get with a reconfiguration of the ballast bags.

This one is where I almost lost the wave but was able to recover. But I like the pic because it shows the wave well.


A whole bunch more surf wave pics:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1006741...eat=directlink

This is a good one too. It's me falling off the back of the pocket--I wasn't able to recover. But it's a good look at what I've been riding. I did find that smoother water tend to = more push. Do you all find that to be true?

[2500HD]

Smooth water does make a big difference. I've been toying with the idea of cutting and rewelding my platform brackets on an angle so i could cut my swim deck on an angle.

[wotan2525]

You guys should also know that a full tank of gas makes a big difference. An extra 30gallons is 250lbs but it's also as far back in the boat as possible. This is why I always keep the gas tank and custom cooler as full as possible.

[trayson]

You guys should also know that a full tank of gas makes a big difference. An extra 30gallons is 250lbs but it's also as far back in the boat as possible. This is why I always keep the gas tank and custom cooler as full as possible.

Yeah, I'm SURE that the only reason to keep that cooler full is because of the surf wake! ROFL!!!

Here's a couple of vids to show what 1,100 lengthwise of the surf side + 250 under the rear seat + 4 passengers got me. I'm pretty happy.

This one has a couple shots down to see what's happening with the platform. (although you can see it better with the vid I took of the boat).
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tray-surf-3-on-8-7-13

I was pretty happy to see how the surf wake turned out with the reconfig:
http://contour.com/videos/watch/tray-surf-1-on-8-7-13

And if you didn't see it, a vid of the boat filmed by me surfing:
http://contour.com/stories/supra-sun...oing-surf-duty

[wotan2525]

That looks pretty good! Any chance there are some shallow spots there? When my wave starts to wash like that it means that it's less than ~8ft deep.

Also -- We'd get a ticket in a hot minute if we were sitting on the sun pad. Our river is heavily patrolled and they never have anything better to do than pull me over for a "safety check."