Wakesurf - what acceleration speed and a ballast question

[mraz72]

Recently started wakesurfing on my 242 x and my girlfriend and daughter are having issues getting up. I got out there and I was standing in two attempts (never been on any kind of water-sport board). My daughter literally tried like 30 times. I am using the drive control with the following parameters

surf side ballast - 100%
center ballast - 100%
Other side ballast - 50%
acceleration - slow
speed 10.8 mph

I was thinking about it last night, maybe the acceleration is TOO slow? It seems to take a while for the boat to get to speed (obviously) and maybe that is making it more difficult to stand? So my question for those using driving control, what acceleration speed are you using?

Lastly, I've read on here about calibrating ballast on these boats, is that something you HAVE to do or should it work from the factory? I feel like my bags are not filling up all the way. I'm going to mess around with that a bit while out on the lake

 

[swatski]

Recently started wakesurfing on my 242 x and my girlfriend and daughter are having issues getting up. I got out there and I was standing in two attempts (never been on any kind of water-sport board). My daughter literally tried like 30 times. I am using the drive control with the following parameters

surf side ballast - 100%
center ballast - 100%
Other side ballast - 50%
acceleration - slow
speed 10.8 mph

I was thinking about it last night, maybe the acceleration is TOO slow? It seems to take a while for the boat to get to speed (obviously) and maybe that is making it more difficult to stand? So my question for those using driving control, what acceleration speed are you using?

Lastly, I've read on here about calibrating ballast on these boats, is that something you HAVE to do or should it work from the factory? I feel like my bags are not filling up all the way. I'm going to mess around with that a bit while out on the lake

I found those helpful when teaching kids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=107&v=kRm48HaviIk

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[swatski]

Recently started wakesurfing on my 242 x and my girlfriend and daughter are having issues getting up. I got out there and I was standing in two attempts (never been on any kind of water-sport board). My daughter literally tried like 30 times. I am using the drive control with the following parameters

surf side ballast - 100%
center ballast - 100%
Other side ballast - 50%
acceleration - slow
speed 10.8 mph

I was thinking about it last night, maybe the acceleration is TOO slow? It seems to take a while for the boat to get to speed (obviously) and maybe that is making it more difficult to stand? So my question for those using driving control, what acceleration speed are you using?

Lastly, I've read on here about calibrating ballast on these boats, is that something you HAVE to do or should it work from the factory? I feel like my bags are not filling up all the way. I'm going to mess around with that a bit while out on the lake

You can start teaching them without any ballast. You will need to work on the wave to go ropeless though!
Wedge (gantlin?) really helps. Are you guys all riding the same side? (regular or goofy)

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[jcyamahariders wife]

We taught our daughter all last year without ballast. Made it easier for her to learn to get up. Sometimes my husband manually controlled the speed without using the presets on our X.

 

[DirkG]

We used same ballast set up as you did, we are all rookies too. Slow accel was too slow, we all use medium if using the pre sets.

 

[brddog]

You can start teaching them without any ballast. You will need to work on the wave to go ropeless though!
Wedge (gantlin?) really helps. Are you guys all riding the same side? (regular or goofy)

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If you ride regular what side do you ride from?

 

[DirkG]

Regular is on the port (left) side, goofy is on the starboard side. Usually toe side toward the wave. Until you are better then you can switch.

 

[haknslash]

Too slow of acceleration will wear out the rider trying to get up. It's a lot of force being applied against the board and if you take too long this can be hard for the rider to try and keep the load against the board balanced. You also don't need to rip their arms out by hammering down as that too will get old for the rider FAST lol.

You can see in this video a few deep water launches of us surfing. Go to the 1:45 mark and watch how smooth the pull is for her to get up. The following clip also shows Bill getting up next with his wife driving the boat. She went just a hair slow as she was learning to pull up a rider but Bill still managed to keep the load balanced on the board as he got up (watch his legs as he adjusts to keep the board balanced). Any slower than that and it just becomes too tiresome for the rider to try and fight against all that force. You want the board to be able to "pop over" once you get going but not stand up too soon as the rider will typically just fall over.

 

[haknslash]

Not sure of your daughters age. Here are some other vids for getting people up wake surfing.

 

[haknslash]

I will say one of the biggest hurdles for a new rider once they get up is learning how to come down over the wave so they can be at it's face. This can be hard for them because the wave can already be developed by then so now they have to come up over what seems like a mountain of water. To counter this, if you position the rider to already be on the outside of the wave before you pull them up then they don't have to come 'down the hill' and more than likely fall as it feels "slick" there since the board will want to speed out underneath them.

 

[Julian]

Do they know how to wakeboard? I feel it is easier to teach them to wakeboard first - and learn how to stand up with their feet fixed, THEN learn how to do it with feet not in bindings.

 

[Mainah]

I have only been surfing one time (soon to be much more as I got hooked in that first time and my surfboard is arriving this week). I got up first try and found it pretty easy. My kids also got up first try. We are long time and frequent wakeboarders that have never failed to teach someone to wakeboard. I think the same key things apply. Arms straight (don't try and muscle it), heels close to butt, let the combination of the boat pulling the board against the water and the rope pulling naturally rotate you to a standing position and before fully standing but not too soon turn the nose into the direction of travel. Most rookie mistakes come from trying to muscle it or turning the board too early/late. Another common mistake is too much or little weight on the back heel.

I have never been a fan of low acceleration speeds as it will just drag a rookie through the water too long. Starting by dragging them real slow (2 mph) to get a feel for the force against the board. Then give the juice. Not sure about wakesurfing but 6k rpm (depends on size of rider) on my 242 seems to be about right for most wakeboarding rookies. I opted for the hi accelerating speed preset on the 242x I got to try surfing behind on that first time and it felt perfect for me but I like very aggressive 7k rpm starts wakeboarding too.

 

[swatski]

Not to be accused of making hot air comments, lol - here is the evidence of what our new wave looks like:


It is insane!

(pictured in the background: @jcyamaharider observing his creation)

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[swatski]

^^^and one more thing, since someone pointed this out. Kate is playing with the wave and that's about how far she could get out! (not falling off of the wave). Which is incredible behind Yamaha!







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[haknslash]

Lookin good @swatski !

 

[swatski]

Lookin good @swatski !

Oh, believe me, that was something to see!
It felt like we have arrived, lol.

End of my Yamaha surfing mods is near!

Well, I need to find a place to mount the AUX pump/bag ballast switch. Any suggestions? I want it to be accessible but NOT easy to accidentally trip. My other ballast switches are in the helm.
I may just stick it in the helm and put it on a timer, I'm not finding good candidate spots anywhere around the stern, especially with the swim deck bag in place.
(my pump and hose for the swim deck bag are already integrated in the hull, just need to find a place to stick the switch in...)

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[haknslash]

Oh, believe me, that was something to see!
It felt like we have arrived, lol.

End of my Yamaha surfing mods is near!

Well, I need to find a place to mount the AUX pump/bag ballast switch. Any suggestions? I want it to be accessible but NOT easy to accidentally trip. My other ballast switches are in the helm.
I may just stick it in the helm and put it on a timer, I'm not finding good candidate spots anywhere around the stern, especially with the swim deck bag in place.
(my pump and hose for the swim deck bag are already integrated in the hull, just need to find a place to stick the switch in...)

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Glad to hear you're getting it dialed in!

For the switch location, without knowing what it looks like hard to think of places right off hand. I'm not sure if your boat has a little recessed area for the SX models to use a rear navigation pole but I had thought one time of putting an onboard charger outlet there. Maybe you can mount the switch under a flip-up style cover to blend it all in nicely and keep it below the other surfaces so you wouldn't likely trip over it?

 

[swatski]

Glad to hear you're getting it dialed in!

For the switch location, without knowing what it looks like hard to think of places right off hand. I'm not sure if your boat has a little recessed area for the SX models to use a rear navigation pole but I had thought one time of putting an onboard charger outlet there. Maybe you can mount the switch under a flip-up style cover to blend it all in nicely and keep it below the other surfaces so you wouldn't likely trip over it?

View attachment 79963

Yep, that might work but would be too easy to trip crawling around the stern. In my case - I have another AUX intake/drain there, albeit I no longer use it right now.
Right now I use the AUX switch on a "wand" remote taped to the tower leg... Drive me crazy, albeit works fine...


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[haknslash]

Do you ever use your tube tow eye? Could mount it there but that switch thing looks pretty big. After seeing one of the old style Yamaha's in person last year I'm jealous they have a sweet storage compartment where we have wasted space in between the swim deck and cockpit. You could definitely mount it in there if we had one....

 

[Pinhacker71]

@swatski How much ballast are you running and where? Just received the custom transom bag and plan on trying everything out at lake this week. Just looking for a good starting point. I have the wakewedge, transom bag, and 2400 lbs of other bags. Surf regular. Thanks.