Surfing

Has anyone tried surfing behind a boat? It seems like a fairly new sport/activity
I did it this weekenforge the first time and it was so much fun.


So who here has tried


Don't try it unless your boat has an inboard propeller with a rudder. If you have a regular inboard you can get hurt

 

Yep.

It actually "rejuvenated" my interest - My G/F has been in a club forever and TBH I was getting bored with wakeboarding. No foot straps or tow rope is a *lot* of fun. And what some of the kids are doing now is just amazing; I rode with a pro a while back and she was riding both sides of the wake and pulling 360's on the top - *Awesome* stuff!

Plus, I've had my bell rung a few times boarding - Surfing you're going so slow it's doesn't hurt - I love it!

Cheers,
Ian

 

I do it with a tow rope and then catch a wave or just continue using the tow rope but never really tried it with the wake of a boat??? Gotta try that one.

 

So you're not right behind the boat? How fast do you go and what boat do you have?

 

How do you start if you don't use a rope?
Wakeboarding is too painful.
I was with someone who would do 360s just off the wake and would put the board on the boat and have one of us hold it so he could sit down.
Two of the guys decided to go at the same time using the same board. It was too funny!

Surfing is just a ton of fun

 

My bad; Most people do indeed get up using a rope. Get "stable" then throw it into the back of the boat. However, I have also launched from the swim step - Stand on the board and slip backwards into the wake. The trouble is if you miss it's a reset and start again which gets boring in a hurry for those on the boat..... We'd typically "allow" one attempt that way then return and throw the rope out.

Cheers,
Ian

 

That makes sense. I've only seen people start one way but someone got in the boat and relaunched the way you described.


Now I just need to find a way to get a wakeboard boat... Hmmm...

 

Also meant to say; I first came across it ~5 years back here in CA - I guess it takes a while for our "lunacy" to make it's way back East.

Further, it's the one water sport that's still fun even if the water is ****.... I still enjoy boarding, but these days the water better be glass or damn close - I want the water "hissing" back at me, not giving it the "clack, clack, clack" of crappy water!

If you're serious, there's a few things to bear in mind;

- You want as many "fat sacks" as you can manage (If not more!) - You want to trim the boat in ways that would make a "purist" cry! - Fill 'em all up except the rear on the opposite side to which you want to ride. Given a CW prop (looking forward to the stern) and if you're "regular foot" (left foot forward) that means it's gonna be easier to ride on the port side as that's toe side - It throws a bigger (and curling) wake that way. Very few people are "comfortable" riding heel-side.

- You absolutely need a "Perfect Pass" (or similar) - Driving at ~10kts, with a "badly" trimmed boat while maintaining a big circle (=bigger wake) gets hard & boring *fast*!

Cheers,
Ian

 

http://youtu.be/-tCsX8i5jWg
Ghost riding the wake - No tow rope entry.

 

The boat I was on was a Malibu with 4 ballast tanks i think. We all just sat on the rear sun pad to make the wake big with 3 tanks full. The opposite tank was empty. We're old school like that
I'm no where near able to buy a boat, but one day I'll hopefully have my water toys. Jet skiing and surfing are my favorites.

I first heard of it about 3 years ago from another Texan. I have no idea how he figured out.

 

Makes sense. [IIRC, Malibu is the only one who's props go the "wrong" way.]

Sitting on the sun pad will get you arrested where I ride! - "All occupants must be fully within the boat whenever it's in motion."....... The pro rider I mentioned earlier is in marketing for (IIRC) Malibu - One idea was a "fat boy" seat in the back - All of a sudden those 300lb lineman that nobody wanted get real popular.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

I have no idea if its illegal here. Probably is now that I think of it. Guess I need to find me a lineman friend Now they're useful
In Utah once, a buddy got pulled over and cited. The explanation was carbon monoxide is a hazard when everyone is sitting on the sun pad. Maybe if you're stationary but when moving I don't see it as a problem.

Malibu makes a good boat. I don't know about the prop thing but backing up is a pain since you can only go to the right.
On some Malibus if you hit a wave going slow everyone in the front gets soaked. We filled the boat with an inch or two of water after hitting a wave. Funny watching water spill into the boat.

 

Just found this thread so I thought I'd add my experience

Surfing behind the boat has been around for a long time. The first time I saw it was in a water ski book with a picture of a guy on a longboard doing it at Cypress Gardens back in the 1960s.

Surfers have been wakeboarding ever since. It takes special conditions to ride behind the boat without a rope. Most didn't have it so we used the rope. My first time was around 1974. Living in south florida we had plenty of flat spells so we spent a lot of time behind the boat

I had one friend, Joey that was both a surfer and water skier with a nice Ski Nautique boat and we would all spend the day out in the boat having fun. He was super radical on the surfboard pulling moves none of us could even attempt. He could jump the entire wake and pull gouging turns that had us dropping our jaws. The problem was it was very stressful on the surfboards that weren't made for such abuse. Every session he would break a board and he soon ran out of friends that would let him borrow their surfboard.

The surfboard just couldn't hold up to the abuse Joey put them through and in a way it was holding him back from the performance progression he was creating. Out of necessity, Joey decided to design and build a better surfboard made for wakeboarding.

The first thing he changed was the materials used and settled on a polyurethane with a foam injected center. He went with a twin fin and a pad for traction. Once he found a place to build them and had a few examples, he would take us out to test ride them and give him feedback.

Right off the bat they worked pretty good. You could also ride on your knees if you wanted and all of use learned to barefoot by taking off on the thing sitting up feet forward. Even though we still couldn't jump the wake like him he added foot straps for better control.

Once he had his design pretty well sorted out he took it to Water Ski magazine to get their feedback, see about getting some coverage and placing an ad in the magazine for his new board made for wakeboarding which he called the " Wakemaster ". While he had applied for a patent for his creation, once he took it to the magazine the word was out and ALL the big ski companies started scrambling for designs of their own. By the time Joey got his first ad in the magazine another company had a product of their own with an ad in the same issue.

Joey was the innovator of the wakeboard and nobody rode one like he did. Unfortunately he had no real business sense or experience and working on his own he lost his idea to the big companies. He ended up walking away and turned his attention towards a pro tennis career.

Joey's original design kept evolving to what we have today which is essentially a trick ski. Going back to the same book with the guy surfing behind a boat in the sixties on a longboard are pictures of guys on trick skis that are very similar to today's wakeboards except for the materials they are made of.

Joey revolutionized wake surfing with his innovative design that change the sport which then evolved into what it is day. I got to play a part both as a test rider and the photographer that captured the images used for his business. It was a fun time just as long as you didn't let Joey borrow your board

Here's a few pics I took back around 1979-80

1. Me on my normal surfboard behind Joey's boat.
2. Joey jumping the entire wake unattached on a normal surfboard.
3. Joey shot from the water on one of his earliest wakeboard designs.
4. Joey gouging a turn so deep it would make a normal surfboard fold from the stress.
5. Joey's first design available for purchase
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Great story and pix, thanks for sharing!

So as to avoid any confusion, I think we should clarify a little;

- This thread should really be titled "wake surfing" - It's close to the real thing, but isn't really....... No footstraps. Typically at ~10knots and may or may not involve a tow rope.

- "Wake boarding" is, to me at least, on a board with complete bindings. Typically ~20kts.

- "Kite boarding" is basically wakeboarding & driving the boat (the kite) at the same time - The good guys are in the air forever these days!.......

FWIW, and I'm a little out of touch, I saw another new (yet probably "old" ) idea at the lake a while back; A kite attached to the tow handle - The amount of air the dude was getting was *insane*!...... Dunno if you can buy the things yet, but man it looked like FUN!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Sorry. I didn't know any better. I've only heard it as surfing and it seems like everyone does it differently.
I've always known it as you get a "surfboard" and lay in the water and get up as the boat accelerates up to about ~10knots then work your way into the wake of the boat so that way when you let go of the rope, you continue moving with the boat. That seems like a base obective then once you master that, you move on to doing tricks or other stuff.


Great storey!

 

I agree with your terms

I was just showing how it all evolved.

Back at least as far as the early 1960s there was wake surfing.
( riding the wake of a boat without the rope )

Late 70s we still called it wake surfing even though we held the rope. It was all about simulating bottom turns and off the lips on a surfboard
as if you were surfing.

When my friend Joey developed a board specifically for riding the wake it was still
considered wake surfing. BTW you could still actually surf beach waves on his board as it still functioned as
a real surfboard even though the design wasn't ideal for surfing.

His design was copied by a company that produced the " Skurfer " and it was still considered wake surfing.

More people cared about doing tricks and jumps than those that cared about the surfing element of wake surfing so the boards continued to evolve. They made them smaller by squaring off the nose and tail and added much better bindings. Once they reached that point it no longer resembled a surfboard nor did they ride it like one so the title wake surfing was dropped for wake boarding and that is where we are today.

I've never rode the wake of a boat on a surfboard unaided as I never had all the right elements but I'm sure it would be fun. I heard a story about a group of pro surfers that were going to take a boat offshore and try and surf the wake of a giant Freighter but I don't know if it ever happened. It was part of a Wake surfing story in a Surfing magazine that published some of my pictures of Joey to illustrate it.

 

No apologies necessary! I just thought we're getting in a little deep and should set some "guidelines" as it were......

Absolutely! The "accepted" way of doing it. As already noted, the alternative is to "slip" off the swimstep and drift back into the wake - Very cool when it works, sucks when you miss!

"Real" surfing remains the king of them all of course - Just you and the wave - When you get it right, *perfect*. Unfortunately, IMLE it should really be called "paddling & waiting!" And on a busy break, add in keeping out the way......

Cheers,
Ian

 

Absolutely!

I got my first real surfboard when my family moved to a Florida beach in 1972. I've had the stoke ever since but lately life has kept me out of the water.

It is not only the thrill of surfing, it is the lifestyle that goes with it. Something outsiders never seem to understand. Add the travel required to find your next wave and you have the single greatest sport I've ever tried.

I don't have any good shots of me surfing because I couldn't get any of my surfing buddies to sit on the beach long enough to get some pics but here are couple reference shots. One is from my first trip to California as I get ready to go out on a foggy morning at Huntington Pier. The other is from my first trip to the North Shore of Hawaii. That one I'm bummed because the pic was taken as I was reaching the shoulder and not at the takeoff which was double the size
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Very good

Indeed, and appreciated.

The skurfer remained strapless, correct?

Oh, it is! As I said above, it really rejuvenated my lake visits and doesn't require "good" water to be enjoyable. Further, you don't get your bell rung like happens on a wakeboard!

Very cool. I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of guys who "freighter surf" in the estuary approaching a dock in Texas somewhere (IIRC?) Not too much in the way of real waves (unless they're getting ****ed of course! ) and the best they can do. Also *long* rides once you catch it.

There's also the guy that "iceberg surfs" up North - Waits for a big ol' chunk of ice to fall off and surfs the resultant wave!

Cheers,
Ian

Cheers,
Ian

 

I can't remember off hand who put straps on first. I didn't like them because you couldn't lay on the board and I wasn't getting air anyway

Joey said he was being told, perhaps by the magazine guys that straps were needed so riders could do more extreme tricks. I don't remember if Skurfer had them first or had them at all. I do remember that when his first ad hit Spray magazine with my pictures in it I was super happy until I turned a few more pages and saw the ad for Skurfer with three models holding it and one of them was my hated ex that had moved to California. It was a double burn.

I've heard about the Texas surfers and watched some video. It's classic!