Wakeboarding this Easter? Ask the Brofessionals to get the most out of your wakeboard boat

March 27, 2017

To most of us buying a G23 to go wakeboarding is about as achievable as purchasing your first home in Auckland. So as you sit there looking at your rusting 50 Evinrude engine on the back of that 15ft Sea Nymph know that the Brofessionals respect your ghetto rig and want to help you achieve maximum pop off that wake.

Rope and Handle
Before you put a high-pole or tower on your boat and before you sink the crap out of it with as much lead you can get your hands on, the most important purchase to get the most pop from your riding is a non stretch spectra line. True pop - off any wake - is created through building line tension while progressively cutting towards the wake. A task that is impossible if you have a rope line with the stretch consistency of a bike inner tube. Getting off that old PolyE line and onto a spectra line is the single most important purchase you can make for your wakeboarding career.

Ballast
Whether you use five fat mates, lead, cement, water, sand or whatever you can get your hands on, ballast is what will make your wake big and strong. Not only does it help to make that wake larger it also makes it solid which will in turn be punchier and not crumble when you edge through it on your board. The key with weight is displacement; don’t load everything into the back of your rig make sure you keep it even between the bow and the stern. The more you can sink the overall boat, the better your wake will be.

Wake
Cleaning up your wake is a simple problem that most of us are unsure on how to fix. The basic principles are if your wake is too mellow and does not have enough kick you will want to add load to the back of the boat. If the wake is too steep and has a crumbled wall or a lip then you need more weight in the nose. Also if you are running a stern-leg or outboard keep the engine all the way down until you are at riding speed (18-22 mph) and then trim the engine back up until you see that bad boy clean himself up and become nice and smooth. Always try and ride as far back on the line as you can before the wake starts to crumble again.

Prop
If you are like us and you keep your rig for nothing else but hardcore wakeboarding and water sport then you should really look at changing the prop. A good wake will always benefit from more weight and often your engine will only give you so much pull with the amount of weight you want. This is where down pitching the prop size will allow you to load your boat with more beer chugging mates to really help jack up that wake. Like dropping down a gear in your car your top end will suffer but as thisisn’t so important for wakeboarding, it will give you a lot more torque to get your boat up on the plain. Take note that you don’t need a high end stainless steel prop - a flexible small pitch alloy prop is perfect for the job.