G23, RZX, SG450, S238, Z3 Surf Reviews
 

We had a great event this year and all of the boats we outstanding. Year after year the surf wakes get better and better and the competition gets fiercer and fiercer. Check it out.

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Great video. Like the Godzilla.


That Supra SG wake looks ridiculous.

Thank you, it was edited by Ashley Chugg.

Make sure you check out all the setup information and reviews at http://bestwakesurfboats.com. They are very informative. We include engine, prop, ballast setup etc for each boat as it ran for the event.

Events like that are great. Props for putting these on, ragboy. I'll have to check out all the reviews this weekend! What was the general consensus on the different boats? Any score cards?

Robert: the wakeboarding Mags need to start putting you on the payroll for boat reviews, the setup you use is by far the best evaluations on realworld surf boats. I hope the sponsers keep you funded so you keep doing these things. Your reviews is what broke down my top 3 options before I even went to test drive/ride in july, what you said is what I saw when I went out did it myself. So basiclly a HUGE thanks for your support to the land-locked surf community

Your welcome and thanks.

No, we don't do score cards. We thought about many ways, but in the end, I don't think that that works and I will tell you why.

First, I mean no disrespect to Scott ****le and his group that did scorecards. I just don't think its a good idea, my opinion.

One thing I have learned about these reviews is that you need to allow people to read what they want to read and interpret the reviews for themselves. Everyone has biases and pre-built opinions and brand loyalties. I swear, every time we do these events everyone thinks that a different boat was the winner and that is fine by me. At the end of the day this is supposed to be a review by proxy, not an attempt an objective ranking. People will read the reviews and identify with some of the riders and not others and hold some in high regard and disconnect with others. That is perfect.

At the end of the day, people that love to wakesurf, its almost a spiritual thing. You get on that wake, and one wake makes you feel amazing and you can't wait to ride it again, and another is whatever. And that isn't the same for everyone. And then some people may buy the boat cuz they think the heated seats are the bomb or the bow has extra cup holders. How the hell do you quantify that stuff? ;-)

In the end, I think the best you can do is let people tell you how they felt in the boats and on the wake and get out of the way. I do my best to get out of the way. I even leave in the grammatical errors. We love this event and want it to remain as pure as possible.

LOL, I didn't do that to Scotts name, the software must think I was referring to boobies.

Ragboy did you do surfboard reviews this time or just boat reviews?

Ragboy- I can certainly see your point with that. I definitely noticed some flaws in the southern surffest scoring that were actually acurately measurable differences, and the scores were skewed by what I can only guess as biased.......

For instance, Ballast fill time scoring- The G23 was scored best with a 5 out of 5, whereas the X23 was scored as a 4 out of 5. The big problem with that, is that I know with absolute certainty that a 2013-2015 G23 takes 13 minutes, plus, to fill or drain. (2016s now have much bigger pumps and run on a voltage controller to bump them up even faster, which cuts fill/empty time to about 8 minutes now). That gen G has one of the longest fill times of any boat on the market. On the other side of the equation, was the X23. That boat has dual pumps for each tank. 6 pumps total for 3000lbs. The fill time on an X23 is 6:30 on the rear tanks and 5:30 on the front tank. Less than half the time of a G23, and the fastest of the pump ballast system boats in that test. and somehow scored lower. If I was to score that, I would say the G was a 1/5, the X23 was a 3-4/5, and the ram fill boats would be a 5/5.

A lot of the other measurements are preference based, or hard to quantify........ The ballast fill time, however, is not. So, I definitely don't blame you for thinking that scoring like that could be a waste of time.

@brian, not this year because of the drought we almost cancelled and were only able to pull the boats together with quick notice.

@eric I am pretty sure the folks at the southern surf fest were trying to be as objective as possible, but the boats that show up may not be the best representation. Look at the NOTES for each boat in our reviews. The 238 went from dealer to ramp with no dial in time, the RZX was a prototype demo, the Supra may have had the wrong prop on it, etc.

IMHO, if you are going to measure things like fill times and compare boats on a model, you gotta sample several boats of the same model to make sure you don't get any one-off figures, and that probably isn't possible.

That is why just giving out the most accurate observable information and non-filtered reviews is the best way I know. Since you know (taking your word for it) that the G has slower pumps, if a reviewer said, "wow, the G really filled up faster than the X23", you would just disregard it. It wouldn't influence your opinion. You would pick and choose what you want to read and what you need to know for your own decision. So far, I think that works the best, but we are always looking to make it better.

Great video, looks like an awesome event. Those tige wakes and the supra look effin nuts. Not a brand fanboy at all, I'm sure they all ride sick.

That Supra wave looks enormous! :eek:

I thought so too....

One thing I did notice however, when showing the view from the back of the boat/swim platform...it looked to me that the G23 had the best shape and cleanest lip. The Tige also looked really good from this angle!