<$30,000 Wakesurf boat - Newbie Question
 

Ok people I'm hoping I can get some opinions here... I am new to wake sports. This year I bought a 1999 Air Nautique for which I thought we were going to be mostly tubing and skiing. The is a perfect DD boat for that. However we tried surfing and we LOVE it, even the 5 yr old does it tandem with my wife.

My question is we cannot get a good surf pocket. It seems we can get it steep enough, but then you're right on the platform. Here's our set-up we run with 750 in rear locker offset to port, 400 surf side at engine compartment, and 300 in the ski locker... I have also tried maybe 150 opposite side near engine, and 400 in the bow, neither worked too well.

I have created a manual NSS that extends 2.5in out and 1in. down with limited results, however its better than without.

So my question is, do I sell this boat and upgrade to a newer v-drive 2000 Super Air Nautique 210, or maybe stretch it to a Axis A20. Reason for the Axis is I may have a lead on a 2013 demo boat.

Thanks for your help... Ryan

I may know of a '13 A20 for a good price. PM me if you end up pursuing that route. Keep in mind that the '14+ Axis boats have the surfgate option, but a listed Axis still throws a really nice surf wave when properly weighted.

Centurion Avalanche, MB Sports, Tige

These boats will surf better out of the box than a 2000s Superair...

In my direct drive, I also had a manual NSS system. My optimal setup was:

750 on each side of the engine. 350 under rear seat. 150 in rear corner seat. It was pretty damn good for a DD. better than some vdrives I've been in. I also had a custom surf platform. The OEM swim platform would dig into the surf wave and rob it of all the power.

My DD never liked bow weight. without the NSS, we'd have to double stack the 750's on the surf side and slam the crap out of the rear corner. But with the surf system, we could weight equally and be all good.

That said, a DD is never going to be able to truly compete with a Vdrive for surf wave and especially convenience. I sold my DD and take delivery on my 2008 V-drive in a couple days. For us, it was a natural step and it wasn't "if" we'd upgrade to a v-drive, it was "when".

Trayson- what boat did you choose?

Well, I will say that for me, the seating and overall layout was really important. I really loved the wrap around front seating with the dual flipup backrests in the playpen bow. To get that playpen bow, I needed to go for a supra 21v or 24v. Or a Moomba XLV, or an Axis A22. While I loved the Axis, I couldn't afford one. So I had a 2008 Moomba Mobius XLX fall in my lap, so I threw down and it's pretty much gonna be the "forever boat" as I don't see us changing anytime soon.

How do this XLVs surf? Need tons of weight?

How do the XLVs surf? Need tons of weight?

I think they do need a bit of weight. I'm going to start with 1100's in the rear lockers and an 1100 in the "basement storage" (the storage that goes all the way down to the bilge under the playpen bow).

I'll likely tackle a surf system at some point, but the hull has some really challenging shape on the stern, so it's not going to be as easy as my Sunsport was.

I'm sure I'll be able to get a decent surf wave. Maybe not the best ever created, but coming from a DD, I'm sure it'll be a drastic improvement.

So Trayson do you think your Honda Ridgeline can tow the Moomba or do you think you will get a new tow vehicle in the spring. Cause I just looked on the moomba website at the old owners manuals and it says both the boat and trailer together weigh 4700 then you add on 280 pounds for gas and the 120 pounds for the batteries and you will be at probably 5100 pounds so you will be at about 100 pounds over the towing capacity of the ridgeline.

I'm gonna be at the limit, yes. But there are a couple XLV owners on the Moomba forums that tow their XLV's with a ridgeline and they said it does well.

I took my Supra Sunsport through the truck scales and my sunsport on the trailer weighed in at 5,100 pounds with a tongue weight of ~300 pounds. (the Ridgeline has a max tongue weight spec of 600). The vast majority of the time, we tow 15 minutes to the ramp. The one trip we did longer, we went up and over Mount Hood and many passes in the high dessert of Oregon. I was able to pull at 40-45mph if I kept the RPMs at a conservative level going up the passes and if I wanted to really rev it up, I could do 55-60mph. I only got 8-9mpg overall though. Stopping seemed decent enough, and the new XLV has 4 disc brakes on the trailer (compared the the drums on the Supra), so that will help.

The Ridgeline is the Wife's vehicle and it's just not in the cards for her to change to something different. She loves it and we have no desire to have a big full sized truck.

For Labor Day we did a long trip and we used the Ridgeline to tow our little 2500 pound camping trailer and had my friend in his Dodge Cummings diesel tow the boat. Honestly, I'd rather throw down on a small class C motorhome to tow the boat with on long camping trips than get a truck.

It's possible we'll end up adding some of the Firestone Coil-Rite airbags to the rear if needed though.

my brother-in-law has an 05' XLV. we finally got the surf wave dialed in pretty good. I have a 05" Enzo and it is no where close to mine but good. he has a 1100 in the back locker and I think 400 or what ever fits in front of that. I know he cut out a section under that bench to fit a bigger bag. he runs maybe 100 or so on the starboard side. it takes the spray off. speed is 10.5-10.7 and you have to mess with the wake plate to lengthen the pocket otherwise it is steep and real close to the back of the boat. it is real sensitive to weight. so if the crew changes adjustment have to be made or else it sucks. my Enzo I have 1100 in the rear locker and 750 under the bench riders can pretty much sit where ever they want.
his wakeboard wake is much better than mine.
he use to pull it with a trailblazer with weight distributing bars and added a transmission cooler. it would do it but it was hard on it. he would tow from Ohio to Norris TN with some good mountain passes.
good luck!