Wakesurfing in chop water
 

Hi everyone! I'm assessing purchasing the boat for wakesurfing (Nautique 230 is the choice at the moment). My local conditions is normally far from flat water. That's the reason why nobody used the boat for wakeboard before. I have an idea that the wave for surfing will cover this issue and last surf wave systems in modern boats will give me a chance.
Is anybody knows how is surfing behind the boats on choppy water? Maybe you have some recommendations for separate boats better for my conditions.
Many thx in advance!

When you say choppy water do you mean windy or just rough from other boats. Wind can totally wash out your wave and literally blow you out of the wave. When the lake is just busy, it's not too hard to find your own little place to go and just go back and forth where you came from.

Any large boat is going to be alright with handling the chop and not making the wave disappear.

Surfing in chop is 75% less fun than calm water. But still better than nothing.

Choppy water is the reason to go surfing, because it's too rough to wakeboard.

The winds are normally 5-10knots around here. So the wakeboard isn't good in such conditions. My question is such conditions good enough for surfing behind the boat?

I hear that stated a lot, but once your surfing skill elevates a bit chop jacks up the wave enough that you can’t rip at full blast. Sure you can stand there and carve a little, but boosting or surface tricks are tough in chop.

Especially boat chop from all directions. You can shield a rider some from wind chop with the boat. Waves coming at the surfer from the same direction as the side you surf mess the wave up big time.

yep, wind is one thing. rollers/chop from other boats can be really suck once you start advancing. you learn to look ahead to make sure there's nothing coming down the line

I only ever surf in the chop. It’s fine.

We've never had a problem in conditions that windy, but ultimately it'll depend on variables like skill level, direction of wind, and as others have previously mentioned what exactly is causing the chop. If it's just wind at 5-10 no big deal. Drive in the direction that it gives your rider a tailwind and enjoy the extra push it provides. If it's boat rollers plus wind chop, that can get tricky fast... especially if you're driving into the wind. I'm sure you'll have better and worse days but don't let it deter you from getting out there and surfing!

Ahhh shouldn’t you drive into the wind?

Offshore winds breh (although I bet none of you get it...)


This thread is cracking me up. Unless there are enormous rollers your surf wake will be fine. Small boat chop and up to moderate wind will be totally fine. Like the wake will be rock steady on most cases.

Yeah, no. Do you surf behind a 69’ yacht?

2-3’ rollers are basically miserable. Wind in the face affects big time, unless you’re a dwarf? Crosswind from non surf side can be zeroed out by the boat. All other waves of any size have very notable negative effect.

But we only surf about 200 hrs a summer, so maybe the sample size is too small?

2-3’ rollers are in fact enormous.

Normal 20ft deck boat/runabout/jetski is chop is easy to surf in. I’ll dig up the video of me doing 3’s on a comparatively small surf wake in the middle of the lake on Labor Day at 2pm when the lake is at peak busy.

Offshore winds thing is a joke, as I thought, over your heads...

Hmmm, must be over my head. Or—maybe a joke about something I am not familiar with at all but you are? That could be, too.

You must have the luxury of using a pretty quiet lake. Ours at peak busy is a non-stop barrage of all sized boats plowing along at 12mph making rollers from every direction. You can surf it, but it’s not super fun.

Ugg, myths and rubbish.

The original poster is wanting to know if it is possible to wakesurf in choppy conditions and secondly if the 230 a good choice.
First, boat handling in choppy conditions is all about speed or lack of speed. Some hulls handle choppy conditions better while busting through. At the typical speed you are using to wakesurf choppy conditions are not too big of a boat handling issue. At higher speeds it can be, also while not moving choppy conditions run havoc on a vessel.

Light wind chop versus rollers. Light wind chop is not an issue for wakesurfing, wakeskating, or wakeboarding. Rollers can be. It depends on the size, the angle of convergence and the energy the rollers are bringing to bare. When your wake and a roller converge, at the very least it disrupts the circular motion of the wave, this can cause a rider to drop out, all 'push" and lift is gone. Experienced riders get in the crouched position, weight forward and ride it out. If a big roller converges at the right angle with enough energy it cause an abrupt uplift literally bucking the rider off the wave. You see this in the ocean at wedges where resonating/reflecting energy from jetties or other structure cause convergences. You see it a lot in areas with steep shore grade. The wave (energy) going back out towards the ocean converges with a new wave coming in and a big uplift, double up or many other things occur. This is what launches ocean skim riders in the air.

Rollers are not truly a bigger issue for wakeboarders or wakeskaters, that is not any different than for wakesurfers. When rollers are coming it it disrupts their wake the same, causing them to spend more time just holding on as opposed to cutting in and out, launching, etc. It does suck for the driver and passengers more. The higher speeds of the boat is running can cause all sorts of handling issues with rollers.

Everyone wants butter. Surfers in the ocean want butter between sets as well. Doesn't often happen, but it is what everyone wants.

Riding into the wind. Riding into a light to moderate wind in the ocean is often favorable. It is termed offshore conditions. Under the right conditions it cleans up the face, lifts the face some, and holds the energy back some (retarding the circular motion), so the wave breaks even steeper with more energy release.
Riding in the wind behind the boat is not as favorable. The wave energy behind a boat is relatively small. 'Offshore' conditions behind the boat often cause the rider to fall out more easily (a rider is essentially a sail on a vessel), and it tends to beat down the wake.

Cheers, Nick

Wakesurfing in chop water
 

Ahhhh! He got me with an ocean surfing joke! Shame on me for never having surfed in the ocean.

Rollers suck. Random unpredictable direction and effect.

Thanks for the breakdown Nick!

I could even up the ante: rollers behind a boat with someone that can’t drive perfectly straight really suck!

but 5 knots are only 5.8 mph or 9.3 kmh and 10 knots is only 11.5 mph and 18.5 kmh how is this too windy to wakeboard? What size of swells are you talking? When I see wind that low I don't even think you'll have anything close to white caps. At 10 knots depending on the water body you can start to encounter waves that make wakeboarding less fun but there should still be a shoreline to ride in those conditions.

As for surfing in 10 knots it's not an issue at all.

To get the best results when surfing in the wind, go into it on a slight angle (surfers side) so that the surf and wave is protected from the boat.