GSA or Wave Control....

Yes, I realize they are basically the same thing (Wakemakers licenses from GSA.. so GSA is the original) and they have the same MSRP of $4k... but they are a little different(not entirely sure why.) I am trying to understand all the small differences (the only one I really know is that GSA's controller has Bluetooth connectivity to your phone and the controller you mount up looks a little different.) Is anyone aware of any other differences between the two and which one would you pull the trigger on? I am leaning towards GSA as it seems it is really their product. Did everyone pay $4k or is there a sale price from time to time (doesn't seem normal discounts apply.. etc. Thanks much.

Honestly you are better off with a stick on surf gate. Produces the same results for a HELL of a lot less. My buddy has the GSA and we tried both on his boat and the results are the same.

Originally Posted by Stazi

Honestly you are better off with a stick on surf gate. Produces the same results for a HELL of a lot less. My buddy has the GSA and we tried both on his boat and the results are the same.

The waves may look the same but the GSA will have a lot more push further in the pocket than the suck gates.

Not based on our experience.

The only reason GSA will give you more push is the amount of weight required for it too work correctly. GSA sucks on my boat unless it's sacked out. I personally wouldn't spend the money as after market as others have said, much cheaper options that do the same thing. In fact, when we use a ghetto gate I get a cleaner wave than my GSA gives me & I can run less weight & still get a good wave.

GSA and Wavecontrol are 99.9% the same thing first of all.

Yes it requires a ton of weight. Or 2 tons .

Apples to apples for me, a 225# surfer, showed GSA has a stronger wave. Slapper/Suckgate produces 85% of the wave GSA does. For anyone under 190#, it won't really matter. Over that, it matters.

Wakemakers has various 10% coupons you may want to explore.

For a cheap and good suckgate, go with Nauticurl IMHO.

For reference--I did extensive testing on my F24 Tomcat. I mean LOTS.

Originally Posted by Stazi

Honestly you are better off with a stick on surf gate. Produces the same results for a HELL of a lot less. My buddy has the GSA and we tried both on his boat and the results are the same.

Well I was thinking GSA was a HELL of a lot less than a new boat.

That's what my buddy thought too with his XLV. Problem is we cannot get consistent wave shape with the GSA. The unit he bought from Wakemakers has a potentiometer to adjust the deployment level, but it never is the same if you try to vary it and go back to where you had it before. Sometimes you turn the knob and it moves, sometimes it doesn't. Very frustrating. On my other buddy's Möbius LSV, we used a suck-gate that I made for him and it has a far better wave than my buddy with the GSA. We tried adding a V-bag to the XLV to see if that would help and it was actually worse. We still have to add an additional external sack to the side we want to surf and in total we run 3580lb of ballast in the XLV.

Originally Posted by racer808

The only reason GSA will give you more push is the amount of weight required for it too work correctly. GSA sucks on my boat unless it's sacked out. I personally wouldn't spend the money as after market as others have said, much cheaper options that do the same thing. In fact, when we use a ghetto gate I get a cleaner wave than my GSA gives me & I can run less weight & still get a good wave.

I have a pre-surfgate 23LSV and today I have to sack out the boat to have a good wave.. not really trying to get away from adding weight, just looking to evenly weight (which would allow for more weight than I run today. So if I do go with GSA I will pretty much always be surfing with full tanks and 1100 bags in each corner. Are you saying that still isn't enough for GSA?

Originally Posted by gregtay

Well I was thinking GSA was a HELL of a lot less than a new boat.

He suggested a STICK ON surf gate, which is what most people call a "suck gate." You can get one premade for a few hundred bucks or make your own for way less. You might be really happy with it vs. spending so much money.

Or........just make your own GSA style device. Seriously a fabricator can make the wakeplates. You can then get a couple of actuators from Lenco and a couple of switches to deploy the wakeplates. I'll bet it costs less than $600.

Originally Posted by Shakarocks

Or........just make your own GSA style device. Seriously a fabricator can make the wakeplates. You can then get a couple of actuators from Lenco and a couple of switches to deploy the wakeplates. I'll bet it costs less than $600.

Go to the MB forum. Look up goose slappers. DIY automated surf gate-like tabs.

You could have $1000 into a totally automated and consistent system.

Originally Posted by saberworks

He suggested a STICK ON surf gate, which is what most people call a "suck gate." You can get one premade for a few hundred bucks or make your own for way less. You might be really happy with it vs. spending so much money.

Yes.. fully aware of suction cupping a gate to the side of the boat for $200. I was just implying that SGA was the "cheap" route in my opinion vs. buying a new LSV... but obviously a suckgate is even far less money than GSA. suckgate < GSA < new boat.... all by a factor of about 20x increments.

Originally Posted by gregtay

I have a pre-surfgate 23LSV and today I have to sack out the boat to have a good wave.. not really trying to get away from adding weight, just looking to evenly weight (which would allow for more weight than I run today. So if I do go with GSA I will pretty much always be surfing with full tanks and 1100 bags in each corner. Are you saying that still isn't enough for GSA?

Never tried it on your hull, there are a couple guys on Malibu Crew who put it on their Bu's, but I believe they are having to sac it out as well. I run approx 5000-5400 pounds of ballast on my MB. I can get away with dumping my 1100's to 2/3 full & still get a good wave but that's about where it stops. The LSV is a good surf hull so you may love it & hitting the switch is still better than slapping on a suck gate.

If you check out the MB forum, the Malibu Crew there are so many options avail. It is a good system, it's not a POS by any means, it's just a really expensive upgrade that isn't worth the cost IMO, unless you just want to spend the money. I have yet to surf a longer more powerful wave than my GSA wave but I also haven't come across many people who run as much weight as us MB guys are running. I just think it's a very inefficient way to get a killer wave.

I run a Nauticurl on my SV244 along with almost 5k of ballast...killer wave, clean, long and lots of push. Only thing I ever have to adjuster....is a little lead in bow vs in back....5mins and I have a killer wave every time
I have a buddy I surf with every week (we switch off boats every week)...he has a 2007 Malibu 247 with GSA, he also runs over 4k lbs of ballast and has a triangle sac he places over his seats in bow. Both waves are really good, but seems a little harder to consistently dial his GSA to get great "push" every time.

He of course spent $4k on his GSA.....I spent $230 on my Nauticurl.

ok... maybe I will just go the Nauticurl route for now and work on building my own automated gate system in the off season. Save some money and have a fun project.

Seriously spend $100-200 on a stick on gate first before you drop $4000 on the GSA. You may be pleasantly surprised at how well it works for you.

Here you go on the Nauticurl...he just offer this on another thread: (This is for Nauticurl.com). Real nice quality suck gate

Hey Wakeworld, wanted to offer up a discount code for the Wakeworld family. Use code WWORLD20 for $20 off.

I had GSA on my 2011 X25, and two of my good friends have the system on their x45s and Xstar. It's been the most consistent wave I've ever ridden (aftermarket anyways) with a ton of adjustability to mellow or steepen the wave. I ran less ballast with it, and i even ran them both down to help get on place for wakeboard speeds. Great system and worth every penny.

There is a huge difference between a surfgate/suck gate style wave vs a tab system like go surf assist or Mastercraft's Gen 2. Tab systems have way more push than a surfgate style wave IMO. You'll get almost every penny back on your investment in GSA upon resale.... a duck gate is definitely not a selling point. Try it out. If you're unhappy and Ryan a Truck GSA installs it, he will take it off your boat and fix the gel coat, and return your money. Great system and worth the money!

Originally Posted by aricsx15

I had GSA on my 2011 X25, and two of my good friends have the system on their x45s and Xstar. It's been the most consistent wave I've ever ridden (aftermarket anyways) with a ton of adjustability to mellow or steepen the wave. I ran less ballast with it, and i even ran them both down to help get on place for wakeboard speeds. Great system and worth every penny.

There is a huge difference between a surfgate/suck gate style wave vs a tab system like go surf assist or Mastercraft's Gen 2. Tab systems have way more push than a surfgate style wave IMO. You'll get almost every penny back on your investment in GSA upon resale.... a duck gate is definitely not a selling point. Try it out. If you're unhappy and Ryan a Truck GSA installs it, he will take it off your boat and fix the gel coat, and return your money. Great system and worth the money!

Thanks, good to hear about your experience. If I was near Ryan I'd happily have him install it but I'm up in Seattle.

100% love my Wave Control

2006 Malibu 247 8.1L
Wakemakers Wave Control (GSA)
Power Wedge (400-1200#)
Full Malibu under floor ballast: 250 rear lockers, 650 center, 350 bow.
910# locker bags
1000# bow triangle
400# lead in front of locker bags
100# lead lives under bow seat
11.4 mph

So that's 5000# plus the wedge. I'll drop a little rear weight/wedge if I have crew so i can maintain speed. Even if im light on crew when i run 60-75% of max weight, wave is still pretty dang good.

GSA back 4 clicks for either side works well (it would be nice to just have it default to that position.)

I'm more than satisfied with my wave, (Cambridge scientists actually hate me for it), and the system has been 100% reliable.

I never thought it'd be of much value, but we just randomly started doing transfers last week and had a blast doing it... Adds a new dimension to the game.

https://youtu.be/nJ1Y11eQXsA

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Whether you go horizontal tabs, or vertical tabs, don't forget the option of making it yourself. The only technology involved is the automated controller, which you can buy or leave simple with a manual switch. Lots of examples on Wake Garage. $4k does save you a lot of time, trial and error, but don't forget the option of making it for yourself. We get too caught up in "hydrodyamics," angles, measurements, etc. My last set of surf gates (stealth gates posted here), I didn't measure angles one time, based on experience of trial and errors making gates for my previous boat. It's not rocket science.

Just gotta pick between tight budget or lack of free time. I think we all agree at least it's worth making our current boats better.

...And Tim, your wave looks sick!

...And Tim, your wave looks sick!

I decided to pull the trigger and just go the GSA route. I love to tinker and build but I (sadly) just don't have the time.. committed to too many other things (work, family, triathlon, and I am on the road a lot so not a ton of time at home.) Anyway.. install was super easy the results are awesome. Just my wife an I with the kiddos on the boat and we have a better wave then our old listed setup.

Some details on my 2008 23LSV install:

- 10.2MPH seems to be the sweet spot so far, super clean, great push and tons of length. Most amazingly is how wide the surfable area is.. there is just so much more wave to surf.

- My tabs deploy to about 7 degrees (the install video says to target 12.. but I couldn't get that angle to work and Ryan confirmed that with my boat 4-7 degrees is the target.. it worked.

- Best config seems to be all tanks full, wedge fully down, 1100 locker sacks, 10.2 MPH (paddle wheel.. still need to swap to a GPS!)... but we are still getting it dialed in.

- Goofy side wave is of course a little bigger.. but we haven't tried surfing or switching over there yet. I did enjoy hitting the button and watching the wave switch back and forth

- When stowed the tabs tuck up under the swim platform. They stick out a little on the edge and I am sure one day someone will scrape on then getting in the water... but oh well.

- The "lift" feature is pretty sweet... (both tabs deployed).. really nice for when you are sacked out and need to drive somewhere slowly without surfing (to the dock, grab a beer, etc)... obviously you still can't go fast or plane out but it does lower the nose and get the a** out of the hole a bit and the boat doesn't have to work as hard. I did try it during a wakeboard pull and it really pushed the nose down and gets the transom out of the water quickly before the tabs stow as the speed comes up. I am guessing it will be most useful for skiing but didn't ski this weekend. Ryan was great at answering a few questions and making sure we had everything we needed. Yes it was $$$.. but a hell of a lot less then a new 23LSV and I don't mind supporting someone like Ryan who is contributing to our sport.

- My boat has the Monsoon 340 motor and I have no issues with power even with a good crew. RPMs are right around 3050/3100 and the motor seems pretty happy.. working but for from struggling.

- Maneuverability when surfing is FAR improved and I am no longer fearful of taking a wave over the bow or the listed side.

- We attempted surfing with just the stock tanks full and GSA but even with the GSA dialed back to it's minimum setting there wasn't much push. GSA was working too well... the non-surf side wave was delayed so much that the surf wave was never challenged and never got much height. Not a big deal... we weren't surfing with the stock ballast before so nothing lost there.

Photos' below from our first outing with the new system.