Best tube or towable for photography
 

I need to buy a tube. Man does that hurt to type that sentence.

I'm looking for a simple and inexpensive tube or towable to use while wakeboarding to get a photographer closer to the action. I have not done this before and don't know what attributes make for a good photography tube. Any recommendations or tips? We have a three person towable now, but it would suck as the front end frequently submarines if the riders put too much weight forward before it gets moving. I'm sure whoever is the photographer (often probably me) will be busy thinking of other things and needs to be able to ignore the boat.

Funny when I first started reading I was going to warn you about that on tubes that are thinner. We have two; one submarines and the other does not. The one that does not is a Connelly Cruzer 2 -
http://www.overtons.com/modperl/prod...3&merchID=4006

Glad to hear you're wanting this for photography purposes and not doing donuts in the middle of the lake/river!

We've used one at my folks house. If you have a reasonably steady hand the Conelly SweptWing is less likely to tip than other small tubes, but not as stable as some of the larger models.

We have a HO 4-Person tube that I bought at Costco for around $200 a couple years ago...my kids are little...4 & 7, so my wife is actually pretty comfortable letting the 4 year old ride this. I've gotta be doing some stupid crap to make it dump somebody. I don't see anything on their website right now, but can almost guarantee they'll have something coming along shortly in the warehouse that is similar. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

http://reviews.costco.com/2070/11589...rating&dir=asc

Also consider the color. Bright yellow and red can cause problems for the wakeboarder if they are doing inverts. The bright colors are distracting to them as they sight their landing.

what type of camera are you using? I have a D60 with a 55-300mm that can get real close even at 65ft line lengths and the photo elements software helps the rest

I have a good dslr and telephoto lens for shooting stills from the boat, but want to experiment with a GoPro for video. They have a very wide angle lens that doesn't do much from 60-80 feet away.

Are you planning to be in front of or behind the rider? We have found its a lot easier in front of the rider because the rider does not have to worry about the rope for the tube (which can be a bit intimidating at first) or all the spray from the rider. For either, it's best to have to go pro on a 3-6ft pole. The shots can be awesome though. We have a "super mable" tube and it works fine. The 3 person more stable tubes are good too.

We had the same problem with the flatter tube submerging :uglyhamme:uglyhamme
Finally found one that's about as steady and unflippable (if there is such a word) as one can get. It is called "Big Bertha". We got ours at a local store called Fleet and Farm, which is nothing more than a MAN'S store. Just google Big Bertha and you should be able to get to any store that handles them. I've seen others, maybe even Overtons. We only paid $100.00 for the thing and it is absolutely safe.