New Surf Product Design from the Competition

[MIskier]

Much more elegant job than the 'bu, these are basically interceptors mounted vertically rather than the horizontally at the transom.

The transom hook on the prostar functions in much the same manner as these do. They allow for earlier separation of flow from the hull which has the effect of creating a bigger hollow behind the boat.

Although these are still going to have the same problem as the surf gate in that they will cause the boat have to be continuously counter steered to remain on a straight course due to the increase in pressure that occurs right before the interceptor.

I attached an image that shows how it functions and the resulting larger hollow.

Credit for the figure is to Hydrodynamics of High Speed Marine Vehicles

[Jerseydave]

Great innovation and would be very useful on bodies of water with no homes/docks. I don't have a waterfront property (yet) but if I did and someone was continuously surfing in front of my dock I wouldn't stand for it.

As more boat companies jump on the surfing bandwagon creating bigger wakes than a 42' cabin cruiser, more homeowners/property owners/environmentalists will be opposed to wakesurfing and perhaps other towed watersports. Keep in mind wakesurfing is not legal or even popular in many areas yet. Maybe boat companies should look into the legalizing of wakesurfing in all states before introducing these new inventions.

[CantRepeat]

Great, I'm sure that diagram will come in handy and I can see were all the engineers here would benefit from such information.

[CantRepeat]

Originally Posted by Jerseydave

Great innovation and would be very useful on bodies of water with no homes/docks.

Well, I think it still comes down to people being responsible for their actions and caring about how it impacts others.

I always surf so that my wave has to travel across the entire lake before it impacts someones dock or boat. But honestly, it's no different then the wake boarding that has been going on for what 20 years now?

[MIskier]

Originally Posted by Jerseydave

Great innovation and would be very useful on bodies of water with no homes/docks. I don't have a waterfront property (yet) but if I did and someone was continuously surfing in front of my dock I wouldn't stand for it.

As more boat companies jump on the surfing bandwagon creating bigger wakes than a 42' cabin cruiser, more homeowners/property owners/environmentalists will be opposed to wakesurfing and perhaps other towed watersports. Keep in mind wakesurfing is not legal or even popular in many areas yet. Maybe boat companies should look into the legalizing of wakesurfing in all states before introducing these new inventions.

As cant said its all about respect, wake surfers and boarders are rarely the problem when it comes to causing problems with bouncing peoples boats and docks around on our lake.

The largest group that we have trouble with are public access boaters that want to buzz peoples docks at 10mph 50ft from the shore while cruising around the lake.

You do have a fair point about it being outlawed in some areas due to unfortunate events, but the same goes for other tow sports or restrictions on boat size and power.

[sand2snow22]

In my experience wake surfing, the large wave(s) diminish rather quickly. Don't get me wrong, they will still will ruin glass and not a good thing to do in front of docks. It is about respect. We usually head straight out into the middle of the lake for surfing. Our sheriff appreciates this and leaves us alone...

For skiing and boarding we usually hug the shore in search of flat water.

[AZX45OD]

Originally Posted by kgrove

The irony is the people doing the most wakesurf bashing are the ones who most benefit from some of these new surf technologies.

I'd throw myself in that camp... Much prefer wakeboarding to surfing, which is exactly why I'm interested (depending on price) in some of these technology developments. I'd surf more often if it weren't such a production to setup the boat. It wouldn't change me into a surfer - would just add an hour every now and then to the end of my day on the lake.

I think KGrove is on to something here. To be a hardcore surfer it takes thousands of pounds of ballast, experimentation, customization, etc. Right now I lack the patience or time to mess with all the set-up. My fondest surfing memories have occurred when I had a boat full of adults that I could send to the back corner, fill factory tanks, and go. If new innovations would make the set-up quicker and easier with out fat sacks, etc then great.

That said, I will sit back and watch and see which gimmicks stick and which ones fall to the wayside. I have already owned a boat with surf tabs...I left them off of my new build...hmmm

[501s]

For those that doubt the size of the waves, a couple years ago I was out surfing and a friend with not a lot of experience was driving. He was a couple hundred feet from shore at least. When we got to the dock to pull out at the end of the night there were a couple guys ready to fight. They had been out on the lake in a canoe with their kid fishing and apparently our wave capsized the canoe and they had to be rescued by another boat. They were soaked and pissed. To this day I still don't understand how no one in the boat noticed. Granted we ride on a big lake (9 miles long) and it was busy Friday evening but I really felt bad about the whole thing. We apologized as many times as we could and they guys eventually left but you could tell they were hoping we would be jerks so they could get in a scrap. Surf waves have some power, even hundreds of feet away.

[sand2snow22]

^Sounds more like envious I'd rather be surfing than trying to stand up in this canoe

[KahunaCraft]

Edit typos.

I have a river to surf with no houses/docks and a decent sized lake, can be 500 yards from shore easily. Would be worth while if someone produced a Surfers Etiquette Guide. Helpful tips, useful information, safe distances, diagrams of wake travel based on lake depth/distance/size/speed/draft/other factors. With little notice, waves on the lake pickup and are easily 3 foot white caps, so the expectation of having no waves on my lake is lower. There is a difference when Mother Nature is to blame, I get that, but just saying. Tubing / wake boarding can create massive rogue waves as well, specifically when double ups are involved or two boats traveling in opposite directions cross.

The guys cruising at surf speeds with a 18-21ft boat driving 50ft from shore with 10 ppl cause as much or more problems.

To get back on topic, it is an interesting innovation. I'm more likely to invest the 3,000$ for something like this or surf tabs into a better ballast system that makes a great wake on one side until I'm good enough and have the desire to start hopping from side to side (of course that desire can be solved with wake boarding). I'll wait and see as i believe that this sport will have significant innovations in the next 18 months.

I also remember when Snowboarding was banned on many ski hills (20-25 yrs ago) because people didn't respect other people.