surf

[bagger707 0]

bought 2000 ski centurion elite direct drive.only had 80 hours. kids want to surf , decent wake at low speeds. question is what do i need to do for them to surf. can i add DIY suck gate an a fat sack in rear or just suck gate? thanks

[SWELL Wakesurf 2]

Should have no problem surfing behind this boat, Congrats on the purchase BTW! I'd recommend to start with a fat sack in the 600lb range in the very back and have someone sit in the spotter seat to start out with, you'll definitely want some type of Wakesurf Shaper, of course we offer one, www.swellwake.com but there are many options out there. This will clean up the wave dramatically as well as allow you to not have to lean the boat to one side. Hope that helps and good luck and have fun!

[Nick213 583]

I had a 05 elite DD and ran a 1000#L bag I bought from the crew store. It worked great!

[InfinitySurf 302]

Congrats on the boat. Hands down the BEST family time investment I have ever made. I will never not, own a boat...only thing in life that is guaranteed to make me smile every time I am out, not to mention the wife and kids also love it and we have grown even closer as family as its something we all look forward to doing together.

Personal opinion....if you got a 2000 with such low hours, it was not used much obviously and for a boat, that can actually be worse that many hours. I only tell you that so you CHECK things really good, like the fuel lines, make sure the service was done and you have a fresh impeller, all fluids, etc. In 2012....I found a 2006 Sea Ray bowrider that only had 100hrs on it....it sat in a driveway for 3yrs and wouldnt start cause carbs were gunked....check compression to make sure engine was good and I got it at a STEAL. Totally serviced the boat top to bottom and it ran like a dream for 3yrs. Sold it in 2016 for almost double what I paid for it. Rare find!! Sorry...got a little off track there going down memory lane, the point was to make sure you check it out so it will run great and you dont damage something badly cause someone else neglected it by not using it.

 

A suck gate is not gonna work without the ballast...least it wont create a wave you can ride without ballast...cause if you don't weight the boat in the back, there will be push or substance to your "delayed convergence" and that is what makes the wave rideable.

I have not tried a lot of gates, just 2....so will just share my experiences.

1st one, looks similar to the one posted above (a lot of the designs look like that model) and sure it will work well and the bonus about that one is that it FLOATS if it comes loose. Anyway, it did work pretty well, I was in a friends Tige boat at the time.

 

I recently bought a surf gate from Nauticurl.com for my SV244. Dont need it with my boat, just like options and though maybe not listing and maxing out all my ballast my create something different....and it is a slightly different wave. Both are good. This one, is made from aircraft aluminum...so very light, but of course would sink so it has a paracord that attaches to something in case it were to come loose, tho it has not since I have used it. What I do....is tie the paracord to a large boat fender so if it were to come off, it will take the fender with it, and the fender will keep it floating (tie that knot good, lol)....afraid if it popped off and dragged on side of boat, that it could bang on side of boat, etc.....so it was just a thought I had to keep that from happening.

The price was also right at about $200. I lot of the gates are over priced IMO since it simple design with $20 of materials. There are also a lot of DIY threads out there where you can build something similar to the one posted above....obviously don't know the price of that one.

 

I would get as much ballast as you think will work safely as the more ballast you have, the BETTER the wave is gonna be. You also probably want to weight the boat level...in my experience the suck gate works better, plus....if you have a ballast bag in boat that is not secured, if you run listed and hit a wave, it could move and cause trouble you don't want! Think what may happen if 600-1000lbs rolled suddenly to one side of the boat when you were not expecting it. Some boats are designed to handle that...yours is not exactly speced for something like that.

Get a suck gate....probably any of them are gonna work similar. You can find a nice one from between $200-$250 pretty easy.

 

Most important...have a blast! Thank the good Lord that summer is finally arriving. I need to find a hobby for winter cause all I do is wish it was warm enough to go out on boat.