XJ's Official S238 thread...pictures

[xj1514 13]

1 hour ago, MFaso said:

She dropped the rope. That's all that matters to me at this point. I "think" the goal is a nice clean wave with little to no white wash on the top but again, she is rope less! I think if you add a little more trim tab that white wash on top should begin to disappear. I'm  going out tonight to play with mine a bit more. I'll try and snap a picture.

Sounds good. I tried surfing the same side and it had a good amount of push, but I weigh 240, so maybe I've just got too much drag in the tail end, lol. 

I switched everything over to the goofy side, and it was ok, I had to hold the rope still, but only maybe 10% of my total weight was on the rope. 

[Cwazy1 89]

1 hour ago, xj1514 said:

Sounds good. I tried surfing the same side and it had a good amount of push, but I weigh 240, so maybe I've just got too much drag in the tail end, lol. 

I switched everything over to the goofy side, and it was ok, I had to hold the rope still, but only maybe 10% of my total weight was on the rope. 

Maybe I missed it but what board are you riding?

[xj1514 13]

Ronix Koal, I think 5'6". I'll have to measure it. Is there a better one for big guys? 

[MFaso 56]

18 hours ago, xj1514 said:

Ronix Koal, I think 5'6". I'll have to measure it. Is there a better one for big guys? 

5'6 is really big. You shouldn't have an issue dropping the rope. I don't think it's the board. Once you get it, you will want a smaller board. I'm 215. Last night we went out and my friend who is also having some trouble dropping the rope for more than say 20 seconds at a time brought his ocean board. It was 6'1. He dropped the rope for his normal 20 seconds. I dropped it for ever.(Well, until I screwed around enough to lose the wave...lol)

I think that bow weight is hurting you personally. I tried it and it kills my push. Last night I also tried draning the starboard QF to list harder and the push was gone. I had my friend stop the boat, fill it again(1 minute or so) and as soon as I got back up, it was back to normal with push. The boat NEEDS the back weight.

I'll post a video of me riding the ocean surfboard for the first time in a bit...

[xj1514 13]

1 hour ago, MFaso said:

5'6 is really big. You shouldn't have an issue dropping the rope. I don't think it's the board. Once you get it, you will want a smaller board. I'm 215. Last night we went out and my friend who is also having some trouble dropping the rope for more than say 20 seconds at a time brought his ocean board. It was 6'1. He dropped the rope for his normal 20 seconds. I dropped it for ever.(Well, until I screwed around enough to lose the wave...lol)

I think that bow weight is hurting you personally. I tried it and it kills my push. Last night I also tried draning the starboard QF to list harder and the push was gone. I had my friend stop the boat, fill it again(1 minute or so) and as soon as I got back up, it was back to normal with push. The boat NEEDS the back weight.

I'll post a video of me riding the ocean surfboard for the first time in a bit...

I originally went with no bow weight and listed, zero push. Bow weight and then it was much better. I'm chasing my tail I think. Dealer is coming out this weekend to help me out. 

What settings are you guys using for wakeboarding? My wake was super washed out and I didn't even bother to ride. 

[MFaso 56]

Listed with no bow weight didn't work for me either. Try filling rear port and starboard and QF port and starboard to 100 then test it, then drain some pnp starboard weight until you like the wave. It will list slightly but nothing major.

I honestly don't even own a wakeboard anymore. lol If I'm getting towed, I have to be surfing. there was a thread here on wakeboard setup somewhere a week or two ago.

 

[Jake707 171]

I finally sold my wakeboard last week after it hanging in the garage for 2 years untouched.  Now I just gotta sell my wifes.  We were originally hanging on to them thinking "well what if someone wants to come on the boat and wakeboard"  now we just accepted we don't let those types of people on our boat anymore haha

[xj1514 13]

Have a bunch of videos, still not able to surf, I'm able to do a 360 of that matters. Tried every setting mentioned here, and tried all ballast full, and just quick surf. For some reason even the wife could not go ropeless. 

I even listed the boat hard, really hard, to no avail, could be surfing capabilities, but I don't think so  

The dealer came out with me, he was able to surf just fine with no rope so I thought we had it figured out. Problem is we loaded 4 more people after we dropped him off and it messed all the settings up. 

Still cant get wake board wake set up. I can get one side cleaned up, but the other will be completely washed out to where it pulls the board under. 

Also, I have stress cracks on the starboard side front mount on the tower. I have full confidence that the dealer will fix it, this is why I bought from him, but at this point my boat is pissing me off and I'm super disappointed. 

[xj1514 13]

http://i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff502/xj1514/A63E981A-9675-4A92-96C8-3EE50704F19C.jpg

 

not sure why photo won't post

Edited June 25, 2017 by xj1514

[InfinitySurf 302]

You just gotta be patient with yourself XJ and keep trying. No offense, but its not the boat. Surfing ropeless is all about technice  and small movements, it can take a while to figure out. Just don't give up, you gotta put your time in...you have only had the boat like a week. I have found one thing that helps a lot is having video of yourself surfing, that way you can watch it and see what you are doing wrong yourself rather than have people yelling at you from boat. From a different perspective, it can be obvious. I was videoing my brother the other day, he was having same issue and I showed him on video that you could see that his nose was pointed up a little which basically meant too much weight on back foot. He shifted his stance  and started tossing the rope almost right away.

[xj1514 13]

4 minutes ago, InfinitySurf said:

You just gotta be patient with yourself XJ and keep trying. No offense, but its not the boat. Surfing ropeless is all about technice  and small movements, it can take a while to figure out. Just don't give up, you gotta put your time in...you have only had the boat like a week. I have found one thing that helps a lot is having video of yourself surfing, that way you can watch it and see what you are doing wrong yourself rather than have people yelling at you from boat. From a different perspective, it can be obvious. I was videoing my brother the other day, he was having same issue and I showed him on video that you could see that his nose was pointed up a little which basically meant too much weight on back foot. He shifted his stance  and started tossing the rope almost right away.

Makes sense. I have a ton of videos. I'll look at them some more. 

[xj1514 13]

All day of surfing. No ropes thrown.  Every combination I can come up with, nada. 

 

Tried to wake board, port side wash is unbearable, didn't even put the board on. 

Super bummed out. 

Also my board is 5', maybe I need the 5'6"?

ive watched so many videos of folks surfing, just kinda riding along, i pump the bejezuz out of it to no avail. 

[Fivebar2 176]

Where do you surf at? River, lake etc? Have you played with speed at all? What's the depth where you are surfing? Can you post some video of you surfing?

[InfinitySurf 302]

Did the dealer make it out with you this weekend? Thought you said something about him helping you with your settings.

Happy to take you out on my boat if you are near NC and will help you all I can, if not there may be other members who could help you out. The board is definitely important....as is the wave. I don't know much about Ronix Koal, others probably do. I am 205lbs and started on a Liquid Force skim style that did not support my weight well so I "washed out" the back often cause I had trouble figuring out how to pump and stay in the pocket by carving even tho I watched video's for hours on end. Then I got a 4' 8" Doomswell Neo, that thing is thick, very buoyant, and very fast. It took a little getting used to cause it was so different, but then allowed me to progress quicker on my skills and now I can also ride that skim style board really easy as well without losing wave. Changing my stance helped me out a ton, as did watching people surf that were better than me while I drove....biggest thing for me was probably getting the right board tho (not saying you have the wrong one, I honestly don't know)

Hopefully someone can help you. Like Fivebar2 said....if you can post some video's, people can probably help you with stance, etc since its equally important to have right board, right stance and good wave. Video will also show the wave and the Supreme guys can help you with that. H20king and Cwazy seem to have a lot of knowledge in that area. Good luck man, don't give up. Like any sport, being good doesn't come overnight. Just a thought....maybe work on just progressing on the board for a while and don't throw the rope. It will give you more time on the wave to figure things out and maybe frustrate you less.

[xj1514 13]

1 hour ago, Fivebar2 said:

Where do you surf at? River, lake etc? Have you played with speed at all? What's the depth where you are surfing? Can you post some video of you surfing?

Lake. 100' plus. Speed, 9.5 to 12.4. 

Video, work in progress and coming soon, just need to get them from the person who shot the footage.

[xj1514 13]

1 hour ago, InfinitySurf said:

Did the dealer make it out with you this weekend? Thought you said something about him helping you with your settings.

Happy to take you out on my boat if you are near NC and will help you all I can, if not there may be other members who could help you out. The board is definitely important....as is the wave. I don't know much about Ronix Koal, others probably do. I am 205lbs and started on a Liquid Force skim style that did not support my weight well so I "washed out" the back often cause I had trouble figuring out how to pump and stay in the pocket by carving even tho I watched video's for hours on end. Then I got a 4' 8" Doomswell Neo, that thing is thick, very buoyant, and very fast. It took a little getting used to cause it was so different, but then allowed me to progress quicker on my skills and now I can also ride that skim style board really easy as well without losing wave. Changing my stance helped me out a ton, as did watching people surf that were better than me while I drove....biggest thing for me was probably getting the right board tho (not saying you have the wrong one, I honestly don't know)

Hopefully someone can help you. Like Fivebar2 said....if you can post some video's, people can probably help you with stance, etc since its equally important to have right board, right stance and good wave. Video will also show the wave and the Supreme guys can help you with that. H20king and Cwazy seem to have a lot of knowledge in that area. Good luck man, don't give up. Like any sport, being good doesn't come overnight. Just a thought....maybe work on just progressing on the board for a while and don't throw the rope. It will give you more time on the wave to figure things out and maybe frustrate you less.

Dealer came out, he set the wave how he through was good, and he surfed it regular side, I'm goofy and much heavier than him, 6'1" 240 or so. 

Its strange, he used full ballast, and unlisted, wave looked good, by the naked eye the same as the listed setups I've tried. The 600lbs of leadwake, 8 people, and 1100lb fly highs (which blew out the metal channel on the engine divider) throws a large wave. 

Im shopping for boards, mine is trashed, a buddy accidentally shot it at the back of the boat when he fell, it's cracked now. So much for a 600 dollar board. 

Anyone else crack the fiberglass under the tower? 

[Cwazy1 89]

It sounds like the setup is fine. The amount of weight in the boat sounds about par to how I'd set up a 238 to throw a really great wave. 

Your size and your board are going to be the main challenges in going rope-less here. 

For someone of beginner skill level, we're talking board sizes like so..

4-8 for ~160

4-10 for ~180

5-0 for ~200

5-2 for ~220 

5-4 for ~240 

5-6 for ~260

Always oversize rather than undersize on your board especially if you're a beginner, and if you're a bigger dude. Smaller people don't quite know what it really is like to be 220+ and ride a board. For a ~180 pound person riding a 4-8 doomswell, that'll push you right into the boat. This would NOT AT ALL be the case for someone 220+.

Thats actually convenient that your board is broken. Let us help you shop for a board that'll keep you afloat. 

 

[Cwazy1 89]

I would do the el jefe from Doomswell, it'll likely give you the best push and near 100% certainty that the board/weight won't be the issue. 

https://www.doomswell.com/collections/wake-surf-boards/products/17-el-jefe-funboard

 

[xj1514 13]

3 hours ago, Cwazy1 said:

I would do the el jefe from Doomswell, it'll likely give you the best push and near 100% certainty that the board/weight won't be the issue. 

https://www.doomswell.com/collections/wake-surf-boards/products/17-el-jefe-funboard

 

Thanks so much. Was just talking to my buddies at the dealership trying to pick a board to replace mine. 

Will this work for my wife who is 120 and also a beginner?

[Cwazy1 89]

17 minutes ago, xj1514 said:

Thanks so much. Was just talking to my buddies at the dealership trying to pick a board to replace mine. 

Will this work for my wife who is 120 and also a beginner?

That'll depend on your definition of 'work'. She'll be able to ride it as long as she is well versed enough to get up on a larger board. Some smaller folk, namely smaller women, have a harder time getting enough heel pressure to pop a larger board up when starting. 

It likely won't be quite as fun for your wife since the board will feel like riding a log. The biggest burden of a smaller person riding an over sized board is the foot position and stance. She just won't have the strength and weight to whip a large board around. On the flip side she'll probably be able to ride 30-35 feet behind the boat way far in the wash because it'll have so much push for her. It'll also mean she can basically just chill on the board effortlessly and not worry about falling out the wave.

If I were you, I'd do two things. 

1. Get a board that will support your weight. This is really important to being less frustrated and progressing as a rider. Your old Ronix Koal might have been 5'6, but its a much thinner board and also tapers its nose up front making the nose of the board less buoyant and easier to pearl the board with too much front foot pressure. The el jefe is nearly 2.5" thick in the middle and has a rail line that goes way up front to a full volume funboard shape. This makes the overall volume huge and has that ability to take on lots of nose pressure for hanging 5. Its just shaped better for max push. I'd ride this as a twin. 

2a. Take your current board that was damaged and repair it yourself using solarez (http://amzn.to/2tNZKZ1). Its a UV cure epoxy. Handy to have in any case for future dings. Sand clean the crack or dent thats on your current board, Slap some solarez on it, let it cure, and then sand it back to the original shape of the board. Then have your wife ride it until she progresses out of it. 

Another option to #2, we'll call it 2b, would be to get a 'average size' board. Something around 4-8. That would be a better size for your wife and other people sub-200 pound.