Perfect Pass: GPS vs. Paddlewheel?

[traysonh 11]

What is important to the skier/surfer/wakeboarder is the speed relative to the water speed. In my case, I live on a lake that can have pretty strong currents, therefore the paddle wheel is better. Otherwise I have to guess speed changes upstream to downstream. My preference was the paddle wheel. Recreational not competition riders.

 

I would have to agree. I had Paddlewheel PP on my Direct drive and we were on rivers the vast majority of the time. I have paddle wheel on my 2008 XLV (drive by wire v-drive) and it's great.

 

As a contrast, I pulled my buddy surfing on his MB Sport F22 tomcat. He had the GPS Perfect pass and it was a PITA riding on the river. If I was going to pull him upsteam I had to set the PP at around 12mph, but if we turned and started going downstream then I had to take it all the way down to 8 or 9mph. (or vise versa). Bottom line is that when we were going upstream and I turned to go downsteam (or vise versa), I couldn't get the PP setting up/down fast enough. The wave ended up getting screwed up and the rider fell off.

 

In contrast, my paddlewheel is always adjusting to the currents and I can go upsteam, downstream, or sideways and it'll adjust. I also don't have to pick a different speed depending on how fast the water is flowing. I also like the fact that my paddlewheel has an integrated water temp sensor so my Perfect pass will display water temp.

 

 

 

And when I go to a lake with no current? Well, the paddlewheel still works fine. I also boat sometimes in a lake with 100 to 200+ feet canyon walls, so there'd certainly be a chance the GPS might not be able to see a satellite...

 

 

It's all about the rider's speed over the water. Who cares about your land speed? I have always found the paddlewheel to be pretty spot on with my speed so I have no reason to think about or want a GPS. And in a couple seasons of boating I think I did have one instance where something was messing with the paddlewheel (debris??), but even w/o the ability for it to show speed, it was still able to control things because it automatically switched over to RPM mode. It was just a one time thing, and never happened again.

[jester 111]

I have to agree with Trayson, If you are in a lake it does not matter but a river you have to mess with it. Now to play the other side with GPS you do not have to worry about a little twig getting stuck in the paddle wheel causing PP to think the boat is not moving so it keeps speeding up. At that point someone gets to take a swim under the boat or you will have to ride the rest of the day without PP.

[traysonh 11]

I have to agree with Trayson, If you are in a lake it does not matter but a river you have to mess with it. Now to play the other side with GPS you do not have to worry about a little twig getting stuck in the paddle wheel causing PP to think the boat is not moving so it keeps speeding up. At that point someone gets to take a swim under the boat or you will have to ride the rest of the day without PP.

 

Actually neither system requires you to completely do w/o your PP if you have an "issue". If the GPS can't find satellites, or if the paddlewheel finds some piece of debris; then the work around for either of them is to simply operate it in RPM mode.

 

Like I said, the one time that my PP did have something messing with the paddlewheel, it wouldn't register a speed. However, when I flipped the unit over to RPM mode, it worked fine. And since I'd already been using it, the unit already had a set point established in RPM's. So if I had it set at 10.3mph, in the background, the RPM's were already set to the number that corresponded with that speed. That was pretty cool.

 

That said, I do always have my Scuba mask/snorkel in the boat with me for any required diving expeditions!

[Hendo 11]

I will say my gps takes LOTS of fine tuning when I boat on the ohio river. Then you go the other way, and I have to be in the boat to fix it. My Avy with the paddle wheel was much easier in this scenario. But the gps has been smoother to engage, and doesn't have such big adjustments in speed (maybe because it's newer?).

[RVR-RAT 269]

I will say my gps takes LOTS of fine tuning when I boat on the ohio river. Then you go the other way, and I have to be in the boat to fix it. My Avy with the paddle wheel was much easier in this scenario. But the gps has been smoother to engage, and doesn't have such big adjustments in speed (maybe because it's newer?).

 

X2

[boatnut 230]

I've had both, and they both work for what they are intended to do period...