I'm looking for an active, lively, wakeboard discussion group. I want to
discuss whether adding a wakeboarding tower to my ski boat is really going
to give my kids some bang for my bucks or if it will just look cool. Of
course everyone selling towers says it will make a significant difference.
For that kind of money I want to talk with someone who isn't trying to sell
me something!

On Mon, 14 May 2007 16:58:40 -0700, "Bryan"
wrote:

I'm looking for an active, lively, wakeboard discussion group

Well, we're just the place you are looking for.

By the way, what's a wake board?

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 May 2007 16:58:40 -0700, "Bryan"
wrote:

I'm looking for an active, lively, wakeboard discussion group

Well, we're just the place you are looking for.

By the way, what's a wake board?


Well then, is a wakeboard tower on a ski boat worth the money?

And since you're being a wise guy, eh, I'll paste the following just for
you. Everyone else can disregard what follows.
Wakeboarding is a surface water sport which involves riding the wake of a
speed boat on a single board. It was developed from a combination of water
skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. Some people believe that
wakeboarding is a copy of skurfing but actually they have different
characteristics.

As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable (that is
made out of rope and does not use rubber bungee cords or anything rubber)
skiing setup, but typically at slower speeds (16 - 23mph). The lines that
tow the rider typically are made of simple rope, but more advanced riders
use a line with a wire core to prevent stretching of the line as a rider
approaches the wake. Beginners start at slower speeds such as 18mph with
shorter ropes(45 - 50 ft). More experienced wakeboarders use faster speeds
such as 22.5 - 24 mph (speed changes can affect wake shapes drastically),
but use 60 feet or longer ropes. Instead of using skis, the rider rides a
single board, known as a wakeboard, with stationary non-release bindings for
each foot, standing sideways as on a snowboard or skateboard. The wakeboard
also has fins on the bottom to help it and you catch the water and make more
precise, awesome jumps and tricks.

The boards, which can float, are typically 118 - 147cm long, depending on
the weight of the rider, and up to 45cm wide (shorter and wider than
snowboards). Unlike snowboards, whose edges taper in towards the center, the
edges of a wakeboard are widest in the middle of the board, with a 15 - 25cm
taper. When viewed from the side, a wakeboard has a concave shape; this is
known as its "rocker." A board with a continuous rocker has a constant curve
to it, and a board with a staged rocker (e.g. "three stage rocker") is made
up of two or more straight sections at different angles that approximate a
curve. More rocker gives a board greater pop off the wake, as well as softer
landings and better trick maneuvers.

On Mon, 14 May 2007 17:53:00 -0700, "Bryan"
wrote:

Well then, is a wakeboard tower on a ski boat worth the money?

All kidding aside, here is how I understand it.

In order to properly achieve the proper wake you have to have a boat
that will produce it. Which would mean in your case, if the boat isn't
set up to produce the proper wake for all the reasons one would wake
board in the first place, then adding a tower doesn't make sense from
that perspective.

However on the boats that I've seen with these towers, it would appear
that they add an element of performance to the skier's/boarders being
towed that you can't achieve with a standard pole arrangement. This
is from observation only - I ordinarily fish a big lake where there
are two ski clubs and they all have boats with towers - some for wake
boarding and some for skiing.

Both of these opinons are based on observation - I have no direct
knowledge of either type of boat - it just appears that boats that are
used for wake boarding produce an entirely different kind of wake than
a boat designed for water skiing. It also appears to me that those
who really want to turn a good performance in their chosen sport all
use towers.

As I said - this is my observation.

I put a tower on my ski boat. I don't regret it but it's not as good as
buying a $35k wakeboard boat :-) It does imporove the wakeboarding and
other things too. It's easier to get people up with a tower or a tall pole.
Do you have a real ski boat? If so you could try one of those pole
extensions that use a wire harness to the front of the boat first to see
what you think. If you don't have areal ski boat then I can tell you a
tower is a lot better than a ski rope hook on the transom.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...DME:B:EF:US:11

"Bryan" wrote in message
t...
I'm looking for an active, lively, wakeboard discussion group. I want to
discuss whether adding a wakeboarding tower to my ski boat is really going
to give my kids some bang for my bucks or if it will just look cool. Of
course everyone selling towers says it will make a significant difference.
For that kind of money I want to talk with someone who isn't trying to
sell me something!