'86 Ski Nautique 2001 Surf Gate

Despite the general negativity towards surfing, it's awesome to see people innovating and designing versions of the NSS and Surfgate because it is making the sport a little more safe. If a small attached board can produce the same wake that 1200lbs+ in a listing boat can, it would be stupid to not support it.

With that said, definitely add some more pics of how you built/attached it!

That's pretty sweet. Please post a pic of this bolt on device if you can.

quinner wrote: In order to be a surfer, is a strap on device required??

Only in your case Chris, the rest of us are quite adequate with no need for an extension.

I just drop some coin to make my boat a serious tubing machine and now tubing is on it's way out? Ouch!

It's both ballast placement and the surfgate. No need to weight the boat heavier on one side anymore though.. Weight her even(well... like the picture below) and let the surf gate do the rest!



Plan is to make them on both sides so you can switch between port & starboard surfing in seconds and easily removable if need be. Also I'm gonna see what I can do about making it easily applicable to all 2001's incase anyone else wants one.

That's sweet. I've been toying with a similar idea for awhile for our 2001. We surf with the boat heavily listed now. I'd like to see some pics of your tabs if possible to try to fab some up for my 2001. Sure would be nice to get a surfable wave without the listing.

I have searched forums everywhere trying to find a way to "SAFELY" surf a 2001 (Without listing & using any amount of ballast but for me specifically 2010lbs). I couldn't find a thing... So I've started designing a surf gate specific for the 2001. And I'm gonna post all progress here for anyone else trying to do the same!

The First Video is my VERY rudimentary design & initial result.. And man am I impressed!


The Second Video is me surfing the first videos wake (aside from the addition of one extra person in the boat minding the rope & transom radio control.)


This was the ballast setup at the time:


Pretty awesome for a 2001 AND NO LISTING!!!! I hated slamming the boat on one side and praying I wouldn't get swamped by another wake. Now I'm weighted EVENLY and I don’t even have the rub rail under water like I used to! (video 1 shows the rub rail about 6" out of the water)

More to come on this for sure as I Design/Test/Re-Design/Test. I'm pretty excited about this! I feel that it’s totally surfable (for a 2001) and SO safe! (for the amount of weight I'm using) With a little training I'd feel comfortable letting anyone drive. (The first season of surfing was with the same weight towards one side and the boat listed/tilted terribly. I was SO scared of someone swamping the boat that I only got to surf ONCE!! After that I was the designated driver and everyone else got to surf)

UPDATED 8/15/14
Here are some pictures of the VERY rudimentary surf gate. Im currently in the process of fabricating an aluminium gate for both sides. This one is currently clamped to the swim deck.




UPDATED 05/15/15
It's been quite some time since I've updated... or even worked on the gate. Had tons of re-upholstery to do on this Nautique to match the new exterior.


AS FOR THE GATE
I decided to raise the swim platform by 3 inches. Fully weighted it was dragging a bit impeding the wake shape a little. Also viewable in the picture is the aluminum hinge plate for the surf gate. Currently in a test/mach up phase but functioning quite well. Current design plan has two identical hinge plates mounted on each side of the boat. Its a quick attach/detach system with a slide pin adjustment that allows for multiple angles off the hinge to find the best angle for the wake.(can be seen on the left side of the picture)






ABOVE GATE BEING TESTED BELOW



ANOTHER VIEW



This was the ballast set up at the time



Oss!

Thaddeus