'86 Ski Nautique 2001 Surf Gate

Mojo wrote: I have a Suck Gate for sale if anyone is interested.... Cheap. Moj'

Dave,

I'm not surprised you have it for sale. The waves on GL are big enough that you don't need it for surfing!

Thaddeus116 wrote: We're still surfing ours! It's nothing like the new boats but it works!

Yeah, but I like the old boats (love the 2001), and it's just like my older trucks, easy to work on, and more reliable.

What wake shaper are you using now? I just had to replace the 454 in my 2001 and waiting on the distributor to get delivered, so I haven't been out yet this season.

Thaddeus, Ringer, BoarderDad, are y'all still surfing 2001's?

I need to get ballast, but its expensive here in South Africa.
Locally one 540lbs bag is about $350
from the states I can get for around $70 -200 but then shipping is another $200 :/

Lose lose,

I have reached out to guys that do air tight PVC pontoons for boats to see if they can quote on some custom bags, might be my best option at this point.

anyone try this on a sn2001

They are easy to make once you have the suction handle.

Suck Gate DIY

I don't surf but I have a Harbor Freight store near my house so I built one for about $7 just for the heck of it. I haven't tried it yet but my plan is to see how fast you can go without it falling off. Maybe it can work for wakeboarding as well or some version of it. You can attach a rope to it for when it falls off. The $500 model comes with nice cord with a clip at the end.

Mission Delta Wake Panel

Have you seen the "suck gate" thread?

Suck Gate

Any updates on the surfgate?

Google the ronix eight.3. It is a nylon triangle you Velcro to the side of the boat.

I have enjoyed this thread. I like your wedge idea a lot. I found a great link that shows a wedge on an older malibu. It has some decent diagrams near the end of the thread that might be of interest to anybody looking to implement this design.

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26752-homemade-floating-wedge-for-much-older-malibu-87-sunsetter/page-2

I'm enjoying this thread, I'm not a surfer currently, but like the way you guys have gone about your projects.

In looking at your design of the surf gate, the following occurred to me, sorry if you've discussed it before. Could the entire mechanism be incorporated into the swim platform with no connection to the hull? My thought is even if you had to beef up the platform, and maybe provide a more robust platform mounting plate on the transom, that way you could have the entire mechanism removable with 2 pins. Want to surf, put the surf platform on. Want to ski or cruise, put a spare "normal" platform on.

Just a thought.

To anyone interested I have been working on plans for the Hinge Plate and Surf Gate. The Hinge Plate Plan looks to be done. If you are Interested PM me and I'll send you the plans ASAP!


I'm currently working on and testing a less dangerous more aesthetic looking Surf Gate. Trying to make this thing as factory looking as physically possible without sacrificing function. When that's passed the test I'll make the Surf Gate Plans and Post again.


ALSO I'm sick of ballast bags... I'm almost always over weight capacity, takes 10 mins to fill/drain, and severely limits the space for passengers and/or gear. I'm designing a Wedge modeled after Malibu's design... Plan is hard tank in front and Wedge in the back. If I can do it successfully there will be plans up for that too.



Oss!

Thaddeus

I have 150 hours on my boat so far this season I bet over half with the gate... Haven't had a problem yet...   Its a game changer!!!   Tons of people at my local lake have seen it and are building them for their boats.   Still waiting for my friend to edit some video but I did spin a 360 behind my boat this weekend! And we braided a new safer rope... Hard to toss back to boat so now I just toss to other side of wake

cspruill wrote: How did it go Thaddeus?

Wow! The Starboard side wave cleans up SO much nicer. And has slightly better push. It's SO weird surfing heel side edge. There is certainly a noticeable difference. I'll get gate and hinge plate measurements up here as soon as I can. Also just FYI, this build only ran me about $200. And $90 of it was for the TIG welding! I'm also working on a new weight configuration and auto-ballast... Hopefully gonna free up some much needed space in the boat.