Wake Surfing for Beginners

How to Weight your Boat for Wakesurfing

Even the best wakesurfer can't surf well without a good wake. Part of this relies on having a good driver, part relies on your boat, and part relies on how much ballast you have. Putting extra weight in your boat will push your hull deeper into the water, causing you to displace more water and create a bigger wake.

There are two types of ballast: water ballast and solid ballast. Solid ballast is composed of things like sand, lead, or people. Water ballast is when you pump water into your boat in the form of "fat sacs."

I tend to prefer water ballast for two reasons. First, I can pump it in and out at will. This affords me greater control of my wake. It also helps me reduce tension on my boat lift by emptying the ballast before I put the boat on the lift. The second reason is that if you start to take on water (which happens more often than you would like.. I'm sure every inboard-boat-owner has dumped their bow in a large wave at least once) that your boat won't sink. Hard ballast will bring your boat down to the bottom. Water ballast will ensure that it is (at the most) swamped. For a hands-on illustration, check out this video.

For most wakesurfers, the maxim is "The more ballast the better." This is true to a point. You don't want to be taking on too much water. And there is also the increased gas-usage to consider. But in my Mastercraft X2, I routinely go with 1900 lbs. of ballast, and occasionally with 2600 lbs. The wake with 2600 pounds of weight is much better than with 1900 bounds. And when you add more people it only gets better.

Most dedicated wakeboarding boats come with some amound of built in ballast. If you have a ski-boat or a boat without any factory ballast, you can browse around wakesurfing vendors' sites to find ballast that can be concealed in your boat. I am parital to the Fly High Pro X Series Fat Sacs because instead of using waterbed fittings like most ballast bags, they have quick connects that attach to their extremely fast pump in literally 5 seconds.

The other thing to consider is where to place the ballast. This will be different for every boat; depending on the hull. For example, in my X-2, the best wake for a regular-footed surfer is generated when all of the ballast and people are positioned as close to the port-stern corner of the boat. But in my friend's slightly larger X-30, it is more beneficial to spread the weight across the stern. And another friend's inboard ski-boat needs ballast all along the port side.

It will take some experimentation to find out what works best for you. Don't be afraid to try different things.

In order to test your ballast, you'll need to know how to drive a wakesurfer, but if you already have that down, work on your wakesurfing skills by selecting an article from the left-hand menu.

Need help with this trick? Visit our wakesurfing forum.