Help: Speed, rope length & tricks

[jose LSV]

Hi,
I need some help to tune speed & rope length as I´m trying to start with rolls & 360´s.
I´ve got a 2004 LSV (320CV engine) with factory 3 ballast system, wake plate & perfect pass.
I ride a O,brien Saphiro with Nice PR2 bindings. I weight 170 pounds.
I´ve got a nice sharp wake by loading the 3 bags, setting the parfect pass at 18mph & then lifting the wake plate to 3/4 of total heigh.
I´ve read advices about moving to 21-24mph. for harder tricks. However, I ´ve found two problems:
1. I already get jumps high enough and most times too long (6 feet out the wake) at 18mph. In fact, I sometimes have to put my Straigthline ropes at full length (not remomoving the extras) in order to catch a wider wake or I have to start cutting no more than 10 feet outside the wake
2. I cannot get a nice wake over 20mph (even with 6 adults + ballast). Wake is completelly destroyed.
So questions:
1. What rope length & speed should I use ??
2. can anybody give me a rule of thumb way to tune them depending on trick complexity??
3. For the second problem, could it be that the speedometer is wrong?? When I ski(not loaded ) the boat cannot run over 29-31mph

[Inliner]

I tune my rope length to the wake produced by the boat I am using. For example, my boat (a 2003 Moomba Outback with no ballast) produces the perfect wake at 15 off on a wake board line at 18 mph. The distance between the wakes is perfect as long as the boat is evenly weighted. Yet behind my friends MC, if I do a 15 off line, it puts the wakes too close together making W2Ws too easy and quite frankly scary since one tends to land on the back side of the wake, not just off the top of the curl. To ski behind his boat I must go full length on the line to accomplish the same things I accomplish on my Outback at 15 off.

What I am trying to say is it will depend on the boat you are skiing behind. I will generally start out at 15 off and feel out the boat and the wake. I will do a series of cutback excercises between the wakes, then move to just outside the wakes. If it doesn't feel right, I will drop off and change the line length based on my "feeling out" process. You don't say how experienced you are, but try this procedure any time you use a different boat than you are used to.

[Shoemaker Mobius]

Jose LSV,
Based on my experience with my 2004 Mobius LSV, it sure sounds like your speedos need to be recalibrated. I am guessing that they are reading slow by 3-6 mph. If you have three full sacs and you get a nice wake at 18mph, but above 20mph it is washed out, I am guessing you are really going 21-25mph instead of 18. My wake when weighted washes out somewhere around 27-30mph. Do you have access to a gps handheld? That's the best and very accurate way to calibrate your speedo. Once the analog speedo is set correctly, then you can recalibrate the Perfect Pass also.

[jose LSV]

Thanks guys,
You were right. I´ve just recalibrated. It was reading 4 miles below reality.

I still need help about choosing the right length & speed depending on the tricks. What would you recommend for:
1. Back roll
2. Tantrum
3. 360´s
Do you also have any trick to feel how high I am jumping (apart from video recorder or someone telling you from the boat)

[Inliner]

Jose,

That again will depend on your boat, your experience, how much ballast you are running and how many people are in the boat. All of those things affect your wake. If your ballast is properly distributed (that includes spectators), you should do pretty good from 18 and up. Obviously, the more air you need, the more speed you need. You can achieve that one of two ways, speed up the boat or increase your acceleration to the wake. As the boat speed picks up, so does your speed to the wake and that is usually best done in increments until your experience and riding skill level is such that you can achieve 20-plus mph speeds (this is boat speed, not boarder speed). Unfortunately, it is difficult to direct you with no reference. Test various line lengths and boat speeds until you find the one you are comfortable with, then work up from there.

[sextons]

For a 360 you shouldn't need a lot of speed because you need to take the trick up first with low line tension or you'll get pulled off axis. If you can go big wake to wake at your current speed and line length you should be able to do that now.
A backroll is done with more line tension than speed, you only should need to cut 10-15 feet from the wake to get all the way around.
You need a ton of speed to pull off a tantrum and it's all generated by your cut but I've found it does help to be going faster than 20mph and you'll get a little more snap on the way around.
For reference I have a 2003 Mobius LSV and currently run with 4 sacks and anywhere from 2-6 people and ride at 75 feet and run around 20.5 with 2 people and 21.5 with 6.

[Keaton]

Tantrums are alot easier if you pull as far away as you can and cut early and egde hard. You want to build alot of speed because you'll loose your speed when you let off your egde before you hit the wake. I ride all the way out. 03 Mobius V. I like the wake better. But boats are all different. Its gonna be hard to get enough speed to do a tantrum with your rope at 15 off.