• Welcome to Jetboaters.net!

    We are delighted you have found your way to the best Jet Boaters Forum on the internet! Please consider Signing Up so that you can enjoy all the features and offers on the forum. We have members with boats from all the major manufacturers including Yamaha, Seadoo, Scarab and Chaparral. We don't email you SPAM, and the site is totally non-commercial. So what's to lose? IT IS FREE!

    Membership allows you to ask questions (no matter how mundane), meet up with other jet boaters, see full images (not just thumbnails), browse the member map and qualifies you for members only discounts offered by vendors who run specials for our members only! (It also gets rid of this banner!)

    free hit counter

Surf boards when getting started

paleus

Member
Messages
26
Reaction score
23
Points
12
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2016
Boat Model
AR
Boat Length
24
I'm sure there's a ton of threads on this already, but there's so much info and so many different recommendations that I can't decide what board to get.

We just got a 2016 AR240, I have the wakebooster, transom bag, and a ski locker 750 bag. With both bags full and 4 adults in the boat, I feel like the wave is pretty good. With a gentle turn to the surf side the wake cleans up and the foam goes away. 10-11 mph at 6500-7000 rpm

I got a Connelly Spark based on the marketing of it being a board "designed for beginners" and while we can all get up on it pretty easily and ride with the rope, none of us seem to be able to drop the rope. Not sure if this is a skill issue or the board is not the right board (or both).

We are all fairly large people, I am 6'1" and 215 and all our friends are similar sized and a couple a little bigger. With the Spark being 4'9" is it too short for people our size to go ropeless? There was one time last time out where I felt I got a really good push and almost ran into the swim deck, so maybe it is still just us learning to find the pocket.

Looking at the Hyperlite boards, I see the Broadcast recommended a lot, and at 5'4" and 22" wide, that's a lot more surface area than the Spark. Would that make it easier to go ropeless?

There's the Hyperlite Landlock, which seems like it would be super easy to ride, but only straight and wouldn't allow us to progress to doing many tricks.

The Hyperlite Shim is available in a 5'3" which has a volume in between the Broadcast and the Landlock, but I'm not sure that would be a good choice either.

Just looking at Hyperlite because evo.com has last years models on sale.

Any advice is appreciated.
 
"We are all fairly large people, I am 6'1" and 215 and all our friends are similar sized and a couple a little bigger. With the Spark being 4'9" is it too short for people our size to go ropeless?"

Yeah, I think going ropeless at that size as a beginner on a 4'9" board on a Yamaha wave is a tall order.

I'm 6'1", 180 and I have both the Hyperlite Shim and Landlock. The Landlock is 5'9" and the Shim is 5'3". The Landlock is WAY more forgiving for a beginner and I highly recommend it for your group. Before you even think about any tricks, you'll want to be comfortable carving and staying in the pocket which will probably take the better part of a season. The Landlock is a great board for that.

The Shim has a higher degree of difficulty. It doesn't get quite as much push from the wave as the Landlock, so you'll need to already know how to carve to sort of "pump" the board forward to recover. I'm starting to get the hang of it and have some decent runs on it, but it's more work and I'm not to the point of doing any tricks myself quite yet.
 
"We are all fairly large people, I am 6'1" and 215 and all our friends are similar sized and a couple a little bigger. With the Spark being 4'9" is it too short for people our size to go ropeless?"

Yeah, I think going ropeless at that size as a beginner on a 4'9" board on a Yamaha wave is a tall order.

I'm 6'1", 180 and I have both the Hyperlite Shim and Landlock. The Landlock is 5'9" and the Shim is 5'3". The Landlock is WAY more forgiving for a beginner and I highly recommend it for your group. Before you even think about any tricks, you'll want to be comfortable carving and staying in the pocket which will probably take the better part of a season. The Landlock is a great board for that.

The Shim has a higher degree of difficulty. It doesn't get quite as much push from the wave as the Landlock, so you'll need to already know how to carve to sort of "pump" the board forward to recover. I'm starting to get the hang of it and have some decent runs on it, but it's more work and I'm not to the point of doing any tricks myself quite yet.
Have you ever surfed on a Broadcast? Do you think it would be large enough to surf ropeless?
 
Have you ever surfed on a Broadcast? Do you think it would be large enough to surf ropeless?
I haven't. But I'm guessing it's kind of halfway between the Shim and the Landlock. I bet you probably could go ropeless on it.

I considered picking that board up as a "next step" from the Landlock, but I thought it might be too conservative and went with the Shim instead. I've heard mixed things about the Broadcast, but most of the complaints are about it being not enough of a step up from the Landlock.

For what it's worth, I still have lots of fun on my Landlock!
 
I have/had both a 2023 Slingshot Coaster 5.0 and a (maybe 2012 or 2013 Hyperlite Broadcast 5'6") On my AR190 (Small wake) I was able to play around with both about equally. I ended up selling the Broadcast in favor of just using the Coaster. It was smaller, had similar volume, way lighter and more maneuverable. I'm just now getting "decent" at 360's on my coaster. Oh and I'm 200lb if that helps.
 
I have/had both a 2023 Slingshot Coaster 5.0 and a (maybe 2012 or 2013 Hyperlite Broadcast 5'6") On my AR190 (Small wake) I was able to play around with both about equally. I ended up selling the Broadcast in favor of just using the Coaster. It was smaller, had similar volume, way lighter and more maneuverable. I'm just now getting "decent" at 360's on my coaster. Oh and I'm 200lb if that helps.
The Coaster is pretty high on my list now too after doing some more reading. I think it might be the one to get first.

Broadcast and Coaster seem pretty similar though.

But, I also like the Landlock a lot.

I feel like I am going to end up with a handful of boards, lol.
 
If my wife would allow, I would probably have 5-6 boards. As it is, I keep selling the ones that I'm not using anymore.

I had a Liquid Force FSH 5'3" which actually was probably a decent board that's along the lines of the Landlock, but I thought it was too heavy. Turns out I just sucked at wake surfing. Sold it.

Also got a 4'10" Connelly Baja (used) that was really light and surfy, but the edges are so round that I was pretty much unable to ride it ropeless on my wave. Sold it.

I currently have the Landlock and Shim, but I've got my eye on a P5 Phantom... 😜
 
I ordered the Landlock. Wife liked that one the best. Hopefully it'll come in soon enough to go get a ride in before the season is over.
 
Back
Top