I live near a lake which has a lot of motor boat trafic in the summer. Because of the narrowness of the lake at some points I get some pretty good wakes from the boats. I would like to exploit these wakes, but I don’t have a boat capable of “surfing” anything that small. Can any body suggest a boat suitible for this purpose?
Cheap Thrills
– Last Updated: May-20-06 11:27 PM EST –
How big are these waves? Most long slender kayaks can catch a small wave for a short ride.
Cobra Kayaks used to make a plastic version of Hunt Johnson's Wave Witch, they have stopped making them, and kayaksandiego.com has got a hold of several of them without the rudder assembly and are selling them for $300 dollars as "WAVES". These boats will catch and surf small waves.
Here is a link ... scroll down the page to the "WAVE" $299 model.
http://www.kayaksforsale.com/website444_358.htm
Something in a bright color
Or at least your clothes. Small lake + motor boat wakes + drunk oand/or teenage boaters is a tough combination.
Wave size
Mostly it depends on the size of the Motor boat and the speed at which it is traveling.
Sometimes we get waves as big as two feet. I have a Seventeen foot pygmy Kayak, and a couple of 15 foot kayaks that I have tried. Due to the closeness of the waves however, I can’t really stay on one wave. I need a shorter boat for sure.
I agree that this is sort of a cheep thrill. but its all I have access to for now. I would like to have a boat that I can take to the Ocean or on WW rivers as well.
warrioj
Me too…,
…it takes a bit of practice, but I’ve been able
to surf–although is often a relative term in
this case–my Loon, my Creek boat, my WW River
Runner, my SOT, and my 17 ft touring boat.
The length of ride varies greatly with the boat
type with my WW river runner being the best.
I’d think that nearly any WW playboat would do.
long boats work well on small waves
Trying to surf small waves with a short boat is a lot of work. I would suggest finding a fast touring boat. You will be able to attain surfing speeds much easier.
A short boat with no hull speed is going to suck bigtime on a lake unless you have really really big boat wakes that will allow you to reach surfing speed by falling off the front. The boat wakes I see here in NH, even on the busiest waters, are rarely bigger than 2 feet tall. Personally, I need a long boat to have any fun on a wave that small. I mean I would think that a short river boat would be way too slow to take advantage of the limited power of small waves on a lake. Maybe the short boats work better than I think but from my limited experiences I would want something 16 feet or longer. Preferably a 20 foot surfski or something like that.
Hi WarriorJ
I noticed you were just starting out. I love your enthusiasm! I was like that and still am. You might want to look at a used novice surfski. You probably could pick one up pretty cheaply. They are light weight and ride boat wakes like crazy!
Good luck!
Franklin
Your typical large motor boat wake
is going a bit slower than a wind wave of the same size, at least it seems that way to me. You can catch motor boat wakes with an old style ww boat like my dagger response. You can catch them with a canoe, also. I find them lots easier to catch with my Sirius than wind waves, but seldom get large enough ones to get much of a ride.
What Scott Said…
seems to me, your 17’ Pygmy should do the job. It’s a matter of learning to handle boat to optimize the ride.
I’ll have to say surfing small boat wakes seems pretty desperate. I can imagine you harassing power boaters… “C’mon, dude! Bring it on!!!” 
I think you would be better rewarded with getting a ww boat and hitting a run if you have one nearby.
sing
surf
If you lean to the right, your boat will turn left. Staying perpendicular to the wave is key and sometimes a kickup rudder is out of water when surfing. My kevlar eft with understern rudder is ideal.
Don’t feel silly…
Surfing wakes can be fun and give a little rush, especially out by yourself if you’ve gotten a little bored. I’ve caught some fun wakes with my SOT Kaos (thigh straps make all the difference) and with the Tempest 165. Both are tons of fun and if we can get a little rush out of the motor boats that run past, why not? Especially that dude who tried to run me into the shore the other day. Maybe he didn’t see the alligator, but I sure did. Catch their wakes. Atleast it’s something good from their booze cruises.
Drives me crazy
I’ll be out on the Concord or Merrimack (bigger slow rivers) and the fishing boats will come flying up and just before they get to me…
they slow right down and put put by.
I know they are being good reponsible citizens but…
I want a ride!