Double Boat surfing on Lake Sammamish

[Surfdad]

We went up to Lake Sammamish and connected with the folks from Inland for a bit. While out on the lake, Lance and Mark connected with some friends and we got the opportunity to do some double boat surfing. This is such fun! Not as easy as Mark and James make it look!

[skippabcool]

Very cool!

[jbort]

Looks like lots o fun

[Timmy!]

Very cool! Do you drop all the way to the back to make the transitions between the boats?

[Surfdad]

Yeah it's a BLAST! The boats are mostly unweighted, the enzo in the picture had gobs of people, and they had a ballast pump go out, so it had weird weighting so they just jammed people everywhere

Yes Timmy! The main boat uses a super long rope to get you way back into that giant foam ball and then we tossed the rope. That foam ball is like jet propulsion, it wanted to spit you forward 10 feet! Mark and James were riding on their rear foot to stay back and carve between the wakes. I have some pictures of James in the foam chest deep! Great fun! The foam ball would throw you forward and then you could carve the wake on one side or the other and then sort of fade back into that ball.

THIS thing had drive, you had to resist it by putting a lot of weight on yoru rear foot.

[Timmy!]

It LOOKS like a lot of fun! Someday I will need to try that. Thanks for the pics!

[IDBoating]

We've talked about doing that. Zero experience, though. How do you drive the boats? How close together are they? If they're close, how do you keep them from hitting each other through the normal jostling on a lake?

[Surfdad]

Thanks Timmy, it's great fun. I wanted to post a few more pictures of James back at the wall. His board was completely engulfed in the wash at several points and that junction just spits the rider out.

[Fiveflat]

We've done that before although it was just my boat weighted out like a mutha and my brother's boat just weighted for wakeboarding (still a massive pro level wakeboard wake). I didn't think it was much fun, but that is kinda because I was focusing on something else and he just rolled up on me and threw the double wake with me knowing sorta.

That foam does push you like rocket!

[Surfdad]

I thought it was a blast! The Inland Folks dumped ballast on the one boat and tried to on the other, but it had a pump issue. Maybe that makes a difference in the "fun" factor? I struggled with it a bit, Mark, James and Lance were naturals. In that first picture of me, I just sort of eased out from the frontside wake heading over to the backside wake and THAT's where it shot me! It was like a slingshot Great fun.

[jrobertson]

Gonna try that this Sunday with 2 boats heavilly weighted....can't wait!!

[IDBoating]

We've talked about doing that. Zero experience, though. How do you drive the boats? How close together are they? If they're close, how do you keep them from hitting each other through the normal jostling on a lake?

Still hoping someone will elaborate on this....

[Surfdad]

WABoating, I didn't see your post, sorry bro! I am not an expert, but I'm sure if you give Lance a call at Inland he can help. Here is what I gleaned from the 30 minutes I participated. The main boat sets the speed and line, the chase boat does all the work. It catches up and the driver focuses on some part of the boat and stays at that fixed distance. They never got closer than about 3 or 4 boat widths close and the speed was between 12 and 13. I can remember being on Folsom and having a Sheriff pass us that close! Lance would catch up and maintain the speed and then very VERY gradually move closer to the main boat until the wakes intersected at about 25 feet back.

Hopefully I have attached a picture, below, of how close the boats were together.

[IDBoating]

The main boat sets the speed and line, the chase boat does all the work. It catches up and the driver focuses on some part of the boat and stays at that fixed distance. They never got closer than about 3 or 4 boat widths close and the speed was between 12 and 13.

Thanks for the explanation and photo! The boats are actually farther apart than I expected. Your description makes perfect sense; I can see how it would be best to have one be the "master" boat and the other be the "slave". That would keep a single boat responsible for spacing and speed, much easier than trying to coordinate driver behavior.

Thanks again, I can't wait to try it!