Newbie's guide to jetski/wakeboard happiness

Hi all. We're trying to tow a wakeboard behind a jetski - which seems
to have enough umph - but the nose of the board keeps diving underwater
(this may, I suspect, be a result of my newbie incompetence) but we
have a niggling feeling it might be something to do with either the
speed of the jetski or the height of the line. From previous posts on
the jetski and waterski groups they are talking about 17-20 mph (20mph
for planing). Is this correct? How should they apply the torque? (let
it rip aka water skis or something more subtle?) Could some lovely
person write the driver's guide for using a jetski avec wakeboard? If
it's any encouragement we can ride the damn thing but it ain't easy...



Thanks for any advice. Love to you all from Papua New Guinea...

Rich

What kind of jetski, and how heavy are the wakeboarders.

The average crusing speed should be 15-20mph, and you don't need to gun it
at the start, just normal acceleration. You don't want to rip the handle
out of the skiiers hand, or be forced to slow down too fast that the skiier
falls.
Rope height would help pull the skiier up. But start with the board
sideways (the forward corner a little more out of the water), then when you
start being pulled at about 5mph rotate the board to the forward direction
and plane out.
If you are up, and the nose of the board is diving, you are not putting
enought weight on your back foot.

If the ski is cavitating at start or having trouble pulling the skiier out
of the water, then that is another issue.
"Left" <left RemoveThis @fsmail.net> wrote in message
news:1123064770.652117.205080@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all. We're trying to tow a wakeboard behind a jetski - which seems
> to have enough umph - but the nose of the board keeps diving underwater
> (this may, I suspect, be a result of my newbie incompetence) but we
> have a niggling feeling it might be something to do with either the
> speed of the jetski or the height of the line. From previous posts on
> the jetski and waterski groups they are talking about 17-20 mph (20mph
> for planing). Is this correct? How should they apply the torque? (let
> it rip aka water skis or something more subtle?) Could some lovely
> person write the driver's guide for using a jetski avec wakeboard? If
> it's any encouragement we can ride the damn thing but it ain't easy...
>
>
>
> Thanks for any advice. Love to you all from Papua New Guinea...
>
> Rich
>