Looking to buy this winter/spring and have some questions

My wife and I are in the beginning process of a boat purchase probably this winter/spring. We are coming from a closed bow Supra ski. We had the chance to ride in a 2010 X-2 this weekend and it brought up a few new questions that I did not realize I had. We are looking at the Outback, both V and DD, and the Mobius LS and LSV, and the Supra 22 SSV. Cost is a factor, but in theory, I have heard the mid 2000s SSVs are a good crossover boat. Our water priorities are wakeboard, surf, kneeboard, ski, probably in that order. We are not hardcore needing 4,000 pounds of ballast, we are weekend warriors that just want to have fun and be able to go to work on Monday with out knee braces or casts. I used to ski a lot more than I do now, but I really like to play now. I did not realize slalom was as hard as it seems to have become. Anyway, here are my questions that you may be able to help with:

1. Ballasts – I know they are bag system and in the lockers, Do you have much storage left in any of the boats? One of our big drawbacks to the boat we have now is there is nowhere to put things.

2. Tower design – do you know what year they started beefing up behind the tower mounts? I am afraid of the early 2000s when it was the same hull and just put a tower on there. I am scared of a few spider cracks becoming big cracks.

3. I know the Mobius changed hull in 06. Was this a big change from 05, and is it a big difference in the 06 and up outback vs mobius?

4. Rough water – does one of these handle significantly better in rough water than the other?

5. Wake plate and tracking fins – do pretty much all years 03 and up have fins and wake plates on all models?

The X-2 this weekend was very nice, fancy, lots of gadgets and add ons. It was a $100,000 boat, and even if I had the money I don’t think I would buy one. No tracking fins meant that I pulled the back end of the boat even with my poor skills. There was a lot of storage in it which my wife loved with the built in ballast rather than bags. I am planning to spend a little time with the local dealer, but he is an hour away and I can’t just run over there at lunch. Thanks for all your help with these and many future questions!

I am like kg, not much help on the specifics, and your best bet will be to let a dealer entertain you for a while. they are all great boats and if you are looking '05-'06 and newer, all will be nice.

I do agree with kg on the dd vs v-drive. dd boats just don't have the same storage room due to the engine location and are not as easy to get ballast hidden as v-drive, but your ski wake will suffer a little in the v-drive category.
I don't ski, but my buddy does. he has stated that my 20ssv has a better ski wake than his friends tige 22ft dd boat. based on what I have seen, the 20-22ssv's will make a decent crossover, but it's nowhere near the lack of wake on his '94 boomerang. for a recreational skier looking for a few pulls a week, my boat does just fine(very similar to the outback v).

ultimately there will be tradeoffs with any boat. go dd and storage, wakeboard and surf wake will suffer, but ski wake is phenomenal.
go v-drive and you get a better surf and wakeboard wake, much more storage, but ski wake will suffer.
pick what's important to your lifestyle and have fun :)

I think the 20SSV is just an awsum boat. Doesn't sound like an Outback will fill any requirment for you except price.

For storage the LSV does great. We have 750 lb bags in each of the rear lockers and still have room for some flat things on top when the bags are full. Honestly, we hardly ever have both rear bags full so I often throw a few things from one side to the other if I have to when we are surfing and only have the one side filled. Of course, with the bags empty, there is more than enough space for stacks of gear. There is so much other storage space under the seats, as has been mentioned, and we hardly ever have things on the floor or seats besides towels. I typically keep spare vests under the bow seats and that leaves under the other seats for friends stuff, baby stuff, etc. We really don't ski at all, so the compromise is not there for us in that aspect. Good luck with your search.