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!