Stern drives making a splash in wake surfing??

[mikenehrkorn]

Very interesting review of a stern drive with forward drive -- anyone see one of these in person? The video in the reviews shows a pretty decent wave with only 1300# ballast. It seems to have all the bells and whistles of the inboards (i.e. speed control, ballast, trim tabs, tower, platform, etc.) as well as having the advantage of the traditional stern drive trim.

http://www.boattest.com/boats/boat_video.aspx?ID=3326

[kaneboats]

Hope the prop doesn't hit the hull when they trim up.

[sivs1]

saw one of these Saturday, had just pulled out when I was loading, tried to talk to the guy about it but he was kind of a jerk, but overall boat was nice, platform was dumb, basically a normal I/O platform with two more bolted on, I thought it looked cheesy.

http://bryantboats.com/boats/233X

[moombadaze]

nice, clean simple lines to it. good looking boat

[kaneboats]

I saw one site where it (4 Winns one) looked like list price was $98k. Anybody have info on that?

[mikenehrkorn]

Could only find one with a price......$77K

http://www.shipwreckmarine.com/inventory.php?pid=755

[168rod]

Not sure why someone would spend that kind of money????? Surf wake and wakeboard wake doesn't look that impressive. If your going spend that kind of money then get a wakeboard boat.

Viewed this on YouTube. https://youtu.be/3QhQSmR5LDo

[moombadaze]

for purely recreational multi use, not just tow boat duties, they could be onto something

[jmvotto]

wave looks crappy that the pro was riding

[sandm]

boating mag has reviewed a couple of them. general consensus is that the waves are just OK and will never compete with a wakeboat. they are designed for the user that still wants an i/o but wants an occasional wakesurf wave without the worries of hitting a prop.

now what will be interesting will be to see if manuf. continue to develop them. currently most are simply a new drive attached to an existing hull that I would bet has not had a lot of development time to be surf-specific.
lets go compare the early 2000's lsv hull when surfing took off to the craz hull today. night and day. bryant has a bunch of ex mc guys at the helm so betting they are currently doing some testing with new hull designs and more/different ballast.