Tubing - a neccessary evil -towpoint?

[jester]

What is up with these kids and tubes. Well I guess most of my friends love to tube and I pull them from the ski pylon. I will never pull then unless it is bad wind so it has been about 6 times this year. My problem i am having is almost every time a person falls off the tube i end up filling my boat with water. It is kind of fun to watch the person in the bow screams when it happens but i do not do it on purpose .

[dtlaine]

I try to get people to try wakeboarding or skiing before tubing. My experience is that once I learned to ski as a youngster, I had almost no interest in tubing again. If I end up pulling someone on a tube, I go off the ski pylon.

[aerophoto]

My problem i am having is almost every time a person falls off the tube i end up filling my boat with water. It is kind of fun to watch the person in the bow screams when it happens but i do not do it on purpose .

I do it on purpose because most of the time they are trying to get me as a driver to throw the tuber so Hey I get them good If you want to prevent the water over the bow just push the throttle forward before you hit the big wake you made Pushes the nose up no water on board.

[Limishowman3]

How do yall tube from behind the boat? The rope is always dragging in the water and throws water in the tubers eyes, then when u try throwing the tuber outside the wake, u build slack from the rope geting caught in the white wash. I have to put the rope on the ski pylon just to make it fun for the rider. I didnt know about the extra stress it puts on the tower, I just thought no towing from tower b/c of fear of the air you can get. Good to know though

[Ian Brantford]

How do yall tube from behind the boat? The rope is always dragging in the water and throws water in the tubers eyes, then when u try throwing the tuber outside the wake, u build slack from the rope geting caught in the white wash.

Keep the tube outside the wake most of the time. This way, the spray will go beside the tube instead of straight at it.

One buddy of mine uses a wakeboarding rope -- a thin one made of Spectra. It throws a lot less spray than the usual tubing ropes. Just remember to shorten it up to the usual 50' length.

It takes quite a bit of practice and experimentation to become good at pulling a tube for an exciting ride. It is much more difficult than pulling a wakeboarder, because you have to control both the boat and the tube. Just like with riding a wakeboard, you have to learn smaller, quicker movements while controlling the boat, and anticipate the conditions with split-second timing. Know when to nudge the throttle up and down, and turn slightly sharper as you slow down. These skills will alleviate the problem with getting slack all the time.

For public safety, it would be a good idea to have one person in the boat who is dedicated to observing forward, because you'll be looking back a lot while learning.

[tlatoani]

I dunno about the strength of wakeboard ropes, but I've read several threads on wakeworld where lines have snapped and recoiled into the boat. One guy said his son lost his eye that way. I bought one of the huge tube ropes after reading that. Well worth the money imo.

[Ian Brantford]

I dunno about the strength of wakeboard ropes, but I've read several threads on wakeworld where lines have snapped and recoiled into the boat. One guy said his son lost his eye that way. I bought one of the huge tube ropes after reading that. Well worth the money imo.

Were these Spectra ropes? This material has very little stretch and recoil. Of course, without the elasticity of polypropylene, the instantaneous load with hitting a wake is higher, so you would definitely want to only tow from the pylon.

The only rope that has ever snapped on me was one made specifically for towing a tube. The conclusion: any rope can snap. Inspect them regularly.

I was not able to find load ratings for Spectra at the 1/8" thickness that is typical for wakeboard ropes, but I found that it is 1950 lbs for 3/16" here: http://www.machovec.com/rope/spectra_double_braid.htm .

Most tube-towing ropes are 5/16" polypropylene, which is good for 2050 lbs according to this chart: http://www.maegroupint.com/catalogs/nerope.pdf . However, this has to start out high because polypropylene will degrade in sunlight. It won't be that strong after a summer of use!

I am not specifically advocating Spectra ropes for tubes, but I do not see objective evidence against using them. Personally, I still use polypropylene because I rarely pull a tube and I don't want to tie up an expensive Spectra rope when I still have the polypropylene ones around and in good shape. I use a 5/16" poly rope for the small/medium tubes, and a very thick 4000 lb poly rope for the bigger ones. It's overkill. I got it from Sportsstuff (http://sportsstuff.com/dyn_prodlist.php?k=68024).

[MasterMind3002]

I always pull tubes from the pylon. The pylon can take it.......thats what its made for. We move our ski jump across the lake and pull it from the pylon. We just pull it slowly and carefully. If one or two tubes yanks the pylon out of your boat........you had bigger issues.

Just for the record, because I've seen so many in here make comments about how "delicate" the towers are..........a good wakeboarder can scrub 5mph off the boats speedos when he cuts in for a roll or a flip. I had the good fortune to pull Russ Wilde a couple years ago in our ski show. I was pulling him with my brothers Supra Launch 21. When Russ cuts the force is enormous. My brother and his buddies all flip and they go all the time behind that boat...........not a single stress crack and the boats 4 years old now.. I pull "double crisscross around the boats" off of my Outbacks tower without a single issue. Not so much as a noise.

Has anyone had stress crack issues on the newer boats??????