How/Why is GPS speed control supposedly better? I love paddlewheel.

[parrothd]

Okay, I've been having a discussion and I honestly can't figure out WHY or HOW that GPS speed control would be better in any way than paddlewheel.

First off, I'll say that I'm even more in love with paddlewheel because 90% of my riding is done on a river with current. That said, my paddlewheel is truly "Set it and Forget it". I have presets for "surf" at 10.0mph and "Wakeboard" at 21.5mph and "ski" at 30mph, etc. (FWIW, I have PP Wakeboard Pro).

I don't have to evaluate the speed of the river current and determine whether we're going to go upstream or downstream and then do the math to add or subtract the current speed depending on which way we wanna go.

With the GPS boats I've been in, we've lost signal going under bridges (and then the boat launches up to the speed that the Throttle is at). I've had issues where the GPS speed control was set to a particular direction and the boat was pointed sideways because it naturally gets pushed around by wind/rollers/current. Trying to take off in a turn caused the boat to bog down miserably and it stayed at like 3-5 mph until the GPS could figure itself out and finally accelerate.

Remember when Perfect Pass was invented and they called it the "marriage saver"? Because you could set it and not require your driver to have to make any adjustments. Not that the current is 1.7mph and the optimal speed is REALLY 10.9 but to adjust for current, you have to either add or subtract... And don't forget to 'carry the one' when adding those decimals! And what if the current changes while you're out riding? Better be ready to adjust your settings. And don't go under that bridge or make a turn with the boat and expect you to be able to keep your rider with a consistent pull...

Supposedly paddlewheel has its limitations... but in almost 1000 hours of boat usage, I haven't found them. I've never had surging. I've never had a paddlewheel wear out, break, or spontaneously combust. I've never had the wheel get jammed or clogged. I've had it stop transmitting the signal, but that's because a wire broke, not because of the sender itself. (a wire could just as easily break on a GPS sender).

But as passionate as I am for paddlewheel, I'm open to hearing situations where GPS is actually better. Discuss.

It costs more and they call it an "upgrade" so people think it's better. GPS is pretty inaccurate, you need a lot of locked in satlights and there's lag when you do speed changes but the software smooths those out so you don't notice it. Except when you go under a bridge and it freaking takes off like a bat outta hell. Seriously have to warn people about that.. Lol

We ride in a dirty log filled river, never had an issue with paddle, it would suck having a GPS version on the river though. My new craz has the paddle wheel.