How we did things

Since we had never done a review before, we had to come up with some creative ways to measure wake widths, heights, speeds etc..

The speed and acceleration was an easy one.  Billy Nichols came with a radar gun and software.

The wake width, curl width, and wake height was the challenge.  We needed to come up with a method to measure the wake widths at 75 feet as well as curl widths.  The goal was to be able to perform the task without the use of multiple boats, multiple skiers, multiple cameras, etc....

We came up with a little invention that attached to the top of a barefoot handle.  The skier would get up, then be able to easily move side poles in and out based on instruction from people in the boat.  Once the width was adjusted properly, and approved by the judges in the boat, the skier would slide to a stop and we would take out a tape measure and measure the width.  It worked great, and saved a lot of time.

Click here to launch a video of the process

HELMET CAM

We wanted to present some views of the wakes that have never been seen before.  Basically, we wanted to give you a view as if you were riding along with the skier.  I watch the show Fear Factor a lot, and it gave me the idea of inventing a helmet camera for barefooting.  It had to be wireless and waterproof.  Wireless was the easy part, waterproof was a whole other story.  It took a couple of months of testing and destroying several cameras before we came up with the right combination.  We hope you like the results.  We'll be bringing you more helmet cam videos throughout the summer.   Turns, jumps, toe-ups.  You'll be able to ride along with the best footers in the world. 

Wake height provided other challenges.  The shape of the curl bowl effected the height, the foam on the edge, spray from the skier, etc...  We found that there is less spray from the skier in the backwards position than there is from skiing forwards.  We determined that we would not give an exact measurement of height, but instead, we would give you a reference to draw your own conclusions from. 

What we did was strap and shin guard to the back calf of our skier's outside leg.  The skier would get up, then do a Front to Back.  That would put the shin guard pointing to the boat and on the inside leg.  We would video the run, then grab a frame.  Marks were put on the shin guard every 3 inches.  This will give you a reference point when comparing the height of one wake to the next.  The wake heights ranged from the low of about 2 inches to a high of around 6-7 inches.  But you can be the judge.  It's all relative.

Note:  We determined that the height of the wake is felt more predominantly if the drop-off is steep as compared to an angled easy let-down.  In the pictures below, the Malibu and SkiPro wakes look similar in height, but the SkiPro wake has a steeper drop-off, therefore, the skier will get a sensation of a much taller wake.