Up-and-coming sport making a splash on Neely Henry and Logan Martin lakes
Story and Photos by Graham Hadley
Want to catch the perfect wave, but don’t have time to go to a beach with decent breaks?
Look no farther than the Coosa River.
For the past few years, surfing enthusiasts have been taking to the water behind specially designed ski boats that allow them to literally surf on the lakes.
This is not the old tow-behind surfing from the 1970s and 80s – there is no towing involved.
The boats are built so they throw enormous wakes, similar to the waves you see at the ocean. Some boats achieve this through filling special tanks in the hull with water. Others have large, heavy water bags put in the back.
This causes the boat to “plough” through the water instead of riding up on plane and making those wave-like wakes.
Unlike regular tow-behind water sports like skiing or wake boarding, once a surfer gets up out of the water and starts carving the wake – usually only feet from the back of the boat, they drop the rope and are moving along solely by riding the wave, just like in the ocean.
The boards look something like a cross between a wake board and a scaled-down traditional surf board and are light and easy to handle.
Because of the shape of the board and the dynamics of riding the wake, it is much easier to get up and going on a wake surfer than on skis or wake boards, said David Partridge, one of the owners of Ski World in Gadsden.
He was also quick to point out that wake surfing is much easier on the body that some of the other tow-behind water sports largely because the boat is going so slow, maybe 9 mph, ploughing through the water to generate the wave.
“We get people out here of all ages, teens all the way up to older people. It is really easy to do and a lot of fun,” he said. “Wake surfing is an all-age thing.”
You start out in the water a couple of yards behind the tow boat with a short but otherwise traditional ski rope, laying back in the water with the board sideways and your feet braced on the pad. As the boat starts, you literally pop out of the water and immediately try to find the sweet spot on the wake.
As the boat speeds up, the wake becomes much more wave like. The rider starts letting the momentum riding down the face of the wake carry them along, just like a traditional wave at the beach. Once they hit that spot, they drop the rope and are surfing the perfect wave. And unlike the beach, where the waves eventually peter out – you can ride a boat-generated wave as long as you can stay up.
You don’t ever have to have surfed a real wave to take up wake surfing – it has an easy learning curve, Partridge said. The big trick to getting up on the board and staying on the board – there are no bindings like with skis or wakeboards – is not to drag your rear-end in the water.
Dragging in the water like that is a “hard no” said Austin Young, who was driving the boat for the wake surfing demonstration, with Jackson Sparks showing off his skills on two different boards, one designed more for speed and the other with mobility in mind (like regular surfboards, the number of fins and length have a lot to do with that).
Young’s boat used the internal ballast system, pumping in water from the lake to make the boat heavy enough to generate a wave. He was also quick to show off his Star Trek looking gauges at the helm, which gave him every piece of information he needed to run the boat and give his rider a great wave to surf.
Partridge, whose shop sells ski supplies but not boats, said watercraft like that can easily top $200,000, though less expensive options are available that use the heavy external ballast bags you lay down in the aft boat cabin instead of internal systems.
Partridge, Young and Sparks agreed that while wake surfing is easy and a great water sport for all ages, safety is still paramount. You need a proper boat rigged with the right gear, safety ski vests, enough people to drive and spot, and to follow not only lake boating laws, but to show common courtesy to other boaters and property owners – especially since the surf boats are throwing wakes with heights measured in feet.
