2016A22inCO wrote:
Question arises after getting a much more stretched out/lengthened wave after unloading ballast from the opposite side I am surfing (the side my surfgate is deployed) and essentially raising the tab up in the water. On my A22 with all tanks full (750's in back) mine run pretty deep under the water. I was wondering if the guys that have really dialed in their waves are similar or if theirs are close to or at the surface.
Oh, so you're saying how deep is it from the surface, now how much lower is it than the draft line.
The surfgate is designed to slow down the flow of water and the convergence point so that water flows under the surfgate and back up at a further point behind a boat thus making a wave. If your surfgate is too low in the water then water will flow over top of the gate, thus negating part of it's effect and you'll be left with a shortened and washy wave. I noticed this myself this weekend when I was running 825 rears full and wedge, but no extra bow bag on top of the seats like I normally do. This caused the rear of the boat and thus surfgate to run lower in the water and water was washing over the top and creating a washy wave without a good lip.
I pulled the wedge up and the wave cleaned up. If I had had my extra bow bag like I normally do or drained some from the opposite side this would have raised the surfgate out of the water, thus creating a cleaner wave. I really like the extra push the wedge provides so I'd say if you're running wedge and those 750s then you either need to add an extra bow bag up front to change the angle of the boat and thus the surfgate depth, or drop some weight out of the rear bags. Experiment with equal weight dropped or weight dropped only off the surfgate side and see what feels/looks better.