Having drinks at the pool, our annual Priest Lake vacation was approaching. Ben, the Real Estate Agent/Volunteer Fire Fighter/Craigslist Addict, asked me, the Email Marketer/Volunteer Ski Patroller/Serial Wantrepreneur, if I’ve seen the Delta Wake Surf Gate/Tab thing. I hadn’t but we pulled up the design and suggested we could do the same thing with HDPE… After all, they charge $498 (+$15 shipping) and were sold out.
Later that evening, after ottering in bed and the ideas bouncing around… I gave him a call. “We should try to make something like these.” I said.
He agreed and we ordered over $500 in materials to make prototypes and test.
Saturday shows up.
It’s a last minute ‘lets go to the river decision’.
After an early morning Home Depot run, I slap together the ugliest looking thing made out of shelf brackets. I built it in the few hours I had while they loaded ice chests… and bolted it together in the back seat on the hour long haul to the Snake River.
The First Iteration
Ben couldn’t come because he was showing a house or something, so my brothers, and a buddy headed out.
We tied a rope to the ghetto tab, hooked it to a buoy (so it would breakaway and float rather than be drug by the boat) stuck it to the side of the boat. Started out slow, then got up to 14 mph and success. It didn’t rip anything off.
A slight angle helps reduce the force on the plate.
We looked back at the wake and it was a nice clean crest. All the foam that we had a big problem with had went away.
Surf time…
We spent about 20 minutes adjusting the stock ballasts and the wedge, finding the best balance.
The best setup for our ’07 Malibu Wakesetter 21.5ft is 100% full in both rear, wedge down, and 25% in the center belly ballast. Then everybody piles to the side of the boat and badabing.
We found that mounting lower than this, essentially 3-4″ under the waterline is more effective.
First up was Kaleb, my 13 year old little cousin.
Our main demo video shows the before and after results…
The next day, I told Ben just how awesome the tab was. And we decided to start testing the ideal, low cost way to create these things for the masses.
The plan was to have 10 made for Priest Lake, the upcoming summer river trip of the year.
Well, we made 3.
The Captivating Historical Evolution of Wake Surf Tabs
We handed them to all our local friends that were up there on vacation, everybody loved them. Regardless of boat make and model, every single on benefited from having surf tab stuck to the side of it.
Well, we’re kind of lazy so we hoped that selling DIY plans would keep us from having to do a whole bunch of production. We’ll see how that goes. (As of now, the plans and hardware kit package are in higher demand than the fully assembled product. So that’s cool.)
Whether you build your own, or want a fully assembled surf tab, we’re happy to help you skip the whole Research and Development process to find out what works and what doesn’t.
We also thought being 100% transparent about the design and plans would instill some trust in folks looking to purchase one. There are about 6 other competitors out there. But they’re all more expensive than us. You can see for yourself by checking out our DIY or Buy post here.
Well. That’s where we’re at now.
This is going to be a fun journey and we appreciate you taking the time to read this whole thing. Feel free to email me at here if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Or, if for some reason you want to bug Ben, you can email him here.