SSG223

Wow, this is great insight everyone, truly appreciate everyone taking the time to provide some insight. Going into this, the new Ski Nautique seemed a stretch for me, was struggling to justify the money, other than they are so damn cool looking. $20k won't break me, but I could also find a lot of other things to use the money for. :) I have not demo'd a new MC, although the local dealer does have one, I think I may give that a try. At my age (52), just want to get one more boat that gets me by until I can't walk down to the dock anymore. My '08 is probably plenty good for me, just a little rougher condition than I'd like. Part of this is just getting a newer boat with low hours so I can just go enjoy the boat and not have to worry about working on it. Thanks again for everyone's thoughts, it means a lot to me that you took the time to review and share your insight and experience. Hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday weekend. Scott

I'm currently skiing behind a 2008 SN196, and am considering upgrading to a new boat (likely my last). I'm a pure open water skier, never been on a course and have no interest. I love the looks of the new Ski Nautique, it's pretty bad ass. But at $20k+ north of a new 200, I'm curious if it's THAT much better. My local dealer can't keep one in stock long enough for me to demo it, and likely won't be getting any new 2019's, and dropping $100k on a ski boat seems a stretch. Curious if any of you have skied behind a new 200 and the new Ski Nautique, and if so, any opinions on the difference? I'm far, far from elite, but feel like I'm a decent skier. For reference, I ski at 33 mph hour and 22' off. I do like the 200 vs the 196, curious if most agree with that opinion as well? Thanks in advance for any insight, the readers here have been incredibly gracious with my questions in the past, appreciate your time and thoughts. Scott

gregy - Thanks for the feedback. Our lake becomes a mad house as well, definitely have to get your sets in before 8:00, and even then you're fighting the early morning jet skiers and fisherman. With Travis, is it bad early as well, or just when it gets hot in the afternoon? Good point with Conroe, our lake is a man made lake, and there is one section that you have to navigate the stumps pretty carefully or you're getting towed back to the house! Appreciate you sharing your insights!

I posted awhile back about feedback on a potential move to Florida (from wet, cold, and dreary Seattle), and many of you were kind enough to share your insights. We're still exploring that (and working with a great agent there), but are also looking at the Austin / Houston area. Curious if anyone has experience with water skiing, surfing, etc on Lake Travis (Austin), or Livingston / Conrad in the Houston area? The extreme lake levels with Lake Travis are a concern, but I'm curious if it's good for an open water guy (no courses needed or wanted)? Given the winding course of the lake, it SEEMS like one could find some good water most days. Livinston outside of Houston looks like a HUGE lake, and not a lot of coves or channels, so that one looks like it's open to pretty bad conditions depending on the wind. Conrad looks a bit more "cut up", so it appears optically at least that you could find decent water most days? And it's not nearly as big as Livingston, which seems like an added feature. Are there other lakes in either area worthy of consideration that I'm missing (not interested in private ski lakes, we want to be able to surf, and my son loves to do some bass fishing)? For work reasons, we need to stick within 60 - 90 minute commutes to a "bigger city" (e.g. Tampa in Florida, Austin and Houston in Texas). Thoughts? Thanks as always to everyone in advance for sharing your thoughts and experience. Scott

I went through a similar debate, and when with the Senate Lithium. I'm purely an open water guy, and had debated going with the Alloy, but the guy at Wiley's in Seattle convinced me to go with the more aggressive ski. Took me a couple sets to get used to the ski, as it seems to take a bit more effort at turn in, but man am I glad I went with that ski, I absolutely love it. For reference, I was using an older HO Coefficient X, and was hesitant to spend the money if it was going to ski the same. It was definitely an updgrade! Brooks and Bryce Gardner were super cool to work with. I'm in Seattle and they offered to let me ski up at Radar Lake (not a course guy so I didn't take them up on it). Good luck!

Great feedback as always from this group, many thanks for the guidance. I think we will be taking a couple trips down there next year, just to get a feel for the different cities and just check out a few lakes. Just looked at my phone, ten day forecast is in the 40's and rain every single day. Florida sure looks attractive right now!

LoopSki - Boy, I'd love some northern Cali weather compared to what we have here! Actually, I'd love SoCal, but same problem with lack of lakes, and boy is it expensive there!

Probably an old topic, but as a lifetime resident of wet and cold western Washington for 50+ years, the family is starting to consider moving to a warmer place. We love the lakefront life, and when you try to balance weather, affordability, number of lakes, jobs, etc., (plus motocross which we also do), Florida sure looks attractive. Places like Austin are brutally expensive, Phoenix doesn't seem to have many lakes (duh, it's the desert), which has pointed me towards Florida. So a few questions for those that are familiar to the state: 1) Is there much difference in weather, etc between Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville? Or is it pretty much the same across the state? Does lakefront property tend to be more / less expensive across these main cities? 2) Less for me, but my wife is freaked out by the gators and snakes (ok, admittedly, I'm not fond of either as well!). I try to explain that all these people have lived down there for years and years, so clearly they can't be THAT big of a problem. But how bad are they? I read articles that say "look for the signs", etc., but how does a newbie know what to look for? Are they more or less prevalent on the bigger lakes vs smaller lakes? 3) How difficult is it to build boat houses, etc. I love to ski, but the family loves to surf (we are actually a two boat family here). But in the "green" northwest, it's a pain in the ass to build anything near the water. Was curious what the building codes were (generally) in Florida? 4) Near those three cities, are there lakes that are better / worse for skiing? I'm an open water guy, so don't really care whether there are courses laid out. Was really thinking about wind, etc. Any simple guidance would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your insight. Scott

@Deke @Chef23 - Yeah, the guys at Radar have been incredibly cool to talk to, and have been more than willing to help me out! Issue certainly isn't with the company, they've been awesome, it's a little refreshing to deal with someone that focused on their customer.

I've been skiing on an older HO CDX ski (predecessor to the CX?), and I've been kicking around upgrading to a new ski. I've been skiing behind a '14 VTX, and am just about to pick up an '08 Nautique 196. Maybe it's the new ski boat, but I'm anxious to see if I can pick up my ski game, and wonder if a new ski will help with that? At the same time, I don't just want to drop money if the ski won't make a difference. I'm just an open water skier, 32 mph and 28' off behind the VTX. I was hoping to demo the ski, but when I checked in with Wiley's (I live in the area), that did not seem an option. I've read good things about the Senate, but any guidance on whether it is much different vs the CDX? Are there other skis worth considering? Or is this just one of those things that everyone has their favorite, and you just have to try them? If the latter, how do you go about that? The guys at Radar have been really nice, offered to let me demo them on their lake in Renton. But I'm an open water guy, I'm pretty sure I'd feel like a fish out of water there. They did suggest the Alloy would be enough since I'm not a course skier. Welcome any thoughts or guidance anyone might want to share, thanks in advance for your time. Scott

@Justin... We currently have a 2014 VTX, and you get exactly what you are buying, which is a compromise boat. It skis "ok" (32 mph and 28' off - with many thanks to others on this forum for the guidance!) and it surfs "ok", but doesn't do either all that well. We had a neighbor with the Nautique V200, and I'm convinced that the VTX surfs WAY better than the Nautique. He was more of a pure skier, and regretted selling his old Nautique, but like many of us, all the kids just want to surf. Our lake gets tore up pretty bad, and the issue with the VTX is that the surf is relatively small vs the true surf boats, but even worse, the VTX "bobs" in the waves like a cork (vs plowing through like the big boats), so it isn't as practical for surfing when the water is rough. Sure, you get wet when it's hot, but you need calmer waters (not like skiing) for it to surf well. I suspect the 200V will be similar, but depending on your lake, that may not be an issue. Regarding the VTX, note that with the wedge, it does seem to really go through the fuel. I've heard the Malibu's are far less fuel efficient vs the other brands, although I don't have the experience to confirm or deny that. We are fortunate to live on our lake, and are actually going to two boats. Picking up a 2008 Nautique 196 this week, then stepping up to a bigger surf boat next year. Hope that helps.

@oldjeep - Unfortunately, not practical on our lake. Between the bulkhead along our shoreline, and retaining walls, no room! There are some houses from 30+ years ago that have the tracks, but those were grandfathered in. We're in Washington state, so environmental rules are nuts around here. @bracemaker - I don't think we can get an exception, at least I have not seen anything in the code that allows for it. I might call the city tomorrow and see if there is anything we can do to work around this constraint. I'd like to use the excuse of depth, but where I was going to put the lift, we're in >6' of water. @ScottScott - Thanks for the guidance, I'll have to investigate these more. We don't have any pilings, we have a "static" dock since our lake is maintained at a certain level. From what I can tell from their website, you need a piling of some sort so the slide can go up and down. But worth investigating for sure!

@eyepeeler - I agree, but it's either buy a crossover boat like we have not (Malibu VTX), or this. If we do it, I'm thinking of just dropping it on Friday night and pulling it out Sunday night, so it's only during the weekend (when it's crazy rough). Was so bummed when I heard about this, could not even believe it, until I found the city ordinance, which is crystal clear about the limitations.

So I was THIS close to buying a ski boat to combine with a separate surf boat, and just found out (thankfully?) this morning that our local city has a code (and is enforcing it) that limits each residence ONE boat lift. While I'm very uncomfortable keeping the boat in the water, just due to the impact on the hull (scum line), I still really want a pure ski boat! As I understand it, there is no limit on the number of boats, just the number of lifts. So as an alternative, I was thinking about the mooring whips. But in our cove, on hot days, it really gets battered by all the surf boats and tubers. On top of that, the lake is enclosed by concrete bulk heads, so it gets multiplied (each wave in bounces off and hits the waves coming in). It can become a mess pretty quick! Does anyone have any experience using mooring whips in these kinds of conditions? It seems like they would work well in calm waters, but not sure about nasty rough conditions. I would also think that even if it does work, it must really put a load on the dock? Thanks in advance for any insight or guidance you can share.

76S&S - I haven't surfed behind all the boats, but that Centurion Ri237 was pretty damn nice. I don't think we can swing a boat that expensive though (or the Nautique G23). Was told the cheaper Fi237 surfs really well, but I haven't tried it yet. Nice thing is that it's easy to go test all the new surf boats, everyone seems more than happy to take you out.