How fast do you need to go to waterski?

Question

how about monoskiing and wakeboarding? I know you have to go faster on one ski and can go slower on a wakeboard, but how much? And what about barefoot waterskiing?

Answer 1

depends. my 9 year old sister only needs to go 15 mph to stay up. i go about 30 mph. (for waterskiing i mean). for wakeboarding its about the same. except my sister doestn know how to wake board...

my dad skiis at like 50 mph. im just guessing though, i cant really remember the actual speeds. ive never tried barefoot water skiing, but it sounds really hard. i think you do a face plant every 10 seconds.

Answer 2

Divide your weight by your shoe size. Dang!

Answer 3

Waterskiing on a pair around about 20mph - faster as you improve your technique.

Mono skiing anything from about 25 - 35mph. Again you will want to increase speed as you get better as it helps to keep the slack out of the rope. Remember if the boat is going 35mph in a straight line you could get close to double that when pulling hard across the wakes.

Wakeboarding does tend to be a very personal thing but usually start slow, around 20mph and then it's a balance between speed into the jump and height of the wake. I wakeboard at about 28mph but have been told it's too fast because the boat wake flattens out too much at this speed. I'll probably try slowing to about 25mph this year and see how it goes.

Barefooting - never tried but think you need at least 40mph.

Once you find a nice speed it's a good idea to note the engine revs as it's often easier to set your speed by this than a jumping speedo.

On my boat (2006 Bayliner 175 with 3.0 mercruiser) the speeds roughly translate as:-

Skiing on a pair - 2800rpm

Mono - 4000rpm

Wakeboard - 3200rpm

Answer 4

O.K.  If you want a speed for anything the best way to find a good speed is go out and try it.  Best speed is determined by weight but here are some good general estimates for a 150 pound person.  For skis around 28 mph.  For monoskiing (slalom) around 35 mph. For wakeboarding it is all feel, faster if you want a smoother ride with less wake (less air on jumps) or slower if you want a huge wake to jump off of.  Lastly barefooting you must crank the boat up to 40 mph or more otherwise the person will be in a lot of pain.  

so again it is:

Skiing- 28 mph

Slalom- 35 mph

Wakeboarding- 20 mph(safe estimate move around from there)

Barefoot- 40+ mph

Answer 5

Uphill, bout 30, downhill bout 15.

Answer 6

30 uphill,about 15 down.