Welcome back.
In part one I was talking about the need,for a tube, new or inexperienced riders, riding the tube, and the boat driver.
I want to focus on the boat drivers influence and ultimately his responsibility.
The boat driver has a lot of control over the ride, he is the one who has the riders literally on a string, so to speak, well more so a rope, but you get the point.
To help make a point here's a bit of a scenario for the boat driver.
The boat driver has, lets say a three person towable tube, with two novices's and an experienced kid on the towable tube.
The boat driver now has a direct link with the tube riders via the experienced rider who can communicate the true feeling of the novice riders from right on the tube, the experienced rider can also reassure the novice riders and comfort them if need be.
So the first thing the boat driver is making sure of, is that everyone understands the signals, you could have a run through to make sure that all the riders are cool with the signals.
Remember your experienced rider is your safety net, so that doesn't give you a licence to be a peanut! So now we are ready to take off, one other thing, you need your observer to pay attention and you as the boat driver need to watch your mirror also.
My recommendation is to idle out and take up the slack.
There is a couple of things to keep in mind here, how the tube will react when you take up the slack and what the riders need to do, the experienced boat driver will know how he has to apply the gas to get the best take off, and the experienced riders will advise the novices where they need to be, that would be leaning back or forward.
This is of course in a best case situation where you are the only boat in the area, if you are not the only boat then you will also have a lot more to watch out for, including other boats and their wake.
The inexperienced boat driver should practise only with experienced tube riders.
So now the boat driver should motor up to a speed in a straight line watching his mirror and listening to the observer who are both watching the riders and looking for the signals, thumbs up, down etc.
Once the boat driver has the speed correct then the boat driver can start to work the tube and the water to enhance the ride.
The first and foremost rule is to keep a tight rope, you don't want the tube being jerked and pulled at different speed rates with your novice riders.
So steady as you go.
Now, staying at a constant speed take long smooth arc's from port to starboard and back, in a steady rhythm, making the tube get close to crossing out of the wake, keep it up from the port to the starboard side nice and smooth, now, this is the most important part check the riders reaction as you are motoring along watch in the mirror and listen to your observer, but most of all watch for the signals! We call this the s moves, now, if the riders are feeling it, you can increase the intensity and the experience pretty easily by doing a couple of simple things.
To enhance the ride you can increase the overall speed, once again just be mindful of the riders and use your common sense, you only want to go a certain speed your riders will tell you and if you are not sure, check out the manufacturers recommendation.
The other thing you can do is turn a little tighter lets say to the port side, go straight with a little gas and a tight rope on the tube, and use the momentum of the boat and the whip effect of the rope and slide the tube outside the wake, then turn tighter to the starboard side and use the same technique, all the while increasing and decreasing the amount of gas to produce the flicking or whipping effect.
As the tube is on the whip it will increase speed so be aware of that and also be aware of the length of rope you have, watch the side of the river or the banks of the lake along with any other obstacles.
The last method that I favor is to make it rough which involves stirring up the water to produce a fun bouncing exhilarating ride but that will be in part 3, so stay tuned.