I just got back from taking the SL out for a spin. Overall the boat seems great, but my initial impression of the wave out of the box was not quite as hot as the LSV. I don’t think we had it setup correctly though, and were testing it in slightly rougher waters. I agree with the argument that the surf gate and wedge seem easier to use out of the box, and the “press one button and surf without any other knowledge” wave looked better in the LSV. Again though, I think the SL wave could be tuned up significantly from what I saw compared to stock waves I’ve seen online, and with a better understanding of settings to aim for it wouldn’t be significantly more difficult to setup than the LSV. In the SL I just filled all ballast to 100% and set surf left/right, and played with the smart plate. After getting back and looking back at some notes, I think the front ballast should have been at 80%, not 100%.
I tried AutoWake but it kept telling us to shift weight port side and didn’t seem to be able to get where it wanted to be. It was only myself and 1 other person in the boat who unfortunately also didn’t have an understanding of the systems. I didn’t have a ton of time so didn’t mess with it too much, and I think I was probably changing too many settings too quickly to really get a good understanding. Definitely more of a learning curve to the setup here, but I’m pretty confident I’d be able to dial in and dial up the wave a good bit with a little more time on the boat.
The SL has the 400 engine (LSV has the M5Di). I was initially concerned about the 400, but not after my test drive. Seemed to handle everything just fine without struggling (I boat at ~1000 ft elevation). Not winning any races, but even with 100% ballasts and wakeboard speeds (which my god I would never in my life hit that wake on a wakeboard, I’d be tuning that WAY down) the boat was fine and got on plane super quick. Even just cruising I was actually shocked at how quick the boat planed. It’s because the smart plate auto deploys and you can actually feel the boat jump up and bow lower as soon as you get some momentum, then the smart plate un-deploys (?) as soon as the boat is on plane. I was honestly shocked at how quickly and how well that worked… its super nice. Its features like that and the auto-leveling @dalt1 mentioned that makes me feel like the Supra has a lot more advanced features available, just might take a little bit of time to get it all figured out.
Edited by crispywake