Wake Garage

Wake Garage: First Look Review of HyperRyd’s XR1 Overhead Surf Rack Bottom line: After testing a pre-production version of these racks last summer, we’re confident anyone who paid the high price of a premium wakesurf board will want them. This is especially true if you own a Malibu G3 tower and matching bimini, as these racks paired perfectly with our setup; the boards could be stored overhead with the fins up, out of view, and completely shielded from the sun. We expect the same will be true for many towers, especially those that are forward facing for maximum sun protection. At $499 a piece these overhead racks sound expensive, but perhaps not when compared to traditional side-mount combo board racks, or the newer clamping racks, which don’t offer as much protection. However you'll be limited to two racks per tower — and typically one board per rack — which means as much as we loved them they are probably going to be an add-on, not a direct replacement for existing side racks. www.hyperryddesigns.com $499 per overhead surf rack Background: Every surf board owner is inundated with warning decals and unabashed reminders from manufacturers that our surf boards are “fragile,” susceptible to “dings and dents” and should be kept “out of direct sunlight” at all costs. While that makes sense, it often means the more expensive and lightweight your board, the more easily it can be damaged. Surf boards are simply not constructed in heavy-duty fashion like a wakeboard, for good reason, which leaves most of us clamoring for protective board bags and better storage in the boat after dropping $600-$1200 for each board. Enter the XR-1 Overhead Surf Rack, launching this week at the Los Angeles Boat Show by HyperRyd Designs, a new company created by a familiar guy. You’ll recognize the user name, “Hyperryd” (aka John Lee), as one of our own Wake Garage members, who has posted many boat modification projects over the years while quietly launching a startup company and refining his rack design. According to John, "The patent-pending HyperRyd XR-1 racks will protect your board from damage caused by bouncing while the boat is under way, protect it from sun damage and offer an overhead storage solution." We found storing the boards overhead also keeps them off the boat’s upholstery and lessens the chance of damaging a board jamming it in and out of storage compartments (for those boats that do have extra large compartments). Do they accomplish this? Yup. Most definitely. Our Hands-on Testing: While we tested a pre-shipping version of the racks, there were really just a few subtle fit and finish changes made to the final production version. We switched between five to seven riders, which meant our surf boards went up and down to the racks an awful lot. This gave us a pretty good feel for long-term use, and how the functionality compared to our OEM rotating side racks. Our boat is a Malibu 247 LSV, which has a Malibu G3.2 tower with the matching factory bimini. Boats with a Malibu G3 tower and bimini are insanely compatible with these racks, so much our first comment to John was, “How the hell does Malibu not know about these?” Malibu execs reading this, you may want to facilitate this combination. Take a look at the pictures and you’ll see why. Boards can be stored fins up and out of the way. We even found there was plenty of room even if you stored the boards with the fins down. In this case, it made it easy to switch fin configurations as well. Here you can see the cinch strap, which is quick and holds well. These were not the final velcro backed trimmed straps but they worked awesome anyway -- all summer long. Even with the boards up, we were stoked to maintain access to the rope storage pockets in the stock Malibu G3 bimini, however that will depend on your particular tower setup. The racks use a low-profile mounting base made of 10 mm thick, T6061 anodized aluminum that’s covered with an EVA cushion foam layer to protect the boards. The base attaches to the tower’s cross tube using aluminum clamps with rubber inserts to accommodate different diameters. Each rack measures 22.5” wide by about 17” long, which means most towers can hold a max of two racks, side-by-side. While most boards don’t typically exceed 21” in width, these racks will max out at 22.5” wide, so unless you have a really, really wide custom board, they will fit yours without issue. You’ll also need 23” space on your tower for each rack, which means some tower and speaker configurations will be limited to just one rack when mounting to the cross bar. The taller your tower, the more head room you’ll have. Holding the surf boards horizontally with a wider base seems to offer more stability by spreading the load across more of the board. Each board is then held snug to the rack base using two padded cinch straps, which we found to hold the boards fairly motionless while the boat is underway. The straps then fold back onto themselves and attach with Velcro to keep from hanging down (the pre-production straps we tested were longer, which meant they had longer tails to tuck away as you might see in the pictures. ) The boards can go up and down quickly and easily, in fact much quicker than using the bungee cord strap of our our OEM side racks (even though we may be splitting hairs on this). But being able to put a board straight onto an overhead rack without first having to stuff it back into a bag each time for a side mount rack is priceless. Do they really hold better? Yes, the HRD racked boards were for the most part, motionless, but the difference was not as much as we thought. That's because we didn't get as much bouncing out of the stock OEM combo racks as much as we expected. But when you put your hands on them you will really understand the difference. And we also agree the flat base and strap system will better balance out the stress on the board vs forks. Can it hold more than one board per rack? Yes, and no. It’s not officially recommended, but you can technically stack two of the thinner compression-molded boards pretty easily. The thicker foam core surf style boards may require longer straps to store more than one. I’m sure one of our creative Wake Garage members will find a way to stack more. However double stacking the boards also means less overhead clearance, which was one of our favorite benefits of this product. During our testing, we cycled several different surf boards on and off of the racks, primarily a Soulcraft Emily, Soulcraft Voodoo, Ronix Koal Thruster and even a classic Triple X Nitro board. We eventually found it best to keep our most fragile boards on the HyperRyd racks and everything else in boards in bags or socks using the stock side racks or top surf pockets of the stock bimini. You can also store your boards in the bags and still use these overhead racks if desired, although we rarely did that because the boards were shielded well from the sun without them. It looks like the fins were facing down in the photo below, but there was still plenty of head room with the board and bag as well. With the black bags on the boards essentially disappeared from view under the black bimini. Installation: Since we tested a pre-release version, we did not get to see final packaging with assembly instructions that are available today. Not to worry, the racks were self explanatory… (and if we needed more help we’d probably not be qualified to moderate on Wake Garage anyway). You’ll need a tape measure, something to mark the tower with to find the centers for each rack, and a 5.0 and 6.0 Allen wrench. If you have removable tower speakers make sure you account for them when you mark the centers. In our case, we had a pair of Wetsounds Rev10s to squeeze the racks between which was not a problem. Plenty of room for two racks and those monster speakers on our setup. There were a few refinements to the shipping version hardware as well, but you can probably get the idea on mounting from these installation pictures. If your tower is curved, like the G3, the racks will curve with it. Not an issue but you may have to slide the clamps a little off center and tilt the rack face to find the position that works best. In order to get it perfectly flat, you would need custom mounts with offsets to match each brand of tower. In some tower configurations you might need to be creative on where you place them, including on top of the tower. This loses the benefit of the bimini protecting a board from sun exposure, but it will hold your board securely in the bag in those cases. John showed us examples of side mounting these racks as well (below), although it’s not the ideal location for this design. What’s the difference? Most traditional side-mount racks are simply wakeboard racks with a wider gap in the forks to accommodate different widths of boards, which creates more movement while the boat is underway, exposed to the sun if they are not in a bag, and possibly puts more defined pressure points on the board. Newer style clamping racks (OEM versions or aftermarket such as PTM Edge strapless rack at $3,695 pair, the Roswell Titan Strapless board rack at $1599 each, or the new Skylon version of a similar design) are amazing wakeboard racks and offer big improvements for surf boards by enabling us to adjust to the width of the board perfectly and improve load disbursement. But to keep them out of the sun, you’ll still want to keep them in a protective bag, or at least a board sock. OEM side mount combo racks (Malibu in this case) PTM Clamping Rack (side mount) Roswell Strapless Rack (side mount) We’ve seen other overhead racks such as the Agenda Overhead Surf Rack, by Corson Piper. There are a few installation projects of this rack here on Wake Garage as well. Credit Corson Piper for getting these boards overhead and out of the way. The primary difference between the Agenda/Corson Piper rack vs HyperRyd Designs appears to be the lower profile mounting surface vs thick padded mount bars. There are many happy boaters out there with the Corson racks, and we think people will love these HyperRyd racks as well. Corson Piper rack install project here on Wake Garage: Corson Piper Rack (sold by Agenda) HRD XR1 Tower Compatibility: The HyperRyd XR1 Overhead Racks currently come with inserts for 2 1/4” and 2 3/8” tubes which cover most of the newer towers, as well as 2 1/2” and 3” for larger diameter towers, such as on Axis towers. According to John, there are alternative mounts available, such as 4” and 5” offset brackets, to provide a greater flexibility in mounting options, as well as a hocky puck style bracket for the cast towers (below). Here's a quick video from HyperRyd Designs demonstrating the strap system: Summary: In short, we love the HyperRyd Racks and recommend them. This is not a complicated product and the benefits are fairly obvious: they keep your boards snug tight, up and out of the way, and more importantly, out of the sun. If only we’d had these racks before our Ronix carbon thruster delaminated from the California sun while sitting in the side racks…I’m hopeful it would have lasted more than one summer. You can bet our Soulcraft custom boards will only be used with these new racks on the boat, and stored in padded bags when they are not. Hope that helps!! Post your questions below and we’ll get answers!

Here's the PDF referenced above. Hope that helps. Depth Finder_Lowrance PD-WBL Transducer Installation Instructions.pdf

Congratulations to @cowwboy !!! Winner of the second Glide drawing. Glide will contact you directly to ship the Glide kit! You have a fall/winter/spring upgrade project in your future.... great product and great upgrade.

This contest is now closed. Will announce a winner shortly. Good luck!

@Pizzano163 @01sunsettervlx make sure you don't forget to post in the gallery either. Member Boats 'N Wakes thanks!

@henrik don't forget to create an album and post a picture in Members Boats 'N Wakes

ANOTHER PRODUCT GIVEAWAY FOR WAKE GARAGE MEMBERS ONLY Ends 9/30/18 Glide Bearings has stepped up to help Wake Garage members... again. Up for grabs is another Glide Shaft Seal System for your boat. We will do a drawing similar to the previous contest. (Congrats again to @Kaneboats, the previous winner). Still time to upgrade your boat this year... or make it an off season project. The Prize... The Glide system updates your old bronze stuffing/packing box for a smoother, maintenance-free, drip-free operation. Glide Bearings is used by the top boat builders including: MB, NXT, Tige, Axis, Supreme, Correct Craft, Centurion, Malibu, and MasterCraft. - Winner to choose between 1" or 1.125" shaft size (depending on your boat) - Exclusive GLIDE 100 Polymer dripless system - Seal Vault face plate with 2-axis seal retention - 316 SS fasteners for installation - Double lip seal, 100% TFE Teflon Seal - Slide & Lock grooves for added hose retention - Reinforced silicone rubber "Hump Hose" with stainless steel hose clamps - 3/8" x 6' reinforced water supply hose with hose clamps - "T" Connector - Wake Garage domed decal Examples of installation are found in our Completed Projects Database. HERE'S HOW YOU ENTER... 1) Enter for the drawing by posting a reply in the thread below. Tell us what year/make/model you have. AND 2) Post at least one picture of your current boat in our new Member Boats N' Wakes Gallery (if you haven't already done so). (click on the link, or go to "Gallery" in the top menu bar) - Contest ends at midnight, September 30, 2018. - Signing up will earn a single (1) entry count. May only sign up one time. - Members who have posted a projects to the Completed Projects database by midnight 9/30/18 will also earn an additional (1) entry count for each project submitted, up to a max of three projects (max 3 additional entries). Projects already submitted prior to this announcement will count. So the maximum entry count for a single member is four (1 for sign up, plus 3 for three or more posted projects). That's right... helping others increases your chances. - Winner to be notified by email and announced on Wake Garage. - Professional dealers/installers showcasing their customers’ boats on Wake Garage are not eligible for the prize, but are welcome to encourage their customers to participate as individual members. Wake Garage administrators area also not eligible for drawing. - Rules subject to change at any time as needed by Wake Garage and/or Glide Bearings & Seal Systems.

If you don't have a prop change kit.... you need one. The Prop Shop has a great deal going while supplies last. $70 for the entire kit, and if you mention Wake Garage, they will also throw in a beer coozie. https://propshopinc.com/Wakeboard-Ski-Boat-Prop-Puller-Kit-w-Puller-Prop-Nut-Prop-Wrench-Case-3-4-1-1-8-p828.html Kit Includes Prop Puller Nyloc Prop Nut Prop Wrench Rustproof Carrying Case Hope this helps!

Yes, three completed projects gets you a hat. We will PM instructions. Thanks for posting the final installs! Will be helpful and probably inspire members for sure.

Even though we could only have one winner for the drawing (Kaneboats) in May, the rest of us have a chance to save a little on Glide products in June. Just call them directly, say you are a Wake Garage member and they will give 10% off for the month of June. If you need a dripless shaft seal or strut bearings, etc., give them a call. Hope that helps!

Want effortless, hidden ballast weight to fine tune a wake? Wake Garage and Lead Wake teamed up for a 10% discount on purchases of Lead Wake bags for any configuration less than 10 bags, as well as free shipping. If you want more than 10 bags, you'll get their standard public discount anyway. Go to www.leadwake.com and enter "WG10" into the discount code when checking out. Enjoy. From Lead Wake: These bags can be placed in just about any spot on your boat, including the glove box. The bags contain 100% recycled steel material. Sewn into the inside is a load dispersing high density foam core to protect not only the bag, but your boat as well. The custom designed bags are easy to shift around in your boat to clean up any wake. Tired of asking your boat crew to get up and move to the other side?….just grab a couple bags and move them to adjust that wake. Does your boat have small compartments that won’t allow a “big” water ballast bag? My Lead Wake bags can be stacked and placed in tight spaces. At a density of 9x that of water, just a few bags can replace those space consuming water bags.

Sorry... we had accidentally "locked" this thread after the deadline. Congrats to @Kaneboats. We will do more contests soon. Please let us know, kaneboats, how you like the GMSS kit if you end up installing it anytime in near future. Glide was great to deal with.

CONGRATULATIONS TO..... Kaneboats! You won the 1st Wake Garage drawing! Special thanks to Glide Bearing Systems for hooking us up with a GMSS Kit!!! For those that didn't win, please keep Glide in mind for future upgrades. Best in the industry. @Kaneboats Please also pick a Wake Garage decal color and you get one of those as well. Thanks everyone for participating. We will have more. This was cool.

Entry for the drawing is now closed. Good luck to everyone who participated! Awesome looking boats in here. Drawing will be done by June 2nd, the winner will be emailed and announced here.

@Bubonic -- We just updated to newer software version... could be a bug. Try going back to "edit" at the bottom, and try to upload again. If you have trouble again PM Wake Garage or Rugger and we'll contact the company. Settings look fine. Great project and we want to see the final pics! Thanks