80 Feet Back: Supra SA

2015 Supra SA — Worlds Edition

This wake is definitely all it’s cracked up to be — especially for 2015. Supra added an extra 700 pounds to the SA‘s standard ballast capacity, so right out of the box this wake is impressively big. When I tested it, I was going from boat to boat pretty fast, and at stock ballast, the SA’s wake was an easy favorite.

You’d think that with that much weight to haul around, it would struggle to get on plane, forcing the rider to plow through the water at 7 mph for what feels like eternity. Instead it had a smooth, dignified acceleration out of the hull, without overcompensating like some speed-control systems have a tendency to do. If you’ve dealt with this before, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Once the boat planes out, it blasts up to 28 or 29 mph before slowing back down to your requested speed — which is pretty obnoxious from a rider’s perspective. Fortunately, Supra thought way ahead on this one, and even while fully loaded down, you’re up and riding on a clean wake without any hassle.

As for the wake shape itself, it held a comfortable, moderate transition with a lot of volume — blending the best characteristics of both rampy and vert wakes. On top of that, this wake can be customized to meet your preferences. The Smart Plate adjusts the running attitude of the boat, which alters the shape of the wake. This means that with a quick adjustment, not only can you make the transition steep or mellow at a whim, but you can also adjust it to compensate for the ballast. Speaking to this ballast adjustment, have you ever drained ballast for a beginner and had the wakes round out too much? Or add so much weight that the wake curls over and washes out on you? Simply adjust the Smart Plate to compensate, and you’ll never have to struggle with those issues again. It’s almost impossible not to be happy with this wake when you consider all the fine-tuning — not to mention that those settings can all be programmed into your own user profile.