I have been riding for Supra for 13 years, and my new SE 550 is hands down the best yet. From how well it handles to the driver’s seat, the spaciousness, and the wake and wave, every aspect of the SE is exactly what I want and need in a boat.
As the official driver for the Pro Wakeboard Tour, I spend a lot of time sitting in the driver’s seat of my SE helping my students progress in their riding, as well as helping some of the pros prepare for each event. I love how simple all the systems are in the SE. We have some advanced technologies that are intuitive and easy to use.
Both my daughters are learning to ride now, and it’s amazing to have a boat that so easily transfers from suiting the needs of top pros to suiting my 7-year-old who is crossing the wakes for the first time. My wife will even jump behind the wheel and take me for a ride if nobody else is around because the systems and way the boat drives are so easy, she doesn’t feel overwhelmed.
The new AutoWake feature is so simple to use yet so complex in what it offers to the rider and driver. The ability to have a perfectly balanced boat without having to worry about moving weight around allows the driver and rider to focus on what they are doing while AutoWake takes care of the rest.
How I Ride It
Speed: 23.6 mph
Rope length: 78 feet
Custom settings: I set my SmartPlate at 25 to 50, depending on the day; 25 will make the wake a little steeper and give the top a little more lip. If there are a lot of people in the boat, I may bump it down to 30, 40 or 50 to decrease the steepness.
Ballast: I fill stock ballast to 100 percent in all three zones, and I add an additional 1,500 pounds for pro-level training — about 650 pounds under each seat in the cockpit area and 200 pounds in the bow.
How I Surf It
Speed: 11.2 mph
Rope length: I almost never use a rope!
Custom settings: I’m goofy-footed, so I set the Swell Surf system for the right side of the boat. I prefer a steeper wave, so I set the wake plate to zero. The SE’s wave is really customizable with the Swell Surf system, which is really cool. You can fine-tune a wave a ton of different ways.
Ballast: With the SE, I run my pro-level wakeboard ballast setup and simply turn the Swell Surf system on.
How I Hang Out
I spend a lot of time with a lot of different people in my boat, from coaching groms, to helping top pros practice, to hanging out with my family and friends. The SE can fit and accommodate all of it at the highest of levels. Some days we have 12 to 16 people over, and usually six of them are kids under the age of 8, which is crazy but also a ton of fun. They love it. I couldn’t imagine a better boat for everything that I do.
