The Best Ski & Wake Boats

Water skiing, wakeboarding, wake surfing, skurfing, tubing—there are many ways to have fun on the water with a good fast boat. All you need is to find the best ski boat–by reading reviews and talking to owners or by taking a ride in them.

From classic racing and slalom skiing to modern trick surfing the curl, there’s a boat out there to suit your style. With so many choices, narrowing down what you need and don’t can be hard.

Compare these boats by price down below after reading the distinctions each boat has in these reviews.

Why Trust Us

We consulted a water ski club and a competitive wakeboarder to help guide the parameters of this review list. We also interviewed boat manufacturers at boat shows and interviewed their salespeople to analyze salient selling points for comparison.

Ski & Wake Boat Buyer’s Guide

Ready to get out on the water and have some fun? Here’s a look at the types of tow sports riders enjoy and what sort of boat is best for each.

Types of Boats for Towed Water Sports

Before you pick the perfect tow boat, it’s important to narrow down precisely what you want to do with it. While there are many ways to have fun while being towed by a boat, most sports fit into three categories of tow sports: skiing, wake sports, and tubing.

Water Skiing

Water skiing is one of the oldest forms of towing sports. It can be done on two skis or one and may be done for speed, tricks, or in competition.

Depending on the type of towing, different ski & wake boats will–obviously–create different size and types of wake. For slalom competitions, flat, glassy conditions are best, and a boat with a soft wake, like the Ski Nautique above, is ideal.

Variations of water skiing include barefoot skiing, hydrofoiling, or kneeboarding. Skurfing is a mix of wakeboarding and skiing—the rider is towed farther back than with a wakeboard, and the skurfboard is less like a ski and more like a really short surfboard.

In all of these ski sports, the point is that the rider is towed through the water with enough speed to get up. The boat, therefore, should be safe to operate around swimmers and fast. Most competition ski boats are designed with flat bottoms and central inboard engines that minimize wake for efficient, fast towing.

Recreational ski boats often have aft-mounted engines with v-drive inboard propellers. These are capable of towing skiers for jumps, slaloms, and tricks.

It should be noted that there are also tow-capable jet skis, or personal watercraft. They’re obviously smaller than a bowrider-style boat, which also can tow a skier or tube.

The key to the perfect ski boat is all about maintaining the perfect speed. The speed depends greatly on the skier’s experience, equipment, and weight. It’s usually about 15 mph for beginners and kids, while an expert on one ski might need 35 mph or so. Barefoot skiing requires higher speeds of around 45 mph, while competition racing might go as high as 120 mph. The recommended tow rope length for skiing is 75 feet.

Wake Sports

Where water skiing is about speeding through mostly smooth water, wake sports are about enjoying the waves of the boat’s hull passing through the water. Wakeboarding is the most popular wake sport. Here, a rider uses a short, square board with bindings and may be towed close to the boat. They then use the wave to jump and do tricks.

Wake sports depend much more on personal preference than ski sports. Everything is a variable, from the length of the tow rope to the size and shape of the wake at various speeds. Everything can be tinkered with to nail whatever trick the rider wants.

A modern adaptation of wakeboarding is wake surfing. Wake surfers trail behind the boat and ride the wave as if surfing in the ocean. Since the boat keeps going, so does the wave, and so does the ride. Wakesurfers are not towed, although they initially use a short rope to get up.

Wakesurfing and some wakeboarding are done very close to the back of the boat, making these some of the more dangerous types of tow sports. This puts the riders very near the propeller. Traditional inboard ski boats keep their props well clear of swimmers, but attempting these sports with sterndrive or outboard-powered boats can be exceptionally dangerous. Always know the safe limits of what your vessel is capable of and designed for.

Tubing

The final class of tow sports closely resembles skiing but does not require skis or a board. Tubing is riding on an inflatable of some kind. There are many shapes and sizes of tubes, depending on the type of experience. Some you sit upright, while others you lay on your belly and hold on. Tubes, decks, cockpits, and wings are various types of tubes available.

Tubing is an easy and accessible tow sport since it requires little in the way of specialized equipment. A tow rope, lifevests, and an inflatable tube are all that’s really required. It’s great for kids, and nearly any powerboat can safely be used for tubing, including most fishing boats and pontoons, including sterndrive and outboard boats.

How to Choose a Ski Boat—Types of Boats Used in Tow Sports

Here’s a rundown of the various styles of boats used in tow sports today.

Inboard Ski Boats

The original towboat is the classic inboard ski boat. These vessels have inboard engines mounted in the boat’s center for the best balance and weight distribution. The propeller shaft is short, keeping the prop far from swimmers near the stern. The layout provides for fast boats that make very little wake or spray.

Unfortunately, the layout of a small ski boat is very limited with the central engine mount. There is seldom much seating, and they do not have the large lounges that modern bow riders are known for.

An alternative, popular with recreational users, is to mount the engine aft and use a v-drive to get the prop farther away from the swim platform area. These boats have less optimal weight distribution, making a bigger wake. However, this is an advantage if you’re looking for a boat to use in wake sports, and this layout has more interior space for seating.

I/O Wake Boats

Many modern bowriders and cuddy cabin boats are equipped with sterndrive engines, also called inboard-outboards. These can be hazardous for tow sports since the propellers are exposed and directly under the swim platform.

A modern solution is the forward-facing sterndrive, which mounts the propeller forward of the swim platform. It’s still close to the back, but it is a major safety improvement. No matter what boat you drive, care must be exercised when propellers are spinning and swimmers are in the water.

Manufacturers are adopting the forward-facing sterndrive widely. It’s enabling some makers, like Regal and Sea Ray, to get into the wakeboarding and wake surfing markets by simply mounting a readily available sterndrive unit to their existing designs.

While they aren’t ideal, many bow rider boats and small cabin cruisers offer the ability to do some tow sports while also giving you a comfortable platform for cruising and lounging. 

I/O Wake Boats

Many modern bowriders and cuddy cabin boats are equipped with sterndrive engines, also called inboard-outboards. These can be hazardous for tow sports since the propellers are exposed and directly under the swim platform.

A modern solution is the forward-facing sterndrive, which mounts the propeller forward of the swim platform. It’s still close to the back, but it is a major safety improvement. No matter what boat you drive, care must be exercised when propellers are spinning and swimmers are in the water.

Manufacturers are adopting the forward-facing sterndrive widely. It’s enabling some makers, like Regal and Sea Ray, to get into the wakeboarding and wake surfing markets by simply mounting a readily available sterndrive unit to their existing designs.

While they aren’t ideal, many bow rider boats and small cabin cruisers offer the ability to do some tow sports while also giving you a comfortable platform for cruising and lounging. 

Jet Boats

Sport jet boats are one of the safest tow vessels available since they have no propeller at all. However, these boats are still relatively new designs and are not all that popular with enthusiasts. Jet boats offer fast operation, and some models have wake-enhancing features. One example is the Yamaha 222XD jet-powered sport boat. 

Outboard Boats

Finally, there are outboard boats. These have long been considered the worst choice for tow sports, although many wakeboarders, skiers, and tubers do fine with them. The key is understanding the limits of these boats.

For one thing, for many decades, these boats were typically underpowered and slower. This has mostly changed now. As engine technologies have advanced, new outboard engines like Mercury’s V-12 600 horsepower models, with bigger ones available soon.

Another problem with these boats is access to the water and the overall boat design. Outboard boats had no swim platform for decades, so getting in and out of the water is tough. This, too, is changing with new designs as manufacturers try to make their boats appeal to more users. Even still, the platform on an outboard-powered boat is nearly always smaller than one on an inboard or sterndrive boat.

Finally, there is the problem of propeller placement. Outboards will never be appropriate for close-in tow sports like wake surfing—it’s simply too dangerous. No matter what type of tow sport is involved, the engine must be shut off completely for launches and retrievals.

Of the various outboard boats to pick from, center console boats provide some of the best options. Find one with a big swim platform and plenty of power. A pontoon boat can also make a great platform for beginner wakeboarders and tubers.

Wake Enhancing Features

Manufacturers use many new technology features to boost the wake of a normal boat. When shopping for a wake boat, you’ll undoubtedly notice the appeal. When you add these features to a ski boat, you get a boat that can do both—go fast with minimal wake or slow while carving a big, curling wave. 

The first feature to look for is a water ballast system. These range from manual tanks you can fill and add yourself to integrated systems with touchscreen controls. The typical factory system can fill itself with 5,000 pounds or more of water ballast in a minute or two. That amount of weight can make a substantial difference in the shape and size of the wake. Tabs on the bottom of the hull can add more drag and deflect more water to accentuate the effect.

Next, boatmakers use hydraulic tabs to interfere with the smooth water flow around the hull. Malibu Boats’ Surf Gate is a tab mounted on the aft of each side of the hull. They can be extended one at a time. Opening it up causes a curling wave to build on that side of the boat. The system is all controlled with a slick touchscreen interface.

What Makes a Wake Boat the Best?

With so many styles of tow sports out there, it’s hard to narrow in on one best ski or wake boat. The truth is that it depends on what you want to do with it.

Many boaters start by learning to do what their boat is capable of. Many folks driving pontoon and fishing boats enjoy towing the kids on the tube or trying some light wakeboarding. The boat you have can work.

Hardcore skiers and wake surfers will want more options and more ways to play. These specialized boats are narrowly focused on their purpose, although many make great bowriders and day boats, too.

In our mind, the best boat is the one you will use the most often. Our advice: Find a boat capable of doing the most things you’ll enjoy, and go boating often.