On The Water With The Nautique G23

Apr 5, 2012

Author: Adam Levitt/SBCWakeboard.com

All was revealed last Saturday night at the Orlando Executive Airport as Nautique Boats debuted their latest high-end wake boat, the G23. While Shaun Murray, Greg Meloon (Nautique VP of Marketing and Product Development), Bill Yeargin (Nautique CEO) and the rest of the Nautique wake team spoke at length about the process that went into building the G23 and many of its standout features, it was really hard to get a feeling of how epic this boat was going to be. Even after all the formalities of the evening were done and all attending were able to check out the boats, I didn't really get a feel for the boat when it’s sitting on a trailer.

Fortunately, Nautique had planned a media day to coincide with the launch of the G23 allowing myself and the rest of the wake media to get out on the water with these new boats. Before hitting the lake, I was able to sit down with one of the head designers of the G23 and he walked me through every feature of the boat. It's clear a ton of design has gone into the interior of the boat with so many unique and well thoughtout features. One of the biggest standout features in my mind was the massive volume of storage this boat has. You could seriously start smuggling people across the boarder in one of these things: they'd never suspect a wakeboard boat right? If you end up with clutter in this boat because you've maxed out all the compartments, you should probably be featured on Hoarders.

After getting the full run down on the interior, it was time to put the G23 through its paces and see what the wake looked like. Also in attendance was the entire Nautique wake team and they were just as eager as everyone else to get out on the water. We all jumped in the G23 set-up with just stock ballast as an introduction. Shaun Murray was behind the wheel and Shawn Watson took the first set. As the boat got up on plane, I saw this monster wake for the first time and I was blown away. I actually double checked the rear lockers just to make sure Nautique wasn't pulling a fast one. The day before I'd been out in another brand of wake boat that was fully weighted with sacs littering the interior of the boat and the G23 with stock ballast had the same size or bigger wake. You'll have to find other uses for your fat sacks with the G23 because the wake with stock ballast is big enough for 99 percent of the wakers out there. Watson stomped pretty much every trick he knows and jumped back in the boat with an ear to ear grin.

After riding the stock ballast boat, it was time to move to the big leagues and jump into another G23 with an additional 1000 lbs of ballast. The rest of the wake team all took a set and absolutely killed it. I've shot photos with most of the guys before and it's safe to say I've never seen them boost so high off the wake.

After the photo shoot, I got to jump behind the wheel and drive a couple for a couple of sets. Since the launch party, I'd heard from various people how smooth double-ups are. With such a huge wake, I figured the hull would take a pounding as I crossed back over our wakes to T-up the double-up, but I was mistaken. I'm somewhat ashamed to quote such an overused cliche, but it was like a hot knife through butter: yep, bad cliche for sure, but probably the closest description to driving a double up in the G23.

Check out some of the photos below I shot throughout the day of the boats and the Nautique team "testing" the wake.

Shawn Watson boosting off the factory ballast wake. Yes, I'm serious. FACTORY BALLAST. No extra weight added.

Either Bob Soven is only two feet tall or that's one hell of a huge wake.

Bob Soven, Ole 7, way up in the air.

This was one of three G23's Nautique had out on the water for the media day.

JD Webb with some serious style and hang time.

Emily Copeland-Durham behind the G23 set-up for wake surfing. That's a meaty surf wake.

Jimmy Lariche looking as stylish as ever.

Hey, look: it's another G23.

Shaun Murray touching the sky with this S-Bend.

A huge thanks to Terri Schnieder, Brian Sullivan, Bill Yeagin and the rest of the Nautique staff for making this day happen.

Return to previous page