Among all of the many watercraft offered by Sea-Doo, one of its most consistently popular models is the Wake Pro series. Designed with the express purpose of towing wake boarders and skaters, and waterskiers, the Wake Pro (and its smaller Recreation-segment sibling, the Wake 155) offers enthusiasts uniquely engineered features that make towing not only easy but immensely more enjoyable.
One of the Wake Pro’s most noticeable features is the LinQ Retractable Ski Pylon. Although applicable to all full-sized Sea-Doo runabouts, the LinQ Retractable Ski Pylon comes standard on the Wake Pro, providing a compact and secure mount that provides an added 7-and-a-half inches of height when extended – ideal for board sports, with inflatables needing to use the tow eye mounted above the bondrail.
Installing the LinQ Retractable Ski Pylon takes a matter of seconds; first, simply remove the screw-top cap and rear seat. Next, the Pylon indexes into the deck, rotating a quarter turn in a clockwise fashion.
Lastly, slip the A-frame support into the two designated slots and connect it to the Pylon. A locking key slips into a relief in the pylon, allowing you to lock the two pieces together. Once locked and secured, the rear seat latches back into place – and you’re ready to go!
In a previous video, we showed you the ins-and-outs of Sea-Doo’s Slow Speed Mode, a feature that comes standard on all units equipped with BRP’s Intelligent Throttle Control. The Wake Pro has a special feature unique to only it and the other Wake model: SKI Mode. Designed to give the driver repeated and precision-controlled launches, SKI Mode digitally sets the towing speed and acceleration rate to best fit the skier or wake boarder.
The process begins by toggling through the different Mode settings available to the Wake Pro: Sport, SKI, Eco and Touring. To select SKI Mode, simply press the Mode button until “SKI Mode” appears on the display. Then press the OK button to confirm your selection.
Next, the display will prompt you to select your RAMP number. A RAMP is a pre-programmed setting in the Sea-Doo’s computer controlling how hard it accelerates. #1 is the slowest and most gentle acceleration curve, and #5 being the most aggressive. To select a RAMP, simply toggle the UP or DOWN arrow buttons. To confirm your selection, you can either press the RIGHT arrow button or the OK button.
Finally, you’ll be asked to select a maximum target speed. Regardless of your RAMP selection, you can dictate your top speed all by using the UP or DOWN arrow buttons. And again, press the RIGHT arrow button or OK to confirm. After confirming your selection, press the OK button to activate the function – a message “SKI READY” will appear. And there you go!
To test out the Wake Pro’s lowest RAMP setting, we towed some daring young girls around Lake James in North Carolina. With a maximum speed setting of 18mph, we managed to bounce them loose only twice. Impressively, SKI mode does pretty much all of the work; simply engage the throttle wide open and the presets do all the work. SKI mode even allows you to change the RAMP and speed settings at any time.
And of course, releasing the throttle or applying the brake will pause SKI mode. To pick up where you left off, simply press the OK button to reactivate your previous SKI mode setting. Lastly, we wanted to really see what SKI Mode to could offer, so we recruited a courageous teenager to let us try to catapult him as as we could.
With a RAMP setting of 4 and a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour, our 230-horsepower, supercharged Wake Pro had little trouble ejecting our test subject a handful of times despite his best efforts. We call that mission accomplished! The Wake series of watercraft from Sea-Doo definitely earn their praise; chocked full of unique and specialized features the Wake Pro is definitely the right machine for the job.
Additional photography courtesy of Melissa Brothers
