Editor’s note: Pontoons are an increasingly strong segment in the marine industry, and wakesurfing is one of the most popular sports on the water. Montana combined the two when it introduced the Surf Boss. Our story about the new line got 9,845 page views.
When Montara Boats CEO Mark Overbye and his team set out to design a new breed of wakesurfing boat, their intent was clear.
“The goal was to make a pontoon surf,” he said. “We have taken all the best things from a pontoon boat and merged them with a surf boat.”
The result is the Montara Surf Boss, an aluminum-hulled boat that’s available in 21-, 23-and 25-foot models. The boat looks like a pontoon, but the bottom is a single proprietary hull design that was developed to handle 5,000-plus pounds of ballast to create wakes for surfing.
“The pontoon guys won’t know what the desired wake shape should be,” said Overbye, a tow-sports industry veteran and the founder of Gekko boats, which he sold to Floe Industries.
Overbye said working with fiberglass would have been easier, but consumers like the maintenance-free aspect of aluminum. “People like the comfort, the plushness, the convenience, the ability to drive it up on the beach,” Overbye said.
Montara Surf Boss boats have PCM V-drives, a ballast system, Zero Off GPS speed control and wake-shaping equipment.
Montara manufactures its boat interiors and has in-house machining capabilities and robotic aluminum cutting and welding equipment. The company plans to debut the boats this fall. Pricing is expected to be in the $65,000 to $75,000 range.
