Most boat clubs can put you on a pontoon. This month, Nautical Boat Club Irmo put a 2027 Cobalt CS23 Surf on Lake Murray — a purpose-built surf boat with seating for nine — and paired it with something harder to find than the boat itself: a dock team that teaches members to ride behind it.
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The 2027 Cobalt CS23 Surf is a dedicated surf and wake boat. Ballast and a factory surf system shape a clean, rideable wave at low speed, and the bow layout still seats a full family of nine. It joins the Irmo fleet alongside our tritoons and cruisers, and it is the kind of boat most people on this lake have only ridden behind at a dealer demo day.
That mix matters more than the spec sheet. A surf morning and a family afternoon usually take two different boats. This one does both.
"If you are even thinking about joining the Nautical Boat Club, run don’t walk!! The staff and customer service is second to none. The boats are all fantastic!, clean and well cared for! We have been blessed with a brand new absolutely beautiful new Surf boat. It is a well oiled machine with top notch engine and controls.
I was able to be part of one of the woman’s classes for the Surf boat use and safety given by the Amazing Peyton!! She is calm and full of knowledge. The extra benifits like the class just puts this club over the top!!
I got my daughter up on the first try!!"
— Jen Mason, Nautical Boat Club – Irmo (Lake Murray) (Google Review, 5★)
Wake surfing happens at 10 to 11 miles per hour, a few feet off the swim platform, with no rope in your hands after the start. The boat takes on water ballast, leans the hull, and shapes a wave you ride the way you would an ocean swell. Kids can do it. Adults who have never been on a board can do it. The boat does most of the work — if someone shows you how to use it.
You don't have to already know how
That is the part we think matters most. Payton, on our Irmo dock team, runs wake and surf instruction for members — the first session put three moms on the water, none of whom had surfed before. Members around the dock already know her by name; new members meet her at orientation.
Anyone on Lake Murray can buy a surf boat next spring. The instruction is the part that does not come with a hull. At Nautical Boat Club Irmo, learning to surf is a membership benefit, not a separate bill.
"Great experience every time we go out staff is always on point to make sure we have a great outing. Payton is the best and takes great care of us every time"
— William Letourneau, Nautical Boat Club – Irmo (Lake Murray) (Google Review, 5★)
The staff is the amenity. The Cobalt just gives them a bigger wave to work with.
New tow boats built for surfing commonly list between $150,000 and $250,000 before the trailer. Add a wet slip on Lake Murray at roughly $345 to $1,150 a month for a 23-footer, insurance at $1,000 to $2,500 a year, and winterization each fall. That is the price of owning the wave.
Membership at our clubs runs $3,000 to $8,000 to join and $300 to $600 a month, and the Cobalt is in the rotation like every other boat — fueled, cleaned, maintained, and ready when you reserve it. Same wave, no six-figure hull on your balance sheet.
If you surf competitively and tune ballast and wave shape to your own setup, if you have a dock and lift at your own lake house, or if the boat itself is the hobby — buy the boat. A serious rider with a dialed-in rig is the one person a club rotation genuinely underserves, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise.
For everyone else — the family that wants to try surfing this season without committing the price of a house addition to it — this is exactly what a club is for.
The 2027 Cobalt CS23 Surf is on the water now at Nautical Boat Club – Irmo on Lake Murray, (803) 407-2828. See the boat's full details on the Irmo fleet page, or explore membership at nauticalboatclub.com/locations.
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