First off, this is an opinion piece.  So if you think we are wrong or missed something please write us and let us know.  If we agree we will add your tower to the list.   

The first company to ever put a wakeboard tower on their boats from the factory was Correct Craft in 1996.  Since then, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of different tower designs and innovations from aftermarket and OEM manufacturers alike.  Some have been excellent and some not so much.  Here is our list of top 5 most iconic and industry changing towers in wake boat history.

Number 5 – The Roswell Telescoping Tower on the Nautique Paragon Series Boats.

4.  Centurion Maximus Tower 

Now, we know this one may be a bit controversial but when this tower came out I was pretty blown away.  The biggest innovation that this tower brought to market was the ability to color match your boat and tower directly from the factory.  With the fiberglass inserts bolted on to the tower, you could be sure your tower and boat gel coats matched perfectly.  The majority of the tower itself still only was available in black or white standard, but with the addition of the fiberglass inserts, you had way more options to make your boat pop. 

3.  Mastercraft ZFT Tower – 2007 – 2011

Probably not the best image but if you were wakeboarding in the mid 2000’s you could see this tower from far away and know it was a Mastercraft.  Built in swivel and clamping racks were what really set this tower apart.  No one did that in 2007.  Mastercraft had the patent on their design and didn’t see any real competition in swivel clamping racks until the mid 2010s, for about 15 years!!  Plus the “blade” style rear sides were something that had not been done on any tower yet.  Okay… in retrospect we know that this tower wasn’t actually all that great.  It needed reinforcents to keep it from rattling and shaking, the swivel racks were hard to replace and if you have one of these towers currently, good luck finding any racks or a bimini that fits.  But, you cannot argue that this tower is one that you will always know.

2.  Malibu Illusion X Tower

This is the tower that changed everything.  Malibu came out with the Titan Illusion tower before this which was a tube style forward arching tower that didn’t really catch on.  But once they had Metcraft redesign this using cast aluminum an icon was born.  This was the first widely accepted forward arching tower and it came out in 2004 on the Malibu 23 LSV.  Within a few years, pretty much every manufacturer had changed their designs to capitalize on the forward arching cast aluminum design trend.  To this day we still see this exact design being used on runabouts other boats. This was one of the first boats to have rack specific mounts vs traditional racks that clamped onto tower tubing. 

1.  Nautique Flight Control Tower 2

Most people don’t realize this but the tower pictured above is actually version 2 of the iconic Flight Control tower and was used on their Super Air Boats until 2008 and on their Air Nautique boats even longer.  In my opinoin this is the OG wakeboard tower that really started it all.  With the FCT 2 Nautique decided to put some more styling into the tower design vs just the step ladder look that you had on the original Flight Control towers and Mastercrat Zero Flex towers.  The result was a tower that was sturdy (for the time), relatively easy to fold and that allowed a wide assortment of accessories.  

There are a few honorable mentions here:

Titan III tower – Still one of the best looking tube style towers ever built and incredibly sturdy
Tige Alpha Z tower – Beautiful continuation of the Malibu Illusion X design and offered in many additional colors to match your boat.
Monster MTK tower – This not an OEM tower but it deserves recognition as the best looking forward arching universal aftermarket tower (that is also affordable) on the market. ‘
Pavati Tower – All aluminum design that really flows with the boat and includes built in speakers.

Again, if you have others that you think deserve to be on this list let us know by using the contact us form!