Anybody here wakeboard? I just got my first board today, going to take it out for a spin (or a fall) tomorrow.

I've been waterskiing for a few years, but I've never had anyone experienced around to teach me.

I've been reading about wakeboarding, techniques, how to get up, etc. Just wanted to know if there's anyone else here, who perhaps has some good tips, or even funny stories!


This is happydud, your local slacklining, wakeboarding, waterskiing, taekwondoing traceur signing off.

I used to water ski and wake board, but it's been a really long time. If you can get up on skis, you should be able to get up on a board.

Wet suit.

Naked.

get your sister to take pics of you falling.

Note: only do this if you DON'T take vin's advice. Otherwise, your sister will have very large therapy bills in the future.

Brian wakeboards.

Interesting how I thought that too, Rob. We've been here too long.

Attempt this!

Yeah, I wakeboard. I've seen people get up on their first try, and others it took all summer. If you stick with it, you'll get it. I find this the easiest:

Sit in the water with the board in front of you, perpendicular to the rope. The front edge of the board should be out of the water (since it floats). You should have your knees bent and your arms straight in front of you. The rope should be taught (the driver may need to drag at a very low speed so you can get used to the feeling). You should basically be plowing water (slowly). As soon as you say "hit it," the driver should accelerate quickly, but not as hard as pulling a slalom skier out of the water. Pretty much as soon as you start getting pulled, it will be hard to hold on because you are plowing water. Keep leaning back, and twist your feet and body so the front of the board is facing up. You should automatically pop right out of the water. Keep some weight on your back foot to keep the rear fin in the water (assuming you have a rear fin). This will help you keep going straight while you learn to keep your balance (it's a lot harder if you are slipping side to side). Once you are up, it will feel like there's a lot less force pulling you, because there's less water resistence, so a lot of people tend to fall backward on their first few tries. If you can water ski, you have decent balance already, and you should be fine.

What kind of boat do you have?

how come its not wake skiing or water boarding?

Brian- Thanks for the advice. That's a bit more clear than some of the other things I've read.

We have a Bayliner Classic



Looks something like that. It's not a wakeboarding boat by any means, but it's all we have at the moment. (Well, that and a jetski. <3 jetski) So I'll make due.


I was out in the water today with it, and we were about to go, then I noticed one of the bolts attaching the bindings (shoethingies) had come/broken off in the water, so the shoe was just rotating.. Which is bad. So I skiied instead. (Pictures in a bit on the camhoez thread!) I went to the hardware store and got a bolt to fix it, and it fits fine and everything. So I'll probably test it out next Saturday (which is the next chance I'll have.)

If you're the only one using the board, how often do you have to retighten the bolts? I wouldn't assume too often, but I just want to make sure.

And spe- skiing implies two.. skis. This is only one, as seen in the picture above. And waterboarding is a method of torture....

Mine have never come loose since I bought it 4 years ago. You can put some threadlocker if you're worried about it. Mine can be tightened by hand, they're like little wingnuts wrapped in plastic or something.

Regarding the name, skiers hate wakes, wakeboarders love them.

You forgot aikidoing!

Epic fail! I think it's a combination of my dad not knowing how to drive for a wakeboard, and me figuring out what I'm doing from square one.

Okay, I need some pointers in a couple areas:

How should my dad drive the boat? I've read a good max speed is 18mph, but how fast should you accelerate to that? Should you start slower or faster? (Please be as detailed as possible! :p)

How should my board be angled? I assumed you'd want it angled about 45 degrees so it makes an acute angle with the water, but when I tried this the water just piled up under the board, then came over and submerged me. I can't figure out a way to get the board high enough so the water doesn't rise up above and over the board.
What position should I start in? Right now, I'm starting in a similar position to my waterskiing starting position, except the board is sideways.

This will probably be a moot question once the driving and the starting is fixed, but whenever I tried to transition from a sideways board to a... front.. ways... board (???), everything fell apart. Any tips here? Or is it just timing? I did feel like I was transitioning prematurely.

Thanks in advance for the tips.

You've got more area of board, thus more resistance, so you probably want to start out SLOWER than a slalom ski. I don't know about two skis, but on a wakeboard, I can get out of the water if the boat is only going a couple of miles per hour (hard to balance, but possible). We go an 18mph indicated, but I have no idea whether my speedo is accurate (it's probably not because it's adjustable and everyone always messes with it).
I leave the board at a 90 degree angle until the boat starts moving, then I IMMEDIATELY twist it so the bottom of the board is facing the boat and the front of the board is facing straight up in the air. I then put a lot of pressure on my back foot and I pop right out of the water. Right as the boat starts moving, you should make this transition. Keeping pressure on your rear foot will force the board to straighten out because there should be a skag on there.[/QUOTE]

My brother does it in a different way, I will explain it.

In the water, knees bent, board in front of you, FRONT knee between your arms (so you're holding the rope out in front of you, and your front knee will be popping out of the water just between your arms, in front of your chest). This tends to help the board angle the proper way even before the boat starts moving. Maybe have the boat at the ultra-slowest speed (like, crawling) so you can get situated (some people tend to fall over in the water because the front knee is up and the bottom one is down). My brother says he just pops out of the water naturally, but just keep some weight on your back foot to keep that skag planted.

Did you watch this video on youtube?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FaLTw6v5k_I

Actually that video sucks. They show getting up while keep the board totally submerged, sounds like crap.

The second try in this video is not bad:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Bb17wI6T2eQ

Wakeboarding is the best! It's just a matter of getting the feel of the board and keeping the right amount of tension in your legs. Not too tense but not too loose and then hitting the wake with the right amount of speed in order to do whichever stunt you're trying to do.

Haha, I'm about... four steps behind the tricking level...