Wakeboarding

G

GlazedOverGary

Member
Do any of you guys on here wakeboard in the summer? i am thinking about getting into it and wondered if you had any advice for when it gets warm?
 
Be prepared to eat shit, at 20+ mph water doesn't feel to good. It's pretty easy to progress depending on the boat your riding behind. Just start with 180s on the water then the wake. Try to learn or land something new every time you ride.
 
You clearly don't wakeboard...I can put almost all the weight on my front foot while riding and never once have I nose dived.

OP, look into brands like Ronix, Liquid Force, and CWB for boards. You'll have to decide which kind of rocker you want - full 3 stage rocker will give you big, straight up pop with harsher landings (most of the time - new boards are all pretty much designed to have softer landings), and a continuous rocker will give you a more mellow pop and carry you further out into the flats. There are also hybrid boards. I personally like the 3 stage rocker because I love the feeling of hitting the wake hard and getting booted up in the air.

Getting up: KEEP YOUR ARMS STRAIGHT. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you pull your arms into your chest (a natural reaction for most people when you're off balance) you will fall backward. Keep your knees bent and let the boat pull you. Put pressure against the water with your board and you should pop right up. If you're trying too hard to force it and just stand up, you will eat shit. If you're having trouble getting sideways at first, let go with your trailing hand and do your best Jesus impression. It'll force you to turn sideways and ride straight.

Now that you're up, get comfortable riding around behind the boat, getting outside and back in the wake before you start doing anything crazy. Learn some surface tricks to get a feel for how your board will break loose from the water, and learn how to use your edge to turn instead of fins (I personally ride finless, personal preference though)

When you get to the point where you want to start jumping the wake, edge out away from the boat, and WAIT until you feel the boat start to pull you back into the wake. This makes sure you don't have any slack when you start your edge. Look up how to use a progressive edge to cut toward the wake. Now, here is the key. STAY ON THAT EDGE. If you flatten out at the top of the wake, you're gonna make it about 3/4 across and do the equivalent of knuckling on skis. Keep on your edge all the way through the wake and stand tall when you get to the crest. Don't try to jump, just straighten your legs and the board and wake will do the rest for you.

Good job, now you have the basics down. Go have fun and learn new tricks. Make sure you learn how to clear the wake both ways so you're not a heelside hero, and learn how to ride switch early on. If you have any questions you can PM me, I ride pretty much every day in the summer. This took a while to type out so I'm sure other people have responded with some good advice too by now.
 
this. I can not emphasize enough to people just starting that you have to let the boat pull you up. DONT try and pull yourself up or you will just get pulled onto your stomach. Squat, keep arms straight and wait till the board is under you and stand up. The board will usually turn sideways by itself you just have to give it a nudge. And when you are good enough learn to ride finless. Its just easier to go from regular to switch and landings are easier too cause you don't have to land perfectly with your fins straight. It allows for mistakes when landing off the wake I find.
 
you want your speed to be around 20-25 when learning, maybe lower if you are scared. And yes be prepared to take some face plants when learning how to jump the wake or try any trick. It will hurt
 
i manage a wakeboard shop in wisconsin, if you need any advice or have any questions feel free to pm me, id be more then happy to help.
 
There is no "right" speed. It's all based on the boat. You have to adjust your speed until the wake is the right shape at the length you're riding at. 20-25 is usually a safe bet, but OP shouldn't assume that the right speed for him and his boat will be in that range.
 
two steps

1) arms straight

2) the boat is stronger than you, don't fight it cause it'll win. let the boat do the work pulling you up
 
I dont know why all these people are saying it will hurt to fall because it really doesent, you might get water up youre nose but nothing thats going to leave you brused or broken
 
Wakeboarding has to be one of the easiest sports to learn. Once your on your feet it will come reasonably natural to you. However the learning curve is tough. you will be comfortable on the board within a few weeks.
 
like people have said getting up is so easy, just keep your knees to your chest and let the boat pull you up.

As for fins under the board, I usually ride with them but it's pretty fun to ride without them. Fins def .help a lot for getting a sharp cut when trying to jump the wake.

here's a couple little wakeboard edits I made last summer

 
no it definitely hurts when you land on your face. it can be like jumping off a 3m to a bellyflop. havent gone in a while and i dont want to. wakesurfing is more up my alley
 
Waterskiing is boring as fuck. Slalom is a little better but slashing big carves gets boring after about 2 runs. Wakeboarding/skating/surfing >>>any form of waterskiing.
 
wakeboarding is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. if you can ride any kind of board (skateboard, surfboard, snowboard) then it will come a lot easier. I suggest to not buy a beginner board if you think you will be doing it a lot, I made that mistake and while my landings are smoother I have like no pop which sucked, so I bought a new board quickly. also, if you plan on buying a boat make sure you get a wakeboard boat with a tower and ballast, these are pretty important but wakeboard boats are pretty expensive so it's not a cheap sport.

also, don't just wakeboard. when I get frustrated I just whip out the wakeskate or wake surf and just chill out on those. wake surfing is super chill and I almost enjoy it more than wakeboarding just because its so laid back.

and to all you idiots that are saying wakeboarding doesn't hurt...you obviously know nothing
 
Just learned to do it last summer after water skiing for years, but our 25 year old boat died in July. Got a fairly new mastercraft though, so hopefully some progression will happen this summer. Fairly stoked.
 
Hahahaha what? Learn how to pop before you blame it on your board. I can almost guarantee you were not using a progressive edge and were flattening out at the wake.
 
He knows what he's talking about though. Seriously I work in a watersports store and I have tons of people coming in and saying how they want the biggest 3 stage board with a super aggressive egde cause they aren't getting any pop. But I can guarantee all of them are cutting out as far as they can, starting they're cut way to fast so when they get to the wake, they slow down and let their momentum carry them through. You can get amazing amounts of pop on a board with a progressive rocker as long as you hold a proper progressive edge, which is needed for basic tricks like backrolls anyways.

Basically AR6rider sums up what you should know, but i'd also like to add to check out O'Brien wakeboards. Ronix, liquid force, CWB, all of them are great brands but everybody seems to leave out o'brien. Now it's not that they make bad boards, no. It's because they don't have some of the more popular riders. Ronix for example, probably the most popular brand out right now, they have some of the best riders to ever be on the water (Parks, Danny, Chap, Ruck) and they make excellent boards. But unfortunately, the quality isn't as good.

Ronix I'd made in china, where o'brien is made in Dubai. Over the summer I saw maybe a dozen ronix boards come back for warranty, and no o'brien boards. Even though the shop mainly sells o'brien product.

For where your at the #1 board I'd reccomend would be the O'Brien Valhalla. It's just an all around amazing board for beginners, intermediate riders and even the most experienced. Not too aggressive, great speed, the right amount of pop for learning with super soft landings. Just go to the O'Brien website and read up on it, or even PM me if you hot questions about any O'Brien product.

Basically, listen to all what AR6rider said, all the exact points to follow. But check out O'Brien boards! Amazing quality, super fun boards on the water, and they look stellar too!
 
Thanks for all the help, i currently have a 20 foot hurricane deck boat that has a bar thats about 3 feet tall on the back, i also just picked up a 2011 cwb faction board that has a continuous rocker, has anyone used this board? also +K for the help
 
I know how to pop and use progressive edge, where in that statement did I say I couldn't? like you said in a previous post, certain boards give more pop, my crappy board didn't give near the pop as my new one.
 
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