Wakeboarding: What to Expect on Your First Ride

FitSugar — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:00:00 PDT

When it comes to riding a board on snow, concrete, or water, my vote is for the wakeboard on water. Wakeboarding is the most exhilarating because you're moving so fast and the motion of the waves is so unexpected.

If you live near a lake or bay, or are planning a trip near water, you really should try a wakeboard. Just so you know, you don't need any prior surfing or waterskiing experience in order to ride. You can take a lesson and rent equipment for under $100 an hour, and learn all the basics. Let me warn you though that wakeboarding is incredibly tough on your body. Even though a motorboat is pulling you along, you'll be using a ton of arm, back, and quad strength to get yourself up out of the water and to stay balanced.

To find out the basics of wakeboarding

read more. You're going to be spending a lot of time in the water, so be sure you're wearing a sporty bathing suit that will stay put (this isn't the time for your sexy string bikini.) A life jacket is a must, and you can expect to hang out in the water for a while with both feet attached to your wakeboard, just to get used to the feeling (it's a pretty weird at first). In order to stand up, you need to hold onto the tow rope with both hands and pull your knees into your chest as the boat slowly pulls you along. Point the nose of your board up and then push the board away from you. Don't be discouraged if it takes you the entire 60-minute lesson to learn how to rise up and stay balanced on the water's surface. After you're up, you want to concentrate on riding straight for a while. Then you can work on doing some small turns, where you alternately lean to one side of your board (called the edge) and then the other. Try to move with control and anticipate how the waves in front of you will affect your board. As with all new things, wakeboarding will take practice, but soon your body will learn to move in sync with the waves. Fit's Tip: Your entire body is guaranteed to be sore the next day, so be sure to stretch out after your ride. Source

Ride the Wake: Wakeboarding

FitSugar — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 09:30:00 PDT

Wakeboarding is like snowboarding on water. If you have experience with surfing, water skiing, snowboarding, or skateboarding, you'll have to try wakeboarding. It's one of those sports that you can really get into if you like to work on cool tricks. Why is it called "wakeboarding?" The wake is the wave that the motorboat's engine kicks up behind the boat as the boat moves forward. It's a little rockier than still lake water, and that's what makes it fun to ride.

Basically it's a lot like water skiing, where a rider gets towed behind a motorboat, but instead of facing forward, the rider is sideways. This is a little bit obvious because of its name, but another major difference is you ride on a board not a pair of skis. This makes doing flips and spins easier since both your feet are attached to the board (instead of being separated on 2 skis). People don't really do tricks on water skis unless they're using trick skis that are shorter and have no fins.

All you need is a big open lake, a motorboat, a life jacket, a tow line (the rope you hold onto), a wakeboard, a driver, and someone else in the boat to watch the rider. This person's job is very important - they let the driver know if the rider has let go of the tow line, and point out where they are floating in the water (sometimes it's tough to see the bobbing person).

You don't have to have any water skiing experience in order to wakeboard, just like you don't have to ski before you snowboard. I definitely recommend taking a lesson so you can learn some basic skills, like getting up since this can be the hardest part. Like with everything, practice is the key.

You've got to check out this video of a woman using a trampoline to practice her wakeboard tricks, so

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