Before you strap yourself in, be sure to check out these top tips to ensure you get the best experience on your wakeboard.
- When wakeboarding, make sure that you are comfortable with whatever foot you have placed forward; sometimes just switching the lead foot is all that is needed to improve your riding ability.
- Keep the wakeboard on its side while in the water. Do not try to stop the board from swinging round on launch, just relax and go with it.
- Keep your arms on each side of your front knee and squat down as much as possible – it is much easier to swing to an upright position when close to the wakeboard.
- Let the boat do the work – stay down low and stand up slow when wakeboarding.
- More than half your weight should be placed on the front foot when standing up. Only shift your weight to the back foot after you have managed to get up properly.
- Keep it slow when wakeboarding initially. Make sure the boat is on a go-slow while you are launching; this will make it a whole lot easier to get up. Once you are up, give the boat the signal to go faster.
- Use a short rope when wakeboarding, if possible, attached to a ski pylon (a pole attached to the boat).
- This makes the whole launch and boarding process much easier for beginners.
- Make sure the boat doesn't make any sudden jerky movements; more often than not this will send you into the water face first.
- Try to learn ‘fakie’ (riding in reverse with the other foot) as soon as possible because this well help you to pick up wakeboard tricks much more easily.
- Finally, prepare to get soaked and have fun.
