Wakeboarding 101 – The New Adrenalin Water Sport
By Brett “two left feet” Hamilton

What is wakeboarding ??

Wakeboarding is a relatively new boardsport, created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing setup, but typically at slower speeds (30 – 40km/h). – According to Wikipedia.org.



Riders like wakeboarding because wakeboards allow lift off the wake, making a multitude of tricks possible.

Getting started in wakeboarding:

1) Buy a wakeboard
2) Buy some bindings
3) Which foot forward
4) Buy a tow rope
5) Buy a lifevest
6) Find a boat
7) Find some water
8) Read Wakeboarding 101


How to wakeboard – once the equipment is purchased

You need to choose a board that is easy to learn on, the latest and greatest pro boards might not help so choose carefully, find an instructor or someone familiar to the sport to help you out. Cable wakeboarding might be the place to start because boats are expensive !!.

Rope length early on should be set at around 15m, this will make it much easier to learn, always make sure you wear a lifevest at all times. Not only does a lifevest save your life but it aids in buoyancy and helps you conserve energy. Stance is also important, well to figure out if you will use normal or goofy footing, get someone to push you from behind whichever foot you step onto is your leading foot.

Are you regular or goofy footed? This describes your footing. If you lead with your left foot you ride regular. Right, Goofy. Does it matter? Nope. Whatever is most comfortable !!

Binding placement is important you should look at starting with your feet about shoulder width apart and your rear foot nearer to back of the board and at 90 degrees while your front foot is at 9/27 degrees. You will find out was I comfortable for you and adjust accordingly and if you want to ride backwards (revert) you will have to get close to zero degree stance or neutral stance.

Deep water starts are simple to master with the following guide lines:

1) Start in the water, floating on your back with a lifevest
2) The board should be vertical to the rope with your arms either side of your front knee
3) Signal boat spotter to get driver to put boat in gear
4) As you are pulled forward allow your knees to touch your chest
5) Point your board towards the boat while keeping most of it in the water
6) Signal the boat to accelerate, keep your arm bent towards your stomach
7) Shift your wait towards your front foot, until you feel yourself being lifted out of the water
8) Move from crouched position to standing with knees bent
9) Woohoo you are wakeboarding

Rules to remember, keep your weight towards the back while pointing your hips and shoulders away from the boat else your board will toeside edge and cause you to take uncomfortable lessons in diving. (Faceplant)

Edge: The sides of the wakeboard are called edges. You have a Heelside Edge and a Toeside Edge on your board.
Faceplant: A fall where you catch your toeside edge causing you to fall very quickly so your face slaps the water hard.

Practice this position and get comfortable with it, remember let the boat do the work (it’s stronger that you are and will pull you out the water, an experienced driver will also make a big difference). Remember slow and steady but don’t stop once you try get up you will fall. (Practice makes perfect so don’t expect to succeed the first time out).

Once you have mastered the deep start and riding without to many faceplants you will need to learn to ride switchstance or fakie/revert in other words with your other foot forward. If you are looking to do more than just recreational riding you need to be able to ride both stances as soon as possible because many tricks are done with fakies. One way to practice is to do this as you are starting to plane is to switch your stance, once you have mastered this you will be able to switch stances easily.

Now one trick that always gets attention is wake jumping, depending on the size of the boat will influence how big the wake (wave behind the boat) is. Jumping is easy if you do the following:

1) Edge all the way (progressive edging for advanced wakeboarders)
2) Compress just as you approach
3) Cut hard and keep the rope taunt which allows you to get more spring in your jump.
4) Don’t fade or relax as you approach the jump as the rope will slack losing energy
5) When you lift off straighten up and brace for impact, your legs will absorb the landing.

There we go some tips on wakeboarding, it takes time and practice to perfect, so don’t give up. Once you have mastered the basics you can try to learn some more advanced tricks like olliing or Backside Butterslide

Ollie: When the rider pops the board into the air by pushing down on their back foot and jumping up leading with their front foot. Just like a skateboarding ollie.

Backside Butterslide 180: Rider turns the board backside 90 degrees and grinds the wake. Rider then grabs the handle with opposite hand and does another 90 degree turn in the same direction.