Tell me about Wakeboarding

Did some wakeboarding recently and now I want to do some more so I’m after some info.

Basically what are the costs involved, what sort of board/suit do I need, locations (I’m based in London/Suffolk) and so on. Any advice greatly appreciated.

It’s illegal, mate. What are you trying to find out? Have you tried blackmail or sensory depravation? Sometimes, just asking nicely works a treat.

London/Suffolk? The only place I know in God’s County that does boarding is on the Orwell down near Royal Harwich, and estuary boarding is for suckas.

Wetsuit required will depend on when you are going to be doing it. I use a decent full steamer wetsuit for this time of year and, if it is cold enough, gloves and socks too. I leave the gimp mask at home though. Late spring, you may get away with a shorty to keep the chills out and full summer, you can get away with just shorts and vest.

Being a wakeskater now, I tend to wear a shorty most of the year round. It stops me getting that many scrapes and bruises when I mess up and hit walls, kickers and sliders.

If you’re seriously getting into it, take a trip out to Princes down near Farnbourough, or WakeMK, or even Box End cable parks. Most of them are a short drive from either place you talk about being in. Cables not bad to learn on and you don’t have to worry about trying to stop a boat with your arms.

Give me a shout if you want more info.

🙂 @ Three Fish!

Right, here goes….
1 -Get some lessons. You’ll progress really well if someone good teaches you! I’ve heard good thigns about this lot;
http://www.ten-80.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=53

But, personally, if you really want to learn and get good, I’d go here;
http://www.neilson.co.uk/Beach-Greece-Sivota-At-a-Glance.aspx
Buttery flat water, great boats and cold beer. Oh, and really good tuition. I was taught by a guy called Dan Jordan, who used to work for Neilson, and is one seriously good rider! Learning to ride in lovely warm waters is so much nicer than some grubby lake! 🙂 I’ve been out in Turkey, Greece and Mauritius (Oh yeah, toe edge over the reef baby!) and Thorpe Park. Guess where I’d rather be?

Board? Well, it depends on what/how you want to ride. To be honest, I’d kick off with a nice basic package of board/bindings/boots like this;
http://www.absolute-snow.co.uk/P/OBrien_CLUTCH_LINK_Wakeboard_Package_142_UK_9-11_2010-(24089).aspx
However, it may be worth time with lessons to decide what you’re after as if you’ll only ever stay on the cable and park environment somewhere like Thorpe then you may want something more specific.

Get out there. It’s ace!

Warm? Buttery water? Great boats? Beer? What the hell is this, some kind of holiday in paradise?

What you need to do is build a winch, buy a wakeskate and get down to a dodgy drain in the fens. Then you too can look as good as this…

Note: photograph taken by the poster, not actually _of_ the poster.

Of all the potentially injurious sports ive done it was wakeboarding which hurt me most with an ankle injury ive never recovered from.
Good fun tho.

I am ashamed to say i have done this. I do not approve and am disapointed with myself.

Get a skateboard / kitesurf / surf or do something that doesnt involve petrol.

I’ll kill two birds with one stone,The Future – incl demo by Britains Andy Mapple and wakeboring is for failed slalom skiers.

uwe-r. Most boats these days run on LPG because petrol for the V8 lumps they have in them gets a bit pricey. Also, cables run on electrickery.

Only my winch runs on unleaded, and a gallon lasts for hours and hours and hours.

Oh, and as for wakeboarding being anything less than awesome, I only has one word to say. Tricks. Better films. Not rubbish. I mean, where’s the wake in that clip? Where’s his air? All he’s doing is going side to side and not even getting the tiniest ollie. When was the last time a skier did something like this?

Note: Picture is not of poster, but of a far more skilled rider. I did take the shot though.

Sorry to piss of any wakeboaders, i just dont rate it as a sport. 🙁

(PS i have done quite a bit – i had a mate with a boat and as a former skateboader / surfer / snowboader i was ok .

I do have to admit that as a skier in the winter and boarder in the summer, I find myself strangely drawn to the stuff these guys are putting out there;

http://www.stereoskis.com/

Sorry to piss of any wakeboaders, i just can’t do it very well myself so I don’t rate it as a sport.

FTFY 😉

When was the last time a skier did something like this?

er.. it’s called ‘Tricks’ in 3 eventing – slalom, tricks, jump. Tricks was a discipline/sport long before wakeboarding came along.
Some people focus on one discipline, some do all 3. Much more difficult to learn than wakeboarding as there are no fins on the board, so more like wakeskating. Clementine Lucin is one of the best in elite women, also if you watch all that video I posted about the Electric ski boat, you’ll see Whitney turning a trick 😀

trick skiing is for failed wakeboarders

😉

To be honest uwe-r it’s like water off a ducks back, we get it in the neck all the time from walkers and the such like, our ‘private’ lake is right in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales.

The last time I had an audience was when I took the winch to Felixstowe and sessioned a tidal lake on the wakeskate. People were stopping on the old breakwater that was inland of us and asking what we were doing. Even the kitesurfers stopped by for a look.

Mr. Nana… Are those trickskiers strapped in? Looks a bit more like wakeboarding than wakeskating to me.

willard, one foot is in a binding, one foot is free or in a toe strap, so you can release a foot to do certain toe tricks.


It is more like wakeboarding, but there are no fins or rails on the bottom of the board, which makes it really unstable for a beginner. wakeboards have fins on which makes them much more stable, which also makes it easy for beginners. I was thinking that wakeskates had no fins on the bottom, hense making the comparison, but it looks like they do.

Chaps – awesome responses as usual, plenty for me to be going off.

willard – would be interested in any more info you have squire, could you give me a shout via email or drop me your email please?

Not dangerous in the slightest 😉

sharkbait, is that you? where is it?

flange, it’s a very expensive sport, especially if you have your own boat and take professional tuition. I haven’t had professional tuition for a couple of years, can’t afford it.
Assuming you’re not buying a boat, then my local club charge non members £18 for 10mins, £27 for 15mins tows (which includes pro coaching). I expect it’s quite a bit more expensive down south, especially at Princes Club.
I think that I worked out you had to have more than approx30 tows as a non member to start making membership + cheaper tows worth doing. Some clubs will be members only.
They’ll probably lend you all the kit as part of the tow price, but I’d recommend getting your own board if you intend to make it a regular thing, unless you can get to use the same board everytime.

Flange, not a problem – jameseyb (at) gmail[dot].com

Nana, that top pic looks a little… camp. Is it worth many points? You do tend to see fins on wakeboards a lot, simply because it makes them easier to cut in and out and also hold a line. Skates tend to have them when they are shipped out, but then get taken off. It makes it far easier to do lipslides with no fins. I don’t think my Kampus ever had fins though, nor my other skate. My board did (Colin Wright Pro), but they got taken off when I realised that the edges work like fins.

With regard to coaching, Nana’s right. Boat is best to learn, and it does get a bit expensive. I was lucky, I had a mate with a boat and bunging him a tenner for gas every session worked out well for both of us. When he switched to cable (more consistent pull, smoother water) he got rid of the boat. But… Cable is a lot cheaper: 18 quid for an hour. (http://www.boxendpark.com/%5B/url%5D). Box End also has a lake with boats on, so you can pay them to get your boat fix if you want to. Me, I get knackered after an hour beating myself up on the sliders, so I tend to call it a day.