Wakeboarding Travel & Destinations Guide Worldwide

Wakeboarding

Travel Guide

An adventure sports guide to London 2012

London 2012 is fast approaching and many extreme sports fans will be heading to the English capital to soak up the atmosphere of the sporting extrav...

Origin

You might think of wakeboarding as the trendier sibling of waterskiing. In essence, they are very similar sports. However, wakeboarding grew out of surfing. The surfers were towed from the back of speedboats, looking to push the boundaries of their sport and try to make it more versatile by not being confined to the beach. Tony Finn pioneered the sport, he developed a ‘Skurfer’ by waterskiing with a surfboard, although this became quite limiting.

The addition of foot bindings allowed the boarder to do jumps, and so the similarities with snowboarding and skateboarding began to appear. This came about in 1985, when both Finn, and a Texan called Jimmy Redmon, fitted their boards with straps.

As technology advanced, so did the sport. There were problems with the original boards' buoyancy, which inspired businessman Herb O’Brian to develop a more suitably buoyant board with the two tail design we often see today. This not only helped with the boarders' deepwater starts, but also with their stance and weight distribution.

This made the sport more accessible and it grew in popularity. Interestingly, thanks to further board development, the original ‘Skurfer’ model has since returned. By removing the bindings, a new freestyle discipline has spawned: 'wake skating'.

Get Started

Initially, new riders will need to practice all the basics of standing up on the board and get to grips with being pulled through the water. Not as easy as it looks! This can be done on a tow bar next to the boat, or in a wake park by using cables - it depends on how the school operates. There are plenty of 'tester' courses available, these can last one hour, one day, a weekend, or can be a full week-long starter course.

The sport follows the same sort of techniques used for snowboarding and surfing: In order to send yourself in different directions, you need to shift your balance, pushing forward on your toe, and leaning back on your heel to edge through the surface of the water. Using the waves created by the boat you can then use your new skills to catch ‘air’ and ultimately, pull tricks. But it's important to master getting up on the water, whether from a deep-water start or from a dock.

Equipment

Wakeboard
Long Based
Moulded Fin
Multi-fin
Canted Fin
Cupped Fin
No Fins
Bindings
Life Jacket/Buoyancy Aid
Wetsuit
Helmet

Wakeboarding Boat
Boat Tower
Winch
Tow Rope
Tow Fuse Rope
Grip Handle

Style

As well as the boat and cable methods, there are also different moves, tricks and styles, similar to those in snowboarding. These include slalom, inverts, spins and grabs.

The development of wake skating has given the rider more freedom to use the board to perform tricks. Whereas before, the board helped get air and pull spins, gabs and inverts, it is now possible to use it for more complex skateboarding tricks, such as kickflips, ollies, shuv-its and pops.

Lingo

b/s f/s: Back side/ Front side, direction of spin.
Biggie Fries Wakeboard crashes on water.
Big Air: Rider manages to get high in the air.
Blind: Landing air backwards, the rider isn’t looking at their landing spot, but most probably backwards, on-shore.
Bonk: The board hitting a kicker/slider/rail.
Brain Fart: Over-thinking a trick and failing to pull it off.
Brake the ache: First time of the year back on the water.
Burn the Toast: A bad fall, meaning you can’t ride again.
Butt Check: On landing air you're left almost sitting on the water's surface.
Butter/Glass: Smooth water
Chargin’ the Wake: A good ride, owning the water.
Double Up: The boat takes a 90 degree turn setting up cross
over wake for a big trick.
Durf: Falling.
Face plant: Hitting the water badly.
Fakie: Stance on the board, right foot forward.
Figley:Pulling off a trick after freaking out half way through.
Flats: The water either side of the wake.
Giver: The driver applies more power when the rider is ready behind the boat.
Goofy: Stance on the board, left foot forward.
Goin’ off: A rider who's been getting a lot of big air.
Grind: The board riding across a rail/slider.
Kicker: An artificial ramp.
Knocked off: When the tow rope is pulled from the rider's hand.
Load the Line: The rider calls this to the driver to keep the tow rope tight, ready for the next trick.
Magic Carpet Ride: Landing on the edge of the board, which flips out from under the rider.
Rotation: Spin (180/360/540/720/1080º).
Tearing an eyelid: Hitting the water toeside first. …like ripping off
your eyelids.
Slider: Similar to a grind, an artificial ramp for the board to slide over.

Govern

Wakeboard UK http://www.wakeboard.co.uk/
WWA – World Wakeboard Association http://www.thewwa.com/
IWWF – International Water-ski & Wakeboard Federation http://www.iwsf.com/