Wakeboarding advice?

Until you do a 180!

I start with a modified slalom position (board tilted about 45 degrees toward front foot side). Upon take off I usually beat the wake to the outside.

Works for me but others don't seems to be able to get the technique.

I guess it is just carryover from years of slalom deep starts.

Another thought -- last summer I got lazy on one outing & didn't take along the hi-fly pylon. It was about 3 times harder to get up!

May be part of the problem for some folks . . .

Swatkinz wrote: It isnt for me. Im a righty forward on a ski, but almost cant ride the WB right forward.

You're just goofy anyway Steve....I mean anybody who jumps on a plane, flys to nowhere he has never been to hang out for a long weekend with guys he met on the internet? It just ain't right.        

Morfoot wrote: bhectus wrote: Board setup is important also.   Duck the boots out 20-40 degrees. Ask the new rider if they have ever ridden a skateboard and if so which foot did they use to push? That is your back foot.    I'm gonna disagree with you on this one Bret. A 20-40 degrees is a bit excessive and I think your cruising for a serious knee injury that duck footed. Mine are set 9 degrees which for most people IMHO is a normal everyday stance. I've taught many of people to board and it's always worked. Wayne, The push back method is what I use when a newby says, "I've never skateboarded before." I have also used the kickball question because most people have kicked a ball at some point in there life. Their plant foot is their forward foot. My $.02 worth.

Maybe you're not bow legged enough Tim!    Yea thinking about it 40 degrees does seem excessive. Maybe I need a geometry refresher.   But I definitely ride ducked out.   Stink bug stance FTW.   

N2Deep wrote: I learned to jump wake to wake by just learning how to ollie on flat water then to ollie off the wake. Nobody in my family can get up on the wakeboard. I have even got in the water with them without any success. They all want to fight the boat instead of letting the boat pull them up. Guess I am not a good teacher. lol

The hardest thing for me was to learn to give into the boat! You hit the nail on the head, fight like a slalom and you are done.

Slow slow slow! More great advise, As soon as I learned to slow it down on the pull up everyone we brought to the table was getting up.

Bend your knees like you're holding a $20 behind your knees, just let the boat pull you over the top of the board. use the board like a foil, don't stand it up and down just to keep the edge up,

Coming off slalom and jump made getting up on that stupid board near impossible but now that I know how it's easy.

Find someone with a tower to learn. The tower will help pull you up and make it a little easier to start out.

I've got friends with off shore boats when we want and cruisers to hit Lake Michigan, I'm the guy when they want to inland lake water sports. Wish I could afford both but I'll just have to settle with my Nautique.

shawn123 wrote: I guess tomatoes tomahtoes. I usually don't disagree on here and I don't guess I am disagreeing but not sure that pulling someone slowing threw the water to up get them up is the best idea. Seems like beginners want to fight the natural progression of things and then start trying to use their arms to pull themselves up. I have had more luck just making sure a person is in a good position and there is no slack in the line and go. They are usually up before they know what happened. Your body will respond a lot quicker than you thinking about it and trying to decided how to do something you have never done. Also most people we tell to just sit in the water like your sitting in a lawn chair....but on your back. When you are on top on the water simply stand up like you would out of that lawn chair. But ya know there's is more than one way to skin a cat.

Hey Shawn, I spent countless hours jumping and driving to tournaments. Thousands of hours worried about people in the boat, weight distribution (skinny driver, heavy observer) but this surfing and boarding has just become the best family day on the water? Rough out? Who cares, I move my fat butt in the boat and no one notices. Turn up the radio, set the speed control, fill the tanks and run until we're out of fuel!

It is definitely a blast. That's how we roll. Just out to have
a good time and learn some sruff along the way. Our 14
Year old is definitely progressing faster than myself. My wife
has been riding for about 18 years. Back when Andrea gatten
was big. Her knowledge is far above my own. But helps to have that
on the boat

In my "younger years" I learned to wakeboard with my friends and the technique was to have the driver hit it and hang on.

My kids (12 and 15 now) all start with a foot forward more slalom start. It is easier for me and just seemed natural.

But I have found that when teaching people that have never done it before, the method in the video is great. We have a great video of one of my girl's friends riding and screaming just squatted on the board. She wasn't sure what to do next, but had gotten to that point on her first pull.

Another tip I got from one of the guys on the Hyperlite experience was to have the person get in the water with the board on. Get in a starting position with the board against the boat. They hold the handle and you can pull on the rope. You can see their position and make sure they are sitting properly with knees bent, etc. Then when you pull on the rope, if they stay in a ball, they will very easily slide up onto the swim platform in a little ball. If they try at all to stand up they will just fall back into the water.

Once I have had someone be able to do that drill properly twice, they get up on the first pull!

Then it is just a progression of getting them to move the handle to their hips rather than straight out in front of their chest. If they can get the handle to their hip, relax a bit on the board, they will be able to go straight rather than riding heel side out away from the boat.

Once they have that you can get them to feel the weighting on their toes or heels and they will start to be able to control their turns. Gets pretty easy after that.

I start most kids and small adults as slow as 13 until they can stand, then 16 ish until they can relax and go straight. You don't need to be any faster than that until you want to really play. My girls ride at 21 and I am at 22.5. But we slow down to the 16 range if we are working on things like 180s or butter slides, etc.

I'm glad to help anybody in the area who wants to try. It's great to have multiple sports. We slalom first thing in the morning, then wakeboard, then pull out the surf board when the water is blown out. Then go back to boarding or slalom as the sun goes down. Not a bad day.

My 2 cents, from a boarder's dad who used to slalom years ago...

Once the kid has the wakeboarding basics down, consider putting them in a pro camp. I put my son in Gordy Bubolz' camp up in Fremont, Wisconsin. Omg, they get instruction from experts and get to ride behind awesome boats (new Super Air, incredible Supra, etc.). Gordy is an amazing guy and the camp is fun for the kids. Not trying to make a commercial--the camp was a turning point for my son. I was and am extremely impressed.

Steve has a good point that I would expand upon. Once my son figured out a true progressive edge he was going big into the flats. I wanted him to learn tricks the right way instead of just hucking stuff and getting smashed. I found the coach from the local college wake team would come on my boat on weekends for a very reasonable bit of cash. Private lesson for less than the camp. The kid is really boosting now and the good part is we have spent a few weeks strictly on technique and getting the fundamentals solid. A good, (safe?) progression. He is not under pressure to teach big tricks in short time.
I think it would be frustrating to learn a big trick off a huge wake then never be able to do it behind dads boat.