Don't know about wakeboarding? Start
here!!
What's wakeboarding?
For those who don't already know, wakeboarding is a combination of
surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and waterskiing.
A wakeboard looks like a fat snowboard with a pair of bindings to
secure the wakeboarder's feet to it. Most boards are 130cm to 142cm
long and 42cm wide.
Propelled by a speed boat, the rider on the board pulls off body
leans and jumps while whizzing across the water.
A wakeboarder can hit speeds of about 30kmh while riding on the
boat's wake, from where he launches a variety of tricks.
The tricks
For beginners, there are the toe-side and heel-side edgings, which
involve cutting the wake and manoeuvring to the left or right, and
surface tricks which involve turning the board 180 deg or even 360
deg.
Intermediate riders do wake jumps and grabs - that is, grabbing or
touching the board after popping off the wake - and basic
rotational tricks.
The advanced rider will do soaring jumps, massive flips
andprogressive rotational tricks executed in mid air like those
performed by the pros at the weekend's wakeboard competition.
Basically, the more advanced one is, the higher and further one can
jump.
Most advanced tricks require the rider to first be airborne. Apart
from executing the tricks with precision, the rider must also be
able to land and steady himself afterward.
