basic info needed

[elwopo]

I'm needing to learn about tubing and wakeboarding from the ground up.

My son never had any interest at all in the last two years I've tried to bring it up. Now all of a sudden, out of nowhere he is Mr. wakeboard! He wants to go straight to the store and get a board, tube, ropes....everything.
Maybe he just found out girls like wakeboarding or something.....who knows.

In any event, I have to reel him in a little until I do some research on what we really need. No point spending money just to spend it.

What I've got is a Bayliner Capri 17' with a 115. It has transom hooks and a ski pole that attaches to three points at the stern. It uses nylon bases mounted to the boat and the pole hooks in with quick release pins.
I've also got a rope that attaches to the transom hooks and has a sliding pulley for a tow rope....and a "ski rope" (don't know the length).

Can I just pull anything with the ski pole and rope I've got? Just hook up the rope to pole and pull skier, wakeboard, tube? Is it this easy....or is the shopping list going to get longer?

 

[Hairygary]

Re: basic info needed

Without seing a picture of how this pylon or ski pole attaches to your boat I cannot say for sure, but I will attempt to answer. I have a four winns that has a pole or pylon that sticks out of the transom a couple feet and I have tubed skied and wakeboarded from this pylon.

Tubing by far causes the most drag and stress on you pylon, which is why you never tow a tube from a wakeboard tower if applicable.

You can often use a standard nylon rope for beginer level ski, wakeboard and tube if the handle removes. Once your son has mastered getting up on the wakeboard and wants to start doing tricks, I suggest you upgrade to special wakeboard rope (about $100) which is made of no stretch materials like spectra. The reason for the no stretch rope is so when you are doing tricks and get in the air the nylon ropes have alot of stretch and will pull you forward causing bad landings and to fall more often. But if everybody is learning and you want to save some money you can start with the Nylone rope.

 

[amynbill]

Re: basic info needed

Best video out there for learning to wakeboard, by far is called "the book."

I suggest the first 2 (there are 5) dvd's..."getting started" will teach you the basics of driving the boat, board selection, basic getting up and wake jumps. "building a foundation" is part 2, and starts going into doing tricks and beginner tricks like 180's.

There are also many free vids on you tube, the best I have found thus far is by Illeagal wake. 9 minutes long and covers the basics of riding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3EhoodFTfA

As well, here is a link to a bunch of fee vids to go through: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+wakeboard&search_type=

 

[flatbudget]

Re: basic info needed

I wouldn't invest too much on a rope. Since your kids are just trying to learn I doubt they would be jumping wakes by the end of the boating season. My advice is to be patient in teaching specially if they never got up on this. Also, make sure to take breaks. If not it takes the fun out of it. GO out and have fun! Getting the basic rope for skis are good enough for wakeboard also. As for the pylon, I seriously doubt you need a taller one for wakeboard. Use what you have and see how the kids progress.

 

[gmcc]

Re: basic info needed

The mistake I made when the kids were learning was that I used too much throttle and was jerking the handle out of their hands. You don't need the quick start like water skiing and wakeboarding is at slower speeds - usually less the 20 mph. This is a good site, but www.wakeboarder.com has a ton of info for beginners.