Re: How to get up on a wakeboard tips - newbie
Ok...let me share my new experience to this sport. I'm 37 years old, 195 lbs, 6 foot 1, a reasonably competent open-water slalom skiier who can carve hard but has never had a chance to try a course. That's pretty much the extent of my watersports experience.
Bought a wakeboard over the winter at a KILLER clearance sale on Iboats. So I was committed to not wasting this investment.
First day of attempts, about 15 tries, never got up. "Just gimme the ski..." Went home VERY sore that day. Different muscle groups (groin mostly!)
2nd day of attempts, about 4 tries, didn't want to waste other people's time as darkness was falling. "Just gimme the ski..."
3rd day of attempts, got up on 4th try. Yippee!!! Holy crap is this thing SLIPPERY! Whoah, whoah, whoah, SPLASH! Got up instantly again. HOW THE HECK DO YOU STEER THIS THING???? SPLASH! Got up instantly again. same result. Went home VERY, VERY happy because I had the "gettup up on the stupid board thing" licked, figured learning the balance would come with time.
4th day of attempts. 15 tries, got up twice somewhere in the middle, balance worse than day 3, instantly fell down. Frustrated. "Just gimme the ski..." Drove myself nuts trying to figure out how I could succeed on day 3, and fail on day 4. Internet tips read profusely in preparation for day 5.
5th day of attempts (yesterday, incidentally). Got up on first try, and 2nd try, and 3rd try, and 4th try. Still figuring out the balance thing and still falling down, but doing better and riding it out longer each time. I can pretty much stay up indefinitely until I hit other boats wakes, or until I try to do a carving turn. But I REALLY think I've finally got this "getting up" thing down, and the rest will come with time and practice.
Now for a breakdown of what I have learned in my completely uncoached and self-learning trial and error process:
1. Boat speed/driver is EVERYTHING. Being a nearly 200 pound deep water slalom skiier behind a 3.0 runabout, all my drivers have always been trained to "just floor it and keep it there till it hits 28 or 30 mph, then hold that speed." So I drag and wait for the boat to build speed and then the ski climbs atop the water a few seconds later. I shoved many minnows through my nostrils on failed attempts before discovering that THIS TAKEOFF TECHINQUE IS A VERY BAD IDEA FOR A NEWBIE ON A WAKEBOARD. ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A HEAVIER RIDER. It continually either ripped the rope out of my hands because I was plowing SO much water, OR it just pulled my body up and over the board resulting in a forward summersault through the water. The driver had never wakeboarded either so he didn't really know what to do. My end result? I'd told the driver that first I'd get in the ready position (both feet pointed toward boat, then have the driver drag me at a fast idle (1,000 rpm?), and when I call ready just EASE into the throttle gently. Every time we've gone this route, I've eased right up out of the water with little effort. Due to the larger surface area, wakeboarding simply takes MUCH less power/accelleration/speed than slalom skiing. MUCH less. I can't stress this enough as it was hard for me to get my head around the concept. In fact I see little reason a 40 or 50 HP boat couldn't easily get a 200 pounder out of the water on a wakeboard. When you finally succeed you'll see what I mean.
2. 3 keys on positioning for me. a.) Hold handle parallel to water with both palms DOWN. This is contrary to when I ski, where both my palms are facing opposite directions and handle is perpindicular to water. b.) Elbows OUTSIDE of knees, with arms as straight as possible. This feels very awkward to me, and most of my first attempts were with elbows inside knees and knees spread wide. But then again day 1 of repeatedly trying with elbows inside knees (because it felt more natural) met me with 15 failed attempts and very sore groin muscles! My ONLY successes in getting up have been with elbows OUTSIDE of knees, regardless of how awkward and duck-footed it feels at first. c.) Toes pointed toward boat. Contract your calves while keeping your knees bent. Again this feels very unnatural, but it worked for me. Think of the ready position as "standing on your toes" in a crouching position, again with elbows outside of knees. Try this on the ground right now by your computer so you understand what I'm saying (and don't forget whle you're crouching there on the floor remember your feet will be locked in a position about 18 inches apart??? Ahh...that's where the awkward feeling part comes in...) And again I found this ready position to be much easier to get into and hold while boat was dragging me at a faster idle...1,000 or 1,100 rpm. It's pretty much impossible to hold while just sitting in the water with no tension on the rope and your feet are being floated up by the board at about the level of your nipples. I needed for that boat to be dragging me forward at a bit of a clip to give me some resistance to "squat against" in order to hold that position more comfortably.
3. Expect a fair tidal-wave-like wall of water to wash over the front of the board when you give the go signal. Some will hit you direct in the face. But then almost suddenly, like within a second, the board just leaps out of the water and you're gliding on top...at like 8 MPH with the boat still accellerating...and skidaddling all over the place like you're trying to negotiate a downhill driveway glazed over in smooth wet ice. Then, of couse, you'll fall down. But you got up! YEAHHHH! There is no question whatsoever, getting out of the water on a wakeboard takes MUCH less effort and strength than getting out on skis. It's the technique, and the accelleration speed, and the body positioning that are so drastically different. In my experiences, I think I've determined that boat speed/driver makes as much a difference than anything. If you feel like you can barely hang onto the rope and you're getting dragged like mad through the water on a wakeboard and just plowing a huge wall of water, then I would conclude the DRIVER likely made a big portion of your mistake, in that he/she took off too fast. Just tell your driver to try accellerating slow and easy...maybe at 1/2 or 3/4 the power he would normally take off with when someone skis. I think with a slower take-off you'll discover the water doesn't work against you nearly as hard, and it will be much easier to hang on and get yourself out of the water.
4. Once you're up, preferred boat speed seems (to me) to vary dramatically with body weight. My other buddy learned along with me recently on the same board (he was up on his 3rd try and never failed again...young 33 year old punk!), and after he figured out how to get out of the water he kept giving me thumbs down thumbs down until we discovered he favors 15 to 16 mph (he's only about 155 lbs). I personally feel like I'm sinking at that slow of a speed, and I seem to favor 22 mph to keep my 195 lbs up top without that dragging/sinking feeling. Maybe personal preference, maybe weight difference. Neither of us is sure yet, time will tell.
5. I make absolutely no concious decision to turn this board at any time in the process. Sometimes I pop out of the water when the board is still travelling totally sideways and then it straightens out after I'm up. And sometimes it's starting to turn with my dominant foot forward AS it planes out. Doesn't seem to really matter to me as it works both ways. With the boat slowed down and easing into a take-off, it plows for about 1/2 second and then just sort of pops right up top in most any position I happen to be in, which makes sense when you consider the massive surface area of these boards compared to a ski.
It took me some time, and as a "no-longer-a-kid-age-guy" trying to learn a new trick, maybe that means it took me longer. But I did learn the basics of getting up eventually. I'm a long, long way from an expert, and still trying to figure out how to turn and balance on this darn thing but I'm starting to see how it works. It's fun! And it is much less tiring than slaloming...a sport I can more easily grow old with...without tearing up my body and sapping my strength as much the slalom does. When you crash, you crash much less hard because you're going much slower than on a slalom (of course I'm not jumping yet!)
I have another friend I go with semi-regularly who slaloms first, until he's tired, and then while still in the water he hands me the ski and asks for a wakeboard and does a cool down/resting ride doing simple tricks on the wakeboard. He gets his strength back and RESTS while wakeboarding. And now that I've gotten up I can see why he does that. It really is that much easier on your body. But it feels VERY, VERY different. So if you've been skiing a long time, it does not mean you'll have a "get up on the first try" freebie when you try to wakeboard.
I just thought maybe a fresh view from some who JUST learned how to lick this silly thing after many failures would help someone else. Afterall, sometimes the more expeirenced people trying to coach a newbie have a very hard time explaining exactly what they do, because they simply don't think about it anymore. And I'm keenly aware that I'm VERY green at this sport, and also aware that what works for me probably won't work for everyone else. But maybe it'll help a little. Trust me, I'm thinking about it a LOT right now!
Have fun!
I can picture this on a windsurfer, skateboard, surfboard.
