Is wakeboarding easy to learn?

For beginners, wakeboarding will generally be easier to learn. Wakeboards have fins to keep the board straight and the rope can be used to maintain balance. A good boat driver will maintain a constant speed and avoid obstacles for the rider. Wakeboarding, like many other board sports, is considered a high-impact activity.

It is very demanding on joints and muscles, but it is not particularly intense for cardiovascular exercise such as running or cycling. The beauty of wakeboarding is that the learning curve is quite steep. Unlike surfing and snowboarding, you can learn to wakeboard relatively quickly and skip the trail with just a few hours of class time. Soon you'll be exploring some of these incredibly great lakes for wakeboarding.

Having the right boat configuration, including a wakeboard tower to lift the rope and the appropriate rope length (30 to 50 feet for a beginner) to keep the cyclist in the narrowest section of the wake, can also help reduce the learning curve. It's both cheaper and greener, easy to find (just type “cable park near me” into Google or check out Spotyride), but most of all, it's much easier for newcomers to learn this sport. Just focus on distributing the weight evenly throughout the board, so that, of course, it will be directed perfectly forward and will make it much easier to stand up strongly all the way. When you're ready and want your own, order clothes from last season at stores if you're looking for a bargain.

Most wakeboard stores are online, but don't hesitate to call them for advice. Younger cyclists have a different perception of the difficulty level of wakeboarding compared to older cyclists. And Carlo and I have already talked about cross surfing, such as rowing on a windsurf board and using a wakeboard to kiteboard. That said, the challenge of getting on a wakeboard can be significantly reduced by following some very simple tips.

This is the cheapest way to practice wakeboarding, it's very sociable, but it's also fun to do alone. Most cable parks in the UK have a group of regular cyclists who are very enthusiastic and friendly, however, if you have an hour to spare and just want to get on without a hitch to get your next trick, the full cable can be as anonymous as you want. Wakeboarding is the younger (and now more popular) brother of water skiing, a sport that originated when a boat towed a person standing on two boards. Most students find it difficult to try new tricks of wakeboarding, jumping and turning, as they require a lot of practice and involve crashing a little and having the boat pick them up.

If you've never stood on your side and gotten on a board, it's probably easier to learn how to wakeboard than to snowboard. Ideal for everyone: professional snowboarders, non-swimmers, with nervous problems or just for ordinary people. This is by far the safest and easiest way to learn. You can wakeboard behind most deck or outboard boats, but special wakeboarding boats work better (read this recent post for more information).

There's nothing worth the risk of hitting someone's head with the edge of a wakeboard, so let yourself go and swim back. Wakeboarding instructors know that only about half of the students they teach get up on the first try.

Jeanie Spaun
Jeanie Spaun

Infuriatingly humble pop culture trailblazer. Proud tv scholar. General music enthusiast. Certified pop culture geek. Avid food nerd. Evil travel guru.