Have never wakeboarded any suggestions on how to ?

Mark T · **Posted:** Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:40 am

Going to teach kids to wakeboard this weekend, trouble is none of us ever have. We are downhill skiers / boarders and one of my daughters has got up on one ski at her friends before.

Any tips or suggestions ?? long rope, short rope ? One of my girls wants to try wake surfing, not sure I like that idea...

EvilZ · **Posted:** Tue Jun 05, 2012 10:47 am

Search on youtube for "learn to wakeboard".

Long rope, knees tucked up to the chest, arms straight and let the boat pull you up - don't try to stand up too soon!

french829 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 05, 2012 12:28 pm

I would suggest a 65 foot rope (a little shorter than for skiing) and you typically don't start the boat off as quickly like you would to pull up a skier. It is a smoother acceleration that lets the boat pull the boarder up.

ric · **Posted:** Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:56 pm

I wakesurf almost weekly, not sure about wakeboarding. Do not under any circumstance EVER wake surf behind a stern drive powered boat. That means your boat. Sorry.

Walt · **Posted:** Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:16 pm

All above.

My additional recommendations...
1. Get a segmented rope so more advanced skiers can get it shorter, into the steeper part of the wake.
2. A video camera... much easier to see what you did right/wrong trying to get up.... no guessing when it's on video, and you can see right away!
3. If you have someone with "skills", they can use another board/rope and help the trainee. That's been working great for my friends and I... takes about 1/2 the time as solo to train the basics. Even if one is on a tube, and they switch, it can be a huge time/headache saver!
4. Use about 15-16 MPH for the beginners. Once they are ready to try jumping, etc bump the speed to about 18, then maybe 20-22 if it's really smooth.
5. Perfect Pass... It's expensive, but very much worth it if you are going to be doing this... especially if you are gonna board, and let the admiral drive.

Mark T · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:22 am

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. Weekend is supposed to be high 80s, low wind, so will have 8 rookies, myself included all trying to figure out what the hell we are doing. Like the video idea as I imagine there will be some funny stuff happening....

pet575 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2012 1:37 pm

Best tip I've ever heard and passed on to others is DON'T FIGHT THE BOAT.

Turn the board sideways (perpendicular) to the boat and squat like a frog as the boat pulls you up. Don't pull on the rope, let it pull you up out of the water. Once you think you're ready to stand up, count to 3 and THEN stand up and turn the board.

DON'T

FIGHT

THE

BOAT!!!

Aussie_Horizon_190 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 06, 2012 6:09 pm

I paid for my kids to have some wakeboard lessons from a pro some years ago - money definitely well spent ! :shock:

The pro had a fixed pole out the side of his boat to teach them how to get up and stay up. Once they got this right he took them on the back of his boat on a rope. Only after this did I take them out on our boat. This way everyone had fun, nobody got frustrated or hurt, and they are now quite confident wakeboarders.

Mark T · **Posted:** Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:32 am

Aussie_Horizon_190 wrote:

I paid for my kids to have some wakeboard lessons from a pro some years ago - money definitely well spent ! :shock:

The pro had a fixed pole out the side of his boat to teach them how to get up and stay up. Once they got this right he took them on the back of his boat on a rope. Only after this did I take them out on our boat. This way everyone had fun, nobody got frustrated or hurt, and they are now quite confident wakeboarders.

Does he travel to the states ?? (LOL )

Aussie_Horizon_190 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:27 pm

Check out the local ski schools - that's how we found him.

Mark T · **Posted:** Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:40 am

Stupid me, 2 of my 4 daughters got up first pull, should have figured they snowboard, so would be able to figure this out. Keeping steady speed is a bear, I can see where if you do alot, a cruise control would be helpfull. One minute I'm doing 14, next minute I'm doing 24.

ric · **Posted:** Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:42 am

Use your iphone/GPS to get what RPM you need to be at for the MPH you want to be at. I put a piece of tape on the tach to make it faster to read. Pitot tube speedo's are more worthless then nipples on men.

With my 18ft 135hp with 2 people on board with wakeboarders doing tricks I'm not doing that much adjustments. If I trim up to the edge of cavitation it actually gets a pretty sick wake at the perfect distance equal to that of big dollar wakeboard boats. You should barely be touching the throttle with a 351. Only when they do really hard carves setting up for a jump does it drop RPM's a bit needing some throttle. If they're just tooling behind the boat your job should pretty much be listening to the radio hanging out.

Mark T · **Posted:** Fri Jun 15, 2012 9:22 am

We had 8 on board, 7 in boat, full tank of gas, full coolers, probably just about 2,000 in boat. Wakeboarders were 120 lbs max. Actually my boat speedo has been pretty close the the Lowrance GPS I got. Within 2mph when I have looked to compare Will try again tonight, will only have 4 so maybe will go better.

ric · **Posted:** Fri Jun 15, 2012 9:40 am

Oh man you were clown car status LOL

Walt · **Posted:** Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:28 am

ric wrote:

Oh man you were clown car status LOL

I've done 7 pass; full gas, full cooler and 2 boarders. PP makes it soo nice and to within <1 MPH. Yeah, YOU can maintain a constant speed with practice, but can the admiral while you board??? Nice why pulling tubes too.. I find the speed doesn't get as crazy going around the turns. That's why I spent the buck$.

www.iFourWinns.com

Have never wakeboarded any suggestions on how to ?

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