do you guys think there is any big risk of getting knocked out when just riding and carving....maybe hitting a one wake jump once in a while? <BR>just checking your opinion, seems that some people are unsure of the safety of beginning to wakeboard.

with any extreme sport comes the risk of injury. You could catch an edge at 16 mph (which is really slow by the way) and go face first into a log. Who knows? chances are slim if your a beginer. usually a few face slaps. Maybe tweak your knee or ankle at worst. If you dont go out there thinkin your parks bonifay on the first day youll do fine.

yep, i can agree on that one, but to tell you the truth, hitting a log down here, is damn near impossible, but if your a beginner, getting ripped out of your bindings at 16mph, and getting knocked unconcious is kinda very slim if your not doing anything stupid..like all sports, sure theres an injury at sometime when your doing it, just be wise..am i right?

Always get the basics covered first. Oh, yeah, did I mention the basics?

When you faceplant, don't turn your head to the side. Take it like a man.

hehe, im not talking about me here.....

"When you faceplant, don't turn your head to the side. Take it like a man." <BR> <BR>Drop your chin to you chest or get pimp slapped by the water. <BR> <BR>My wife was carving around efore she learned to clear the wake. She caught an edge and smacked so hard her eye was bleeding. <BR> <BR>I'd say keep the speed low, but eventually, if you intend on learning, you're going to get served!

What ever you do, do not charge the wake to get across. That is the biggest thing I have seen noobs get killed with. Try to learn your edge and pulling against the boat with the edge. Moving fast to the wake will get you killed before you learn how to deal with it.

Well not wanting to concern you here and not sure exactly how this happened, but we took a girl out for her first time behind my boat, she got up rode around a little, took a couple hard falls from catching an edge just carving, but nothing major. Her second time (not on my boat), she somehow crashed and took the edge of the board to the head and needed around a dozen stitches. Not sure how exactly this happened, but not pretty.