first time on a cable
 

I am going with some friends to ride a cable in a week and am looking for some advice or pointers? we are older group. (all 30+) and we only get out about once a month during the summer behind one of the groups wakesetter. my hope is that with smooth water we can work on better edging and board control. and goofy foot to better our ridding. are there any other things we need to be mindful of thats different than ridding behind a boat. is there anything else to work on besides edging and ollies?any suggestions would be great. also what happens when you fall? do you swim back?

What cable park?

If you fall you just swim to shore and carry your board back to the starting dock.

many of the cable parks now have their own separate two tower system 2.0, which will allow you to be pulled at your own individual skill level, then when your are ready you can go to the main cable. Hydrous in allen (dallas) tx has three of these set ups which means more riding time for you and your buds.

Stay between the buoys for the smoothest ride. If you go to the inside of the cable around the corners you'll get slack in the rope. Once the carrier gets fare enough away, the slack will be taken out very quickly which is usually hard enough to pop the handle out of a new riders hand. The exact opposite happens if you go too far to the outside of the cable during a turn. It'll whip you around fairly suddenly which is usually enough to make a new rider bail. LR3's correct. When you fall, pop out of your bindings, push/swim to the shore, and take the sidewalk back to the dock.

If you've never hit a slider before, pick out the most mellow box on your heel side (or toe side if you're comfortable enough) and always remember to suck your knees up into your chest. What I mean by that is when you're on the up-slope of the box, let your board/legs rise up into your chest. Your head shouldn't move much when you're getting onto the slider. if you hit a box with stiff legs you'll get thrown off balance and bail.

It can be intimidating the first time but it's a lot of fun at any skill level.

Wait unti there is some tension on the line before jumping off the dock or start seated so you don't look too rookie. Start on the small ramps heelside to get the feel for them. Then look for the wide, low to the surface slider and hit that thing all day. You can start sliding straight up it like a ramp, you don't want to try to hit it already turned unless you ollie onto it that way. I kept trying to hit my first ones with the board perpendicular to the slider and nearly killed myself. Watched a few of the kids and figured it out.

Just my two cents from another 30 something who just started on the cable over the winter.

On the corners if you are on the inside of the buoy when the rope makes the turn begin your edge the same direction. Also for sliders and kickers just remember they are going to have less friction than water therefore you will be going faster. You compensate by a little forward shift of your weight. When you go to hit a kicker don't stay on edge. Flatten the board or it will slide out from under you. Enjoy.

As a 30+ mainly (poor) boat rider here's my tips:

(A tip given to me by a cable operator in London) For standing starts, watch the carrier, when it picks up you're line it will send a wave like an S down the line, wait until the S is half way down to the handle then jump. Up not forward, hold the handle tight to your hip.

Don't try to edge on an obstacle, sounds really obvious but I found myself trying to edge on obstacles with out thinking and it never ends up well. If you get pulled off a rail just go with it.

The guys have already spoke about corners but just to add (this may be bad technique, but it worked for me) as I approach the corner, I let the handle away from me (about a foot), as the carrier takes the corner the line will loose tension, at this stage I pull the handle in tight to keep tension as much as possible. Then when the tension catches you can let is out again to prevent the handle from getting yanked from your hands.

Sitting by the lake looking at kickers and rail you get delusions of grandeur, "yeah, that looks pretty small I'll own that", approaching them at 20+mph on a plank they look very different :)

Cable is a great opportunity to ride switch and get a lot of time on the water riding switch.

Have fun!

Hey, I'm thinking of hitting up a cable park for the first time too. In winter I jib rails, boxes and the sort on my snowboard. What differences am I going to feel riding cable on a wakeboard? I've never hit a slider or anything like one.

I hit the cable for the first time yesterday. It was the most fun I've had on a wakeboarding in a long time. I would say I'm a better snowboarder than wakeboarder but thats not saying much. I can do basic rail on a snowboard with front side and backside board slides. At the cable park the rails where diffrent but not really harder just diffrent. It is so much better falling into water and not hard North Carolina ICE that I'm used to.

P.S. another 30 year old

31 year old here who had his first go on cable at the weekend. I've only been riding for just over 1 year so it's all pretty new to me. I loved cable. It felt different from riding behind a boat but I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to get back for another shot

Cable is fun but diffeRent than boat. Whenever I rode cable back in nfm, i was always itching to hit a mastercraft sized wake instead of a kicker... But I can't do kickers well so, personal preference