Our 3yr old
 

UP on the first try! He has been telling us he wanted to do it for a while, mom finally gave in....

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BTW... the board is finless right now as that was the way I received it. If anyone has some fins that will fit a HL Motive 109 out there let me know!

That's awesome.

That was great! I had to laugh because I started turning my feet while sitting my chair trying to root him on, HAHA!

Good job!

He's doing great! It looks like the board has some molded fins so unless you get a large set of additional ones, it might not help much. Once he gets more comfortable I bet he'll throw a leg back and get in a good stance in no time!

ata boy, give him five for me
bet he's a tired little boy probable slept 10 hrs straight
is that a sgl screw fin or two screw fin?

Funny how kids pop right out at like 2mph

He's going to have the best butter slides ever! Congrats, 3 is impressive.

@snork- our kids have been 10-12 hr sleepers pretty much from the get go. He was ready to keep riding. He told me his hands were hurting but he wanted to keep goin, I had to cut him off.

it is a wide two hole pattern for the fins, i have a few sets of fins, but none that will fit this board.

Wow is all I can say! While I was making the last post I was contacted by Hyperlite. They are going to send us some fins for his board!

That is what customer service looks like to me!

Great job A.J.! You teach that river who's boss!

Hyperlite the best, been rock'n their boards sense 1990, glad they could help you

He looks like a barefooter to me

thats awesome. congrats

So awesome! You should be proud, that is amazing. I'll be showing my 4 year old this tomorrow.

SO SO SO COOL!!!!
My boy is only 18 months right now... I CANNOT WAIT to get him out there.trying! Congrats!

pretty cool, thanks for sharing.... If I can make 1 suggestion.... put him another 10' out away from the rough water from the prop wash.... might make it easier for him.... I let my daughter ride at full line length, she says it's easier.
always awesome to see what kids will do.

riding buddy's son started at 3 last summer, this year he is cutting around behind the boat, crossing both wakes, trying to jump inside out, doing a surface 180 to eventual faceplant, and getting the board out of the water on ollies, your son will probably start turning the board in the next couple of trips, i know you're proud, i can't wait until my almost 2yo can get out there next year, definitely lengthen the rope though, congrats!

That's awesome! I love how he wanted to keep going!

That's amazing!!

Posted to my facebook..

Absolutely fantastic.. So cool. Thanks for sharing.

I am curious what bindings you have on there, I have been looking at getting a board for my 3 1/2 year old daughter.... she rode on the wake surfer with me for the 1st time this past weekend and seemed to like it. The hyperlite is the smallest board that i have found at 109.... but I think that any bindings will be large on her and that is fine too... but I thought about getting her a board when she says that she is ready to try

Billy ,get mini boots

Also, I forgot to ask what speed you were pulling him at, it looked like just above idle. He seemed pretty tough too took a couple of nice faceplant and stayed with it, I k ow you must be proud.

the bindings are liquid force Micros
http://www.wakeworld.com/products/in...l&p=57282(they have girl ones as well)

we didnt go any faster then 7mph, he is very comfortable in the water, and going over the front of the board didnt phase him a bit. I was jumping in to keep mom comfortable and to congratulate and encourage him.

I am super proud of him!

With your daughter I would start looking for a set up now, if you wait she may say she is ready then by the time you get the stuff she might lose interest or move on to more girly things. that has seem to happen with my 6 year old, she has done an EZ ski and even the hard horseshoe ski, but doesnt seem interested in trying the wakeboard anymore, its here on standby though when she says she wants to do it!

First of all congrats to you and your son!

Second of all did you give him any other critical pointers besides point his toes? My 3 year old daughter is psyched to try.

By the way I second the notion of having a small board on the boat for when your child is ready. Out of the blue this weekend our daughter says she wants to try and we didn't have a kids board. Tried to stick her on a small womens board, but she just couldn't control it. HL Divine 109 is now on the way.

Curious what everyones thoughts are on how far the rope should be out and how fast. My 5 year old is about 42lbs I had him all the way back 70ft but he gets real nervous when he falls also driving at 9mph. He really cant get up in butter position we have to support him a bit at the bank and aim him with the front of the board on top of the water. Thinking of taking him to McCormicks cable to practice getting up with out the giant boat etc.

Our daughter (9) just boarded for her first time yesterday. She did great!
It's no fun when they loose-interest in stuff or decide something isn't "girly enough" to do.
I don't know if you've tried this already or not but...
I'll tell you what did the trick for our daughter. I showed her a few Nicola Butler and Amber Wing videos on YouTube. I told her how that was their job and how they get paid to ride, etc. That was all it took. 2 days later she was behind the boat in the water.

The little guy did awesome! Nice job buddy!

Nice!! That puts a smile on the face

That is so awesome AJ!!!

Gordon, you must be so proud. Way to go!!!

Awesome! Mine just turned 4 and has thus far refused to go behind the boat. He also refuses to try the 2.0 at the cable park but will float around in the pool with his board on and let me pull him around with a rope. He is slowly building up courage to ride (I think). Great job little dude!!!

He has been out a handfull of times now, and has fins on his board so no more continuous boardslide. He is riding both normal and switch just depending on which way he sets his weight while he is getting up. The 2nd time we went out he told me he didnt want me jumping in the water with him anymore..lol.

So since the first time, he is now riding out at 70ft and about 11mph. I used the short rope the first time to keep him close to the boat(his mom is actually afraid of the water and does not swim, so as much for her benefit as his), and also to provide more upward pull to help pop him onto the surface.

He wanted to try once last year, but when he got in the water with board on, the board was more bouyant then he was, and was dunking his head under the water a bit. So this year when he said he was ready, I first had him float in the pool with the board and vest on to get comfortable, then I would pull him by hand just enough to get him on the surface of the water. The next day on the boat while anchored in, we repeated the same exercise, I was pulling him further and took alot of board edges to my shins :)

The next day he said he was ready, and now there is no looking back. Everyday I get home from work he is asking to go wakeboarding and he has gotten up for a few early 5am sessions as well. I of course eat it up, partially because I am proud of him, but mostly because his mom says no to me, but can hardly say no to him!

@skull- I would try the trick of just having him float around behind the boat while anchored in and just pulling him in by hand. Also the EZski http://www.ezski.net/ was a great way to get the kids comfortable behind the boat, no deepwater start and they can sit or stand when they want too- AJ started using it when he was 1.

Making progress
 

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AJ took 2 quick ups yesterday, first set is blurry on the video due to the camera person(me) but you will get the idea, the end of the 2nd set he was cutting back behind the boat toeside.

Dude, that is seriously awesome!!! Way to be supportive of him and encourage him to get up and stay up. I'm lookiing forward to teaching my daughter soon. She'll be 3 in Sep.

My 9 year old daughter on her 3rd time out. First 2 times she would just get up and had no control. Third time she started cutting around and got real comfy. The amber wing videos do help!

This is awesome to see! As another poster mentioned. If you guys have a cable park nearby, try their beginner cable. They start out in the water just like being behind the boat. It seems that the young ones do very well learning on this and it builds their confidence that can then be transferred over to boat. Whether its the feeling of not being behind the boat, lake conditions, pressures from other people in the boat, higher pull point, etc. i teach youth and adults beginning wakeboarding and have had kids as young as 3 get up and 2 on the ezski. My enjoyment comes from watching all their smiles and not wanting to give up their turn.

Congrats, he's awesome :)

That's an awesome start. Looks like he enjoys riding squared up to the boat. Say the word and we can loan you some skis. I'll send them down with Ron.