I'm New: How do you get up?

Is it like getting up on a wakeskate? Do you start 20' out, and pull yourself into the wave, or do you get up right where the wave is best?

Are you able to use a normal surfboard. If so, do you try to get up the same way, or is the surfboard too buoyant?

You got it! Just like a wakeskate. Get up and ease yourself into the pocket. Many recommend against using the rope to pull yourself into the pocket, but I think most of us actually do it that way. Just don't coil the rope around your arm, or leave slack on the deck where your feet can get tangled up. It's best to shorten the rope to avoid a bunch of excess.

You can use a traditional surfboard to learn on, if it's large enough. After a few miles under your feet you'll no doubt opt for a wakesurf specific board. It might be a tad more of a challenge to get up on a traditional surfboard, but just let the boat and moving water do the work of flipping the board up against your feet.

Keep us posted!

It is much easier to get up on a wakesurf board, but much easier to ride on a regular surfboard.

I have never wakeskated, so I don't know if you hold the board to your feet with one hand while holding the rope to with the other. If so there is a much easier way to get up on a wakesurfboard.

While in the water, let your board float on top of the water perpindicular(spelling?) to the boat. Lay on your back and prop your feet up on the board so only the back of your heels are touching the board. the bottoms of your feet should be facing the boat. It is kind of like when you are in a lazy boy recliner.

When the boat starts to go, push your heels down on the board, this will bring the board right up to your feet and once that happens it is just like getting up on a wakeboard.

We actually have one guy who insists on getting up like he is surfing, starting on his stomach and whatnot. He can get up, but it is a bunch of work and sometimes it looks real funny.

Theres a few ways to start on a surf board. The easiest on a true surfboard would be what Rick and Jeff said above, about setting your feet on your board facing the boat. Then you just let the boat flip the board up as you dig in to it and you're off.

Depending on the board we are surfing, it's easier to start holding the board in position with one hand and the rope in the other, just grab with both hands as soon as the board starts to digs in.

Once you get the hang of things you can try off your platform, very fun, but it can take a little practice to get it right.

One of our friends rides like he's surfing, and its pretty funny sometimes. But he does get up, every time.

As for the rope length, we push things with ours and have it knotted off in a few intervals for our wake, so then we can easily adjust it depending on the wake size or the rider, but after reading all of the posts about Powell and the 20' rope and the cop that was glassing our boat last weekend that I've never seen before where we ride, I think Ill be picking one up. Not worth the trouble. Of course we can get away with riding without vests too, so I doubt a rope length violation would be high on their list, I could be wrong. If you need some visual references, let me know, I'm sure I have pics of someone in the crew starting, maybe even a video. If you are familiar with surfing though, you shouldn't have problems, but I know it helped some of my buddies to watch one or two of go first before they tried there first time

Scratch that 20' rope. Just saw Jeff's post in the Powell thread. I was wondering why I had never heard anything about that here in TX. Thanks for the heads up Jeff!

Go to inland surfers web page, there is some excellent video instructions

Thanks guys. We tried surfing a while back. My buddy brought his 7' spoon nose to the lake, and he wanted to try it. Amazingly, we were able to get a pretty good wave at about 8mph (it even had a nice curl), but he was never able to get up. None of us knew how to do it, so he was just trying to get up surf style. My board is 6', and now that we know how to get up, I hope we can share in your joy as surfers.

Thanks guys. I'll also check out inland surfers.

By the way, how fast do you guys go? I'm sure it differs depending on the weight in the boat, but let's see averages.