Riding Doubles...

When you ride doubles, do you keep the same lengths for both lines or do you stagger them 5 feet or so. I am curious if riding doubles with someone will help them progress. My one regret from the season that is now overis that my GF only rode twice the whole year. I was thinking that next year if I ride with her and get her more comfortable, she would be more willing to come ride with us. What do you guys think. Thanks for the help.

One line shorter than the other for sure. Both people should have basic skills down or it could become dangerous. Double riding is more for the driver to handle as well...

Doubles is definitely really fun, but can be more tiring since you have to be out there twice as long to get the same ride as before... actually MORE than twice as long, because of the time you need to take to communicate for safety and the time to pick up twice the falls.

I would use different line lengths for safety and maybe ask your GF if she would rather be in back or in front. I am thinking that if you were in back you could see what she is doing better, BUT she might have to turn her head backwards to talk to you which may be difficulat at her skill level? but then again, if she was in front she would have to worry about jumping over or riding under your line.

If she was in back then the tables would be turned

I suppose there is no problem with exact same line length, just be careful not to jump into one another. Communication is key with doubles

Another thing you could consider is riding in a tube 5 feet in front of her. You could turn backwards and watch her up-front-and-personal with little to no worry of falls. Also you will have all the energy you want for a personal run later, that would have been partially drained wakeboarding with her. Great position to take some pics too. taking pics might be an added excuse to get her out there. "hey_____ i want to take some photos of you boarding..."

Last option is get one of those fancy helmets with the walkie-talkie communication thing and talk to her from the boat.

As for tagging along with her on wakeboards, just think about all the situations/ scenarios you will encounter at each length option and then decide what works best for the both of you

Wow, thanks for the help Jeremy. A tube would definitely be one way to go. I was really envisioning just riding beside her but she is a handle dropper and I think if I were to just be out there she wouldn't think about the wake as much and just get her in a better frame of mind to start riding over the wakes. Thanks again guys.

Riding doubles is FUN! But it is definitely harder than it looks. If you are in back you have the other person's board wake to worry about. (It messes you up more than you'd think)

The tube is great too but it can kind of scare people to have the tube so close to them.

I think doubles would be better because then you can actually show her how her stance should be, etc.

I am definitely going to give both a try and see how it goes, if she is up for it of course. Unfortunately I have to think about it for another 5 months as I sit here in the middle of an ice storm. Winter Sucks.Thanks again, Peace.

I ride doubles with my buddy all the time and we stagger 5' so that we can cross each other. Or we just do this to cross over each other as well

Staggering lines is DANGEROUS! If you ride double keep the handles the same length. It is unsafe to stagger lines, longer line could get wrapped around shortline rider...

(Message edited by socalwakepunk on December 01, 2007)

I rode double with Matt Sims before and he did a tantrum over me it was insane

I ride doubles a ton with my buddy. I have done with other riders, but it is by far best when you ride with someone that you are comfortable with. We rode with two different lengths and can get into a pretty sweet rythme. It is just something that you have to be more aware about. I like it cause you actually see how big everybody goes and you save on gas money!

Me and a friend did it one time. It sucked because i couldn't figure out where he should be for me to jump. As in i couldn't figure out if i should let him be cutting all the way out heelside while i do a heelside jump. Or if i should put him toeside so i'm jumping away. I'm a bit more skilled than him, because i can jump wake 2 wake, he can only do small jumps.

i ride doubles all the time. My friend did a scarecrow and all raleys based tricks over me!!!

Definatly ride at the same length. I ride with carbon handles and they would knock u right out with one shot to the head lol i think that riding doubles is one of the best teaching tools cause you can be right there just a couple of feet looking at form and such plus i think that new riders jsut emulate how your positioned it helps alot when learning to get up. Just tell the riders you r pulling to let go when the other one goes down. You could try a whip but that can be very difficult with beginner riders. anyway how that helped

"Staggering lines is DANGEROUS! If you ride double keep the handles the same length. It is unsafe to stagger lines, longer line could get wrapped around shortline rider... " Absolutely true!!
I heard from a very credible source of a guy that was doubling. His partner fell, and he tried to get fancy- doing some kind of trick over his partner's line. Well, the line got wrapped around his arm, and stripped the flesh off down to the bone the whole length of the forearm. Not nice.
Always ride the same line length. When your partner falls, simply let go.

we ride doubles sometimes and its a blast! we ride at the same length, its also helpful if you have one reg. and one goofy foot rider. makes for some great video footage. the other thing that is helpful is if one falls the other rider should drop in the same area, so you don't have 2 riders in different areas of the lake, other boats may not know there are 2 ppl. down and not look for the other rider!

have fun be safe.
kal_dude

My buddy and I usually double about once a year with slightly staggered lines. We jump over each other, play HORSE, and just fool around. It is much harder than normal riding dealing with the other's wake, line, etc. Have also hit a few double doubles with the first rider hitting the first roller (straight air) and the second rider hitting the third (big backroll)...though, some of the horror stories on here about injuries may change that.

I have ridden doubles quiet a bit as well. Staggering lines is good if your taking pics of someone jumping over someone else. If you training someone I would suggest same length. If you cannot get the same length make sure the newb is on the short rope. That way your eating their spray on not vice versa.

Riding with someone close to your level is awesome. Back to back tricks are great. Doubles on roams are pretty fun too.

Usually when one falls the other drops the rope and glides as close as possible to the fallen rider. Unless you have a doubles experienced driver too (which is rare). Then you can play the whip and pick game which gets CRAZY. Essentially, the boat picks the fallen rider back up by using a DU turn and a quick idle around them. The non-fallen rider whips around the outside carrying speed while the inside rider grabs the line. It makes for some serious rollers and serious fun, haha.

Just a word of caution, riding doubles is a lot of fun, but doing tricks over other riders is very dangerous, this is a pic from last summer that was very close to being disastorous, both riders were riding 85' the rider was going for a raley when the wake washed out on take off resulting in very little pop, the 2nd rider ducked at just the last minute and even bent all the way down just missed taking a head shot with the board. It can happen even with skilled riders so be careful and wear a helmet when doing stunts, could save your life.

holy shizzle

we've done it at my cabin numerous times. it's pretty fun and definitely a great teaching tool. when we did it generally it was just me going over my friends, since they weren't interested in jumping they didn't care on their rope length so it's a lot safer if i fell behind them at my 75' with them up at 70 or so. besides if you go big enough it still looks like your going huge right over them from the boat. all the glory but without the risks.and it's not hard to show someone proper edging technique if you show it cutting away from the wake vs cutting in. either that or having the rider cutting out the opposite side was much more comfortable for me, they didn't cut out any of my edgeing space for screwin up my speed and it wasn't like i'm gaping 15ft outside the wake to wrap em with my line. just my $0.02

Cheers!

LOOK AT THAT TICK AZZ Yellow ROPE is that from the anchore.

Hey Randy, That looks like A.J. doing raley over Alex? I didnt know he could do a raley.

My gf is a complete newbie (3x) as well, I ride doubles with her whenever she goes...it is more fun for the both of us and she is def more willing to go. We keep the handles even.

Gordie, you called it. Riding with Andy N. at White Bear before the MN. stop. The next day was even more fun, AJ, Alex & Julin riding triples.

riding at different line lengths is a good way to get tangled up and hurt. here is my cousin and i riding doulbes a couple years back. it's one of my most favorite things to do. it's just like anything else, you gotta be careful.

hahahha! andy, not a anchor, its a slalom rope. my dumbarss brother ran over the other accurate main line. we still wanted to go doubles so we went back to the house and snagged a slalom rope from my pops. definitely a fun day! since we had the "anchor rope," i definitely had to hop on the trick ski that day for the first time in years. good times

i saw this thread and had to post these pics. i had to dig them out of our old wakeboardnashville backlog. here is the link. this is not photoshopped, as i even thought at first.

http://wakeboardnashville.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5285&highlight=#5285

omg

That does look pretty sick. but it's not like that's any different then people gaping over one person on the other side of the wake. just throw more people in between. It's still intense don't get me wrong, it's just not like it's any more difficult for the person goin up.

Well, its not Raleys or Tantrums over people, but this is one of my favorite shots from this summer:



My 2 daughters, age 7 & 10, riding doubles. They first tried it ~ July, and every time after that they rode together. Freaked my wife out, but for some reason I was fine w/ it. Their lines were the same length ( +- a foot) as well.

(Message edited by dan.smith on December 07, 2007)

Dana & Ian from the houseboat cam...

Really, from a female's perspective, it sometimes helps to have other females on the boat. I ride with one or two other girls on the Fox - your girlfriend is welcome to come out anytime. Riding doubles or with a tube will certainly help. The driver will need to pay attention to the lines and a good third helps, too. I've driven doubles a few times and it is surprising how much it can help the weaker rider.

Well I will take you up on that Liz. Sorry we didn't get a chance to ride this year. We put 130 hours on the new boat and she accounted for none of them.