Thinking about taking a lesson

So, I had a friend of mine on my boat the other day and he shot some pics of myself riding and it made me sick to see my form, lack of style and everything else. I am not a "beginner" but I feel like I should be able to do alot more and have some style while I ride, so Im thinking about seeking an all day lesson.

Is there anything I should look for? certain questions to ask?

Ohana board shop here locally offers private lessons all day for a great price. Has anyone used them?

1. style can't be taught.

2. is arun giving the lessons? he's a super sick rider, super cool dude, and is a really good instructor. you'd be foolish to turn down getting lessons from arun.

3. ask for prices, what is taught, what's on the agenda, etc.

4. once out on the boat, ask the instructor for full critique of your fundamentals. if he says it sucks, work on that all day if you have to. don't even think about working on tricks. crawl, walk, run.

Heres a couple things to remember...
-the general body position to maintain: chest up, knees bent, equal weight on both feet. This will help your form. Do a lot of switch riding, it will help your switch and regular riding.
-style is whatever you make it. When jumping the wake throw some grabs that are tough the first time, but you slowly get better at... Also you gain style points for tweaking/poking your grabs... such as a nose grab, and the more you do, try pointing your tail down towards the water more and bringing your nose up to your chest. It looks cooler the bigger you tweak it. And same for all grabs. One thing I have recently started working on is doing a heelside grab, and tweaking it about 90º to blind, and pulling it back.

Lessons are cool and generally can help you, but make sure you KNOW what you want to learn before going in to the lesson. It's a horrible feeling paying someone to coach you, and when they ask what you want to work on, you say "umm..... i dont know....". Tell them you want help with your body position, your form and your style. And don't forget you will gain style the more you ride and do tricks. For example my first backroll ever was ugly as heck. After I have thrown a couple hundred, I can take them bigger, stall them upside down, wait longer off the wake, and grab with any grab I want. The more I throw, the crazier and cooler I can make them. The more hours you put behind your boat, the more style and experience you will gain.

Try that for starters. And it's also a good idea to get a digital camera/video camera and a buddy to tape your ride, and go in and watch it. Things look a LOT different in the boat than behind it, you will notice some stuff you didn't while riding.

I can use some of that style stuff too. Can someone hook Me up ?

You can't go wrong with Arun and I thought I heard that Derek cook was helping him with the lessons.

Some nice well thought out answers for a change.. good job Joe and Aden.

Yeah! Thats what I need! A video camera and Umali in my boat!

When are we hitting the river Joe?

attila, maybe next week? i'm off to seattle tomorrow night, coming back on thursday. i'm sure i'll have a "honey-do" list by the time i get home.

Style CAN be bought with Umali taking the shots...I bet he can tweak style with that camera where there isn't any..at least that's what I'm hoping he'll do for me someday

Isaac...give Brent Baum of www.SoCalWakeboardinstruction.com a call. I ride with him and he is great. He coaches people from all over Ca. and even Washington. He coaches all levels. I can't recommend him enough.

hooked up with Arun today. Looks like ill be going out with him and Derek Cook in a couple of weeks. Im stoked!

Good luck, Isaac

And thanks, Paul. I coach at a camp in BC, for drop-in lessons and some live-ins. I find WAY too often that people pay me to coach them things that they don't need coaching for, all they need is experience and to put some hours behind the boat. For example, before you pay 60 bucks for a pull with a coach and get him to teach you backrolls, why don't you go out behind your own boat (assuming you have one), go out and try a couple hundred (give or take), and if you still have troubles with it THEN you need coaching. People tell me they have troubles doing something and they pay me to fix it for them, and I later discover they havn't tried themselves to fix it, and they have only done the trick twice before. Perhaps it is something you can learn yourself, and no need to pay someone to teach you.

Just another thought.

i am always willing to ride along and do lessons out on the delta. i live in disco bay and can meet you wherever. unfortunately i do not have a boat right now but have no problem riding along in someone elses boat. i taught kids for 3 summers in a row in southern cali and have done numerous clinics for hyperlite and a few shops.

as far as arun and cook they are great guys as well and have alot of experience too.

I think that with any lesson or camp, it would be very valuable to get as much as you can on video, including coaching, commentaries, critiques, etc. Just a thought.

It's true, Buzz.

And take a pen and paper, and WRITE DOWN what the coach tells you. If you don't, you will finish the day, load up the boat, get in the car to drive home and say "Oh crap... I forgot everything the coach told me to work on". You paid 50-100 bucks for a lesson, you should remember everything he tells you to work on.