Finally signed up on here

I am a brand new registered user here, but have been around stalking and lurking some of the threads. First a little about me and my water sports history.

I grew up knee boarding behind a jet boat, but stopped riding about 25 years ago. We got our first boat (96 Bayliner) about four years ago. I knee boarded behind it a little here and there, but focused on getting our 5 kids in the water. We upgraded to a 2005 Chaparral 2 years ago and I did a touch of knee boarding, but got a hand me down wake board from a buddy. With much aggrevation and trying I stood up on it at the end of last season. A few weeks ago we traded that I/O in on a 2006 Centurion Elite V C4 Lightning. Second pull behind that boat and I was up wake boarding. I can now get up easy cut in and out of the wake and do surface 180's.

I have self taught myself a great deal about the boat and done some upgrades and maintenance already, so I hope to add to the forum with at least my mechanical knowledge.

Now the problems (I will save you some pain and only list a few of the many). I do not feel comfortable coming back into the wake TS. Is this just a mental block to get over? I think the only reason I did my first surface 180 was to avoid trying to re-enter the wake TS.

I am considering taking the center fins off of the board I have (A used Hyperlite something I picked up a couple weeks ago) it does not have outer fins you can remove, but has some molded grooves on it. Is this going to make things more sketchy for me or could it help with control/edging?

Last one for now! Roughly what speed should I ride at and what rope length? I want to jump W2W, by the end of the year, but haven't really jumped at all yet (on purpose).

Welcome. Nice boat and good first post.
Post some pics.
Your gonna take some nasty diggers these first couple months. I suggest a helmet. A tight helmet.
Eyes up---handle down
Leave the fin on for now.
Whatever speed the wake cleans up. Set the rope length to hit the sweet spot at that speed.

Originally Posted by baitkiller

Welcome. Nice boat and good first post.
Post some pics.
Your gonna take some nasty diggers these first couple months. I suggest a helmet. A tight helmet.
Eyes up---handle down
Leave the fin on for now.
Whatever speed the wake cleans up. Set the rope length to hit the sweet spot at that speed.

We are heading to the lake tomorrow. I will get some pics and maybe some video to post up here for everyone to critique.

Thanks for the reply.

Helmet huh? Like a bike helmet or something?




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Welcome!

First off, that TS cut is just going to take getting over. It's mostly mental, but it is an uncomfortable body position. It'll just take some time! A helmet wouldn't be a terrible idea. You're best off getting a watersports helmet, something with ear flaps that way you wont blow any eardrums. Leave the center fins, you'll lose a ton of control without them. Try pulling them, you'll realize how much they help VERY quickly. Speed and rope length are personal preference. For beginners, I generally start them around 60-65 ft, at 20-21 mph. The wake is okay, and not super wide. That speed is a little more forgiving. Everything else is just going to come with time! Best of luck, you'll find many people around here willing to answer your questions!

Originally Posted by Jmaxymek

Welcome!

First off, that TS cut is just going to take getting over. It's mostly mental, but it is an uncomfortable body position. It'll just take some time! A helmet wouldn't be a terrible idea. You're best off getting a watersports helmet, something with ear flaps that way you wont blow any eardrums. Leave the center fins, you'll lose a ton of control without them. Try pulling them, you'll realize how much they help VERY quickly. Speed and rope length are personal preference. For beginners, I generally start them around 60-65 ft, at 20-21 mph. The wake is okay, and not super wide. That speed is a little more forgiving. Everything else is just going to come with time! Best of luck, you'll find many people around here willing to answer your questions!

Thanks J Max. I assumed that might be the case with the TS cut. I can switch in the flats and cut, just freak out when I consider crossing the wake TS. I will give it a shot tomorrow and try to get some vids/pics.

I will also call the local Board store today to see if I can get a helmet before we head out. Thanks again.

Toeside is more difficult, you will notice nearly all first timers get stuck out on their heals. Its because people arnt used to standing sideways the way they need to and they let their hips turn towards the boat to much. The board will follow your hips so having your hips square to the boat will bring the board square to the boat aswell. So get your hips sidways the way you want the board to track.

Toeside - even more uncomfortable than riding straight because you have to twist your hips even more awkwardly. focus on pushing the handle to your bum and this will allow your hips to twist the way they need to.

If you are still having trouble crossing the wake toeside you might want to consider letting go with your rear hand (right foot forward is left hand and vies versa) It is way easier to edge on your toes for the first time with just one hand on the handle but you do want to learn to edge with both hands eventually.

Originally Posted by petew

Toeside is more difficult, you will notice nearly all first timers get stuck out on their heals. Its because people arnt used to standing sideways the way they need to and they let their hips turn towards the boat to much. The board will follow your hips so having your hips square to the boat will bring the board square to the boat aswell. So get your hips sidways the way you want the board to track.

Toeside - even more uncomfortable than riding straight because you have to twist your hips even more awkwardly. focus on pushing the handle to your bum and this will allow your hips to twist the way they need to.

If you are still having trouble crossing the wake toeside you might want to consider letting go with your rear hand (right foot forward is left hand and vies versa) It is way easier to edge on your toes for the first time with just one hand on the handle but you do want to learn to edge with both hands eventually.

Thanks Pete sounds like one more thing to try tomorrow. We are heading out to our favorite little lake early so I should have some glassy water that I won't have to share for at least an hour to try some of this out.

Check out learnwake.com. It's the next best thing for learning other than having a professional coach in your boat.

Ive never even heard of the site man. Thanks Im about to check it out. I'm about to buy a wakeskate and I'd like to know as much as possible

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I don't know how sticky your board is, but I think a board that's too loose is bad for beginners. I'd recommend something that will easily hold an edge all the way through the wake, which is what you need when you're first learning going wake to wake using a progressive edge. You want a board that you can point at the wake and have it not slide around under you.

As far fear of hitting the wake toeside -- totally understandable. Try a longer line, slower speed and work on hitting the wake without too much speed at first, keep doing it, hitting the wake with more speed as you gain confidence. A good drill is also to cut through the first wake, then get on your edge and try to get air off the second wake (inside out), landing in the flats. This will teach you to hold your edge through the wake. Once you get bored of this, shorten your line, then do it wake to wake. Don't get hung up on line length -- the number is irrelevant, shorten it to where you're just behind the rooster tail (40-50 ft depending on boat and speed). Speed wise, go as slow as you can. As a grown man, anything slower than 19-20 mph will be too tiring. Once you're comfortable going wake to wake on a short line, start working on grabs then 180s, the only reason to speed up and lenghten the line is to gain air time -- you could 360 spins and base inverts on a short line, but it's hard to get big air that way.

As far as helmet, I wear one, mostly for ear protection (blew an ear drum once -- no fun). The helmet takes the edge off the water impact, but not much, will still get the sudden deceleration that causes concussions. Your best bet against those is slower speed -- can still happen if you catch the edge right, but 19 will hurt a lot less than 23.

Originally Posted by ak4life

I don't know how sticky your board is, but I think a board that's too loose is bad for beginners. I'd recommend something that will easily hold an edge all the way through the wake, which is what you need when you're first learning going wake to wake using a progressive edge. You want a board that you can point at the wake and have it not slide around under you.

As far fear of hitting the wake toeside -- totally understandable. Try a longer line, slower speed and work on hitting the wake without too much speed at first, keep doing it, hitting the wake with more speed as you gain confidence. A good drill is also to cut through the first wake, then get on your edge and try to get air off the second wake (inside out), landing in the flats. This will teach you to hold your edge through the wake. Once you get bored of this, shorten your line, then do it wake to wake. Don't get hung up on line length -- the number is irrelevant, shorten it to where you're just behind the rooster tail (40-50 ft depending on boat and speed). Speed wise, go as slow as you can. As a grown man, anything slower than 19-20 mph will be too tiring. Once you're comfortable going wake to wake on a short line, start working on grabs then 180s, the only reason to speed up and lenghten the line is to gain air time -- you could 360 spins and base inverts on a short line, but it's hard to get big air that way.

As far as helmet, I wear one, mostly for ear protection (blew an ear drum once -- no fun). The helmet takes the edge off the water impact, but not much, will still get the sudden deceleration that causes concussions. Your best bet against those is slower speed -- can still happen if you catch the edge right, but 19 will hurt a lot less than 23.

Thanks for the reply AK! I am on an older Hyperlite Motive 140 with some kind of Hyperlite bidings. It seems to hold the edge okay so far. After sacking up a little this weekend I am crossing the wake both directions (TS and HS) now I need to continue to work on that and start putting some air under the board.

I got my boy to take a few vids I will put up later to let everyone critique to see if I need to change anything else. I was having a hell of a time riding switch this weekend, where as last weekend I was fine?

I am still very new at it and have only been up on the wakeboard for a few weeks (and only a few times in those weeks) but will hopefully progress quickly and more importanly correctly. I am trying to avoid forming bad habits out there.

Brian, just watched your video in another thread. You're doing really well for how little you've been riding, but looks like you're still getting comfortable riding a wakeboard. At this point, I would work on just doing surface drills -- check out learnwake.com. Once you master those, clean up your wake a little (less weight in the boat or higher speed), then learn to get pop one wake using a long line, then shorten the line to learn wake to wake.

Speed 19-21mph
Line 60-70feet

^ To learn to get W2W