How many people wakesurf anyways?

Out of all the wakeboarders and wakeskaters on the water each day, what percentage of them do you think wakesurf??? 5%, 10%, what???

In my area, almost nobody wakesurfs! It's even hard to get people to come along for weight! I can understand, after all, I do live on Oahu, the worlds greatest surfing destination. But still, it's such a cool sport, what's the deal!

Are we wakesurfers a minority out there or do I just live in an area that doesn't have a lot interest in the sport? Just curious.

I see a fair number of wakesurfers out on my lake (Sammamish), and I personally surf a lot more than I wakeboard...I've been out 6 days so far this season, and I've surfed all of them but one. When you live on the island with the Northshore and Pipeline, I can understand people being a little less interested in wakesurfing. Where on Oahu are you, my mother in law has a vacation home on the beach in Kailua that I make it out to a couple times a year.

I surf EVERY time I go out, when boat traffic allows...It's been a great way for me to warm up, before breakin' out the wakeboard...in winter I would also end my day surfing, and surf between boarding, to give my arms a rest....

Yeah, I agree that surfing behind a boat in Hawaii sounds kinda lame. But brah, it's good fun! People just need to have an open mind.

Wow, I just noticed that there is no "wakesurfing" category in the WAKEBOARDER.COM discussion board. This must reflect something about the sport's popularity (or lack thereof), don't you agree?

Alan,
Stop spending so much time on these message boards and get behind that beautiful Nautique of yours )

Seriously though, we're planning on camping out at the club Friday and Sat night. My brother said you're bringing your boat out so are you camping too?

Let's load your boat up with some massive weight this weekend, I want to see what it's like fully loaded.

I'll be out there Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Time to go huge!

Were always out ridin our wakesurf board!

Just because wakesurfing is not catagorized on Wakeboarder.com does not mean that it is not happening, or not popular. That is their choice. As shown here on WW, threads are pretty popular, and in my opinion, becoming more so. Wakesurfing is a blast. The few that have tried it on my boat are hooked. They seem to want to do that more than wakeboard. Possibly because it is new to them, but it is also a lot of fun. We are new to surfing, and are still experimenting with weight, speed, etc. If you have not tried it, give it a shot. It is also a great alternative when the water goes to crap.

My 2 cents.

Haven't seen too many wakesurfers out here on the Delta, I'd guess maybe less than 5% even. On the other hand we have @#$%^&! tubers galore.

Just got a wakesurf board and have been out on it a few times already. Like Buzz, we're still experimenting with all the variables. Today I had the excitement of almost nose-diving onto the swim step...

Still working on "going ropeless". Got any helpful hints for a beginner?

Bend your knees!!--I'm no expert, but when I started, I would stand tall...

This did two things...leaning while tall makes the board react more harshly and can make you over correct or nosedive while you r learning. If you crouch, you can lean more cuz of the low center of gravity. The more you crouch, the more weight you can shift on the board without dipping the edges..Also, feet closer to the edge against the curl.

Just what I found works for me....oh yeah, PRACTICE!!!

while you've still got the rope in your hand, try and find what you would think is your pocket in the wake and try and fool around w/ it a bit.
if you find yourself falling out of it like lagging back a bit where you need to pull yourself in more on the rope, lean your body a little forward (not move your feet-just your upper body going forward or back should help you enough) and that will move the board forward. if you're getting too near your swimstep, lean back a little and you'll back off a bit.
a lot is your weight distribution- you need to manipulate your spot in the wake.
but then once you find it....you'll be on your way to mucho fun
i'll wakesurf whenever i can. it's a great break from holding the rope when riding- or at the end of a long day and you still wanna play in the water...it's fun stuff! and even some cool tricks to do
enjoy!

MANY THANKS to Joe and Shan for the helpful hints!

Last week I finally found "the Spot" and managed to go ropeless after a couple of trys. Especially helpful was getting into a crouch which made for quicker weight shifts and enabled paddling when necessary to catch up to the wave.

Thanks again, guys!

Sweeeeet!! All you need now, is a little ukelele music blastin' outta your stereo, and you're set!!

Post some pics!!

But when you really want to work the wake and get tricky you're going to want to get out of that crouch.