Tricks without a Tower

so me and my friend are getting a "healthy obsession" i guess or something like that for wakeboarding, and we're trying to set goals for by the end of the year... however, neither of us have a wakeboarding boat

can you do inverts lacking a tower? i'm sure raleys are pretty much out of the question

but besides spins and grabs, what else is open to us?

thanks

everything is fair game, just watch shaun murray's detention! you can do a ton of tricks without a wake even. raleys, whirly birds and bel airs(tantrum) all can be done. it just takes skill and tons of practice. get the basics down and get after it, any wake is better than no wake!

(Message edited by blind on May 06, 2007)

I agree that towers are not a necessity for every trick, but how much of a difference do they make. I mean, they wouldn't make them if thy didn't help but how much easier is it to do different tricks? I have never ridden with a tower.

has anyone ever tried one w/out a tower and w/ a tower?

any insight is appreciated

im sure most of us have done both...i have and i felt like with the rope higher it does make it alot easier. if the rope is low it feels like its pulling you forward. if you dont have the $$$ for a tower get a pylon. its the same thing

my cousin can 360 w/o a tower, and i can 180

When our nautique didnt have a tower, we were landing most of our tricks still. tantrums, backrolls, rolls to reverts, scarecrows, 3s, 5s.

towers make a diff only if you have the skill to really load the, line other than that they just help you get up.

okay, thanks for the help, i and my friend are happy to hear this

now its just time for some practicing at the lake

If you really want to work on your skills, practice ollie 360s every way you can. Learn bs 180s, bs 360s, fs 360s, ts 360s with just an ollie. It will make learning them wake to wake really easy. My friends ride on a 210 nautique all of the time, but the are amazing spinners because they learned all of their spins behind a jetski.

I've landed tantrums and backrolls(easier). It's all about loading the line.

http://www.wakeside.com/page/w/PROD/wakeboard_pylons/skylon_the_pod_pylon_1pc_07

I rode for ages with a setup like this. does pretty much the same thing as a tower for your riding. not as elegant but does the trick. plus it is easy to remove when the folks want to cruise around the lake.

You can definitely do most tricks without a tower (check out Byerly and Gator back in the day in Retrospect) but you will not be able to get away with as many mistakes. You edging will have to be really good, as will your form when you pop.

That's weird I was about to make a thread on this. Anyway I'm trying to do 3's and will having a pole or tower help me land this. When I go up to do the trick I get the rotation but the boat pulls me back down too early to get set up for the landing and completing the handle pass.

whats loading the line? sorry, i feel stupid but thanks

Tension is "loading"

No towers, fat sacs, pylons...I still got the basics!
3's both heel and toe...Tantrum, raley, hoochie, krypt, back roll, toe side back, switch backroll to revert, multiple 180's, stiffy, stiffy 180, blind 180, back scratch,back scratch 180,back scratch to blind, shifty 180, shifty 360......And probably some other crap I forgot.

Behind any boat!
Use and abuse what you've got for the love of it!

(Message edited by zuka666 on May 07, 2007)

okay, thanks jeffrey

and just wondering, what did you learn first, 360 hs i'm guessing, tantrum, or backroll? or is there another invert you learned before these

Bret,
Spins were the toughest for me.

Wake roll(heelside backroll) from driverside to passenger. that was the first invert then came the heelside 3, tantrum...

my two sons learned to ride in the 90's behind our I/O, no tower ,no ballast. both were doing 3's and grabs and the older one could do tantrums. '99 we got a v-drive, no tower,riding improved, wake had better ramp, but boys were older, stronger. '01 put tower on boat, riding improved due to more hang time ...but boys were older and stronger. I think it's more about what you do with it than what you have

I started with nothing, rode with extended pylon for a couple yrs., went back to nothing...My cousin picked up a moomba last year, wake is too big for me...either I'm getting old, knees hurt etc, or I need to ski behind it daily. Hope the later is what I need

I just watched pull on fuel tv this morning and they did a thing on scott byerly and it showed stuff from his wakeboarding days and he was killing it with no tower.

its pretty funny what most people "need" to just go out have a decent set.

There's an old ass tri-hull that was runnin around the lake last summer. boat couldn't have been more than 17' and one side of it had that red tape people put over tail lights all down one side at the rail. They were riding an old-school surfboard with a huge fin at 50' or so. Not sure what they were trying to do or where they got the idea, but they must have been having a blast cause they were out there everyday. even the dude's little sister was on it. Were they tricks? not really, just out having a blast with what they had. you don't need an expensive rig to have fun out there.

Brett - you guys ever skate? And what goals have you guys set for the year?

uhh, i'll check up w/ my friend, i'm thinking about getting a skate but i want to improve on my wakeboarding skills before i branch out-i was mostly going to get a skate if we got a jetski

anyways, if i continue going like i am right now (pretty often, especially for school season) my goal is to have an invert of some sort, a hs 360 might be pushing it, a hs bs 180 wake to wake
what do you think? an invert is just really important, than a hs bs 180, and i'd like to be grabbing all of my fs 180s pretty easily

and just improve my switch edging/control and toeside jumps

but the past 3 times, i feel like i've gone in, waited to get comfortable with my riding, and then just usually at the end when my friends so "GO HUGE!" i go as hard as i can

i think i just need to go in with the mindset of, 1 warmup run, and then start just going all in- if i don't try this stuff i can't land, or try going bigger, i feel it will slow down my progression, so i'm going in with a different mindset from now on

^^^
what do you think of my goals?