Faces full of water - Trouble getting up and moving

[lancesaville]

Wakeboarding is soooo much trickier than surfing haha. My fiancee, myself, and two of my friends have been trying to wakeboard for the last couple weekends with like 1% success. Think we need some advice. I think my fiancee's only prob is that she just needs more practice, the boat yanks her right up out of the water but then the board slides out from under her like she's on an ice-skateboard. As far as my buddies go, they're just letting go of the rope and with practice they'll be fine after a couple more weekends. For me, it's a bit trickier, I get up, but go right back down every time. To work on the basics, we even broke out the party barge so our arms/shoulders didn't get so sore. I still had a lot of trouble but the slower/smoother pull from the monsterous 90hp engine, lol, gave me a chance to kind of see what I might be doing wrong. A lot of times I notice the board (angled up) comes right up to the surface of the water, but doesn't plane up over the surface, like i can see it right there, so i turn my toes up a little more but it just won't plane up over the surface. I wasn't plowing, as there was no 'wall of water' rushing over the board, think of how a dolphin looks just under the surface of the water when they're moving, the board is right under the water and cruising just not planing over the surface. So a few times I tried angling the board like a surf and i get up but then my feet go forward and i fall back when i try to bring my hip up to the handle, like i was on ice. Either way, we're all getting WORN OUT FAST (bout 10 attempts each) since I think we're all fighting the boat. Any suggestions from what i described? We all watched D2012 but of course its a sinch for the pros :D I contacted my dealer who has a wakeboard team and asked to hire one of his riders next weekend for a few hours, so hopefully having a pro onboard will help us get our butts out of the water for more than 5 seconds. For reference, I'm a pretty big guy 6'1, 265, and using a CWB faze 140 with the plastic (huge) tracking fins. My fiancee (120lbs - don't you DARE tell her I told :D) and my friends (bout 160-180lbs each) are using the faze 134 w/ the tracking fins on. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[mmandley]

Wakeboarding is soooo much trickier than surfing haha. My fiancee, myself, and two of my friends have been trying to wakeboard for the last couple weekends with like 1% success. Think we need some advice. I think my fiancee's only prob is that she just needs more practice, the boat yanks her right up out of the water but then the board slides out from under her like she's on an ice-skateboard. As far as my buddies go, they're just letting go of the rope and with practice they'll be fine after a couple more weekends. For me, it's a bit trickier, I get up, but go right back down every time. To work on the basics, we even broke out the party barge so our arms/shoulders didn't get so sore. I still had a lot of trouble but the slower/smoother pull from the monsterous 90hp engine, lol, gave me a chance to kind of see what I might be doing wrong. A lot of times I notice the board (angled up) comes right up to the surface of the water, but doesn't plane up over the surface, like i can see it right there, so i turn my toes up a little more but it just won't plane up over the surface. I wasn't plowing, as there was no 'wall of water' rushing over the board, think of how a dolphin looks just under the surface of the water when they're moving, the board is right under the water and cruising just not planing over the surface. So a few times I tried angling the board like a surf and i get up but then my feet go forward and i fall back when i try to bring my hip up to the handle, like i was on ice. Either way, we're all getting WORN OUT FAST (bout 10 attempts each) since I think we're all fighting the boat. Any suggestions from what i described? We all watched D2012 but of course its a sinch for the pros :D I contacted my dealer who has a wakeboard team and asked to hire one of his riders next weekend for a few hours, so hopefully having a pro onboard will help us get our butts out of the water for more than 5 seconds. For reference, I'm a pretty big guy 6'1, 265, and using a CWB faze 140 with the plastic (huge) tracking fins. My fiancee (120lbs - don't you DARE tell her I told :D) and my friends (bout 160-180lbs each) are using the faze 134 w/ the tracking fins on. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

We have the D2012 also. I cant get out of the water like Suan Murry. Its just not that simple LOL. I actually learned how to get up on the wake board but Wake surfing. Its much more forgiving and same principles.

First tip, Slow your throttle roll down.

10 trys on a wake board is pretty solid its a lot of pressure to keep going threw. If the handle is pulled out of your hand and your holding as tight as you can then thats too much speed from the boat.

Start slow to pull the slack in the line out, this allows the boarder to get that board under water and closer to them, then need to get there legs compressed like in the video, arms straight hand wide on the handle.

Boat pulls them and when they holler, easy on the throttle and give it some power, driver watched in mirror and just as you see there mid section come up, boarder needs to start turning that board so the nose is at the boat, driver adds more power steadily up to 15 MPH. This is all you need to get a wake board to plane properly, now the boarder needs to lean hard back so there hip comes close to the handle, all the while keep them arms straight out.

When the board slides out from under you, what i have found was i was too straight up and not leaned back. If you go head over the board you were way to straight up, arms always fully extended when going straight forward, this saves your arms from getting tired.

As for getting out of the water if you can get up on a surf board use this same skill for the wake board, it helped me a ton. Claudia is learning to Surf right now then she will try wake boarding, its much easier imo to teach from a Surf board because i can be on the back of the boat talking to them and see exactly what there doing.

Now after your up on the wake board its Exactly like the 2012 video, im up all the time now, i can stay centered behind the boat, move in the wake back and forth, i just cant cross out of the wake yet. I'm working on that lol.

[sandm]

good advice mmandley. it is a whole lot easier to teach to surf than wakeboard, even though the 2 are basically the same in principle to get up on.
keep working on it. once you get up and ride for a while, the lightbulb clicks and it's up every time...
maybe try not to get your arms so close to your body at first? might be trying to pull yourself into the boat/rope? I find more weight on the rear foot, just like surfing, but you have to think about pulling the front foot up as well.

I agree with you mmandley on learning and progressing. I can cross the wake no issues, and can jump a little, but riding switch is not happening yet. it's mostly just practice, and I prefer to use my water time for surfing..

[lancesaville]

Good calls guys, I might need to focus on surfing for a couple weekends and get to where I can free ride. That will prob help a lot. I'm also thinking of trying my wakesurf rope to get up on wakeboard, kinda pull me out of the water, i think that's why it's so easy to get up on the surf, well that and it's a huge longboard (ron1x stage).

[mcdye]

I can feel your pain. I was able to get up on second try after not sking for 25 years. I am your same size frame. To learn I got a 144 length board. Which is probably a little big, but it is working from me and my wife. (not going to post her weight but alot less then ours.) some great videos on youtube, plus didnt u get the Book. great tool. See u on the lake...looking to go this weekend.

[lancesaville]

I can feel your pain. I was able to get up on second try after not sking for 25 years. I am your same size frame. To learn I got a 144 length board. Which is probably a little big, but it is working from me and my wife. (not going to post her weight but alot less then ours.) some great videos on youtube, plus didnt u get the Book. great tool. See u on the lake...looking to go this weekend.

LOL that's a funny subject - it showed up w/ no DVD in the case, they shipped me out a new one so hopefully it will be here before saturday the 4th. My dealer recommended a Ron1x vault 144 to me, but since my faze 140 is still new, and i'm still just working on getting up, I can't justify getting it YET. I doubt 4cm would make that much difference tho, but the board IS an entirely different shape. You gonna be on degray on the 4th? We'll see you there, we'll be north of arlie moore camp area practicing our faceplants :) Then off to hamilton that night to watch the fireworks at kahuna bay. should be a big day.

[jmvotto]

Did you check out learn the basics in the trickroom. Its pretty informative. aslo for the driver only has to apply slow pressure to get you up and out.

http://moomba.com/trickroom/

[mcdye]

Ron1x vault 144 is my ride. that is the plan for the 4th as of now to Arlie.

[lancesaville]

Ron1x vault 144 is my ride. that is the plan for the 4th as of now to Arlie.

Cool, we'll see you there man. Hey, so what do you think of the vault 144 ? You ever ridden a 140? is there a lot of difference between a 140 and 144 is what I'm wondering...

[lancesaville]

Did you check out learn the basics in the trickroom. Its pretty informative. aslo for the driver only has to apply slow pressure to get you up and out.

http://moomba.com/trickroom/

Thx Jim, I never knew that was there :)

[jmvotto]

lance, no problem i used to aid me. i am still a beginner though. i have the 07 ronix vault 144. i like it alot, but i am still learning. it has a toe side rail to help on those tough cuts. i just got the book dvd, i hope this helps
me
joe

[lancesaville]

lance, no problem i used to aid me. i am still a beginner though. i have the 07 ronix vault 144. i like it alot, but i am still learning. it has a toe side rail to help on those tough cuts. i just got the book dvd, i hope this helps
me
joe

have you ridden any other boards? I'm thinking of switching. I love my ronix wakesurf.

[yearround]

when we work with newbies to get up, i have the person sit on the floor and hold the handle. then i will pull them up to standing, have the person hold their body in the position that they are sitting in. i think often we have a tendency to fold at the hips and get a face full of water.

you should be able to stand up at an angle from sitting on the floor.

good luck!

[mcdye]

Cool, we'll see you there man. Hey, so what do you think of the vault 144 ? You ever ridden a 140? is there a lot of difference between a 140 and 144 is what I'm wondering...

Remember I am like you a newbie. :) This is the first and only board i have ridden like 4x. The way I looked at it a 140 was the min based on current wieght. I was shooting for a 142 or 143. The 144 is probably on the high side but hey the larger surface area and the deal I got from DL. The vault has defined heel/toe side edges to help learn edging (so i was told). Boots go on a certain direction. How much difference in 4 cm good question.

The Book dvd is great IMO, covers it all.

[jmvotto]

have you ridden any other boards? I'm thinking of switching. I love my ronix wakesurf.


Lance I have ridden a buddies Obrien demeted 140 for a season behind his i/o and i liked that alot but i wanted to see if a toe/heel side board would help better. after watching the disc 1 Book DVD this am 5:00 to 6:00 (feeding the newborn) its more in the technique than in the board. i am a slalom skier through and thru, this sideways pull is tough to get used to . The guys on the BB gave me grief for posting pic boadring while using my slalom grip. LOL I am scheduled with Russ Wilde in two weeks I can't wait maybe this old dog can learn new tricks.

[kaneboats]

You can try taking the front fin off for a while. It will help you get turned after you get out.

[lancesaville]

Ok so we got it figured out this weekend. SLOW and STEADY pull with gradual speed increase did the trick. Now just need lots of practice. Thanks for the advice/guidance guys.

[mmandley]

Awesome Lance

Im pretty excited also, I finaly crossed my Heel Side wake and stayed up lol. I didnt make it back in the center though, the wake killed me.

It prolly doesn't help that we have all the ballast filled and they wake is pretty big looking but we have a couple pretty good guys with us and they like to have ballast so i just suffer a bit and learn with it so we dont have to drain and refill it constantly.

[lancesaville]

Awesome Lance

Im pretty excited also, I finaly crossed my Heel Side wake and stayed up lol. I didnt make it back in the center though, the wake killed me.

It prolly doesn't help that we have all the ballast filled and they wake is pretty big looking but we have a couple pretty good guys with us and they like to have ballast so i just suffer a bit and learn with it so we dont have to drain and refill it constantly.

Thx and congrats also Mike. Oh I didn't fill the new ballast system (3100 lbs) for us since we're still learning, but we filled it for one of my dealers' team riders and he tested out the bigger wake, watching him wakeboard was sweet. Here's a vid snap, think I've got some wake-tuning to do but overall it was good enough for him so should definitely be good enough for us...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_xP4KzCPA

[dtlaine]

One piece of advice that I always give people trying to learn to get up is to let the boat pull you rather than the rider pulling on the boat. I know that physics say you're both pulling with the same force, but it seems to help people to get out of the water if they're not trying to pull so hard on the handle.

[kaneboats]

Yup! I've noticed that a lot of times with big strong guys they actually don't get up till they are good and tired. When they just hang on they pop right up. Just like in skiing, the minute you pull the handle up to your neck you're finished!

[SEARK]

Our big saying is "knees bent, arms straight". Works everytime if you follow these simple instructions. Seems every beginner wants to pull the arms back to the neck or chest area. Oh, and congrats Lance on getting up.

[mmandley]

Nice vid Lance thats a mean looking wake, that first flip he landed way out in the flats.

[kaneboats]

Just like I do it. . . . . Yea, right.

[lancesaville]

Nice vid Lance thats a mean looking wake, that first flip he landed way out in the flats.

that was about half-full ballast (1500 lbs) so a little bigger than stock. And yeah he got way out in the flats a few times, he goes BIG, was awesome to watch someone who can ride like that from in the boat. That's Ron1x/Diamond Lakes Watersports rider Clay Fraley. Awesome rider, great guy too. Keep an eye out for him, he's gonna go far.

[kaneboats]

We'll be watching. Wishing him the very best on his way up to Team Moomba.