I taught Claudia how to drive this spring and i know she was scared. Shes still afraid she might hurt me when pulling me up or something like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by KJSCIBER
We came up with a game i called wake boarder down in the spring when it was too cold to board but i just had to be out on the water.
I let her drive. I would say ok your boarder is ready pull him up. She would accelerate up to 20mph and i would try to judge by how fast she pulled if she needed to go easier on the throttle or what. I would watch her speed increase smoothly and not jerky. I showed her how to hold and use the throttle.
Then with out warning i would toss my $4 rubber football over the back of the boat. Say Wake Boarder down.
Then she had to slow it down and turn the boat and go get the ball. WHat really helps is she had to get close enough to the ball for me to grab it over the side, if she went to fast the the boat wake would push it away. Yet if you run over the ball it wont hurt it as its rubber and wont hurt the prop eighter.
This is a silly little game at first but it really teaches you a lot for when you get a rider in the water. It gives her something physical to drive up to.
With this she was able to get used to acceleration, slowing down, turning, approaching the rider, and built her confidence a lot.
Now when she started pulling me the first time it was some trial and error as to how fast or slow to hit the throttle but at least she knew how the throttle feels all the time.
She said she was realy glad we played wake boarder down because she was able to get a lot more comfortable with the boat and not worry about other people or anyone in the water getting hurt.
She does get nervous if other riders are in the lake near us now but shes became a very good driver in only 1 season.
