Quote Originally Posted by JesseC View Post
This may also be due to the drive taking off to hard. When I pull newer riders or some of my buddies that have shoulders that have hit their prime I pull them out really slow. If you have your board sideways in a slide position and they gun the throttle you are going to faceplant or lose the handle. Pay close attention to the videos, when they pull a rider out of the water notice how slow the boat is going. With the large surface area of the board it does not take a lot to get out of the water. Driving the boat properly is almost more important than the rider being in the correct position. When my rider begins to slide and I see them start to pop out of the water I apply a little more throttle. I DO NOT give more throttle until my rider starts to break the surface of the water.
This is great advise. I'll add this - there is NO reason to stand up immediately. Have your driver pull you up slowly and only top out the speed at 13-15mph. You can stay squatted, sideways for ages behind the boat.

Also, try this on your wakesurf board, or try it on your wakeboard with a really short rope.

Once you can get up sideways, try this drill - keep the board sideways, speed 15mph or so and by shifting your weight from one foot to other, slide the board sideways from wake to wake, staying inside the wake. This is a good drill for teaching board control, weight shifting and leveraging rope tension.

The next progression of this same drill is surface 180s.