5 Signs You're No Longer a Wakeboarding Beginner
When it comes to wakeboarding, there’s a delicate line to tread between each relevant skill set. As a beginner, you might feel like you’re ready to step over that line. Your skills have improved, your balance is perfect, and you’re starting to do the same thing each time you set out on the water.
But if you push yourself into the intermediary league – without knowing you’re ready – things can easily take a downward spiral. This, in turn, can damage your confidence. No one likes to think they can do something, only to find out they’re miles away from what they envisioned.
So how exactly do you know when you’re ready to step it up a gear? To help you out, we’ve listed a few signs that you’re no longer a wakeboarding beginner, helping you to make that leap – perhaps literally! – into deeper waters.
Why Do You Need to Know?
Before we do that, however, we should start by explaining exactly why you need to know in the first place. As mentioned before, no one likes a painful reminder. Whether you’re using our boat rentals or wakeboarding closer to home, a lot of practice needs to go into improving your skills, and if you step things up before you’re ready, it can leave you feeling demoralised and disheartened.
As well as this, you might be shooting yourself in the foot. If you’ve been involved with wakeboarding for a while, you’ll know that the type of wakeboard that you own is largely determined by your skillset. While beginners benefit from wider, stable boards – ranging from 130 cm in length and 40 cm in width – intermediate to advanced wakeboarders will benefit from more narrow, agile boards – ranging from 135 cm in length to 42 cm in width. These boards will also vary between all-around boards, slalom boards, and freestyle boards, depending on the skill level.
If you try to push yourself as an intermediate, it could be your board that is holding you back. But with high-quality wakeboards typically ranging between $500 to $900, you don’t want to inject money into something you don’t need yet.
Balance is No Longer an Issue
So let’s look at the signs to look out for. One of the key tricks to master in wakeboarding is, quite simply, keeping your balance! Obviously, we’re not talking about staying up when the rope starts to tug, but maintaining your wakeboarding foundation throughout the session, while dipping in and out of the wake. You should also be able to keep your balance no matter the size of the wake – larger wakes mean less strain on the rider, while smaller wakes are a little harder to navigate.
You Have Mastered Each Body Position
You should also know the wakeboarding basics, including body positions and basic beginner tricks. Can you do simple grabs? A clean wake jump? Heelside to toeside wake to wake jumps? If you have practised these over and over and can pull them off without so much as an increase in BPM, then it might mean you’re ready to take on the more advanced tricks and positions.
You Can Nail At Least 7 Wakeboarding Tricks
We would also recommend that you nail at least 7 wakeboarding tricks before trying anything a bit harder. In our opinion, 7 is the magic number because it requires concise wakeboarding knowledge as well as skill. If you want to stay on the board as an intermediary, you’ll need to be able to jump from one position to another, mastering tricks without really having to think about them.
Once you start overthinking the tougher tricks, you start getting far wetter than you ever were as a beginner! With 7 easy tricks under your belt, however, you’re practising refinement and, in a way, automatism, both of which can go a long way to building your confidence when you get onto the tougher stuff.
You Know All There is to Know
With wakeboarding knowledge in mind, it’s also important that you know all there is to know. When it comes to the tricks you want to pull off and the moves you want to make, you should know exactly how to do them, even if you’re not able to do them just yet.
Along with this, you also need to ensure you’ve mastered your safety knowledge. Things are going to be getting trickier out there, so you need to know all the watersport hand signals, safety procedures, and the like. That way, you can ensure you’re prepared if anything goes awry.
You Are Passionate
Lastly, passion! This might sound like quite an inane point, but actually, it’s one of the most important. Passion is everything in a sport like this, especially if you’re looking to elevate your skills and go up a level. When you’re not wakeboarding, you should be thinking about wakeboarding.
You should be passionate enough to head out onto the water as often as possible, and purchase the right board to ensure a smooth experience. If you do not do this – and you’re not willing to practise regularly – then you’ll find it needlessly hard to master a new skill set.
What You Need to Level Up
If you’re reading and recognising all of these signs, then now is the perfect time to get onto the water and try something a little different, but you need to be prepared first. This can start with purchasing an intermediate wakeboard – as we mentioned before, the size and type of the board will contribute to your success.
For intermediate boards, there are generally two rocker options. Those are ‘three-stage’ and ‘continuous’. A three-stage rocker will be perfect for air-time and handling, while the continuous rocker will provide a quick, agile riding experience. Think about what you want to get up to on the water and which board matches your personality as a wakeboarder.
Along with this, you might want to think about attaining a longer rope. With a longer rope – around 65 to 75 feet – you can attain more air time and land some of the tougher tricks. As well as this, you will gain more space between you and the boat – no flies on us! – which means you have more room to play with and more length to practise board control.
3 Intermediate Skills to Learn First
Once you have the required equipment, it’s time to put your metal to the test. There are a number of cool intermediate tricks that can get you started, but some of our favourites include:
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The Back Roll
The back roll is not too hard, not so easy, which makes it a good trick to try out when transitioning from beginner to intermediate. It involves nestling yourself around 10 feet outside the wake, bending your knees, and then letting yourself be pulled back into it. Once you hit the wake, you keep the rope tight to your chest, and then move into a roll as the edge begins to harden. Keep your head up and find your landing spot, and you’ve mastered the back roll.
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The Scarecrow
Another solid trick to try out is the Scarecrow – don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds. This is a toeside front roll that includes a frontside 180. You do it by getting close to the wake with the handle up against your front hip, then putting your chest up, turning your shoulders into the wake, and then spinning your head around to initiate a rotation. The rope should be close to your body when you’re in the air, and as you land, you should release your front hand and keep your knees bent. This is a beneficial trick for new intermediate wakeboarders, as it lays the foundation for more advanced skills down the line.
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360
Those two tricks are good, but let’s be honest, one of the reasons you’re upping your ‘wakeboarding level’ is because you want to look cool on the water! In light of this, the heelside frontside 360 is one of the coolest tricks an intermediary can pull off. You start by approaching the wake in a tall position, then edging through as you get to the top of the wave. When you jump, you turn your shoulders toward the boat, pull the handle to your hip, let go with one hand, and then pass it to the other, which is nestled behind your back. Keeping your stance as tall as possible, you then bend your knees as you land.
Show Off Your Upgrade by Upgrading Your Scenery
So there we have it! Five signs you’re ready to go from beginner to intermediate, as well as a few tips and tricks for landing your first few jumps. Now all you have left to do is celebrate, and what better way to do this than organising a watersport holiday with us at Volcano Watersports? Surrounded by beautiful Costa Rican scenery, this is the perfect upgrade to your usual wakeboarding surroundings, going hand-in-hand with your upgraded skill set. So get yourself over here, get on the water, and get practising!