How to Wakeboard

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Ross Skrudland with Lake Lessons, and this is how to Wakeboard. First of all, I'm going to go over the key features of the board and what the board, what you're doing with the board to help you edge, go straight and what, and all those things. First of all, we're going to go over, these are the edges of the board. As you can see from my boots, this would be my toe side edge, this will be my heel side edge. And these are pretty much what, is what's taking you where you want to go. This is your edging, hence the word edging. Right here, I've got molded fins in here, and you have a placement for a center fin. If you want a little more stability while you're riding, you can put the center fin in, but as I do, I like a little looseness and forgiveness in my board, so I take the center fin out and I use all my edges for where I want to go. OK, first of all, I'm going to go over when you get up and the board points up on the water, body posture is everything in wakeboarding, hand position and body posture. So when I get up and I come up, I want to put my handle right off my front hip, thanks Greg, I'll take the handle and put it right off my front hip, and it's really important to keep your body turned and closed off to the boat. If you open up, what's going to happen is this back arm, the boat's going to want to pull that back arm around, it's going to pull that back foot, and you're going to catch your edge. So it's very important, suck that back arm in, so what helps when you set that back arm in is help you turn your shoulder squared off toward the shore away from the boat. And I'm putting that handle right off my front hip, lean a little bit on my back, and keep my hips underneath me, my chest is up, my knees are slightly bent. I have very good posture right here, and it's going to help me be able to stay as stable as possible on the board. Now, when you go in to edging, I'm going to go over to edges quick, when you go in to edging, just imagine like when you take, when you're like riding in the car and you stick your hand out the window, the board's flat on the water, where ever you turn your hand, that wind wants to catch that hand and pulls it back. The same concept goes for the water going underneath the board. As water is flowing underneath the board, you start leaning on your heels and pushing your heels in to the water, or your toes in to the water, what's going to happen is it's going to grab the board, and all that water going underneath that board is going to push that board and really push you where you want to go. So it's very important that you really dig your edges in and get your edges in to the water, take you where you want to go. Now, I'm going to go over heel side. As you're in the straight position riding straight behind the boat, when you go in to heel side, you want to lean on your heels and sit back in to that chair. My hips, of course, are underneath me, between me and the boat, which is creating a lot of leverage for my cut. So when I sit back in to those heels, my toes are up, my heels are in the water, I'm sitting right back in that chair, and I'm going to be taking off. And as you go in that heel side edge, that handle position's going to move from your front hip all the way to more the middle of your body, and that's going to open you up to the boat and take you out on your heel side edge. Now toe side edge, you've got to remember, is your turning your whole body away from the boat, you can not keep your body open and try to get it over your toes, well what's going to happen is that back foot's going to want to come around just like it went over earlier. So, I'm going straight, have my handle right off my front hip. What I'm going to do is I'm going to really try to drop my handle and put it in my back pocket. This is going to allow me to really be able to move my body away from the boat. Out here, I can't, right here, right off my hip, really going to help me get over on my toe side edge. And all I'm going to do, lean back on to my back arm, keep my hips, push with my hips in to my edge and look where I'm going. And it'll take me exactly where I want to go."