Home Sports General Sports How to go Wakeboarding

Related Articles

How to go Wakeboarding

(1 vote, average 5.00 out of 5)
Written by Bill Hanks   

Wakeboarding is a surface water sport where a single board rides on the wake of a motor boat. It is a combination of water skiing and snow boarding. The typical speed of a board being pulled is between 16-23 mph. This is somewhat slower than water skis. However, it allows the rider to lift the board onto the top of the wake. Skilled Wakeboarders have reached speeds of 36-39 mph. But, it takes a good deal of practice to achieve these speeds.


Herb O'Brien one of the founders of the X-Games is also one of the developers of the Hyperlite Wakeboard. O'Brien , who owned a water ski company called H O Sports, hooked up with some of the best surf board designers in Hawaii to rough out ideas for a new type of surf board. He wanted to design and build the first compression-molded neutral buoyancy wakeboard.

The board itself is 118-147 cm long and 45 cm wide. the size of the board depends a lot on the size of the rider. When viewed from the side, the board is concave in design. this is known as its "Rocker." It is the curve from tip to tail. The more "Rocker" the more pop off the wake for the board as well as a softer landing.

Names such as skurfing and ski-boarding were given before the name of Wakeboard fell into place. The Hyperlite featured better foot fittings and neutral buoyancy. This made them a lot easier to control behind a motor boat. The new sport was being born. It was the sport of Wakeboarding. It was discovered that many different skills could be performed while riding on the wakes of a motor boat.

The board itself was light weight and could be handled like a slalom type ski. The board also had large dimples on the bottom side. This would help break water adhesion and a quicker loose feel. It also made for softer landings.

 

Following the lead from H O Sports, other companies started developing Wakeboards. The sport now has dozens of manufacturers. Besides the boards special gear has been designed for Wakeboarding. Everything from specially designed ski ropes to specialized handles for boots are being made for the wakeboard enthusiasts. Another type of board that has been designed by Hyperlite is the Wakeskate. It is a wakeboard that utilizes the technology of the board, the use of feet and the bodies ability to harness the laws of physics.
The sport of Wakeboarding was added to X Games II. It is a freestyle type of sport were many different skills can be used. Some of the skills are a Surface 360, A tootsie Roll 180, A Raley, and a Backroll just to mention a few. In all, there are 17 different skills.

Some of the more famous Wakeboard Surfers are Parks Bonifay (winner of the X Games), Tara Hamilton, Dallas Friday, Shaun Murphy, Raymond Richards, and Zane Schwenk. As time goes by, new names will be added as the sport grows in popularity.

As the sport grows in popularity, more and better designs will come forth in the advancement of Wakeboards. The cost of a Wakeboard runs between $170 to $700. Extra equipment adds to the cost of the sport. source; image provided by Three day ranch.com

 

 

 


Comments (0)add comment


Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.

busy