How to Get Up on a Wakeboard

• Insure that you are comfortable with whatever foot you placed forward. (I have taught several people to wakeboard, and sometimes just switching feet is all that is needed.)
• Place your arms ON EACH SIDE of your front knee. Your weight should be about 60% forward on the board. Remember to place more than half of your weight on the front foot when getting up. Shift your weight to the back foot only after you have sucessfully gotten up.
• Squat down as much as you can. It is MUCH EASIER to swing to an upright position when you are close to the board.
• Keep the board on its side while in the water. Relax and let the boat cause the board to swing around into the forward position. Do NOT attempt to stop the board from swinging around, or do not help it swing around either -- just go with the flow.
• DO NOT go too fast. Someone said in an earlier post to "give him full throttle until he’s up" or something like that. THIS IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST PROBLEM that people (especially large people) have when getting up. DO NOT GO TOO FAST! If he has a problem getting up, TRY GOING SLOWER!
• Try using a shorter rope, attached to a ski pylon if possible. For some reason I have very good luck getting stubborn newbees up on a VERY short rope (say 20’ behind the boat). I tried this because I noticed the rope flipping up and down a lot with newbees. The short rope eliminated this. I always wakeboard on a somewhat shorter rope -- makes wakejumping more fun.
• GRADUAL! speed increase. It’s hard for a beginner to keep his balance on this new "slippery" feeling board. Any sudden movements are going to contribute to the newbie losing balance. It’s good to drag them a little and let them get the feel of the resistance before starting (hit it), but even when you hit it, be sure it’s very gradual and smooth.
• A short rope length will help. After they’re up, it’s just as hard to stay up as it was to get out of the water (at least for the first couple of rides). The short rope will cut down on the amount of slack. I’ve been using about 45-50’ rope.
• Stay SLOW! after the newbie gets up. Keep the speed under 16mph. This requires a good driver who knows his boat well enough to get it planed without going over 16 mph. Don’t rely on the speedometer. A common speedometer will have false readings until the boat is planed out. Just get a feel for keeping the boat slow.
• After you get used to staying up on the board and getting out of the water, you’ll probably want to adjust your speed to somewhere between 14-18mph depending on what type of tricks you’re attempting. You’ll also have to adjust your rope length to get the best formed portion of the wake.
• After you’re up, GO BIG!

Submitted by USA Waterski, www.usawaterski.org