When it comes to learning anything, it's not very often you can go straight for the hard stuff immediately. Take riding a bike for example. If you've just learnt to ride a bike, then chances are you're probably not going to send a 90ft backflip straight away, right? You would more than likely spend some time first mastering the basics so you had a good understanding and feeling of the bike.
In wakeboarding it is no different, but you would be surprised the amount of people we see who can barely ride their board correctly but are insistent on learning tricks like a raley or their first flip off the kicker.
Now we of course are all for the "full send" mentality, but if you work smart and really master the basics of the sport, your understanding and feeling on the wakeboard is going to seriously improve, allowing you to learn bigger tricks faster.
The most important thing with these basics is repetition. The more you can try, the faster you are going to learn them. Unfortunately a lot of these at first don't seem like much 'fun' but unlocking them is going to open up your wakeboarding toolbox and open up a whole new world of things to try.
The following list of tricks can literally be practiced at any time on the cable. All you need is some water to ride on.
POWERSLIDES / BUTTERSLIDES
A powerslide or butterslide is when the board turns 90º on the surface of the water either frontside or backside, and is undoubtedly the best way to practice getting into different board positions on rails. The key when doing these is to really avoid pulling the handle in towards your body. By almost pushing the handle from side to side and loosening up your hips it means you can easily turn the board 90 degrees. You want to be able to practice using your hips to turn the and using the handle as an anchor point to hold you in position.
When going for them, it is important to try and keep weight on top of the board and just use the toes and heels gently to prevent the leading edge from catching. Lots of people when going for the backside powerslide lean so far over their toes to avoid catching an edge but it is better to be able to comfortably hold the powerslide with weight on top of the board, so when it comes to taking them on to rails you are already in the perfect body position. Loosen those hips up and try to master the powerslides both regular and switch!
CHALLENGE
Can you hold a backside powerslide for 10 seconds?
Yes I can!
No, I'm still learning
With these powerslides mastered, the next progression should be very easy!
SURFACE SPINS
The surface spin is the perfect progression from the powerslides. It is important to not here that the surface spins when learning should be broken down into sections. It is important that we understand how to get in to the powerslide position just by using the hips and allowing the board to rotate on the surface of the water.
Let's start with a backside 360. You would have a gentle heelside edge, slowly us the hips to turn you into a backside powerslide. Make sure to keep the chest up at this point so you don't fall over the toes and then pass the handle and finish the rotation. DON'T RUSH! Imagine doing 2 slow 180's rather than a fast 360. Learn the powerslides, and then master surface spins to improve your handle passing and spins on features!
SWITCH RIDING
Probably the least enjoyable skill to practice, but we would say one of the most important things you can learn as a wakeboarder is riding switch. Having the ability to ride proficiently with both feet forward is really going to help you to improve faster. The most obvious reason for that is because of how your ability to recover things will be improved. Let's say you keep falling off a rail early. Sometimes we find ourselves in positions which make it difficult or impossible to get our natural foot forward. If you struggle to land switch then chances are you're going to go down.
By practicing switch riding you will be able to spend less time swimming and more time riding!
So what are the best ways to improve your switch riding?
Switch heelside & toeside carving
Full switch lap
Ollies 180's
Practice hitting features switch (and landing switch! No 180's!)
Big kicker 180's to land switch
Repetition!
OLLIES
The ollie is one of the most essential skills to have consistent as a good ollie is the best way to be able to consistently set yourself up on features. These can be practice literally anywhere around the park. If you're just starting out, just practice the ollies whilst riding straight. Hold on with the front hand only and keep your arm strong but not pulling on the handle. Use your front foot to push down into the water to create the pop. Make sure to not leave your legs dangling underneath you! Be active with your knees and bring the board up so it is underneath you!
Once you have can consistently ollie whilst riding straight, try to do them off a toeside or heelside edge! How does this change them? Could you ollie onto the side of a rail? could you ollie over something? Try combining spins and ollies to do ollie 360's or even an ollie 540! Challenge yourself to really get comfortable with ollies.
Once you have got them on lock regular guess what? Now it's time to repeat the process switch!
Thanks to all of you who have signed up as members already here, we are stoked to have you on board and we are excited to share our knowledge with you!
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