Wakeboarding is a surface Watersport. It was created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. Before it was called wakeboarding it was called skurfing (skate + surfing). As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing setup, but typically at slower speeds (16 - 23mph). Beginnners start at slower speeds such as 18mph with shorter ropes(60 - 65 ft). More experienced wakeboarders use faster speeds such as 25mph, but use longer ropes up to 80 ft long.''' Instead of using skis, the rider rides a single board, known as a wakeboard, with stationary non-release bindings for each foot, standing sideways as on a snowboard or skateboard. The boards, which can float, are typically 120 - 147cm long, depending on weight, and up to 45cm wide (shorter and wider than snowboards). Unlike snowboards, which are concave, they are convex (tips 15 - 25cm).

Wakeboarding

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Boats

A wakeboarding boat is similar to a water ski boat except that the rope is normally mounted on a tower about 2 metres above the water line and the boat is also weighted and trimmed, with strategically placed large water ballasts tanks, to give a larger wake. The wake is used as hits or ramps would be in other boardsports. Steering the board by a combination of direction and cutting the edges into the water, the rider can move outside of the wake, then cut rapidly in toward the wake, hitting it and launching himself into the air. Heading towards the wake chest facing the boat is known as heelside cutting; approaching from the other direction with chest facing away from the boat is known as toeside cutting.

Language

As with many freestyle sports such as snowboarding and surfing, there is almost a separate language of terms to describe various tricks ( Tantrum, Elephant, Backroll, 5, 7, 9, 10). Tricks can be performed from either heelside or toeside cuts, for example a toeside 360 is approaching the wake toeside followed by a 360 spin in the air.

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