Wakesurfing is an exhilarating and engaging sport ideal for beginners. With a short learning curve, gentle landings, and no towrope needed!
Mastering the art of wave riding begins by mastering your front foot pressure. If you want to speed up, press harder on your front foot; for slower paces add weight onto your back foot.
Basics
Wake surfing is an enjoyable water sport that can be performed almost any body of water. Wakesurfing uses a motorboat to produce waves similar to those found in an ocean environment and perform tricks and spins with it.
Wakesurfing requires various kinds of boats, with inboard ski/wakeboard boats being the best choice due to their propellers being submerged under water surface and out of harm’s way.
Start by renting or purchasing a wake boat and equipping yourself with all necessary gear, such as wakesurf boards, ropes and lifejackets.
As part of learning how to wake surf, the first step should be learning to stand up on your board while being pulled by a boat. For newcomers this may prove challenging so help may be needed from someone onboard who can instruct and instruct you in this step-by-step process.
Once you’ve learned to ride your board, the next step should be trying surfing without using a rope. This requires applying pressure between your feet to find what is known as “sweet spot” on a wave and applying pressure until this spot has been located. Once this has happened, simply throw your rope over onto the opposite side and start shredding!
Once this step is complete, you should begin practicing shifting your weight from side to side of the board, similar to wakeboarding techniques. A slow boat speed should help ensure you find an ideal position quickly.
As your confidence and ability increase, you’ll begin carving up and down the face of the wake, expanding your skills in this sport and becoming a well-rounded intermediate wakesurfer. Once you get used to this technique, try practicing more advanced moves such as cutbacks, lip slides, and sprays – these tricks can add greatly to your riding experience and can impress those on board your boat.
Coiling Up
Coiling up is an integral component of wave riding, and can be practiced anywhere with access to water. You’ll use ropes to position yourself within the pocket of the wave for maximum power and speed when surfing; practice your coiling skills anywhere that offers access.
For coiling up, a high-quality rope is essential. In an ideal world, it should support your weight while providing enough traction to stay on top of the water and give you control. A thicker rope may help ease entry into pockets more easily while keeping balance while riding it.
Your rope should be around 50′ to 70′ in length for optimal results. Shorter ropes may prove harder to coil up and may even lead to you losing your footing on the wake.
As you coil the rope, be sure to maintain a firm grasp rather than pulling on it with just your fingers – this could result in your hand becoming disconnected and falling into the water!
Start by twisting the rope in your hands a bit to facilitate coiling up more efficiently and quickly. Take alternate over and under turns so you don’t end up with too many twists at the same spot.
Once your coiling process has been completed, be sure to leave an 8-inch “tail”. This will give you better grip while whipping it over your handle, and help show any loops you’ve created more easily.
Twisting the tail of the rope slightly will ensure it remains outside while riding it and will prevent you from becoming tangled up while on a wave.
Practice on the water with different rope types until you find one that works well for both your skill level and boat type. From there, select an ideal rope type.
Getting Up
Mastering wakesurfing requires mastery of several essential skills; getting up on a board may seem intimidating at first, but don’t let that stop you from experiencing all that waking surf has to offer this summer! Don’t miss out – enjoy summer fun to its fullest with wakesurf!
Start by lying on your back and bending both knees, placing both feet so they rest atop the board with heels touching while toes point upward (this may differ depending on which wakesurf you use) before placing your heels against it (shoulder-width apart depending on type).
Once your feet are secure, give the boat the reins! In general, as soon as the vessel begins to plane it will pull you up from under you as it starts moving forward.
As soon as the boat begins pulling you up, lean over and place your weight on the board instead of leaning against its rope. Sooner or later you should be able to stand up on it – however rushing could push away or even flip over its surface!
Once in the wake, adjust your stance until you find where in it’s best positioned to ride the wave. As a general guideline, aim for riding waves within their “pocket”, where lift pressure is greatest and where you have control of speed and direction.
Based on your speed, positioning yourself accordingly may require shifting closer to the front or farther from the back in order to find that ideal pocket. Once this step has been mastered, you will be ready to ride waves like an expert!
Experiment with different amounts of pressure you put on your back foot; more weight applied here can boost speed and help you enter the pocket more quickly.
Wakesurfing may seem intimidating at first, but with proper instruction you’ll soon be riding behind a boat! Watch our video below for an instructional guide on the craft of wakesurfing.
Tricks
There are plenty of exciting tricks you can learn while wake surfing, from simple ones that take no time at all to more complex ones that may require a bit more practice and patience to learn. But whatever your choice, these tricks will add plenty of excitement and enjoyment to your sessions!
One of the easiest wake surf tricks to master is floating, or riding at the top of a wave. Doing this allows you to gain a feel for the sport and establishes a foundation for future tricks.
To perform this trick, start by centering yourself on the board and slightly shifting forward with one foot so that the nose of your board faces towards the waves. Next, slowly rotate backwards by lifting and shifting one back foot up off of it – this should allow for maximum efficiency!
Back knee drops are an excellent beginner wakesurf trick that give the sensation of diving under an ocean wave’s barrel. While this technique may take some practice to perfect, once it does you will be ready to try more challenging tricks in the water!
A 360 spin is a very impressive trick that may look simple enough, but is actually difficult to pull off successfully. For optimal results it should be performed on a skim style wakesurf board; however, with practice this move can also be performed on surf boards with some skill.
Start out on a strong wave and carve to the back before kicking out your back foot over the top of it, giving yourself plenty of momentum when starting to spin the board.
Body varials are one of the more challenging spin tricks, requiring great balance to complete. A wakesurf balance board is an ideal place to practice before heading onto the water!
Beginners will find this technique easy to master, as crouching on the board and then using your opposite hand to grab its edge are all necessary parts of learning it.