Wakeboarding for Beginners

I spent the last week learning how to Wakeboard on a small lake in Northern California while checking out some lakefront cabin rentals. Ok, I really didn't want to disclose the lake because it's one of those still small untouched places that not many people know about. I'll give you a clue, it's located in Northern California near a small grassy area. Send me a email if you know where I'm talking about. It was different for me because I’m usually used to Smokey Mountain Cabin Rentals because I live in the Tennessee area so this was a real treat.

Ok, back to learning how to wakeboard. I've been waterskiing a good part of my life but it sure didn't help me figure out how to wakeboard. I thought that because I knew how to water ski that learning how to wakeboard would be easy but I found out that it's not similiar at all. Here are some of the differences I found.

First, the wakeboard is not running with the direction of the ski boat. I found this very odd and really hard to get used to. The wakeboard lays perpendicular to the ski boat and when you say hit it the wakeboard acts as a plow pushing the water over the board and into your face. It took sometime to learn that you must put your weight on the back of the board first and then turn the board around as you lift out on top of the water.

At last, I got up and it felt really good after swallowing 5 gallons of lake water. I was tired but ready to enjoy this new wakeboarding sport. However, I was not ready for the new experience of standing sideways to the board it I never did get used to having my feet facing across the board. How do you get this board straight, was the hardest thing for me. The wakeboard kept on angling to the left and wanting to turn. Finally, I let the board turn on by itself and I went over the boat's wake only to find my head hitting the water. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted and I found some good cheap cabin rentals to boot.