Wakeboarding

Wakeboarding is another adventure sport which I greatly enjoy. Although I have never been able to do wakeboarding behind our boat (due to its lack of power), I have enjoyed going out with friends several times to go out wakeboarding. The fun of launching your boat and jumping in it is awesome. It’s a sport which can be done all year round, although it does get quite cold in winter depending on where you live. Basically all you need to have good day out wakeboarding is a boat with over 40 hp, a wakeboard, a spotter, rope and handle.

Adventure water sports also include skiing, doughnuts, air chairs, bananas, knee boarding, round boards and the list goes on. Each of these sports are great fun and some take longer than others to learn. Doughnuts are extremely good fun and you can go out with a little tinny boat and still have an adventure. It’s much better fun when you have a nice boat and can pull 3 or 4 doughnuts; then the real adventure begins. Another way to have fun without much effort is to just use a surfboard behind the boat. This is known as scurfing, and can be done behind a boat with a very, very small motor.

The problem that I find with wakeboarding is that if you really want to get into it then the expenses are high. This is similar to Four Wheel Driving. A nice wakeboarding boat starts at about 50,000 AUD, and then continues to go up from there. In saying this, you can still have lots of fun with a cheap boat. The main differences between a wakeboarding boat and a normal ‘tinny’ are:

•    The weight – The weight of a wakeboarding boat is usually a lot heavier than that of a normal fishing boat. This means that the engines needed to power the boats are a lot bigger.

•    The engines – The engines in wakeboarding boats are usually v8’s and are extremely powerful. They need to be to be able to pull wakeboards along without too much stress on the motor. Wakeboarding boats are usually inboard as well, which means that the engine is located within the boat, and the propeller is right underneath the boat, rather than out the back of the boat in others. It’s an adventure just to get into a wakeboarding boat and hear them start up.  For those of you who get an adventure out of driving a quick car, you will also get an adventure out of sitting in a wakeboarding boat.

•    Ballast tanks – These are basically tanks within the boat that hold water to make the wakeboarding boat balanced and sit further in the water. These are very necessary to create good wake. These can be added to increase the air gained. Basically the more weight, the bigger wake, the bigger air and the more fun you have.

•    Wake – This is the main factor that differentiates between a wakeboarding boat and a normal boat. A professional wakeboarding boat with full ballast tanks can weigh over 3 tonne, and a large part of that is just water in the ballast tanks. One of these wakeboarding boats can have wake which is over a meter high, which allows for some huge air to be gained. Getting air off big wake behind a wakeboarding boat is an amazing experience; a real thrill. You can also grind along the wake, which needs to be distinct to do so. Learning to do this is quite a challenge, but this makes it into a challenging sport. Trying to get big air behind a boat that isn’t designed for wakeboarding is difficult.

•    Ability to fish – Most wakeboarding boats are not designed to be able to handle rough water, which means they are limited to rivers and lakes alike. Sure, this removes the ability go fishing, but the fun of having a wakeboarding boat sure makes up for that. Many wakeboarding boats are sunk each year by waves created by themselves or other boats. There is a need to be very careful about how you drive a wakeboarding boat, or your day out might be a very costly one.

•    Price – Wakeboarding boats are fairly expensive compared to your aluminum fishing boats. Of course, this depends on how serious you get into both of these adventure sports. Weigh it up properly, because if it turns out the money you save is a lot, it can be put towards another adventure. Also, wakeboarding as an adventure sport is more expensive due to different boards required by different riders. A true adventure professional may like different boots and sizes to others, whereas adventure fishing is more of a ‘one size fits all’.

Wakeboards are just over meter long boards with boots which are attached. The idea is to stand up on the board on top of the water, do tricks and get big air (or both). This is known as wakeboarding. The ropes can be very expensive depending on how serious you get, and different wakeboarding riders have different preferences of length and stretch of ropes. There are a lot of different boards and other equipment available; do your research to maximize the sport. It is a challenge to learn about wakeboarding, and the products that are needed to go with it.

To increase the fun, ski poles are often attached to the wakeboarding or ski boats, which raises the rope height. This means that rather than being pulled down when you’re in the air wakeboarding, you are being pulled up (unless you go above the height of the pole). This makes a massive difference to the amount of air you can achieve, and therefore the fun you have in your adventure.

When buying a wakeboarding boat, you can either get a ski boat with a bigger outboard motor on the back, or an inboard motor. What needs to be remembered is that the fuel is often expensive. A v8 wakeboarding boat can go through 30 liters of fuel an hour. Remember this is just the start; costs for parking, maintenance and the time needed to care for the boat afterwards. Ensure that the motor is run through properly, and all of the salt water is washed off if that is where you have been. It can be a costly adventure if you don’t look after your boat.

Wakeboarding may not be so easy to engage in if you live far from water, but you could always adventure travel to get there. Many places throughout the world offer ski parks where you get pulled along by cables in the air. There are often grind rails and jumps available to attempt as well, but you don’t learn to take off in the water, and it’s slightly different in the ways that you get air. This is a way to learn wakeboarding as a beginner, but as you get better it’s highly advisable to use a wakeboarding boat. You can hire out wakeboarding boats or just start with a small tinny to learn.

I have to say that this is water sport which I really like, but due to the money constraints and the boat that I have it’s not really possible at the moment. Wakeboarding is a sport which takes quite a while to get good at, and unless you go out regularly, it’s not easy to make progress. In saying this, if you have never been wakeboarding, get out there; it’s an awesome experience and you will enjoy it at the least. Wakeboarding for me was a way to escape for a while. Wakeboarding is exhilarating, fun, and amazing at the same time. For those who have been wakeboarding before, just to hear the water rush past you. Try wakeboarding at least once.