I have been skiing and coaching in the Water ski and Wakeboard industry since ’95. I have many friends who compete in Wakeboarding, as we all go out to train together at the same ski clubs. While many people have seen Wakeboarding, often a lot of detail about the sport is missing.
Wakeboarding is in the family of speed+balance board sports with Surfing, Skating, Snow Skiing/Boarding and Water Skiing. Riders use a wide board with their feet secured, to be towed by a rope behind a boat on the water. Boat Mods and the wake are used for riders to get big air to perform tricks.
Thought to originate in the late 50s with surfers trying to get our for a surf when waves were calm. In the mid-60s ‘Wakesurfing’, started to gain popularity. Over the next few decades, modifications were made, moving from surfboards to smaller boards and adding foot straps. In the early 90s, the first official Wakeboard was produced, The Hyperlite Board, by O’Brien, the ski gear manufacturer. Since then, the popularity of Wakeboarding has grown drastically. Ski boats have become more accessible for private ownership, leading to more people getting on the water. Time has led to a considerable competition scene and very sport-specific gear, including boats and their possible modifications.
Riding A Wakeboard
The OverView
Wakeboarding can be done either behind a Boat, or on a Cable(explained below)
A Wakeboard looks similar to boards in the other Board-Sports, maybe a little longer and has squared off ends, while looking a little pregnant in the middle. 2 boots are secured to the board for your feet. Get a life jacket on, feet in the boots, grab the handle and get in the water. Getting up is simple in instruction, but can take a few goes to get the hang of. Once up it will feel similar to any of the other board sports, if you had someone pulling you along. Riders learn to turn and pull more and more until they can ride up to the wake, jump, and land on the down wake on the other side. From there, you will be able to bring in rotational and inverted tricks.
Along with skating and Snowboarding, wakeboarders fit the rebel stereotype. Wakeboards are typically towed by boats, however, people seem to find that unimaginative. Cars, trucks, drones, winches, and even horses have been seen dragging wakeboarders through puddles and full drainage ditches. Any time a town or city floods, you can guarantee a video is coming out of someone being towed down the middle of their street.
Competitions And Going Pro
What Are Wakeboard Competitions, How Do They Run
Even the rule book states in its 4th paragraph,
“The rules in this book are intended as a guideline only. No rule should be taken literally, except where concerned with safety. Courses, judging criteria and contest formats may be modified to suit conditions, but communication with riders and officials is essential. Contest organizers are encouraged to experiment with new formats to further enhance the sport.”
So with this in mind, a competition will look different from each event to the next.
The basics of the competition for both Boat and Cable comps, is that the riders will have a set amount of time, or passes up the lake, to do as many tricks as they can. Typically allowed 2 falls through the run.
It could be a format where you are head to head, 2 riders take turns and the rider with a better score moves to the next round.
Or, everyone does 1 round, best x number of scores move to the next round.
Scoring A Wakeboard Comp
There are typically three judges scoring each rider within specific categories. However, one of the world’s top chief judges said that the judges’ result should reflect which rider was generally most pleasing to watch.
The four main categories that the judges’ award points for are
- Degree of difficulty of each trick
- Style of the rider
- Smoothness of execution
- Overall performance of the rider
Some specifics judges look for are as follows,
- Kickers and Air Tricks – Height, Difficulty of Trick, Switch or Reg. Whether or not it was grabbed and how long it was held, clean landing, not a repeated trick, etc..
- Rails – The approach (switch or reg, bs 180 on, etc.), control/squaring off or staying inline/perpendicular to the orientation of the rail, technicality of the trick, how you exited and was the landing was clean. Also note, Rails are almost always scored higher than any other aspect because of how technical the rider can be. Judging Rails is definitely the most difficult because of this.
- Note on Rotations – These just seem to score higher. This may be due to the passing of the handle behind your back while spinning.
Pro Wakeboarding As A Career
Careertrend.com had this to say,
“It is somewhat difficult to obtain salary information for professional wakeboarders, in part because it is such a niche profession. However, the Sun-Sentinel in Florida cites the annual earning potential for top athletes at as much as $150,000, plus another $300,000 in sponsorships and endorsements.”
Wakeboarding revenue streams
Typically Wakeboarders make money through prize money from competitions, sponsorships, royalties, sponsor incentives for promotional appearances, and coaching.
Due to popularity and Wakeboarding being a very spectator-friendly sport, there is the potential to make it as a pro.
The thing is, only the top 10, maybe 20 in the world, will be able to rely solely on competing in the sport as a career. Any further down the ranking and you will need to find other ways of supporting yourself.
Wakeboarding Gear, Boards, Boats, And Something Called Cable
A Bit About Wakeboards
Starting out as surfboards with straps, they are now heavily developed and designed to be lightweight, durable, and specific to riders’ preferences. This is mainly done through the board length, materials used in the build, board flex, and the shape of the side cut. Learning from Snowboard construction, Wakeboards have been compression moulded for many years now. Layers are put together and then squeezed in a giant press.
- length – More or less surface area means more on top of the water and faster, or deeper in the water and slower feeling.
- Materials – Carbon Fibre and Wood make up most of the materials
- Board Flex – Compression moulding allows the addition of directional folding materials to be placed strategically for different flex in different spots.
- Sidecut -This determines how the board will react when the rider roles the sides of the board into the water.
These articles by Humaniodwake.com should answer every question you have about Wakeboards.
Wakeboarding Boats
Any boat that has a ski pole, or even a couple tie-off loops can be ridden behind. The success of the sport means that more recently, boats have been getting a design overhaul. Everything here focuses on having enough power, while increasing the wake size, shaping the wake to have a clean peak, and raising the rope attachment point to help the rider get as much height as possible. The result is boats that look almost square due to how deep they sit in the water.
Typically these are inboard boats, this gives more design freedom at the back of the boat while installing a 460hp 7Litre V8 engine. $100,000+
Supra
Super Air-Nautique-G23
Boat vs Truck
Old Air Nautique
Wakeboard Boat Accessories
Get a high tower, these are now pretty common. The point is to raise the tow point for the rider, by pulling slightly up it helps them get bigger air as they hit the wakes. You should probably have a couple of speakers up there for good measure too.
Fat sacks or ballast tanks. These let you load up the boat with water, making the boat heavier, therefore, sits lower in the water—the lower in the water, the bigger the wake. Careful, people sink their boats by accident this way every year.
Wedge. this is a device under the back of the boat that can drop deeper into the water, causing a bigger wake.
Get More Friends!! The more people in the boat the bigger the weight. They are also easier to move around the boat than a ballast tank
Wakeboard Cable Parks
Cable parks are lakes with a wire running around 5-ish points, 25ft above the water. Ski handles are attached to the wire so skiers and wakeboarders are towered around the lake.
As you can see there are features put into the water, and simply by pulling against the rope you can jump and do air tricks, as the rope is attached so high that it naturally pulls you up.
No boats are involved and the continual running of the cable makes it a great way to learn and spend the day. Significantly cheaper than paying for a boat and gas
