I’ve been in the water skiing industry since 95, in that time, I have worked at several different ski sites around the world. Some of those sites ran cable parks. Before working at a ski site with a cable, I had barely even heard of one yet.
Water Ski Cables lakes are a way of wakeboarding and skiing, where the ski rope is attached to an electrically driven cable that runs a continuous loop around a lake. With park features similar to a skate park, the cable can hold up to 16 riders at a time, no boat required.
The cable is suspended around 10m/30ft above the water by 4-6 towers with running wheels. The first tower is also equipped with an electric motor that drives the cable at up to 58km/36mph. From the base at the first tower are the controls where tow ropes can be removed and added to the wire as people fall and others take their place. Riders will be given a handle to wait for the next available slot to be added. Once riding, they can continue lapping the lake until they fall or choose to hop off. Up to 16 riders can be on a cable at any time, depending on the size.
The following video clearly shows what makes up a cable and what one looks like in action.
The 4-6 Point Cable Overview
How are they work- Watching this will make the most sense.
Is Cable Wakeboarding A Thing?
Cable Wakeboarding is one of the fastest-growing extreme sports in the world. With almost 200 cable parks across the globe, mainly in Europe, access is getting easier and easier. With the addition of features that you would expect in a snow terrain park or skate park, it has added an aspect that is attracting consistently larger numbers. As they are relatively cheap to run, much more so than boats, cable wakeboarding is set to continue to grow as the years go on.
“Typically a full day ticket for a cable park will cost the same or less than a 15 minute boat set”
Up Sides Of A Cable Rather Than A Boat
For learning and the rider who heads out only a few times a month, a cable is much better than a boat. The pull comes from above so that you can get on top of the water easier. Using a 2-point system to learn means the handle comes back your way faster if you miss a start. A day pass will cost less than a 15-minute ride behind a boat. Overall far cheaper, more environmentally friendly, very social, and much more accessible to your average person than boat skiing.
They are very different, and each is actively pursuing different demographics. I grew up boat, so I will always prefer boat skiing, but I love that cable has made skiing accessible to millions of people that otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance.
What Can You Ride At A Cable Park
Riders can take any form of equipment to ride a cable. The vast majority of users are riding wakeboards or wakeskates. You are free to take skis(There are even new freestyle skis for hitting the features), kneeboards, Slalom, Jump, Tricks. If you can ride it behind a boat, you can ride it on a cable.
Features/Obstacles Found At Cable Parks
As the sport has grown with the extreme theme in mind, riders are looking for the similar challenges and freestyle expression found in the slopestyle event on snow, or in a skate park. To accommodate features have quickly become available. They are fully customizable by the Cable Parks owners to fit their location. Typically a site will have numerous kickers and rail features. As time goes on more and more creativity is going in to their development, bringing some crazy challenges and opportunities for play and artistic expression.
Crazy Air Tricks On A Cable Wakeboarding Site
You may have seen some incredible footage or riders doing insane air tricks with last-second rotations involved without any sign of a kicker. This is possible due to the height that the cable is running and effectively pulling riders into the air. For beginners, this is very helpful for learning. For experienced riders, it is an opportunity.
Riders will “load the line” by turning their board to fight the rope pull, effectively trying to stop themselves from moving. The cable has a spring load effect that takes place when a rider “loads the line.” Once enough pressure has built, it is released by pulling the rider up into the air where they can perform tricks.
This loading can also take place at each of the corners(pros will use the corner with the above method to double their air time). If a rider has not positioned themselves by swinging wide before the turn, then either the rope will be pulled from their hands, or the rider will be pulled into the air. This is beginners’ biggest hurdle when learning, getting around corner no. 1.
3-Event Cable Water Ski Tournaments
Just like boat tournaments, cable tournaments run the same events, Slalom, Jump, and Tricks. The fundamentals are a bit different from a boat, as the rope is higher above you, there is no boat wake, and there is cable sway, to name a few. If you ever try to switch from one to the other, you may be in for a shock even when it comes to the basics you have hardwired.
Slalomers have adjusted the rope so that it matches the boat line lengths when the height of the cable is bought into account. Thought pulling down instead of level means the hips up approach probably won’t work.
Jumpers don’t go quite as far as the cable loads different and doesn’t allow for the same pull.
Tricks are basically the same, imagine the assistance of being on a high tower in a comp instead. The upward pull makes you lighter on the water.
As a boat skier, I do appreciate that cable comps are far more spectator-friendly, especially slalom. Behind a boat, a Slalomer will go out at their beginning pass and work their way harder. For a spectator, that means you build up excitement for a skier as they finish their hard passes, and then drop that excitement and wait for it to build while the next competitor goes through the same process. On a cable, however, line lengths are more like rounds. Everyone runs a pass, one after the other; if you complete the pass, you move on to the next round. I found this to engage spectators very well. The stakes and excitement grow to a climax as divisions run through, rather than the rise and fall of boat skiing. (Also removes the need to understand rope lengths. If you miss a pass you don’t move on, and each time you see a skier it is harder than last time)
I hate to admit it, but I think Cable skiing has far more potential as a mainstream sport than boat skiing does. (Not as much for Jump though, that looks way better behind a boat)
The 2-Point Cable Wakeboarding System
A 2-point system is a cable setup where the cable runs in a straight line back and forth. When the rider gets to the end, they give themselves a deliberate whip to stay up on the water while the cable stops and changes direction, as seen in the video below. This system helps to teach beginners, as they will have the chance to try while the instructor is in charge of the controls. Once you get the hang of it here, you will progress much more easily on the larger cable system. Due to the small size, many people have bought private ones for personal training use at home.
Where Did Cable Skiing Come From
Modern cable skiing is credited to Bruno Rixen, a German engineer, in 1959 when he built his first water ski cableway. There are reports of another cable built by a Finnish man in Helsinki earlier in the 50s. Rixen, however, was the inventer that that fell in love with skiing but couldn’t understand why so few were doing it. He discovered it was too expensive and time consuming for the majority of the population. The inventor side took hold, and he endeavoured to build a way for skiers to ride multiples at a time at a low cost.
Rixen started his own company to develop and build cable-tow systems. During the 60s, around 3 dozen patents related to the cable tow system were taken out, even with these innovations, improvements were needed so the cable could run for over 1000 operating hours through a summer. The running cost targets were achieved though, a cable could take hundreds of riders in the same time a boat would struggle to pull 30 skiers and at less than the price of a single tank of gas.
Competitions began on the cable tows in 1970, but it wasn’t until 15 years later in 1985 that it was officially recognized by the water skiing governing bodies. It would still take until 1994 before there was a world cable governing body, even though there was a cable on every continent by this time.
Other companies began getting in on the industry as it was spreading across the world. Cables have continued to improve, and have bought the 2-point system forward as a beginner method or training device for pros. In a 2004 survey, it was discovered that 90-95% of all cable riders were wakeboarders.
Wakeboarding since then has continued to dominate cable riding, with most cable sites installing kickers and rail features for riders to play on. Redbull holds a downtown rail jam in Colon, Germany, every year and has a huge crowd turnout. Cable Wakeboarding is a very spectator-friendly sport, with multiple athletes able to ride on course at once, supplying continuous visual engagement.
