Tips by David Ngiam
Video : Samuel Ngiam
Photo : Alan Mak
After you have got all your gear on, get into the water, relax and let the board float up in front of you. Place the rope over the top of your board. Put your knees in between your arms.
As the boat pulls you, do not try to resist, instead, let your butt slide to your ankles and chest to your knees. As you ball up, use your forward foot to guide the nose of the board up. If you are not sure which foot should be your in front, its usually the foot you would use to kick a ball with. Or just go with the flow and see which foot naturally goes in front.
At this point, you really don’t want to stand up too fast and more importantly, you don’t want to pull in your handle. Its important to keep your arms fairly straight at all times. It’s a fact the girls generally learn how to get up on a wakeboard faster than guys because guys tend to muscle it way too much causing them to pull in the handle or stand up prematurely. Let the boat do the work for you. All you need to do is maintain the right posture.
If you remain balled up and your arms straight, your board should start to ride up on the water. Just rock over on to the balls of your feet and you should be skiing in a squating posture. Again, there’s no rush to stand up yet. Make sure you’re comfortable first and stand up straight without leaning too much against the line, Again, don’t pull in the handle, which is the most common mistake.
Once you are standing up on a wakeboard, keep your handle below chest level (but don’t pull it in) and your knees slightly bent for a more stable ride. If you don’t get up the first few times, don’t be discouraged. Its harder than it looks or sounds. But its also like learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time. Once you get it, it becomes second nature to you after that.
Good luck and have fun!