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Wakeboarding brings together a range of different skills and it's important to be gifted in a number of these if you wish to be good at the sport. You need to be strong for instance in order to pull yourself on the rope, you need to be daring in order to go onto the board at such high speeds, and you need to be agile to pull off all the moves. Perhaps the most important skill of all however is the ability to balance well and this is absolutely crucial if you are going to stand on the board and keep yourself upright while it rushes across such an uneven surface as the sea. To get good at wakeboarding you need to have a good sense of balance and you need to know specifically how to hold yourself and balance yourself on the wakeboard. Here we will look at how you can do that. The first thing you need to know is how to stand on the board. Here you will have one foot in front of the other and both feet will be strapped onto the board. A big question for new beginners is knowing which leg to step forward on and this is often a difficult question. The answer however is to step forward on the board with the leg that feels most natural and trying to over think it will only make things more difficult. To find the foot you are most comfortable leaning forward on, try performing the 'falling test'. Here you stand upright with both feet together and your eyes closed. You then get someone to push you over when you're not expecting it so that you will fall forwards. The idea for you now at this point is to break your fall by putting one foot forward to catch yourself. One of your feet you'll find will jut out automatically to catch you and this is the leg that you should find you feel most comfortable putting forward on your wakeboard. Another good way to check is to see which foot you put first into a pair of pants and this will often be the foot best suited to going forward on a wakeboard too. Next you need to look into how you are going to hold the tow rope and this is an important part of how you will balance as it will help you to pull yourself upright and to adjust to the waves. You will be holding onto a handle and you should make sure that you do so by having your hands form an overhand grip over the bar so that your palms are facing downwards and your knuckles face upwards. Have the handle low down by your forward hip and keep your arms slightly bent so that you can pull it closer in or let it go further back as required. The rest is practice and you will find that your balance improves over time. However you can supplement this practice by practising other ways – such as on a balance board, or even using a Wii fit. The first part of learning how to wakeboard is to learn to balance. For more beginner wakeboarding tips, visit the links.
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