How to: Wakeboarding Beginner Tips

Ellie says: “Learning to wakeboard can be a bit scary at first, but once you’ve got the basics the rest follows quite easily. For my first lesson, I put my red impact/buoyancy jacket on and walked down to the pontoon. Here, the instructors gave me a land-based lesson, explaining what to do once in the water. Then I put on the wakeboard, slipped into the water and swam towards the boat and the ‘bar’. The bar is a pole that sticks out from the side of the boat, you hold onto the bar for stability and hopefully to keep you upright for longer.

Once I was settled and ready, the boat started up and off we went, but pretty much straightway I fell flat on my face! The instructors are very patient (especially with a wakeboarding beginner!) and after a few pointers I gave it another go, which also ended up with me face first in the water. A few more pointers and third time I was up and riding, whooping with happiness and a massive smile on my face. The adrenaline rush from mastering the bar was amazing”.

Ellie says: “The next lesson was on the rope, so as before I pulled on the board and jumped into the water. This time the ski team threw the ski rope to me and I held on as I’ve been shown on the land-based lesson. Then the boat engine roared into life, the rope tightened and the boat pulled me up, I stood up and went along, but not for long. So, we gave it another go, this time I tried to stand up too quickly and the rope pinged away from me. Third time is always a charm and I was up but had little control and just rode out on my heels to one side of the boat. I was unable to come back into the wake but that was the next challenge, and finally by the end of my first week wakeboarding I could stay behind the boat in a straight line – success!”

Ellie says: “After unintentionally crossing the wake on my first time behind the boat on the rope, it was time to learn how to do it properly. After some guidance from the ski team I was ready to give it a go. The first time I rode out across the wake to the side on my heels, but coming back in across the wake was very challenging, but I did it and they went out on the other side, going out was hard, but coming back was a piece of cake after mastering cutting out on my heel side.

I started wakeboarding age 12 and by the time I was 13, I was growing in confidence every time I was on the water, crossing the wake (both sides) soon became second nature and I was picking up some serious speed. The speed and confidence did mean that I sometimes ended up face planting, but that’s all part of the fun and one of the reasons I love it so much”.

Ellie says: “After I learnt to successfully cross the wake (both ways), learning to ride switch (or backwards) was the next step. After loads of land-based visualization, practice on the water and face plants, I got there”.

Ellie says: “The next challenge was learning to do jumps. The first thing to master is the ‘ollie’. The ollie is a key element in wakeboarding, popping with your rear foot and landing on a full surface of the board. To do it you need to push off from the water with the tip of the tail of the board and bring your rear leg up to your front leg, levelling out your board.

Learning how to ollie was hard but when I mastered them, it was like a dream come true. The pure joy of every single ollie I landed, just lead to more and more excitement. Form ollies you can move onto wake jumps, which eventually lead to full wake to wake jumps”

Ellie says: “I love to wakeboard on a Neilson holiday. Waking up at 7am just so I can get down for the flat water or running down after lunch to watch the ski team go out and land huge back rolls and raileys (imagine flying behind the boat ina superman pose for a few seconds). Wakeboarding isn’t just a bit of fun, it’s so exciting as you master all these crazy new skills. Once you’ve got the hang of one, you move onto the next, there’s so many tricks out there, once you’ve got the wakeboarding bug, you just don’t want to stop”.