LuckyRVA

Tried water skiing for the first time this past weekend. I was able to get up on the first try (and on every try). My problem was staying up. That and some of the spills I had took the fight right out of me. I got up maybe 8 times before calling it quits. I now have a sweet knot on the side of my calf from the ski hitting my leg and a huge bruise that spans all the way from my outer right thigh to my outer left thigh. Basically it looks like someone took a baseball bat to my legs. All this for about 30 seconds riding time.

Water skiing for the first time on Vimeo

I kept thinking about this Kevin James bit when I was floating in the water waiting for the boat to come back.

Kevin James Sweat The Small Stuff Part 3 of 5 - YouTube

IdahoFreshies

wakeboarding lol. 100000x better. Its a blast!

__________________
If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk.

slyder

Watch your video. Your knees look like they are totally locked out, not giving you anyway to flex or absorb. It really is about balance much like SB'ing. Those falls didn't look bad at all. I'm sure those aren't the ones you got hurt on.
It was hard to tell but how fast was the boat going. The first fall it might have been a little fast, but again hard to tell from video.

Why on the 2nd pull out of the water did the driver have the boat in a turn right out of the hole. That didn't help you at all, driver error there.

I thought you did pretty good. Got up fast, balanced out, but they you leaned back causing the skis to come out from under you, IE pulling back on the ski baton.

You gonna have another try at it???

__________________
Thanks
-Slyder

aiidoneus

agreed, i've only tried it a few times. so much fun!

LuckyRVA

Thanks for the tips.

I felt like I was keeping my knees stiff, I guess I just had trouble relaxing.

The driver told me she was going about 35-40mph. Not sure if that's fast, slow or just right.

Next time I'm going to give wake boarding a try for sure. Not so sure about water skiing.

IdahoFreshies

thats problem #1, just saying, i have never had a good female driver. And most of the time girls dont ever drive anyway. That turn at the beginning of the 2nd pull was dumb, it sent you right into the wake. I see you dont have a wake tower, they are pricey so im not saying go get one by any means, but its amazing how much they help. wakeboarding, like snowboarding, is great because your legs are on one solid piece of material, and they arent moving all over the place seperately like with skis

35-40 is actually pretty fast, not sure if thats a good water ski speed as i dont ski but for a beginner thats really fast.

While wake boarding we (and by "we" i mean when i can mooch rides on friend's boats) usually go 25-30. Because we aren't super good, and on wakeboards you can do actual tricks. We like to do wake jumps and boardslide the wake (cool first trick to learn). As long as you have a decent teacher you should get up 2nd or 3rd try. Im not an expert by any means, but i can teach anyone to wakeboard, simply because my teacher was so dam good, i know what to say and what to look for when teaching them to get up.

Most important things:
While sitting in the water, crunch up in a ball, arms at a 45 holding the rope at your chest
have the edge of the board out of the water with it at an angle so it slides through the water
once you yell go stay in the ball with the rope almost at your chest for about a second while the boat tugs you
you will start to ride on top of the water, make sure you keep the edge up slightly so you don't face plant
Keep leaning back on the rope so it doesn't yank you forward or rip out of your hands
roate the board so it is straight while standing up and straighten out your arms
you are now wake boarding

__________________
If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk.

slyder

Ya that was way to fast for you. I'm sure that's why you got so banged up too.
Hopefully you can get a better driver. I never wake boarded, want to, but I thought the speeds on that is 15-20 mph for a good wake. So you can see she was really whipping you around at that speed.

__________________
Thanks
-Slyder

LuckyRVA

You know, I felt like I was going way too fast. But, what the hell do I know.

I think on one of the crashes the ski fell off and I somehow landed on it. I still have a yellow and brown bruise spanning both of my thighs.

JeffreyCH

Wakeboarding speed is between 18-22, you want the boat just barely on plane. Riding wake is way better then skiing, the only time the skis come out of the locker is if my boat doesn't start n we have to row to shore lol.

__________________

slyder

Looking at boats. Got a moomba in the works otherwise considering seadoo wake 230
We'll see what pans out

__________________
Thanks
-Slyder