Wakeboarding for Beginners

Glossary

There's a lot of Wakeboarding jargon floating around. A new boarder can get caught up in the weird words and have no idea what is being talked about. If you encounter a word on the water that you have no idea what it is, check here for the definition. If you can't find it here, learn the meaning and let me know; I'll add it up.

• Air - A measure of the height a jump gets off the water. "Massive air!"
• Air Roll - Using the line tension to do a flip without the wake. "Man, I wish I could do an Air Roll."
• Backside - A spin where the back of the board goes towards the boat before the front of the board. This is clockwise for regular-footed riders and counter-clockwise for goofy footed riders. "That was a nice backside 180."
• Ballast - Weight added to a boat to change the size or shape of the wake. "We need more ballast on the port side."
• Biff - Mess up. "I hope I don't biff the landing!"
• Binding - The mechanism that holds your feet to the board. "I just ripped my bindings."
• Board - The deck that you stand on. Short for "wakeboard." "That's a sick board."
• Butter - Smooth water. "Let's get up early so we don't miss the butter."
• Catching an Edge - When an edge of your board goes under water, causing it to stop abruptly. Your body doesn't stop, leading to a hard fall. "I caught an edge going around that turn."
• Comp Vest - A life jacket meant for use in competitions. Generally not Coast Guard Approved. Thinner than a USCGA PFD, allows a wider range of motion. "My comp vest doesn't float me very well."
• Deep Water Start - Getting up starting from in the water. "It's way to cold to do a deep water start."
• Direct Drive - A boat where the engine runs directly into the drive train. "My ski boat is a direct drive."
• Dock Start - Getting up from a sitting or standing position on a dock. "Dock starts are illegal on my lake."
• Double Up - Turning the boat around in such a way that you hit your own wake at a ninety degree angle, doubling its size for a short period of time. "Drive me a double up."
• Eye Opener - When you fall so hard that the water peels your eyes back. "That raley attempt was a real eye opener."
• Faceplant - Falling forward. Often the result of catching an edge. "Did you see that dude faceplant?"
• Fat Sac - Brand name ballast bag. "Who needs more Fat Sacs when you've got Bob?"
• Fin - A shaped piece of plastic that goes on the bottom of your board to assist in steering. "My fin just fell off."
• Flip - Going tip over tail. Cartwheel-like rotation. "I've never seen a toe-side front flip."
• Frontside - A spin where the front of the board goes towards the boat before the back of the board. See Backside.
• Glass - See Butter
• Grab - Reaching down and holding onto the board while in the air. "You should add a grab to that spin."
• Grab, Indy - Grabbing the board with your back hand between your feet. "Indy grabs are lame."
• Grab, Method - Turning at your hips to bring the board around in front of you, grabbing the back of the board between your feet with your back hand. "That was a sick Method."
• Grab, Nose - Grabbing the front tip of your board. "Look at that poked nose grab!"
• Grab, Tail - Grabbing the back tip of your board. "Nice tail grab."
• Handle - The end of the rope that you hold on to. Can be made of steel or carbon. "Bring the handle with you."
• Handle Pass - Switching which hand the handle is in while in the middle of a spin. "I missed the handle pass on my 7."
• Heater - Hooks up to your boat's exhaust system to heat up and blow (clean) air at you. "We need to buy a heater to extend our season."
• Heelside - A trick done by carving on your heels. "I'm gonna try a heelside back roll."
• Hours - Like the odometer on the car counts miles driven, the hour-meter on a boat counts the number of hours your engine has been running. "I just picked up a used boat with 300 hours."
• Invert - Any trick where you go upside down. "What was your first invert?"
• Kicker - A ramp that goes in the water. "He fell going off that kicker."
• Life Jacket - A device that will help you float. Legally required in most states. "Dude, your jacket came unbuckled."
• Lift - Lifts your boat out of the water while not in use. "I'll come over after I put the boat on the lift."
• Line - The rope. Generally made of Spectra. "I need a new line, I ran over mine last week."
• Loading the Line - Building up tension in the line to help you do tricks. "You need to load the line to get more pop."
• Mobe - Any invert with a 360 degree or higher spin. Short for Mobius. "The Whirlybird was my first Mobe."
• Ollie - Jumping without using the wake. "I'm going to try to ollie that buoy."
• Perfect Pass - A brand of precision speed control for your boat. You dial in the speed and it keeps it there. "You suck at driving, you need Perfect Pass."
• PFD - See: Life Jacket
• Pop - See: Air
• Port - The left side of the boat when facing forward. "Iceberg off the port side cap'n!"
• Progressive Edge - A cut that gets increasingly more intense as you approach the wake. A good progressive edge should be the hardest at the moment you leave the wake. "You're not getting any pop because you're not using a progressive edge."
• Poked - A styled grab. "Man he really poked that Method grab."
• Prop(eller) - The blade under your boat that propells you through the water. "I hope I didn't ding my prop when I hit that stick in the water."
• Pylon - A bar in the boat to connect your rope to. "Put the rope on the pylon, Brian."
• Rail - See: Slider
• Raley - A trick where you let your feet float out behind you while in the air, putting you in a "Superman" position. "My friend had internal bleeding from biffing a Raley."
• Roll - An invert in which you flip heel over tow. Would be a sumersault rotation in gymnastics. "What's the deal with your Toeside Front Foll?"
• Shower - A water pump that hooks up to your boat's heater, spraying hot or warm water. "I wish we'd invested in that shower, I'm freezing and itchy."
• Slider - An obstacle in the water that you slide over the top of. Similar to a "rail" in snowboarding and skateboarding. "Let's build a slider this weekend."
• Starboard - The right side of the boat when facing forward. "Water patrol on the starboard side!"
• Star-Gaze - Looking up while in the middle of the trick causing you to stop rotating and fall. "You started star-gazing."
• Surface Trick - Any trick done on the surface of the water. Generally spins. "Good job, you got up. Now try a surface 180."
• Tantrum - A "trip-flip" in which you do a back flip by "tripping" over the wake. One of the easiest inverts to learn. "The Tantrum was my first invert!"
• Tower - A metal structure that attaches to your boat, usually seven to eight feet off of the floor. It serves to lift the rope up, allowing you to get more air and also frees up space in the boat. "My boat came standard with a Tower."
• Trip Flip - A flip done by allowing the wake to knock out your feet from under you causing you to rotate. It's like if you were rollerblading and hit the curb at the same time as you had upwards lift. If you got enough air, your feet would go all the way around and land under you again. "The Tantrum is the most common trip flip."
• Toeside - A trick done by carving on your toes. "Watch this Toeside 3.
• USCG(A) - US Coast Guard (Approved). Usually used to describe safety specifications of life-jackets. "USCGA life preservers will save your life."
• V-Drive - A A boat where the engine is put in backwards and the drive train is reversed. The engine is placed in the back, but the boat steers from the center like a direct-drive. "Most Wakeboarding boats are V-Drives."
• Vest - See: Life Jacket
• Winch - A motor that is placed on shore or on a vehicle to allow riders to ride without needing a boat. "Winches are too expensive for me right now."

Click on any of the above links to read a tutorial regarding that phrase.

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