Wakeboarding Trick Tips for Beginners

How to do Basic Grabs

Synopsis: How to do grabs on a wakeboard. Covers the indy, nose, and tail grabs, along with providing a strong foundation to learn more advanced grabs.

Now that you can clear the wake, it's time to add a little style to your riding. Grabs are one of the easiest things to add and will really give your riding that little bit of extra flare.

And the real kicker is: grabs aren't difficult. Although they can look like very technical tricks, they aren't that hard to do.

The simplest grab you can do is the indy grab. An indy grab is where you reach down and grab the board on your toeside edge between your feet with your back hand. It will probably be the most natural grab to try your first time.

To pull an indy grab, do your wake to wake jump as you normally would. While you are in the air, let go with your back hand, bend your knees towards your chest and grab hold of the board between your toes.

It is important to wait until you are in the air before you think about doing the grab. Thinking about (and performing) it too early will eat up your pop. You still want to extend your legs at the top of the wake so that you get enough air to clear the wake. Then, when you're in the air, you can think about the grab.

Another common grab is the tail grab. A tail grab is performed the same way as an indy grab except you grab the back tip of your board.

To go along with the tail grab, a nose grab is where you grab the front tip of your board. The nose grab differs a little bit from the last two grabs in that you will need to grab with your front hand. This can be a little unnerving (and may cause you to start spinning a 180), so the nose grab may take a little more work.

There are many other types of grabs that you can do. I'm particularly fond of the method grab (where you turn the board around towards the boat and grab the heelside edge) and you will likely find a grab that defines you.

Simple wake jumps are far from the only thing that can be grabbed. As you work on more advanced tricks (like spins and inverts), always be thinking about whether you can add a grab to them. Oftentimes it adds a whole new life to the trick.

Once you learn your base 180s, try adding a grab to each of those. It will make them look a heck-of-a-lot cooler, I promise.

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