Wakeboarding Trick Tips for Beginners

How to Clear the Wake

Synopsis: How to clear the wake. Tips for going wake to wake your first time including common pitfalls of beginning wakeboarders.

Stand, walk, run. You've stood and walked. Now it's time to run. Just as running is taking walking to the next level, going wake to wake is taking jumping to the next level.

So what does it mean to go wake to wake anyway? Well, clearing the wake is when you jump far enough that you land completely on the other side of the opposite wake.

The best place to land is on the down-slope of the other wake. It will provide a cushion for you to land on.

If you don't jump quite far enough and land on the peak of the wake, it's called "casing" the wake. This is rough. Casing the wake can be like landing on concrete. It doesn't feel good.

If you jump past the wake into the smooth water on the other side, it's called jumping "into the flats." This is a bit harder on the knees, and makes landing a little harder. Landing in the flats means you took your trick huge. It's a good thing.. if you can control it.

So how is it done?

The key to taking your jumps higher and farther is the progressive edge. You should be cutting the hardest when you hit the wake. Do not let off of your edge. And do not jump to early.

All too often, I see beginning riders letting off their edge and throwing away all of the line tension that they've built up.

If you are having trouble cutting all the way through the wake, try not jumping a couple of times. Try cutting from one side to the other like you are slalom skiing. Absorb the wake with your knees and keep cutting.

Once you can do that successfully, then do the exact same thing except extend your knees rather than absorbing the shock.

This brings us to the second thing. If you are bending your knees as you go over the wake, you're doing something wrong. You should be standing tall at the top of the wake. Have someone from the boat watch to see if you are bending your knees. If you are, stop!

Practice makes perfect. And with a little practice (and a little patience), you should be running within no time.

If you are still using a ski rope for wakeboarding, you are at the point in your riding now where it will be very beneficial to purchase a wakeboard rope and handle. Ski ropes tend to stretch (to give you that extra "umph" to get around the balls in the ski course). This is bad for wakeboarding. You get higher by building up the line tension and this stretching hinders this. Wakeboard handles are also wider to make handle passes easier. I have always had great experiences with Straight Line Carbon Handles and Spectra Mainlines. The Carbon Fiber handle is extremely light yet sturdy.

Once you are consistently clearing the wake, try doing some basic grabs or 180s.

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