It’s easy to think of towsports such as water skiing and wakeboarding as individual endeavours, but they’re most certainly not — they are undeniably a team sport. That team, of course, includes the rider and the driver. Whether you’re on a wakeboard or water skis, the skill of your driver is going to be critical to how well you perform. In this article, then, we’ll offer a few tips on how drivers can be the best they can possibly be when towing wakeboarders.

1. Keep a constant speed

This is the most basic rule of driving a boat for wakeboarders — you should always keep a constant speed. The speed of the boat is responsible for two crucial aspects of wakeboarding — the shape and size of the wake, and the tension in the line. If you were to suddenly speed up as your rider was about to cross the wake, there’s a good chance it would end badly. The best way to ensure that you maintain a consistent speed is to use a speed control system such as Perfect Pass. These systems have sensors that can increase or decrease the throttle as needed to ensure a steady speed is maintained.

2. Drive in a straight line

Once again, consistency is the key here. When drivers keep a straight line, the wake remains constant and riders have a much more fun time. When drivers move in sweeping arches, the wake is no longer constant and, more importantly, the centrifugal force works to whip your rider around dangerously. What’s more, failing to keep a straight line just chops up the entire lake, which will undoubtedly annoy other riders and drivers.

3. No “power turns”

Just like we touched upon in the previous step, this rule is all about courtesy. Sometimes, when a rider falls down, drivers are known to complete a quickfire power turn, whipping their boat around to go back and pick the rider up. This is not cool, as all you’ll be achieving is sending your wake across the water and chopping it up for everyone else. Instead, idle your turn and make your way back slowly.

4. Time your tows

There’s no denying that wakeboards make for an exciting but tiring day out. In order to ensure that the excitement remains high and the dangerous effects of fatigue remain low, it’s your responsibility as driver to time your tows. A good maximum time between riding is about 20 minutes — after this, fatigue sets in and dangerous falls can occur. Since it’s so easy to lose track of time, it pays for the driver to keep an eye on the stopwatch.

5. Be aware at all times

Above all, the driver must remember that what they’re doing is a huge responsibility. As a driver, you should never get complacent; be aware at all times and know that you’re responsible for the safety of your riders and other people on the lake. Don’t fiddle with iPods and other distractions while driving; sort all that stuff out before you begin. When you’re at the wheel, you should only be thinking about the task at hand.

5 Tips for Better Wake-board Boat Driving is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

You’ve worked hard all week knowing that, when the weekend arrives, you’re going to be heading out with your water skis and wakeboards to let loose with the type of adrenaline-pumping excitement that only towsports can provide. Too bad, then, when you get out onto the river and realise that conditions are incredibly rough and choppy. But don’t worry — all is not lost. You can still have a great time out on the water on days like this — you just need to readjust your goals a little bit. In this article, we’ll offer five great tips for surviving rough water skiing conditions.

1. Don’t aim too high

Let’s be honest — when conditions are particularly rough, you’re not going to be breaking personal bests. You’re going to have to take things easier than you normally do, because the water is going to make things harder in its own right. Instead, consider different ways that you might be able to challenge yourself. For example, it could be that your goal for the day is simply completing a single pass; if you’re still game, try using a shorter rope length and completing another. If you like to ski competitively, you’ll find that a day like this can give you more confidence for surviving rough conditions on event day.

2. Work on the basics

All experienced skiers like to get out on the water and go full pelt, completing tricks or perhaps multiple passes on the slalom course. However, on a day like this, you probably need to admit to yourself that your usual goals aren’t possible. Instead, go back to working on your timing, direction and other basics; it’s the perfect opportunity to improve yourself as a skier, and if you can improve your technique in rough conditions then you’ll be better positioned for the butter days.

3. Improve your conditioning

The fact of the matter is, water skiing is going to take it out of you — it’s a highly physical activity and the more you push yourself, the stronger you’re going to have to be. With this in mind, use these rough days as an opportunity to work on your conditioning; try and push yourself a little bit harder, perhaps by taking less of a break in between passes. Once again, if you can come through the rough days okay, you’ll be in a great position when the conditions are nice.

4. Come up with new challenges

Everybody wants to beat their personal best, but on rough days you need to swallow your pride and admit that it’s almost certainly not going to happen. Instead, why not come up with new challenges and games to play among your friends? You can even place some friendly stakes for the challenge — perhaps the loser has to buy drinks at the end of the day. And who knows — you might surprise yourself when you realise you’re more capable of handling rough conditions than someone who is usually more able than you on the butter!

5. Above all, when you take your water skis out on a rough day, take extra care regarding safety! Conditions can often be treacherous and nothing’s more important than coming back in one piece.

5 Tips for Surviving Rough Water Skiing Conditions is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

When it comes to water skiing, arguably the most important ability you can have is balance. It doesn’t matter whether you’re skiing slalom, trick, or jumping — if you’re able to balance well, you’ll have all the makings of a firm foundation. In fact, if you don’t have good balance on your skis, all your other skills are bound to suffer as well. In this article, we’ll take a look at five essential secrets to gaining better balance on your water skis.

1. Slack lining

Head to your local Bunnings outlet and purchase a slack line. You might have seen these in your travels before — it’s basically nylon webbing that is tied down between two anchor points, such as a tree, and allows people to practise their balancing skills. The longer the line is, the tougher it is to balance. If you’re able to master standing, walking and even performing spins on a slackline, this will go a long way to improving your balance out on the water.

2. Other sports

Participate in other sports. After all, it’s not just water skiing that requires tremendous balancing skills — balance is an important skill to have in almost all sport and physical endeavours. Try mountain biking, gymnastics or even team sports like soccer or touch football; all these sports require the ability to balance, and as you hone them you’ll be able to transfer that skill out onto the water.

3. Yoga

Practising yoga is a great way to improve your balance. It focuses on a range of core muscle strengthening which is critical to balance, and will also help your stability, flexibility and muscular endurance — all important abilities to have when you’re out on your water skis. Most gyms these days offer yoga classes, and if you’re a guy who feels uncomfortable about attending, don’t worry — these days, yoga is popular with both men and women.

4. Eyes closed

No, we’re not suggesting that you close your eyes when you’re out on the water — that would be stupid and could result in serious injury. However, when you’re out of the water, try closing your eyes and performing balance exercises, such as standing on a balance board or even standing on one leg and circling your knee. You can try walking on the slack line we mentioned earlier with your eyes closed, as well. You’ll be surprised at how much more challenging it is, but as you improve, so too will your on-water, eyes-open balancing abilities.

5. Start from low

Remember this important rule: movements on the water should always start from the bottom up. Start the movement with the feet, and then let the body follow their lead. This is because the feet are what’s connected to the ski, which you must be in control of at all times.

By following one or more of these pieces of advice, you should see real improvements in your overall balancing ability. These improvements will be transferred, improving all of your water ski skills and allowing you to have much more fun time on the water.

5 Essential Secrets to Better Water Ski Balance is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

Passing the handle is an important skill to learn if you want to complete many tricks on your wakeboard. A good way to learn to pass the handle is by performing surface tricks such as surface 180s and surface 360s. However, if you want to really improve your handle passing abilities, there is an easy drill you can learn off the water that will put you in good stead for when it’s time to hit the water again. In this article, we’ll show you how to perform this drill, which simply involves spinning a weighted handle around your waist.

Building the weighted handle

To build the weighted handle, you’ll need the following:

• A spare, old handle (if you don’t have one of these, you can use a piece of pipe or even cut down a broom handle so its roughly the same size as a tow handle).
• An empty detergent bottle — 2L is an ideal size.
• Some bungee cord, about five feet in length, which you can get from your local hardware store.

Take the bungee cord and attach one end to the handle and the other to the handle of the detergent bottle. Fill the detergent bottle up with water (the reason we use a detergent bottle is because they’re very durable and won’t break if you accidentally drop the handle during the exercise.

How the exercise works

The basic premise of the exercise is to swing the rope around your body, with the weight from the detergent bottle and the stretch of the bungee cord mimicking the feel of an actual towrope. As you swing, you’ll have to pass the handle from hand to hand around your back, helping build your handle pass skills for when you’re actually out on the water.

As you swing the rope faster, the centrifugal force will increase, causing the pull to feel a lot harder. When this happens, you’ll have to work much harder to keep the handle close to your body.

Tips for the handle pass exercise

• To begin the movement, start swinging the handle around your head, holding it with one hand. This will stop the problem of the detergent bottle dragging along the ground at the start as you try to build momentum. As the speed of the swing picks up, you can then lower the bottle to around your waistline and begin passing the handle.
• Make sure you have a wide stance in order to steady yourself.
• When passing the handle around your front, make sure both palms are facing down. When passing them around your back, however, your palms should be facing up.
• As you increase speed, the force of the detergent bottle will try to pull the handle away from you. Concentrate on keeping the handle in close to your body. Obviously, the faster you’re swinging the rope, the tougher this is going to be, so build slowly towards super-fast speeds.

When you finally get back out onto the water after practising this exercise extensively, you’ll notice a much-improved ability to hold you arms in position when performing the handle pass, as well as more strength when you try your wkaeboarding tricks.

How to Improve Your Wakeboard Handle Pass is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

A power slide, or power spray, is a fun-looking (and fun-doing!) wakeboarding move which involves cutting out on your heelside into the flats and making a sharp turn onto your blindside. By doing this, you’ll skim the surface of the water with the front edge of your board, kicking up a massive spray. In this article, we’ll take a look at 6 secrets to performing a perfect powerslide on your wakeboard.

1. Practise inside the wake

Before you throw yourself out past the wake, practise your power sliding inside the wake where the consequences of falling will be far less dire. You should also try slowing the boat down to around 20kph at this stage. It won’t look as cool inside the wake, but once you’ve got the movement down you can head out into the glass.

2. Start on your strong side

The best place to begin learning is inside the wake opposite your forward foot. If you’re a regular (left foot front) stance, then, your best learning point is just inside the right wake.

3. Begin your turn

Start with an easy heel edge towards the wake. When you’re ready to begin the powerslide, relax your front arm and remove your back hand from the handle, bringing your back foot around in the direction of your cut. You’ll feel like the big toe of your back foot is scraping the water, and your heels will leave the surface.

4. Get lean

Make sure you lean away from the boat. If you don’t lean this way, there’s a pretty high probability that you’re going to catch an edge on your heelside. The important thing is to find the right amount of lean away from the boat. You’ll need to get the technique dialled inside the wake before you head out into the flats.

5. Now a bit faster

At this stage, you’ve been travelling at about 20kph. Once you’ve got the powerslide down, however, you’ll need to learn how to perform the trick a bit faster before you’re ready to move outside the wake. Tell your driver to go a little bit faster — try gradual increases until you hit about 30kph.

6. Leave the wake

Okay, so you’ve got your powerslides dialled at fast speeds inside the wake. Now’s the time that you’ve been waiting for. Cross the wake and take your wakeboard out into the flats. When it’s time to do your powerslide, think about using all the same techniques you learnt inside the wake. This time, not only will you complete the trick, but you should also kick up a mega power spray that will look awesome!

7. Respect the conditions

If conditions aren’t completely flat, it’s probably best to avoid attempting a power slide — if you do, that’s a certain way to skip out. The general rule of thumb is the glassier the water, the more ripe it is for you to rip a power slide. And if you want to make the sweetest looking power spray of all, try pulling one on the whip as your boat makes its turn!

7 Steps to Perfect Powerslides is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

In the world of wakeboarding, people often talk about “stomping” their tricks. It’s common in snowboarding as well — what it means is that, after pulling off a trick that involves getting air, you land cleanly, without wrecking, so that you can keep on riding. However, the word “stomp” is somewhat misleading — it makes it sound like you’re supposed to slam your feet onto the water as hard as possible when, in reality, this is a dangerous way to approach landing. In fact, if you literally try to stomp on your wakeboard, the chances are you’re going to wreck — and hard.

In reality, a safe landing is a combination of control, patience and practised movements. In this article, we’ll offer you five basic steps to keep in mind when trying to stomp your landings. If you’re already at a stage where you’re getting air and performing tricks, then we’d hope you’d have most of these down already, but even so, it never hurts to remember the basics!

1. Spread out your landing

World champion wakeboarder, Shaun Murray, once famously said that, when landing a trick, you’ll want to try to be more like an airplane than a helicopter. Many wakeboarders make the mistake of rushing their landings, but this is only going to lead to a wreck. Always remember that landing is a process that takes a few feet — you don’t simply “land on the spot”.

2. Slow things down

Everything is easier in slow motion. Unfortunately, slow motion is only the realm of film at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to slow things down as much as you can. From the microsecond that your board hits the water, think carefully about your movements. If you’re not thinking, the landing will be over in a  flash, and there’s a good chance you’ll be over too. Concentrating on your movements helps slow things down.

3. Hold your position

Like we said, it pays to remember the basics every now and then, and there’s nothing more basic than knowing the correct position for a smooth wakeboard landing. First and foremost, keep your chest over your board at all times — don’t hunch over as this will completely throw off your balance. The legs should be slightly extended, but not completely stiff. Perhaps most importantly, keep your eyes focused on where you want to ride away — in other words, don’t throw a glance over to your girlfriend on the side until you’ve completed your landing, or you’ll end up looking stupid!

4. Absorb the impact

Once you’ve hit the water, remember that your legs are like the suspension system that absorbs the impact for the rest of your body. This is why you’ll need to ensure they’re still slightly bent, as stiff, straight legs won’t offer you the absorption you need upon landing.

5. Don’t stop moving

If you’ve just landed your trick, it can be tempting to stop and celebrate, soaking up the glory — particularly if it’s your first time or you’re still learning. However, one of the best pieces of advice we can give is to keep on riding after a trick as if you’ve done nothing at all. Not only will it make you seem super stylish, but you’ll also gain better control of your landings as a result –  it will begin to seem more natural.

5 Tips for Stomping Your Wakeboard Landings is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

When it comes to water skiing, one thing is for sure — you’re going to crash eventually. As your skills improve and you advance further in the sport, however, crashes may become more dangerous. You’ll reach higher speeds and attempt riskier tricks and jumps. In this article, we’ll take a look at six common crashes you might experience on water skis, whether you’re slalom skiing, performing jumps or trying tricks.

Slalom crashes

• Tip catches the wake, making you flip over the front of your slalom ski. This one can be pretty dangerous, as you may be crossing the wake at very fast speeds. Try to remain balanced over your ski, turning back to your perfect leverage position. It may slow your turns down, but you’ll be in a sturdy position when you’re back behind the boat.
• Coming into a turn a little too fast, you commit to an aggressive turn and the tail of your slalom ski pops harshly out of the water. When this happens, you can do all sorts of damage to your ankles, so you’ll want to do your best to avoid it. The fall happens because you’ve tried finishing the turn on a tighter arc than when you entered. Instead, keep the same path you took into the turn.

Jump crashes

• When hitting a ramp, your skis slide out, causing you to crash into the ramp. The most important thing to remember in order to avoid this dangerous crash from happening is to keep your handle low as you near the ramp. With this in mind, you must then be as still as you can be when the jump is hit. Moving the handle in any way whatsoever will change your balance point, so be sure to keep it low at all times.
• Leaving the ramp, you bank hard. Your skis stay beneath you, but you land harshly on the tails. You might even land the jump successfully, but in the long run these types of landings are not going to be good for you. What you want to do is concentrate on staying square. To achieve this, keep your direction through the ramp, ensuring you’re not loading the rope too soon in your cut. As you complete your turn, stay tall. Then, relax the arms and hit the ramp.

Trick crashes

• You land too early on a spinning air trick, catching an edge. This happens because you haven’t completed your rotation properly. Always ensure you’re moving with the boat during the trick. For example, when spinning to the left, advance your right hip towards the front left corner of the boat as you make your way up the wake.

You catch the tip of your water ski after pulling up short on an invert. After slamming into the water hard in this one, you may not want to try flips ever again. If you want to brave another flip, however, keep in mind that most issues arise before the flip even begins. Keep the handle low as you approach the wake, and make sure you’re progressive through your edge. Also, ensure your speed and the rope’s load are greater at the bottom of the wake than at the start of your cut.

6 Painful Water Skiing Falls is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

If you want to change the feeling of your water skis, you can tune them by moving their bindings, fins and wings. When tuning a water ski, it should always be completed in the following order: binding placement, tail measurement, fin length, fin depth and, finally, wing angle. In this article, we’ll discuss the options you have when tuning your ski, with recommendations for both beginner, intermediate and advanced water skiing.

1. Binding placement

As a general rule, beginners should place their bindings forward on the ski, intermediate skiers should place their bindings in the centre, and advanced skiers prefer to place them further back. Forward bindings make it easier to turn, while back bindings allow for greater acceleration.

However, the length of the towline must also be considered. For an 18m line, placing the bindings further forwards helps the skis turn. For 13m lines and lower, the bindings should be placed further back to help build the necessary acceleration. Lines that fall in between will generally have the bindings placed somewhere in between.

2. Tail measurement

Moving the fin forward will make the ski feel a lot smaller and will also make it turn a lot faster. Moving it back, on the other hand, will make the ski feel larger and more stable. This is because it increases the amount of ski actually in the water.

As a result, it’s recommended that beginners move the fin back in order to create a more stable feel. As confidence builds and turning ability improves, skiers will eventually prefer to move the fins back. However, generally, we recommend moving the fin in the same direction that you move your bindings.

3. Fin length

The length of your fin has a big say in the level of tip pressure at the end of your turn. If there is too much length, your ski will overturn, while having too little length may cause your ski to ‘wheelie’. Generally, beginners prefer greater length while the advanced prefer less.

If you’re finding that your skis turn a little too harshly on your off side, there’s a good chance you have too great a length on your fin. However, if you’re finding your ski wheelies on your off side, then your fin length is too short.

4. Fin depth

The deeper your fin, the greater the angle you’ll be able to hold through the wake. Shallower thins, on the other hand, allow for faster and easier turning. Beginners, then, generally prefer shallow fins, as it aids in their turning, feeling lighter underfoot. Advanced skiers, however, will find that shallow fins cause the water ski to slide out when a turn is completed and, so, they choose to go deeper.

5. Wing angle

Wings are tuned after the fin, because their placement is dependent on the fin. The further forward you keep your fin, the greater the angle you’ll need on your wing. If you prefer to keep your fin further back, then you can afford less angle on the wing. On average, skiers prefer between seven and 10 degrees on their wing.

How to Tune Your Water Skis is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

In order for a sport to qualify for the Olympic games, various criteria must be met. For starters, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must recognise that the sport is played by both men and women around the world. Secondly, the sport must have an official governing body. And thirdly, the sport may not utilise any sort of motorisation. Of the following sports, some bend the rules (like netball), some break the rules (like water skiing) and some are eligible but still have not been accepted. Either way, we think all seven are deserving of a spot in the ultimate sporting arena.

Billiards

Billiards, pool, snooker — whatever version of the sport you prefer, the sport exists in some form pretty much all around the world. In 1998, the IOC recognised the World Confederation of Billiard Sports (WCBS) as an official body governing the sport, satisfying one of the requirements for qualification. As of 2012, however, billiards is yet to be included in the Olympic program, limiting that corner-pocket glory to WCBS events and, of course, your local pub.

Cricket

While test matches and even one-dayers have never been considered Olympic-friendly sporting formats, the recent emergence of Twenty20 cricket has given the International Cricket Council (ICC) a viable option for inclusion at future Olympic games. At present, they are somewhat poetically pushing for the event to be included at the 2020 games. Twenty20 at 2020… now wouldn’t that be something?

Bowling

It’s on the Commonwealth Games program — well, lawn bowls is, anyway — but apparently what passes muster in the Queen’s nations doesn’t necessarily fly when it comes to the world at large. Whether it’s lawn bowls, tenpin bowling, or the vastly underrated bocce, we’d love to see any or all of them included in the Olympics — if only to see Bill and Agnes from the local Bowlo doing the lap of honour at an opening ceremony.

Netball

It’s played in more than 60 countries around the world, it’s organising body (the International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA)) has been recognised by the IOC, and it’s game length is perfect for the Olympic television format. So why isn’t netball in the Olympic Games? Quite simply, because not enough dudes play it. Come on, boys… lift your game!

Climbing

Here’s one that actually has a pretty strong chance of being included in the 2020 program. Forming just a couple of years back, the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) has done everything right so far, and they’re pushing for their three disciplines — lead climbing, bouldering and speed climbing — to one day get a guernsey.

Squash

Quite recently, it was a case of close-but-no-cigar for this sport, after it was voted to be included in the 2012 Olympic Games only to have it’s hopes and dreams… well, squashed. The IOC voted against replacing the two sports dropped from the games (baseball and softball), instead telling some of the hopefuls to get their bids together for 2016. Unfortunately, squash missed out again on their second attempt, with golf and rugby sevens grabbing the missing slots. Better luck for 2020, perhaps?

Waterskiing

Okay, we may be a bit biased, but we think not having folks on water skis (or even wakeboards) at the Olympic Games is an absolute travesty. At present, towsports aren’t allowed for the sole reason that the IOC forbids any sport with an element of motorisation from being eligible. Well, perhaps it’s time the IOC extracted themselves from the past and recognised the awesome athleticism involved in these events. We’re looking at you, Jacques Rogge!

7 Sports That Should Be in the Olympics is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle

Like most sports, there are inherent risks associated with water skiing and wakeboarding. Many of these are associated with being “dunked”; the impact of a fall on water at high speeds can be surprisingly damaging. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most common injuries on both wakeboards and water skis, as well as a few safety measures that can be put in place to lessen their effects or even avoid accidents altogether.

Water skiing injuries

The most common type of water skiing injuries are ankle strains and sprains. Because the ankles are bound to the skis, the impact of a fall can place undue pressure on ankle ligaments as the skis go in one direction and the skier’s body another. According to a study published in the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, ankle sprains and strains account for approximately one in five of all water skiing injuries.

The next most common injury for water skiers is a laceration of the head and neck area, which accounted for about one in 10 of all water skiing injuries. Because the head and neck region is one of the few areas exposed while water skiing (due to the fact that most skiers are wearing wetsuits), this opens the area up to cuts and lacerations when falling, whether from impacting the water, tow handle, jumps, buoys or the skis themselves.

Other common injuries for water skiers included concussions (always wear a life jacket when water skiing!) and shoulder sprains and strains.

Wakeboarding injuries

The stance of a wakeboarder differs to that of a water skier and, as such, the injuries are slightly different as well. The most common type of injury for a wakeboarder occurs in the head and neck area, with head lacerations making up around one in four of all wakeboarding injuries and concussions making up around one in nine. This is because of the higher danger of “catching an edge” on wakeboards; if a wakeboarder catches an edge, they will be thrown hard into the water, with the heaviest surface impact occurring at the head.

With that said, ankle sprains were not entirely uncommon, accounting for around one in 10 of all wakeboarding injuries, while leg fractures and shoulder dislocations accounted for about one in 20.

Accident and injury prevention

Ways to prevent water skiing and wakeboarding injuries include:

• Having two people in the boat — a driver and a spotter. The driver should be able to watch where he is driving at all times — he cannot do this if he has to check back at the skier every now and then.
• Always checking the towline before skiing to make sure it is neither caught in the propeller or wrapped around the skier. The boat driver should never accelerate until the skier is holding the handle and gives a signal to begin.
• Keeping a reasonable speed. This may be a judgement call by the driver based on the skier’s ability — a good speed for beginners, for example, is about 30 kilometres per hour. However, the driver will also need to know and obey the speed laws of the water they are on.

The Most Common Wakeboarding and Water Skiing Injuries is a post from: Surf & Ski Lifestyle