Title: 
Wakeboarding (1)

Word Count:
463

Summary:
What is wakeboarding?


Keywords:
Wakeboarding


Article Body:
By Vigdis S. Aas

What is wakeboarding?  It was created by combining water skiing, snow snowboarding, and surfing.  Before it was called wakeboarding people called it surfing.  Wakeboarding is when you have person being towed behind a boat, looking much like water skiing but they just a board that looks much like a snowboard.  The board itself looks like a cross of a snowboard and a skateboard.  

The board can float and is typically around 130-147 cm long and about 45 cm wide.  They are wider and shorter than your typical snowboard.  

In addition, unlike snowboards that are concave, wakeboards are bowed. When it comes to the boat, they are like some to water skiing boats, but the rope is normally mounted on a tower about two meters about the water line and the boat is usually weighted to give a larger wake.  

A wake is used as ramps are used in many other board sports. To steer the board you must use a combo of direction and cutting edges into the water.  A rider can move outside of the wake and then cut rabidly in towards the wake, which will allow it to launch the rider into the air. They are many techniques and cuts that are used in the sport. Over the years, people have come up with various tricks like the elephant or tantrum that has made the sport a very interesting one.  

This is much like a freestyle sport and has become very popular on the shores.  It has even been recently added to the X games.  Both woman and men are allowed to compete in the X games.  When it comes to the X games, it’s much like the competition of all competitions. 

It’s a championship and allows the riders to get creative and they are pressured to show the judged something more spectacular than any other rider.  When it comes to the X games, each person must show some kind of trick that they have mastered and feel comfortable with.  

They must make their act stand out above the rest and they must take in consideration many factors when it comes to planning their show.  The sport itself offers an opportunity for self-expression or art.  Wakeboarding is limited to beginners, but with practice, you can be doing tricks like the pros.

It is important as a beginner to not push yourself too hard.  Learning too much at once can cause harm or flaws in your shows.  You will need to allow yourself to take the time to learn each trick before going on to another one, because the added pressure will become more stressful when the showdown begins. It can be a fun sport to learn, but it can also be dangerous like any other water sport.