Wakeboarding is an exhilarating sport that anyone can enjoy with a sense of adventure and a willingness to learn. However, learning the ropes isn’t always easy. If you’re new, it can be a bit hard to understand the instructions of your instructor when all you can see are their hands (and the rope) going around in circles in front of your face.
Wakeboarding Tricks for Beginners
We created this guide on how to do 8 wakeboarding tricks for beginners, complete with pictures and step-by-step instructions. All it takes is some courage, practice, and patience!
The Pop Shove-It
This is a good wakeboarding trick to start with. It’s also known as a T-Stop, simply because you stop on your board by popping it up. Start by rolling your body forward to point your toes straight down.
You should be looking directly at your toes with both feet flat on either side of the board’s centerline. When ready, take off and make sure you keep your knees bent and close together to land smoothly.
SURFACE 180
This wakeboarding trick is one of those basic wakeboard moves that every beginner should learn. If you’re new to wakeboarding and trying to get out on a boat, learning how to do a surface 180 will be an essential move. It’s not just about your safety, but it’s also an essential trick because it helps you get into different positions.
The first step in doing a surface 180 is to push off from behind with your hands to glide across the water when you feel like it’s time to turn around, pull back on both ropes at once.
CROSSING BOTH WAKES
One of the first tricks you should try out is crossing both wakes. Start by balancing your board on one side of a wake, then lean to that side. By crossing both wakes, you will be able to make your body parallel with them as you ride across them! It sounds complex, but it’s straightforward once you get going.
CROSSING THE WAKE
This wakeboard trick is one of the first ones beginners learn, as it’s relatively easy to pull off. To cross over, keep your knees bent and bounce a little in place on top of your board until you get up to speed.
It’s also helpful to keep your arms by your sides and make little figure-eight motions to give yourself more momentum. Once you’re going fast enough, straighten out your legs and jump across to land on the other side of where you started. It takes some practice before it feels natural—remember that if, at first, you don’t succeed, try again!
Tailslide
To learn how to do a tailslide, all you need is a little momentum and confidence. Because it’s such a stable trick, even beginners can master it relatively quickly. Push off from your wake and lean forward at about a 30-degree angle. If you lean too far back or go too fast, you’ll fall on your butt—so don’t try too hard at first! Keep your feet together, and toes pointed straight down. As you come up out of your slide, pull your knees to bend at a 90-degree angle.
As soon as you pass over your board, pop them into a standing position with both feet firmly planted on top of your board. That’s it! Keep practicing until you feel comfortable enough to try doing one without falling (which will probably take some time)
SURFACE 360
The key to landing a surface 360 is getting enough speed on your approach so that when you pop off your board, you get enough air time to complete three full rotations before touching down again. The trick itself isn’t all that hard—make sure that when you take off from your approach, your back foot is forward on the board (so that as soon as you jump off, it pops right out from under you) and that your knees are bent while taking off.
OLLIE
If you’re learning how to wakeboard, you may have heard of the ollie before. If not, an ollie is a trick performed by jumping up in front of your board as it’s gliding through the air and performing a kick-flip (or toe-flip). While it looks hard to do on video, it’s pretty simple—but be sure to practice at your local wake park before trying these tips at home.
Start with your weight centered over your board: With both feet flat on top of your board, lift one foot off and place it behind you. Try lifting both feet off at once; if that doesn’t work, try lifting one foot off first and then placing it back down again. Either way should give you enough momentum to ease yourself into the air!
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TAIL GRAB
The tail grab is one of those basic tricks that many beginners to wakeboarding start with. Hold onto your handle with both hands to do a tail grab, then lift your knees and point your toes downward. Then, while keeping your knees bent and pointed downward, pull yourself off the board.
The simplest way to do so is by grabbing onto your board’s tail. You can also perform a tail grab by using your body weight as leverage, but it requires more skill than simply holding on to your board’s tail.
You can practice performing a tail grab without getting in the water first; stand next to your board and practice pulling yourself off it while holding onto its tail. This will help you get used to how it feels when you perform a trick like this before you try doing it in real life.
