Mem Day Weekend

Weather is looking good for some early season riding ... Finally.

I also bought a new board. I got the CWB Absolute Platinum 141. The Platinum verison weighs about 1lb less and comes with some nice looking alloy fins. This board looks great and I am really excited to try it. Hopefully the rain will stop and I can get some time out on the lake this weekend

New Bindings

We started out the year right with some new gear. The first board we had was a Hydroslide Backdraft and some generic bindings. After a year of many people trying wakeboarding, the bindings started to stretch and be mostly unusable for much more than getting up. So I bought a set of Blindside bindings. They were too small and too tight for me, but not small enough for Meg. after about 3 months one of the sliders on the laces broke off ( I think during transport) and made thos bindings almost unusable. So we had to replace the bindings again. There is nothing out there that will accomodate both of us so we each got our own. We both bought Torq w\hinge from CWB. I haven't had a chance to get these out on the water yet, but they are fitted bindings that I can get on my feet dry. They have lower and upper laces and look to be really well made.

How I got started

I have been boating since I was 6 or so(which is about 19 years if your playing the home game). I gave up on water skiing when I was 13 or so, I just didn't like it. My father, always trying to get me to visit him more, bought a wakeboard for "everyone" to try about 2 years ago. It took me 6 weeks(I go boating about once a week) to figure out how to get up(and for the drivers to learn how to pull a boarder since they are all slalom skiiers). Since then I have taught quite a few people to get up but no one has really caught on. Along came Meg, who is a GF who actually enjoys spending time with me. I taught her, but she became as addicted as I was.

So that's us. Still beginners for the most part but this year I am going to start doing tricks (and so will Meg). Hopefully if I journal them here it can help a few others to learn from my many mistakes.

What is Wakeboarding?

Wakeboarding is a boardsport. It was created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. Before it was called wakeboarding it was called skurfing. As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing setup, but typically at slower speeds (18 - 24mph).

Instead of using skis, the rider rides a single board with stationary non-release bindings for each foot, standing sideways as on a snowboard or skateboard. The boards, which can float, are typically 130 - 147cm long and up to 45cm wide (shorter and wider than snowboards). Unlike snowboards, which are concave, they are convex (tips 15 - 25cm).

-- Wikipedia