Dear Mister Jones

The first time I caught a wave, it only lasted about 3 seconds, but I was hooked. Often when people first have wakesurfing described to them, they simply cannot understand that you are truly surfing behind a boat. The questions I repeatedly get asked are, “so you’re not strapped in to your board?” And, “you’re not holding onto a rope?” Invariably, the line of questioning usually leads to the comment/question, “How do you stand up and get going?!” Hopefully the illustrations and explanation below will make it easier for beginners to understand and make it easier to explain to those who’ve never seen it.

NOTE!: Only go wakesurfing behind an inboard boat. Never use a wake surfboard behind an outboard, stern drive, or inboard/outboard boat. If you can see the boat’s propeller, do not surf behind that boat. Wakesurfing behind these types of boats is very dangerous.

When you start, you’ll be in the water with a surfboard, and you’ll be holding onto a rope that is attached to the boat. Your rope should be long enough to put you between 8 and 9 feet behind the boat, with a small handle or simply a knot – to prevent you from easily getting tangled in it if you fall. When wakesurfing, the goal is to let go of the rope and ‘free ride’, surfing with nothing more than the power of the wave pushing you. However, when learning for the first time or learning new tricks, you’ll want to hold on to the rope and ‘line ride’ until you get the hang of it. When line riding, your rope will be slack the majority of the time unless you stall (lose the wave), in which case you can use the rope to recover and get back into the sweet spot.

Step 1: heels resting on board

So, to begin, you want to lie on your back in the water, with the surfboard in front of you and perpendicular to the boat. Place your feet on the board, with the heels resting on the board and your toes pointing up into the air. Position the rope between your feet so that as you get pulled up it will be as though someone is pulling you up and forward from a sitting position to your feet.

Illustration 1:

Step 1a: Positioning of your feet:

It is important to position your heels so that they are below the center line of the board. The idea is that you want your feet to be centered on the board once you are standing, so place your heels where they’ll be for that to happen naturally as you’re pulled up.

Illustration 2:

Step 2: Boat begins to pull

Once the boat begins to pull you, the water will begin to exert pressure on the underside of the board and, if you’ve positioned your heels correctly, they will act as a fulcrum and cause the board to flip up against your feet and remain held there as you begin to stand. This will be very familiar at this point to anyone who has wakeboarding experience.

Illustration 3:

Step 3: Stand and turn

Now you will come up into a standing position and immediately begin pointing your lead foot towards the boat, so that the board will be parallel to the boat, rather than perpendicular as it was when you began. This standing and twisting action almost happens simultaneously as you stand up.

Illustration 4 & 5:

Step 4: Move into the wave

Now, using the rope to help keep your balance, you want to move over into place on the wave. The faster you can do this the better. If you wait too long to move from the center of the wake over to the wave, then by the time you get there you’re going to have a long drop from the top of the wave into the sweet spot. As a beginner, this almost always results in you diving the nose of your board and going down. Working with your driver to try to position the boat so that you’re already on the wave side of the wake before getting pulled up can help a lot until you’re used to it.

It is always easier to learn how to surf on the same side of the wake as your dominant foot. A regular foot would surf to the port side, and a goofy foot would surf to the starboard side. This makes you face the wave as you’re surfing, making it easier to get a feel for what happens as you ride up and down it.

Illustration 5 & 6:

Step 5: Surf or Swim

Now you’re in the wave and it’s time to have some fun. Shift your weight forward to accelerate towards the boat, and shift it back to slow down. Experiment with cutting away and back in to the wave. Once you finally get into the spot where you’re being pushed by the wave and nothing else – you’ll be hooked and will understand why all those surfers at the ocean give up so much free time to find the perfect wave.

Some great videos on how it looks once you’re surfing

Here’s an excellent How-To video that summarizes everything I’ve covered in the article and more.

This is a great video that shows several different skill levels of wakesurfing. Also shown here is another way to get up on a board without starting in the water (once you’re good enough!)