Tip 1: How to Get Up on a Wakeboard Without Fighting the Rope

The first attempt behind the boat feels like a wrestling match with the water for most people. It almost never comes down to strength, though, but to one reflex that nearly every beginner brings along. In tip 1 of his series, Maurus Zwicker shows you how to drop it.

The mistake almost everyone makes on the first try

Ask ten beginners how to get up on a wakeboard and nine of them will pull on the rope or push their legs against the tow. It feels like taking control. In reality it is the exact moment the start falls apart.

Oddly enough, it works the other way round. The harder you work, the heavier the start gets. As soon as you pull, the board tips up and pushes a wall of water ahead of it. Resistance builds. Your energy is gone before you are anywhere near standing.

Maurus Zwicker, founder of Wakefactory and IWWF wakeboard champion, watches this reflex play out in almost every first session on Lake Lugano.

Stay compact and let the boat do the work

So what does work? Something that feels wrong at first, because it consists of doing almost nothing. Pull your knees in towards your chest, keep your arms long and relaxed, and leave the handle exactly where it is.

Your only job is to stay small and quiet. Your board sits across the direction of pull, so its surface works for you instead of against you. Picture the boat rolling you out of the water. Once it clicks, that is exactly how it feels.

One detail decides a lot: your eyes go forward to the boat, never down to your feet. Anyone staring at the board tips over the nose almost automatically.

When to stand up out of the water

Right behind it comes the second mistake, which is standing up too early. Timing matters more than anything else here. And timing mostly means one thing: waiting.

Wait until you feel the board planing on the surface and carrying your weight. Only then do you rise slowly, roughly the way you get up from a chair. Straighten your legs too soon and the board shoots out in front of you.

And when it does go wrong? As soon as you lose your balance, you let go of the handle instead of letting the boat drag you along. That part is not up for discussion. A properly fitted vest goes without saying, even if you are a strong swimmer.

Learning how to get up on a wakeboard is faster with a coach

Practise often enough and you will figure out the start on your own eventually. It goes considerably faster with someone in the boat telling you what your body is actually doing, because plenty of things feel different on the water than they look. For exactly that reason we run wakeboard lessons in Agno on Lake Lugano. If you are still missing gear for those first sessions, board and bindings already come matched in a wakeboard package.

Knowing how to get up on a wakeboard cleanly is the foundation for everything that follows. Only once you come up relaxed do you have the headspace for the edge. Tip 2 picks up right there.