Tip 3: The Correct Wakeboard Stance: How to Ride Relaxed and in Control

Once the start works reliably, the first trick is not what comes next. What comes next is the least spectacular drill in the whole sport, which is simply standing on the board properly. Learn that early and you save yourself months of corrections later.

A relaxed wakeboard stance starts with standing tall

What do most people do the moment they first get to their feet? They drop into a deep crouch, tense up everything they have and wreck their wakeboard stance in the process. Across the first hours in our academy we barely see anything else.

Try the opposite. Stand relaxed and fairly upright, knees only slightly bent. Chest stays up, shoulders sit over the board, arms hang loose on the handle. It should feel athletic, never stiff.

The idea behind it is simple. You are just standing there comfortably instead of holding yourself onto the water. A proper wakeboard stance therefore looks like remarkably little is happening, and that is exactly how you recognise it.

Keep slightly more weight on your back foot

As a guideline we work with roughly 60 percent of your weight on the back foot and 40 percent on the front. That keeps the nose of the board a little higher. It lowers the odds of catching your front edge, which causes some of the nastier falls out there.

One thing gets misread constantly, so it is worth saying plainly. You are not meant to lean dramatically backwards. It really is only a small shift in weight. Go too far back and you lose the edge just as fast as someone loading the nose. How much support you feel underneath all this also depends on how well your wakeboard bindings fit, which is why a beginner wakeboard stance is easier to hold in boots that actually sit tight.

Relaxed arms and eyes up

Both points share one cause, which is doing too much yourself. Do not pull the handle towards your body. The tension already exists, the boat generates it for you.

Pull anyway and the board starts rotating underneath you. You slide backwards onto your backside or briefly lose rope tension altogether. When the rope snaps tight again, that surge throws you forward. Staying loose keeps the tension as steady as it can be.

The second point is your eyes. During the start, tip 1 only asked you to keep them off your feet. Once you are riding, a second job appears: your gaze steers where the board actually goes. On your first turns it travels towards wherever you want to end up, and your body follows almost by itself. That habit carries straight over into a solid wakeboard stance on the edges.

When you can ride straight behind the boat without constantly correcting yourself, the stance is there. A coach at our wakeboard lessons will spot the remaining gap within ten minutes. After that it is time for the edges, and that is tip 4.