Wakeboarding: the off-season snowboarding option

Mark Pawlak    wakeboardworldwide     Skiing, Snowboarding, Wakeboard, wakeboard holidays, Wakeboarding

In the height of summer it’s hardly easy to keep up your snowboarding skills. While the local snowdome might be one option, it’s clearly not that much like the real thing – and even when it’s open air, there’s little to keep you close to nature – probably why wakeboarding is such a popular off-season sport for snowboarders

Wakeboarding on a river Image: Flickr/Derek Purdy

Thanks to there being just one board instead of two water skis, the parallels between the sports are obvious. And there are great tricks you can pull as well as lines you can carve.

All the board sports are kind of related: much has been written about surfers using skateboards when the seas are flat, and there are clear similarities between kitesurfing and kite buggying. As for skiing and water skiing – well, I think you get it…

Wakeboarding even shares technical terms, such as ‘kickers’ and ‘sliders’, and as with skiing, it’s largely a solo activity. Solo that is until you return to your little hostel world – staying in a hotel’s just not as much fun – and catch up with the other people who’ve also booked a course. It’s an exhilarating activity, one that looks set to further benefit from the upsurge in adventures sports and our continued love of the water.

It’s also great if you are travelling around the world and you are thousands of miles and several months from the nearest slopes. Off-piste substitute or snowboard supplement? You decide.