8 Year Old Wanting To Wakeboard

[Chef]

My 8 year old has been watching my oldest son board for the last few years and wants to give it a go this year. Renting a board for him to try it out this week when we go out. Anyone have suggestions on how to get him out of the water and keep him up for a bit? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[giers]

My kids just started as well. We watched the following videos. You might find them helpful. If the links do not work google Lane "Dawg" Bowers and you get the links free from his website. Not sure what the expects will think of them but we found some of the info helpful. My kids got up first pull on their first try and stayed up. We do not have a teaching boom, but have thought of purchasing one.

I have attached 2 photos of my girls first pull.


http://1hourwakeboarding.com/video1/
http://1hourwakeboarding.com/video2/
http://1hourwakeboarding.com/video3/
http://1hourwakeboarding.com/video4/

Hope this helps.

[rushin]

Shorten the rope. it gives the rope more of a angle which aids in pulling them up out of the water.

[TeamAllen]

Shorten the rope. it gives the rope more of a angle which aids in pulling them up out of the water.

I totally agree with Rushin. Shorten the rope.

[Chef]

Thanks for all the info. Im gonna hit Canyon Lake here in Az on Monday, and ill let you know how it goes!

[Chef]

Got my son strapped up and in the water, then he got scared and backed out. Hopefully next time he will have the courage to do it.

[wallacmc]

Two schools of thought: make him do it at that point or let him get cold feet and wait for next time. I think you did the right thing. Right after he got back in the boat, I hope he got to watch your other son have all that fun so that he won't be able to help himself next time! I towed an eight year old girl two weekends ago and had never towed anyone but an adult. She had never been up for more than a few seconds before but did great. I towed her at about 13mph but inched the throttle when bringing her up. For me, the trick was to know when to speed up (which ended up being quite quickly. I shortened the rope to as short as it would go and she loved it. The only thing was that once she was up, she kept going off to the right because she was struggling to turn her board straight. Good luck! Once he gets up, you'll never be able to get him back in the boat. All you'll hear is, "one more time?"