We went Wake Boarding !

Well, yesterday we had a planned electricity outage. Energex replaced a big transformator here in the neighborhood and electricity was planned to be down the whole morning + afternoon, so we took a day off and decided to go wake-boarding ! We thought that since we want to go kite-surfing, and part of kite-surfing is wake-boarding, we'd get some wake-board experience. We didn't know pro-wakeboarders from all around the world came to practice at the cable park just around the corner here in Bli Bli on the Sunshine Coast, but it was fun to see them do the jumps and get their advice and tips. In fact, I was positively impressed by the brotherhood-feeling and the nice people that didn't laugh at newcomers but enthousiastically helped them and gave advice and spurred them on to try again until they finally did it. The same was true for Kim and I. It can be a bit overwhelming to be standing in front of the queue with these pro-wakeboarders and then ask "Ok, so what do I do now?". Generally speaking , this was the advice :
- Try and keep your knees bent
- Put more weight on your back leg than on your front leg
- at "launch" ( this is where you start ), make sure you don't try and steer, just let the board do the work for you
- at "launch" make sure you keep your elbows in and pull the rope all the way towards your belly and don't let it be pulled away from there.

So, first in line was now Lex, with Kim just behind. Wakeboard slightly angled, rope all the way down to his belly, knees bent. "Ok, you ready mate?". What are you going to say really ? "No, I'm not ready?" ... so "yes" and off the yellow line went. As you see the yellow line go you know that your near future has only two outcomes : Either you get out of the water or you will get face-down towed through the water. Guess what ? Lex got his sinuses cleared.

So after Lex crashed, Kim had a go. Kim cheated and went for the kneeboard first. She got the rope in her hands, and off she went, no nosedive, just off cruising. On my second attempt the guys told me that I had to hold the rope tighter "Don't let it pull your arms out", which is easier said than done, these things remind me of a ski-lift, and since they not only have to pull 10-20 full grown men but also at speed, the power of the rope is not to be underestimated. My arms got pulled, I went forwards, water got under the top of my wake-board ( a clear "crash imminent" warning ) and that was it , nosedive number two.

Kim by then had done a lap on her kneeboard and decided she'd join the big boys and got a wake-board also. Nosedive ! After two more tries I finally realized what I was doing wrong : I held the rope all the way down with stretched arms, and ofcourse you have no strength that way, so this time I decided to hold the rope higher up with my elbows and I had a big more success : I got out of the water and then fell on my back end : Next time I would get it !
Kim went just before me and I saw her get out of the water, and do at least 30 meters, cheering with 1 arm in the air and eventually falling off. But she did it ! Next try , I too got out of the water, and forgot to actually steer and landed about the same spot as Kim did. Kim called it for the day and I had one more go : I had all the knowledge now, and I knew that I would be able to get to the first bend if I just kept trying. So my last try I got not only to the first bend, I actually made half a lap ( 3 corners ) ! I was pretty tired and my muscles hurt all over, but I was very satisfied with our achievements. Next morning : Our muscles hurt even more !