A long time ago on a cold, windy, rainy day in Wales, dressed in an immensely unflattering wetsuit, I tried waterskiing- and really loved it! My friends who took me out told me I was a 'natural' and afterwards I gave it another few tries at a cold, rainy, windy lake full of algae in Manchester. Needless to say I eventually gave it up for warmer hobbies...
However since that time I have always wanted to give wakeboarding a try... Fast forward a few years to when I'm living in Dubai with incredible weather and a whole big inviting Persian Gulf sea on the doorstep and I decided to give it a go!
I found a willing (and wakeboarding experienced) friend and we booked at hour session with Sea Riders UAE, a company who a friend recommended. (550aed for one hour, two people with two instructors on the boat).
We met them near Marina Mall, Dubai Marina and jumped in the boat. As the water is so warm there was no need for wetsuits, just lifejacket and I wore my bikini with a rash vest and swim shorts over the top.
The speed boat took us out to near The Palm and in front of One and Only and I went first. I was strapped onto a board- very much like snowboards with bindings. After being told that I needed to let the boat pull me up onto the board, keep legs bent until the board is flat on the surface and stand straight keeping knees soft and lean back, bend your elbows and keep the rope handle near your hip. You will naturally turn to your lead leg as you get up.
At first I wasn't too great- the force of the boat just seemed to pull me over face first into the water much to the amusement of the party yacht near us :-( but after a while I got used to the force and managed to stand up and be pulled along for a good few minutes- hurrah! The knees are soft to take the impact of the bouncy waves etc- especially when we had to turn in the wake (generally I fell off at this point!).
I'll be honest - this is quite a strenuous sport, perhaps when you get used to it you don't notice so much but you really feel the burn when you are up in your lowers arms, shoulders and abs whilst you are doing it and then after you get a serious ache in the legs!
Also you should probably be quite a strong swimmer and quite comfortable being thrown into the water etc as there is a lot of this! Not once you get more experienced of course, but to start with expect to swallow a lot of sea water!
Once you get good you can jump, hold with one hand, cut in and out of the boat's wake and switch leading foot. My friend was pretty good at jumping but stayed up for ten minutes as he knew how much he'd ache from past sessions!
I was out for 40mins which is apparently longer than most beginners and had blisters on my hands from the rope handle but all in all it was an awesome experience and one I'm definitely planning to repeat again!
