40 Fun Facts About Wakeboarding

Retired pro wakeboarder Chandler Powell married which famous Australian in 2020?

Bindi Irwin, daughter of conservationists Steve and Terri Irwin, met Powell at Australia Zoo in 2013. He retired from wakeboarding in 2016 and joined the zoo's management team.

Which 2009 Nintendo game includes wakeboarding among twelve motion-controlled activities on Wuhu Island?

Wii Sports Resort has players weave behind a speedboat to get air, then tilt the remote at just the right angle to land flat on the water and bank the trick's points.

As in surfing and skateboarding, which stance name describes a wakeboarder who rides right foot forward?

Goofy riders lead with the right foot, the mirror image of regular-footers, who lead with the left. Riding the unfamiliar way round is known as riding switch.

Wakeboarders often use soap or which bathroom product to help slide their feet into tight bindings?

Shaving cream is a common stand-in for the specially made binding lubes sold to riders, whose snug rubber-and-foam boots can be a struggle to pull on.

Which sport beat wakeboarding and six others in the IOC's 2013 vote for a place at the 2020 Olympics?

Wrestling won with 49 votes, reclaiming a place the IOC board had voted to take away only months earlier. Wakeboarding was cut when the field of eight was trimmed to three that May.

Wakeboarders call rough water choppy; which slang word do they use for water that is perfectly smooth?

Glass and butter both mean smooth water in wakeboarding slang, while a bumpy wake topped with white, turbulent water is called washy.

Wakeboard world champion Shaun Murray later competed on which TV obstacle-course show?

American Ninja Warrior gave Murray a new kind of course to tackle after a wakeboarding career that brought four world titles and his own Activision video game.

Which term from skateboarding names a wakeboard jump made by pushing down on the back foot?

Ollie is the skateboarder's word for popping the board into the air. Wakeboarders also call the same move a bunny hop, a name that comes from BMX riding.

Tony Finn's 1985 forerunner of the wakeboard went on sale under which name?

Skurfer boards could be rented at marinas by the late 1980s: future world champion Shaun Murray first rode one on a family trip to Lake Shasta, aged eleven.

Which bird names the wakeboard stance with both feet angled outward toward the nose and tail?

Duck stance, or duck-foot, mirrors the two bindings at even angles, a symmetrical set-up that suits riding with either foot leading.

Which word names the extra weight, often water in built-in tanks, that enlarges a wakeboard boat's wake?

Ballast can be passengers, lead or anything else heavy, as well as water. The deeper the weight makes the boat sit, the bigger the wake it throws up.

Which tall aluminium frame on a wakeboard boat raises the tow rope so riders stay in the air longer?

Tower frames lift the rope's pulling point, which cuts the downward tug on an airborne rider. They also double as mounts for board racks and speakers.

Which multi-sport event for non-Olympic sports held its wakeboarding contests in Birmingham, Alabama in 2022?

The World Games usually follow a year after each Summer Olympics, and the Birmingham edition slipped from 2021 to 2022 when the Tokyo Olympics were postponed.

Wakeboarder Parks Bonifay, first to land a documented 1080, joined Travis Pastrana's crew on which MTV stunt show?

Nitro Circus was a natural fit for Bonifay, whose parents and grandparents were show skiers and who set a world record by water skiing before he was seven months old.

Which offshoot of wakeboarding uses no bindings, so riders wear shoes on a board covered in grip tape?

Wakeskating takes its name and its tricks from the skateboard: with nothing tying the feet down, riders can flick the board through kickflips that bindings rule out.

In which water sport does the rider let go of the tow rope and ride the boat's wave freely?

Wakesurfing needs the rope only for getting up; riders then drop it and surf the steep face of the wave at around 10 mph, far slower than a wakeboarder travels.

A wakeboard closely resembles the twin-tip board used in which wind-powered water sport?

Kitesurfing shares so many moves with wakeboarding that kiters treat cable parks as a nearby alternative for days when the wind does not blow.

A cable park tows wakeboarders around a lake on an overhead cable driven by what?

An electric motor keeps the system quiet and clean, and a single 800-metre loop can pull ten riders at the same time.

Which removable wakeboard parts help beginners turn and stay level but can catch an edge during spins?

Fins steady the board in the water. Beginners are usually better off with deeper ones, while riders working on spins often take them off altogether.

Engineer Bruno Rixen, inventor of the modern cable-ski system, built his first cableway in which country?

Germany was his testing ground: the prototype ran on Bordesholm Lake, and the country became the heartland of cable riding. One site at Langenfeld runs four cableways.

Wakeboard boat maker Nautique builds its boats beside two private test lakes in which Florida city?

Orlando is home to Nautique's parent company, Correct Craft, which Walt Meloon started in 1925 as the Florida Variety Boat Company.

Why do wakeboarders favour ropes made of Spectra or Kevlar over ordinary water-ski lines?

They barely stretch, so the pull stays consistent as a rider cuts in at the wake. The first wakeboarders had to make do with springy ski rope.

Which wakeboarding trick, a heelside backflip, is often regarded as the first and easiest invert to learn?

Tantrum flips come almost for free: the shape of the wake itself starts the backward rotation, so an intermediate rider mostly has to let it happen.

Which wakeboarding trick, first credited to Darin Shapiro, is named after one of his coaches, Chet?

Raley tricks throw the rider out flat behind the boat, body parallel to the water and board above the head, so one counts as an invert without any flip.

Which term describes a wakeboard's curve from tip to tail, sold in continuous and three-stage versions?

Rocker shapes the jump: a continuous curve gives a smoother pop and landing, while a three-stage board, flat in the middle, pops more abruptly and lands a little harder.

At cable parks, what is the floating ramp that mimics the shape of a boat's wake called?

Kicker ramps stand in for the wake that an overhead cable cannot make. Riders usually wear a helmet to hit them, as they do for rails.

In wakeboarding slang, a rider who lands a trick smoothly and cleanly is said to have done what?

Stomped it is the compliment. Casing it means coming down abruptly right on top of the wake, and a butt check is a sloppy landing that drags the rider's backside.

Which wakeboarding slang names a faceplant so sudden that the rider hits the water without time to blink?

Eye-opener falls usually start when the toeside edge catches, pitching the rider forward so fast that the face slaps the water hard.

Which manoeuvre sends a wakeboard boat back across its own wakes at 90 degrees to build a far bigger launch?

Double-up wakes converge into one about twice the usual size, and a rider who times the hit gets far more air. A triple-up adds another kink to the boat's path.

Pioneers Tony Finn and Jimmy Redmon launched which wakeboard brand three weeks before the 1995 World Championships?

Liquid Force made its debut on its team riders at that event. The founders had begun as rivals: Redmon also set up the sport's governing body, where Finn worked as a contest announcer.

H.O. Sports worked with Hawaiian surfboard shapers on which 1991 board, the first compression-molded wakeboard?

Hyperlite boards launched with circular dimples called phasers underneath to soften landings, and a year later Darin Shapiro helped design the Pro version.

The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation, world body for towed water sports, began in 1946 in which country?

Switzerland hosted the founding in Geneva, and the federation is the sole authority for towed water sports recognised by the International Olympic Committee.

The Masters water-ski and wakeboard tournament at Callaway Gardens, Georgia, is held on which US holiday weekend?

Memorial Day weekend brings the Masters to Robin Lake, where it has run since 1959 as one of water skiing's oldest majors. Wakeboarders joined the programme later.

Which four-time X Games champion became the first wakeboarder to land a 1260-degree spin behind a boat, in 2008?

Danny Harf turned professional at 16 and later made the wakeboarding film Defy, shot partly at his favourite practice spot, Radar Lake in Washington state.

Which wakeboarder won X Games gold at fourteen and later the ESPY for Best Female Action Sports Athlete?

Dallas Friday was that award's first ever winner, in 2004. Her first name honours Dallas, the small North Carolina town where her father grew up.

Which boat builder invented the Wedge, a plate lowered at the stern to pull it deeper and steepen the wake?

Malibu built the Wedge as a hydrofoil that can be extended or retracted; when it is down, its downward force drags the back of the boat lower in the water.

MasterCraft, builder of the X Series wakeboard boats, began in 1968 in a two-horse barn in which US state?

Tennessee was home to founder Rob Shirley's in-laws: the water-ski instructor moved to their farm after closing his Florida ski school and built just twelve boats in the first year.

Which inboard layout, common on wakeboard boats, mounts the engine backwards at the stern to keep weight aft?

V-drive boats carry the engine at the very back, which sinks the stern and builds a larger wake; a direct-drive boat keeps its engine in the middle.

Which portable device, a small engine turning a spool of rope, lets wakeboarders ride urban spots without a boat?

Winch set-ups use a small horizontal-shaft engine to reel the rope in at riding speed, and they are credited with bringing board riding to city waters.

Darin Shapiro, nicknamed The Scud, landed the first wakeboard trick with two flips and gave it which name?

Speedball was one of many tricks Shapiro pioneered on his way to twelve world titles, and in 2010 he became the first pro wakeboarder inducted into the Water Ski Hall of Fame.