Wakeboarding is a combination of various sports disciplines: water skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, acrobatics. This extreme entertainment is riding behind a boat on a special board with a footrest.
Its main difference from other "board brothers" is that the board is wide, short and non—thin. As for the boat, it moves at a speed of 30 km / h, creating a wave behind it, which serves as a springboard for the athlete.
Wakeboarding is considered to be the least traumatic of extreme sports, as "hard" falls and fractures rarely occur here. Water skiers who want to try something new come to this sport, snowboarders who get an excellent opportunity to "overwinter" the summer. Interestingly, athletes from more "heavy" disciplines are also not indifferent to such extreme entertainment. For example, the award-winning boxer Vitali Klitschko takes an active part in the wake movement of Ukraine and enjoys riding the board.
Wakeboarding: where did it all start from
The history of wakeboarding began in North America, great merits in the development of a new "water" sport belong to surfers. In 1985, Californian Tony Finn, for a more comfortable ride on the water, attached special straps to the board to fix the legs. Thanks to this solution, it became possible to perform high jumps and a variety of tricks. Then the surfers took another step towards comfortable board riding: in order not to wait for waves from the sea, they began to ride along the coastline behind a boat or car.
The first real wakeboarding board was built by Herb O'Brien. To popularize his invention, O'Brien attracted the famous athlete Darin Shapiro, who performed incredible tricks on the new projectile. Jumping on waves performed by Shapiro is considered a classic of extreme sports. This man is a legend in the world of his own school in Orlando (Florida). By the way, Orlando is still the Mecca of all wakeboarders.
The next stage in the development of a new extreme entertainment was in 1992, when wakeboarding became a professional sports discipline. Soon, a specialized magazine, Wake Boarding, appeared, which is still published in Florida.
Today, there are more than a thousand different amateur tournaments around the world, World Cups and wakeboarding championships are held. The first world-class competitions in the territory of the former Soviet Union were held in 2008 in Kiev. More than 5,000 spectators and 37 participants from 12 countries gathered in the Ukrainian capital. This extreme sport appeared in Belarus about ten years ago.
Development of sports in Belarus
Nikolay Buyanovsky, founder of the first wake club in Belarus, Pilot wake club, says: "For the first time in the history of Belarusian wakeboarding, our guys participated in competitions in 2007 in Ukraine, the performance of Belarusians was a real surprise for the Ukrainian judges, who saw the performance of some tricks for the first time and could not evaluate them according to the judicial rules."
When evaluating competitions, the decisive factors are the style of performance, the level of risk, the dynamism and saturation of the program, the entertainment and originality of the athlete's performance. By the way, in wakeboarding, the opinion of the audience is always taken into account when calculating points. "For example, at the 2009 WWA Wake Park World Series World Cup, the fans really liked one of the elements of the performance of our Belarusian wakeboarder," Nikolai Buyanovsky continues, "the judges had to take into account the reaction of the audience and give a positive assessment for the trick. Although there was a clear lack of formality of performance, noticeable, however, only to athletes
and judges.
Wakeboarding: the basics of the basics
To make particularly high jumps on the board, there are several ways: you need to add additional ballast on board or put more friends in the boat. Then you can perform unique pirouettes on the wake, take off to a height of over three meters. Wakeboarding has its own set of tricks: grabbing the board in the air, rotating the board and body in flight, flipping upside down. Nikolai Buyanovsky recalled an interesting story related to the height of jumps: "Once at a competition, a Belarusian wakeboarder performed a Kaiey trick very high from a springboard (the board rises above head level without performing a somersault, due to throwing the body back and up in a deflection) — and "flew out"out of the frame. The operator simply did not expect that this was possible, and could not capture such a high flight. Subsequently, in the video report, the commentators behind the scenes only had to tell in words, to everyone's indignation and disappointment, what a high flight it was and how it"missed"operator".
Where to go for extreme sports and a slim figure
Wakeboarding can be practiced not only by riding behind a boat, but also in a special cable park — a place where metal cables stretched between towers tow an athlete through the water. This version of wakeboarding is called a cable car. It has a significant advantage: skating is available to more people — up to 8 people can train at the same time. The cable car was invented by German engineer Bruno Ricksen. The company organized by him is still engaged in the production of equipment for such installations, constantly improving their design. In Germany, for example, there are 58 cable cars operating today.
"The only cable car in Belarus, which is under the jurisdiction of the RCOP for water skiing, is located 7 km along the Brest highway, at the Ptich reservoir," says Nikolai Buyanovsky. — Training sessions are held from the beginning of May until the onset of cold weather. In the club you can rent the necessary equipment, take free training, attend master classes. Novice wakeboarders start with "sessions" of 10-15 minutes each. 70% of beginners get on the board already in the first lesson. To stay on the wakeboard, you need to master the duck food rack – the legs are symmetrically deployed today there are 58 cable cars.
Slimness and entertainment at the same time
In the course of training, muscles will develop, coordination will improve — after all, jumping in wakeboarding is akin to acrobatic, only with "weights"— a board. Almost all muscle groups work during skating - 15 minutes on the board is comparable to an hour spent in the gym. That's why all wakeboarders are fit and slim. There are also some muscles involved that you can "pump up" on simulators — they are usually trained only by bodybuilders. In addition, a wakeboarder gets an aerobic load: outdoor activities, fresh air are also a significant plus to the slimness of your figure. Wakeboarders are so involved in this sport that nothing hinders them anymore: neither bad weather, nor water in the ear, nor the possibility of injury. Aviator game download