Wakeboarding is an interesting and exciting water sport. If you are bored of swimming, doing nothing and you want to do something spectacular, learn wake boarding! This is the extreme sport, combining style and fun. It allows wakeboarders to express themselves by coming up with their own wakeboarding styles. There is certainly room for innovation and creativity for wakeboarders. Therefore, wake boarding is bound to evolve and continue to grow in the coming years.

Wakeboarding is a relatively new boardsport, created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques.

As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing setup, but typically at slower speeds (18 - 24mph).

Instead of skis, the rider wears a single board with stationary non-release bindings for each foot, standing sideways as on a snowboard or skateboard. The boards, which can float, are typically 130 - 147cm long and up to 45cm wide (shorter and wider than a snowboard) as well as being convex (tips 15 - 25cm) rather than concave as a snowboard.

A wakeboarding boat is similar to a water ski boat except that the rope is normally mounted on a tower about 2 metres above the water line and the boat is also weighted and trimmed, with strategically placed large water ballasts tanks, to give a larger wake. The wake is used as hits or ramps would be in other boardsports. Steering the board by a combination of direction and cutting the edges into the water, the rider can move outside of the wake, then cut rapidly in toward the wake, hitting it and launching themselves into the air.

As with many freestyle sports such as snow boarding and surfing, there is almost a separate language of terms to describe various tricks (Off-axis, Tantrum, Elephant, Whirlybird, 5, 7, 9, 10).

The sport is growing in popularity as it is fairly easy to pick up, but offers a wide opportunity for self-expression. A limiting factor to a beginner wakeboarder is often the cost of the boats. One of the best boats, the Correct Craft Super Air Nautique, can fetch upwards of 60,000 dollars on the "new" market.

A more advanced variation is wake skating, which has extremely close ties to street skateboarding.

Liquid Force and Hyperlite are two leading wakeboard manufacturers. Correct Craft and Master Craft are two leading wakeboard boat manufacturers.

We offer the best wakeboarding courses. Our courses cover all age ranges and skill levels from beginners to professionals. If you are a beginner in wake boarding, we will teach you how to surf a board and work with the board before you can jump it. We will make sure that you start slowly and progress naturally. Come and sign up for our wakeboarding courses and show us your innovation and creativity. We are sure that you will have lots of fun working with our dedicated instructors!

Wakeboarding is said to be the fastest growing water sport in the world. Practiced on lakes or the sea, it's like a combination of snowboarding, waterskiing and skateboarding or a cross between mono skiing and surfing. Although it may contain an essence of all these activities, wakeboarding is most definitely a water sport in its own right. If you can water ski, then it's likely that you'll pick up wakeboarding without too much trouble and Andalucia has the perfect all-year-round climate and surroundings to learn or improve your wakeboarding skills.

The Wakeboard is like a small surfboard (average size 4.5 feet long by approximately 16 inches wide at the central point) and has foot straps fitted to the upper side. Although the foot straps look like built in ski boots, they are called 'bindings' and keep the feet fixed in one position, while the body has a sideways stance.

In the States in the mid 1980's, a Skurfer and then later a Water Ski Board led the way for the now hugely popular wakeboard. The design of the board has evolved along with the sport itself, which now even has a governing body - the World Wakeboard Association. Similar to the snowboarding fraternity, to begin with this extreme sport attracted thousands of young males between the ages of 13 and 25, but is now becoming popular with both sexes of most ages. There is a strong movement amongst the many thousands of enthusiasts to make wakeboarding an Olympic Event, in view of the fact that the sport has taken on so well, especially over the last five years.

Riders are pulled by a specially weighted boat, causing a large wake behind it. The wakeboarder swerves and cuts the water by rocking the board. The boats tend to be slightly less expensive than those used for waterskiing, making the sport even more attractive. Your credibility in the world of wakeboarding includes a whole new language, especially where the many moves are concerned. These include; Whirlybird, Tantrum and Slob 360 - none of which are for the feint hearted. On a large wake, a rider can jump 25 feet above the water. A Top Move is the 1080, which entails doing three full 360-degree flips in the air - seldom seen and only once caught on camera in America.

If you can waterski, then you should try wakeboarding to give yourself more of a challenge. Skateboarders, windsurfers and snowboarders should also catch on easily, but if you've never tried any of the above, it might be an idea to try waterskiing on two skis before you strap your feet into a wakeboard.