Recommendations on starting kids on water sports

[BigAbe75]

Wife and I both ski some. The 2 older kids (<1, 4, & 10) like to tube. Thinking the 10yr old will be ready this summer to start the next level.

Thinking beginner skis of some sort, but don't know much about them.

I don't have any experience at all with wake boards. (Certainly not opposed, though)

Any suggestions on where to start her and what equipment I need to look at?

Thanks!

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

I started mine out on knee boards first, then wake board and then skies

 

[swatski]

My kids started with special platform ski-like contraption designed by Jim Woods, Bull Shoals Lake. He called that thing "Big-Bamoo". Pushing eighty now and slowing down, but he was one of the pioneers of the sport and one of the first guys to bare foot. Wonderful instructor! He got us all hooked on water sports as a family activity.

My kids went on to a floaty kneeboard, then skis, and then wakeboard. Kneeboard is the easiest to start, just make sure your speed is nice and steady when they climb up, usually about 8mph.
Lots of good instructional videos for wakeboarding, probably the most fun.

And then, of course, there is wake surfing.

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[COtoFLsurf]

Skis are a great place to start since you just hang on and stand up. Lots of beginner ski options, including inflatables (which builds on their current enjoyment of tubing) , one-piece wood skis (so can't get skis crossed) , and doubles with a rope on the tips . My vote would be the doubles with rope on the tips, they will be skiing right away and you can remove the rope when they are ready. Kneeboarding is next logical step since a little more involved getting up, typically a little more speed, they can start catching a little air and try a few tricks, and guessing once they kneeboard they will have the "boarding bug" and move pretty quickly to wakeboarding.

 

[swatski]

I must say never had much luck with my kids learning on those one piece skis, albeit they sure make it look like it should be easy...
We only tried one of those and absolutely hated it, but a lot will also depend on the kid etc.

Very interesting what @COtoFLsurf is saying, I would not think of kneeboarding that way. I am NOT an expert or an instructor, but here is what worked for us with kneeboards. Steady slow (~8mph) pull is the key. I my case, kids would (slowly) crawl up on the board, which at that point is attached to the rope hooked up front, and kneel on top. Once they stabilize, strap themselves in, and become comfortable, they reach out and pull up the handle. That is the signal they are ready, we crank up the speed a little bit. That's all there is to it.
I don't particularly care for kneeboarding, but my kids were doing (very slow) 360s on the kneeboard before they would ever stand up on skis.

EDIT: For the record - we strongly discourage tubing, have to give in from time to time, more as an earned credit of sorts if they do skilled water sport first.
I hate tubes. I think those are very dangerous, too.

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[biffdotorg]

We have an HO kneeboard that has the hook on the tip that allows the board to hold the rope while they get up. They can then grab the rope once they are up and knees strapped down. The youngest would even set the rope handle back on the hook if her hands got tired.

I would say that all the kids, once a year would try skiing, but there truly is no interest at all in skiing amongst them anymore. They know we don't ski, so they don't aspire to try. They do see other kids boarding and surfing. So that is usually top of the list of try items. But tubing seems to entertain all ages. I do think we may board a bit more this summer. We invested in a better board that may help out.

Good luck,

 

[robert cabrerea]

Knee boards are the best way to go

 

[Julian]

Never bought a knee board as I did it as a teen and it killed my back. We started with tubes, then bought one of the U shaped wooden ski trainers shown above. My wife would drive and we'd pull into a shallow sand bar and I'd get their feet into the board and literally hold them up in a standing position. My wife would take out the slack and I'd call hit it and she'd accelerate off. I got my daughter started on it this way, and got up EVERY kid I ever did this with. One tip if you get one.....make sure you slow down slowly if they want to stop....otherwise they can do a header onto the ski.....which makes them not want to do it again.

Another trick is to use a tube as a starting point. Have them sit on the tube and take off from there, leaving the tube behind.

My daughter moved from this to wake boarding, and loves wakeboarding and wants to wake surf (which will be this coming summers primary....most likely).

I can bring the ski trainer to Shelbyville if you are attending and don't have one by then. Its probably time for me to sell it as we didn't use it at all last year.

 

[Gerrie]

Agree with Julian and others. Shallow water and holding them for take off. We held the kids in semi-squat position for take-off. We used and still use the double rope beginner ski as above and take the ski attachment off as they got better. My daughter started at 6 being held, then the big tube sit and ski and then deep water. Progressed on to wake board and now knee board. My son started at 5, got up a couple of times, tried deep water start, freaked out, called it quits and hasn't gone back to skis yet, now 8. Did however got into knee boarding and yet to try wake boarding. The best bit is they both have found something that makes the boat fun and happy to go out. After the ski fail for my son we had a dark year of bribing and begging to get him on the boat again. From my kids experience I judge the easiest to start and progress would be tubing, knee board, skis, wake board, wake skate/surf. Neighbor's kid has given bare footing a shot at 8.

 

[Matt Phillips]

Wakeboarding and surfing are the rage now and that's likely what they see others on the lake doing. I'd guess they'd be more interested in learning one of those over skiing.

For those that don't do either, I have a Zup Board which is basically a kneeboard with a hook on it. The difference being you aren't strapped to it like a kneeboard so as people get better, they can try standing on it. That may be another option to start with.

 

[BigAbe75]

Thanks for all the ideas! I've seen that Zup board but couldn't remember the name of it.

@Julian I'll remember you have that trainer board available. Hopefully, by Shelbyville we'll have something already figured out. One thought, is there a recommended weight range on that? I'm wondering if double skis with the rope wouldn't be better as she's pretty tall and 85lbs.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Julian]

@Julian I'll remember you have that trainer board available. Hopefully, by Shelbyville we'll have something already figured out. One thought, is there a recommended weight range on that? I'm wondering if double skis with the rope wouldn't be better as she's pretty tall and 85lbs.

I had a 125lb 12 year old boy on it....but that was a stretch.

One of the best things I did was have my daughter go on someone else's boat and take direction from them vs from Mom/Dad! @jcyamaharider and @jcyamahariders wife (EDITED--should have said @ar240owner and @ar240owner's Wife) did this at Shelbyville a few years ago. It was perhaps an hour, and she ended up getting up on a wake surf board. What this accomplished was 2 fold: 1) she learned the movement of how to get up on a board (which is the same sort of movement for all board/ski based sports) and 2) she got past the fear/anxiety of the process (getting water in your face/falling/being left behind etc).

It is amazing how kids learn and listen so much better when it isn't mom/dad! Thanks again to the jcyamahariders!

 

[jcyamaharider]

I think that was with @ar240owner and @ar240owner's Wife , but we would have been more then happy to do this as well.

 

[Julian]

I think that was with @ar240owner and @ar240owner's Wife , but we would have been more then happy to do this as well.

LOL....you are correct....that'll teach me to not post before the caffeine is fully into my system! Their name change had me all messed up....that is why I messed up....nothing to do with my addled brain! LOL

 

[rocknracing]

My 4 year old has been wanting to wakeboard like daddy all last year so we got him one for Christmas and have been practicing in the basement on how to get up and transfer his weight around. I have my wakeboard rope he holds onto and then will pull him up and pull him around the basement. Then we once the water warms up we will start off by the beach with myself or my wife pulling him as we run close to shore. He will start off in the water just like he would behind the boat. Then once he gets use to that then we will start pulling him behind the boat. One of my cousins taught his 3 year old the same way about 4 years ago and it worked very well. My 2 1/2 year old has been watching us and now he is wanting to start to learn. Here is a picture of my youngest practicing!!

 

[buckbuck]

That there is the correct age to teach them kids.

 

[biffdotorg]

Surfing was the easiest of all things to teach the kids. Their lack of weight was there biggest advantage. Popping out of the water and standing on a slow moving board was the easiest thing they did. That being said, without a mentor to show them what to do once they were up, they got bored easily. They saw no point in doing it, not knowing what to do once they were up.

Watching other do it, and watching youtube videos helped, as they could then get an idea of what was possible. That was the biggest point of the death of skiing in our family. Nobody saw the point in doing it other than to appease the parent asking them to try it.

 

[swatski]

@biffdotorg Have you tried swim platform starts, or was it easy enough to stand up in the water?

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[biffdotorg]

In the water was cake. It was really cool when we started surfing as nobody in the boat had ever done it, or seen it done in person. We had just watched some youtube videos on how to start. Me (the big fat kid) jumped in first and was up on the first shot. The kids figured it out quickly and shared tips.

Once they realized the board was easy to stand on, and the tower would lift them out of the water, it was cake. I invested in a new wakeboard last fall during the closeout sales. We will see how that goes this summer. As we all got a chance to try boarding on a cheapo borrowed board last summer. We will see if we can figure out this board. It was more for me, as the borrowed board was just too small for me. I needed longer and wider. I hope to slay that thing, and show those kids what's up. (I dream about showing up my kids now)

 

[luckie_529]

This was my son at 10