Wake Surfing for Beginners
How to Get Slack
Published: July 13, 2007
After you have gotten up and learned to keep your balance, the next step is to learn to control the line tension. Your goal is to get slack. Slack in the line signals that you are no longer being pulled along by the rope and are (at least to some extent) being pushed by the wake.
As always, it is very important that you never surf behind and Inboard/Outboard or Outboard boat. When you get slack you will be even closer to the back of the boat. This is only safe on an inboard.
Getting slack is all about where you lean. In other water sports (like wakeboarding and water skiing), the key is to lean back against the rope. In surfing, you want to do the complete opposite. You want to lean forward.
Think of the surfboard like this:
The front of the surfboard is your gas pedal, the back is the brake. Leaning more over your front tow will push your board more into the wake, thus giving you more thrust. So, if you want to get slack, you should lean over your front toes.
Be careful not to lean too far forward or you will sink the tip of your board. Lean too far over your toes and you will go over to the other side of the wake. There's a happy medium where you will achieve stability.
You will need to be pretty close to the boat to get slack, and you should first optimize your surfing wake. You will have to work at it a bit to perfect your skills and to get comfortable with being close to the boat.
Once you are comfortable with getting and keeping slack you can work on surfing without the rope.
Need help with this trick? Visit our wakesurfing forum.
