Getting our Ladies Stoked

I've witnessed a phenomenon with myself and many of my friend's girlfriends/wives. Many are excited to come out on the boat but after a trip or 2, their stoke dwindles. I think it has to do with our riding style. Us guys take it pretty serious. We coach eachother, we wake up early on weekends, we time our sets when we have limited time after work on weekdays, we max out the wake and generally don't drink when we ride. Any awesome ideas how we can create more stoke? I’ve chatted with my girlfriend about doing a special ladies session once every other week where we mellow out the vibe and don’t ballast out the wake as much. I know having a boat with a quicker ballast switch over would be ideal and would help someday.

since you said ballast switch over, I'm assuming you're talking about surfing. I have literally never heard of a girl being enthused by watching people surf. That is my problem with my girlfriend as well. She gets nervous when I wakeboard and doesn't even turn around to watch me surf. Lol.

I don't know, the sport and whole boat vibe isn't for everyone. I am lucky my wife loves wakeboarding more than I do. But we basically do it together without anyone else. My best friend's wife doesn't want anything to do with it and I don't think there is any changing that.

How long are you out in the boat? It can be long and tedious if you are out all day without some where to hang out. Bar? Hotel? Campsite?

Maybe bust out the Air Chair and trick skis???

It's usually about 5 hours total. 45 mins to the lake, 3.5 hrs on water, 45 mins home. There's nothing really around our lakes. No waterfront properties allowed.

Ballast wise, I meant dumping the ballast to make the wake smaller for more beg/int wakeboarding. I have noticed when my girlfriend rides, this does help.

My experience is that if you are really into wakeboarding, it is difficult to have others in the boat who are not. Many girlfriend's/wives like boating for the social/party/being in the sun experience. Having less experienced riders in the boat works as long as they are interested in watching and learning. I always ride better when it is just wakeboarders in the boat. If your wife/girlfriend is not really into wakeboarding, that might be a good time for them to do something with their other friends and give the guys some time with their friends -- unless you need them for a third. I think it's good for couples to give each other some space and not always be together. There are things that the ladies like to do that us guys are not very excited about.

Good points Paul. Sometimes we do need a 3rd, but I'll get more resourceful in that dept to not force it.

Girls don't want to get hurt, my wife blew out a retina in her 1st month but after skating for 3 years since , she got back to it last year. they love surfing but they do need get up skills and long line tow sports experience to transition to it, my wife likes to one wake hop since her return to it but even that comes with some risk. My wife is 58 but slalomed for 30 Years or more before her boarding accident We need to focus on the boarding this summer for both of us as surfing has dominated. Amazing though as you progress in surfing how often the board bites you as well but she musters up
To it even when she bleeds from it cause she digs surfing so much

Most girls have not done a ton of towed water sports so that lack of experience before wakeboarding contributes to the problem and an old outboard on a bass style boat is a much more forgiving situation to slalom or wakeboard though empty she digs our axis wake for skiing and rides the wedge and stock to do her hops. It's a rope time issue and my wife is s personal trainer and ex bodybuilder who works out and that helps too.

Hey Rich,

I've been thinking about this since we talked about it last month, and have a few thoughts. I'm not too sure that having a "Ladies" day/night with a smaller wake, etc may be the answer. And that's only because some women, not all of them, don't want to do something if they feel like another lady is better at the same activity then they are. And I'm not even talking about a LOT better then them, it can just be slightly better. I see it all the time in different leisure activities & sports.

I've seen it a lot where women may come on the boat but not ride unless the group is really small, and they are around people they feel comfortable with. if this starts happening more and more, they may not come on the boat all together.

I'm not saying this is happening here with you, but maybe something to think about to give you a different perspective on how to approach this issue.

BTW, let's ride! It's been too long since we sessioned together.

Now ur starting to make me think if my wife stole my stoke! Haha. I don't think so! At heart I still want to ride, but man I don't look forward to the crashes much more. Still love boating. My wife loves being on a boat! We both love to surf. Shes happy to tow me if I do throw on the board. The only thing I can think of is we have our children for one, but some really good friends also, so maybe having 'others' on the boat who aren't as hardcore makes it more enjoyable for my wife? maybe it still allows for the social/sun aspect to be there for her, while you can ride and learn. It's the one thing I've always really appreciated about boating is it doesn't matter skill level or interest really, no matter what my style is or my wife's style is we can be together on the boat have an enjoyable time.

at Next Level Ride cable here in Austin, they have ladies night every wednesday, and they provide veggies and ranch dip and picnic stuff to make wraps. If you are a guy after 6 pm you are required to wear a provided dress while you ride so the girls all feel comfortable.

but yeah theres a solid 10 or more chicks that come and get together every time.

Originally Posted by gnarslayer

at Next Level Ride cable here in Austin, they have ladies night every wednesday, and they provide veggies and ranch dip and picnic stuff to make wraps. If you are a guy after 6 pm you are required to wear a provided dress while you ride so the girls all feel comfortable.

but yeah theres a solid 10 or more chicks that come and get together every time.

Yeah that seems super lame

I think I saw some dress pictures on the Next Level Ride insta. Pretty funny. Makes sense now.

There's a bunch of good ideas on this thread. Let's ride for sure Ryan!

Originally Posted by stevo8290

Yeah that seems super lame

Not really lame, as they are getting new chicks into riding every time. It's definitely a good time for everyone who shows up.

commando in a wet dress could be fun for everyone!

It's all about easing them into it. If you're expecting them to strap in and learn to ride behind a sacked out boat going 23, it ain't gonna happen. drain the ballast, slow it down. almost like teaching a kid. they're going to take a few diggers getting it figured out. if they get the &#$! knocked out of them doing it, will be the last time they try.

helps to get a girl or two involved so they can push/encourage each other as well.

For us it helps that we have boat launches all over the Portland/Vancouver area. My house to the launch is 15 minutes.
And 20 to 25 minutes and I can be launching and riding in downtown Portland on the Willamette.

We often have days where we have more women on my boat than guys.
We roll in a pretty active social scene and have a good breadth of friends to tap into for boating.
Honestly the majority of the people that are on my boat aren't riding AT ALL.
Take yesterday... We had a crew of 6 and I took a wakeboard set, then each of the other two guys took a wakeboard set.
Then my wife surfed. I surfed. And no one else really wanted to do anything so I busted out the slalom ski to finish the night.
The other two girls had no desire to play in the water. Air was 90 degrees, water temp was 70!

I keep a real upbeat party like vibe on my boat. Music is HUGELY important. I put in a lot of thought to make sure I have fun playlists and make simply being on the boat a fun experience.
The girls just want to be ON the boat, drink wine, have tasty snacks and of course TAKE SELFIES and all sorts of group pics! LOL.

And honestly, as long as I get in plenty of ride time for myself, what do I care who else on the boat plays in the water or not?

Everyone on the boat loves to watch wakeboarding and surfing, as evidenced by how many phones come out to take video when I'm Wakeboarding or Surfing, or when the wife surfs.

My wife and I are the older ones of our friends (I'm almost 45 and she's older than me) but we both look 10 years younger and act that way too.
Most of our friends that roll with us are in their late 20's or mid 30's.

My wife takes the lead on coordinating the food and drinks with her girlfriends. it's more like a social party on the water than a sporting event.
Think watching the superbowl which attracts tons of people that really could take or leave football...

We also do boating that revolves around events. On the water Afterparty for the Portland Derby, Portland Rose Festival fireworks.
Portland Waterfront Jazz festival 4th of July fireworks... We just did the 4th and had more women than men on the boat. I wasn't complaining!
And all I did in the water that day was a surf set in choppy water.
Yikes, sorry this pic is so big....

Y'all need new friends haha but have you tried asking the girls that you hang out with what they would enjoy?? They may be perfectly happy just hanging on the boat. As a female I love being on the water and riding, driving, and just chilling. I have several girl friends that come out and most of them don't ride but that's by choice. They enjoy the company and the lake. They like to float and drink when we pull over somewhere and they enjoy watching people ride. Several of them have tried surfing and wakeboarding and seem to enjoy it but I only have 2-3 that want to ride often. We have done a girls boat day before but that was less enjoyable for me because none of them know how to pull a rider so I couldn't ride. We have a good group of friends that are just happy to be out on the lake whether it's riding or chilling. And idk about girls not wanting to ride with a girl who's better than them... The girls I ride with are super supportive of each other and love it when a new girl gives it a shot! And two of us now have daughters and cannot wait for them to be big enough to get on a board!!
Also I agree with dropping the ballast... I'm not an awesome wakeboarder so not a fan of riding it slammed. I usually just pull up the wedge on our Axis and it's good. Or if I ride first I ride with the wedge down and very little ballast. Just the thoughts of a girl who rides...