How everyone get started??

Hey everyone, I'm new to this board and wanted to get a little advice. I am finally going to learn to wakeboard this summer and I have a few questions...I can water ski and snowboard pretty well already..
- I am looking at the Liquid Force Nemesis 131, I am 5'8, 138 lbs. It's great price and thought it would be good to start with without a big investment. Any thoughts on the size and board??

- How did you learn? My husband skis and I will be the only one that wakeboards? What's the best way to progress if I don't have people around to teach me?

- One other thing, I fractured my tailbone around March 1, buy the time we get on the lake, I should be better, but do you think there is a lot of risk of reinjury??

Thanks! I know I had a lot of questions, any info will be helpful!

In terms of buying a board, I would say get what you really want and what will suit you the best, becuase it will be cheaper for you in the long run if you pay 450 for the board that will be perfect for you and last you many years to come than to spend 200 bucks every year on trying to keep it cheap. So I would say where you already have some board experience and it sounds like you really want to progress a lot, go out and demo some boards and get a feel for what you like or don't like. Once you can figure out some characteristics that you like, look for them in a board, then narrow your search to fir the description of what you like and demo some of those.

Injuries... whew, well, injuries are never fun, how did you fracture your tailbone in the first place? I would say if it is completely healed and as good as new... that you should be ok, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone fracturing their tailbone wakeboarding. But I'm not a doctor so don't take my word on it.

In terms of teaching yourself and trying to progress your own riding, let me tell you ur not alone! I got started on my own and to this day still don't have anyone that I ride with that wakeboards, they're all freidns and family that just happen to like boating. Its difficult to do on your own and it will slow you down a little bit, but I would say the things that help are: 1) A good instructional video. That way you can see the proper form on how to do things correctly so that your not teaching yourself bad habits. Some good instructionals are The Book, Detention, Higher Education. (2) Learn the basics, my thoughts are that if you learn all the surface stuff first and have awesome control of your board then when you get into the air and landing if you happen to get into a hairy situation you'll instinctivley know how to get out of it. Not to mention once you get into w2w stuff you will be able to progress much more rapidly because you'll have all the fundamentals under control. Plus you wont get frustrated as quickly and you'll have more fun. (3) Bring out a camera and have someone take pics of you or even better video, so you can see what you're doing right or wrong. Then you'll be more concsience of it on the water and can work on improving the bad habits and fine tuning the good ones.

Hope that helps! Good luck, but most importantly: HAVE FUN!!!

Hi Courtney, I don't know much about the boards but I would highly recommend lessons. I took some a couple of years ago and they really helped me to learn proper technique. Esp. if you are a skier too. I found the hardest thing was to keep my hands hip level because skiing they are out in front.

Hi... about the board.. a 131 may be too small for you, especially since your really tall, I'm 5'2 90 lbs and I ride that size. You can go for one a bit bigger like a 134 and it will get you more pop and softer landings. If you can demo some boards, try one in each size to see which one you prefer. As for the shape of that board, I've tried it and really like it.

What Bess said is true, spend money on some videos, get The Book which is the best of all Ive seen, they really break apart everything and have some drills for board control. Ive heard WakeTrix is good too but never seen it. If you can, go to a wakeboard school.

Since no one else wakeboards, you should try what B said, have them videotape you so you can see how you're doing when you get home.

And i dont know about the tailbone, just make sure your doctor says its ok to ride and im sure it will be no prob.

"The book" DVD is awesome. its really helpful for any level of riding.

lose the skier