Wakeboarding in Thailand

Wakeboarding in Thailand is an interesting experience. Unlike the US where you are usually pulled by a boat in a somewhat large body of water, you are pulled by a complex cable system, in a relatively small body of water in Thailand. There are things to get used to when you start wakeboarding on a cable system.

The cable system is the first major thing to get used to. It is made up of 8 hooks evenly spaced along two cables. The cables rotate around four corners in the shape of a rectangle. At each of the four corners, there are large steel arms that slope towards the water at about a 35 degree angle and are held in place by steel cables fastened to the shore and to the top of the steel arms. At the tip of the steel arms, there are two wheels parallel to each other that the cables go around. The corner that the operator on is an exception, though. The operator has a series of levers and switches that he pulls in order to perform certain tasks, such as, hooking the rope onto the cable, or bringing a rope back that someone has fallen off of. The operator’s corner is also the starting corner, and the side that the motor is on as well.

On a cable system the first thing to get used to is starting. At the lake that I went to there were two main options to start. On the first, and one I eventually was able to start off of, you stand out of the water, strapped onto your wakeboard, on a slippery green plastic surface about 8 feet long that gradually slopes toward the water. The second option is to sit on a small stool with your board in the water. Whichever way you choose the operator hands you a handle, and pulls the engaging lever down, you then wait for the next of the 8 hooks on the cable. Once the rope hooks onto the cable there is a slight jerk, and you lean back. When the rope jerks, you start moving, about a second after the initial jerk the rope starts pulling. If you are leaning back, you start sliding off the ramp, when you hit the water there is a slight pull of tension on the rope and then you are off and can start wakeboarding as usual.

Overall, wakeboarding in Thailand is more challenging, but much more rewarding, and even though there are differences, the general idea is much the same.