Wake.y! Wake.y!

UAE comes alive to wakeboarding

Forget the posers on jet skis. Leave water-skiing to the timid. It’s time to make way for wakeboarding – the world’s fastest-growing watersport and a thrill-a-minute stunt orgy for participants and spectators.

Towed behind a speedboat at the end of a 20-metre rope, wakeboarders perform tricks that are as varied as they are astonishing.

Once the boat hits working speed of about 20 mph, they gather more pace by zipping sideways across the wake – pulling off stunts that have a vocabulary all of their own.

There’s the tootsie roll, a front flip with a blind handle pass, a whirly bird, a full-twisting backflip, and the infamous 1080 – the ultimate manouevre which only the world’s very best riders can accomplish. This involves a triple twist while passing the rope handle behind your back three times.

The UAE is quickly catching on to this aquatic mix of trapeze artistry and freestyle moto-cross. The first event in the five-round UAE Wakeboard Tour, sponsored by Al Boom Marine, was held in Umm Al Qawain earlier this year and attracted a full-house of 45 entrants.

Dubai fans can share in the excitement when the second leg is staged at Golden Tulip Ghantoot (on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi border) on April 17-18. The third round will be at Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club in May. A summer break will follow before the fourth round (date and venue to be decided) and the finals on October 16-17. The finals venue has also to be decided.

Each event has its own prizes and the overall winner will receive a year’s sponsorship from Oakley, O’Neill, and Hyperlite.

Spearheading the growth of the sport in the UAE is a former world champion, Al Boom Marine’s water sports brand manager Emma Jones.

UK-born Jones won the women’s junior world title in 1999 at the age of 17 and is now passing on her expertise to beginners and advanced riders in the UAE.

And already she has two promising stars under her wing. “I spotted two very talented guys, Harry Cook (15) and Drew Gibson (14) and decided to sponsor them and help with training,” she says.

“Both Harry and Drew are improving at a phenomenal rate. They were so far above their fellow competitors in the junior division of the UAE Wakeboard Tour that they now have their eyes set on the men’s division podium! They are definitely a pair to watch.

“As a former world champion, it’s great to see the youth of the sport – our champions of the future –setting the standard in the UAE.”

The sport itself is not much older than its UAE pace-setters. It began in the 1980s when an American East Coast surfer called Tony Finn came up with the name skurfing for being towed behind a speedboat on a surfboard. He designed a board for skurfing and the sport quickly developed, with the first world championships being held in Hawaii in 1989.

Skurfing was quickly embraced by waterskiers, snowboarders and surfers alike, who all brought elements of their own disciplines to the fledgling activity.

Skurfing became wakeboarding because, as the skurfers progressed to performing tricks, they did so off the wake that was produced by the boat. Board technology was then completely revolutionised in 1993 when a company called Wake Tech invented a board that was symmetrical, with fins at either end. This enabled tricks to be performed that would have been impossible before.

At competition standard, wakeboarding is all about tricks. Each run is judged in three categories, with points being awarded for the composition, intensity, and execution of each run. The wakeboarder who performs the most complex set of flips and spins, in the most extreme manner and with the most grace, wins.

The sport is reckoned to be the fastest growing watersport in the world today, with popularity attributable to its ease of entry and its image. New entrants can be performing basic tricks within a few attempts and can progress to flips and twists relatively quickly and without too much pain.

Wakeboarding image also owes its origins to its boarding ancestors with baggy shorts, blond hair, tattoos and rash vests being the vogue. Today’s generation wants to board, not ski like their parents did. And the Al Boom UAE Wakeboard Tour gives them the chance to do so in a competitive environment.