Once you’ve gotten the hang of getting up and skiing on two skis, your next challenge is to cross the wake. It can seem like a scary proposition at first, but I break it all down for you in this post.
Before we go too far, let’s take a look at the technique for changing direction on double skis. You’re going to need this skill in order to cross the wake!
How to turn your skis
There are two things you need to do, in order to go somewhere particular on your double skis:
- Transfer your body weight to the ski on the opposite side of the direction you want to go.
- Put pressure on the long edge of your skis, on the same side as the direction you want to go.
So if you wanted to change direction to the right, you would put pressure on your left ski while edging both skis onto their right sides.
Simply turning your body is not enough. But if you transfer your weight to one ski while edging it, and then square your body to the direction you want to go, you’ll soon be rocketing across the water and making it look super easy!
Turning inside the wakes
Before you take on the wake, practise turning from side to side inside the wake. This will get you used to maneuvering your skis and transferring your body weight around, before you add the big turbulent lumps of water into the equation (the wakes).
Starting in the centre of the wake, initiate a turn to the right by putting pressure on the inside edge of your left ski. This will move you towards the right.
As you approach the right-hand wake, gently transfer your weight over to the right ski, while changing edges to the left side of your skis. This will reverse your direction from right to left.
Don’t forget to keep your arms straight and your knees bent all the time.
Once you’re comfortable with this drill, it’s time for the main event!
Time to cross the wake!
Skiing to the outside of the wake doesn’t involve anything particularly new or different from what we’ve already covered. However there are two key things to focus on.
The first and most important thing is to fully commit to the wake cross. This is where most beginners come unstuck with a half-hearted approach. You’ll do much better if you attack the wake with courage and commitment, and no half-measures.
The second (and somewhat related) thing is to point everything where you want to go.
Transferring your weight and edging your skis will get you moving across the water. But for the actual wake crossing, it helps a lot if you ensure that your knees, hips, and shoulders are all pointing where you want to go. It’s as much a mental thing as anything, part of the commitment I mentioned earlier.
You want both skis to go over the wake together. If you hesitate and end up with one ski on either side of the wake, you’ll most likely end up in the drink. It’s very difficult to recover from that.
Beginners are often intimidated by the wake, but don’t be. It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but the safest and most reliable way to get across the wake is to fully commit to it.
Here’s the technique:
Start in the centre of the wake and initiate a direction change as before. Transfer your weight, edge your skis, and the point your skis, knees, hips, shoulders, and head towards the wake. Fix your gaze on a spot on the water well outside the wake up beside the boat, and head for it.
Keep your eyes on that spot – resist the urge to look down at your skis.
Keep your knees soft and nicely bent, and accept the idea that your skis will move somewhat independently of each other as you go over the top of the wake. You’re basically skiing over a little hill in the water, up one side and down the other. As you can imagine, your skis will want to move independently: one up one down, or one back one forward, or both at once!
You’ll deal with this fine, so long as you remain flexible in your knees and hips, and you don’t let your skis get too far apart from each other.
Keep your weight evenly distributed between your feet as you crest the wake. Your arms must remain straight, and you don’t want to over-rely on handle pressure. This means not leaning too heavily on the handle, and certainly not pulling the handle in.
Spend as little time on the actual wake crest as possible. Attack it as sharply as you dare, and then get clear of it by keeping pressure on the ski closest to the boat until you’re past the wake and away.
Outside the wake
The dynamics change slightly once you’re outside the wake, because the further out to the side of the boat you get, the more you can lean away from the boat.
Out on the open water you can emphasise the weight transfer by slightly lifting your unweighted ski. As you move out to the left of the boat, for example, with your weight firmly on your right ski, you can actually lift your left ski slightly to help keep it angling away to the left.
As you initiate a right turn back to the wake, you will transfer your weight to your left ski and change edges to the right side of your skis. You’ll find that you will turn much more quickly and easily if you lift your right ski slightly as you do this.
Coming back inside the wake
Coming back into the wash, your angle of attack and your level of commitment are even more important than when you initially came out of the wake. This is because the angle of the wake will be less perpendicular on the way back, and even more likely to snag a ski on either side if you’re not careful.
Everything is the same as what you did to get out here in the first place, but again, really commit to that wake by turning your skis, hips, shoulders, and face towards the centre.
Cross the wake to one side and back a couple of times to get the hang of it, then try the other side. You’ll probably discover that you have a favourite side, and you’ll notice that the two sides of the boat wash are different due to the direction of the propeller’s spin. One side will be softer and frothier, while the other will be higher and sharper.
Putting it all together
Once you’ve gone out and back a few times without any dramas, it’s time to string your turns together in a sequence.
Don’t try to cross the wake too fast, but do stay confident, relaxed, positive and brave. Don’t worry about trying to corner too hard in the turns, just concentrate on leaning out away from the boat and keeping your stance consistent and your movements smooth and predictable.
If you find that your skis are smacking hard into the wake as you hit it, you’re flattening off your skis. That’s a bad thing. It’s one of those natural – but unhelpful – instincts that we all have. The more intimidated or tentative you are over the wake, the more you’ll tend to flatten off the ski as you crest it. But rather than helping as might be expected, this response actually transfers the impact of the wake to your body much more forcibly.
Keep edging right through the wakes, even though this will increase your speed. Don’t be afraid of the wake, or the speed.
Follow this guide, and before you know it you’ll be sailing across the wakes like a champion.
Leave a comment in the box below, to let us know how you go.
Your virtual water ski coach,
Todd
PS – Before you go, why not:
