Teaching little kids to wake surf

I am having a hard time teaching the kids how to get up on the surf board. I am posting a video to show how I am teaching my 9 year old daughter to get up on the board. I am thinking our board might be too large for her to get up on. The size is nice when she gets up, just hard for her because there is so much water force on the board in the standing up process. Here is the vid:

http://vimeo.com/48784146


At first, I ride with her to show her the method and give her some pointers once we are riding, and she got up on her own once, but she was so tired after the first time of getting up, she couldn't go again.

Any help would be appreciated, whether I need to change the method, or purchase her a smaller board.

Thanks in advance.

Just watched a friend teach 4 kids in the 13 yr old range to surf this weekend 2 who had not even tried to water ski. He sat on the back platform of the boat and would hold the back grab rail on the the stern. He then used his feet to hold the board vertical against the water so they could put their feet against it and we would then slowly add power and they would just pop up. On the ones who had never skied he also held the rope short and sort of pulled them around facing the boat and then slowly let out the rope "the rope was still attached to the tower he just grabbed it about halfway down and pulled them around slowly". I will see if I have a video of it and post it if I can figure out how. After around two surfing turns the previous skiers were getting up by themselves. They were all on a 5' hyperlite board and using a small triangle handle rope with knots.

Interesting, yeah I would love to see a video of that! I will give it a shot next weekend for sure. Thanks for the info!

I would also LOVE to see a video of this. We've tried to teach multiple people teens and adults to wakesurf and nobody other than our family has been able to do it.

Sorry guys no vids of the instruction part of the process just the end result of kids with a giant grin surfing. Ill try to video it next time we go out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HIFLYR

Sorry guys no vids of the instruction part of the process just the end result of kids with a giant grin surfing. Ill try to video it next time we go out.

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No worries, thanks for looking!

Start out WAY WAY WAY WAY slower. Your kids will be able to stand up on that board at just above an idle speed. Tell them to keep their butts close to their heels until the board has planed out of the water. A lot of people worry about standing up before the board is up.... Let the boat do the work and then just stand up. Get them up and riding on their heels outside the wake before you increase speed and make it surfable. If they don't get up after 3 tries, break time for them to rest. That's an old water skiing rule.... After 3 tries you'll be too tired to try any more and will only become frustrated.

Once they can stand up on the board: weight on the balls of their feet and their knees bent. Kids have a very high center of gravity and need to really get low to find success. That board is going to be hard for them to steer and control fore/aft, but they should find some success surfing once they find the sweet spot.

Great, thanks for the advice!

My 14yo can not for the life of her get up on the board she can surf just fine.
She starts off of the platform.

I got the idea from a youtube video works great for her.

I thought about letting her take off the platform but her balance isn't the best, as a matter of fact, I haven't even tried taking off the platform yet, guess that gives one more thing to try this weekend. Thanks for the advice

Yes slow is good i had to turn off perfect pass it was to aggressive on adding throttle for them to take.

Ahhh...good idea!