Friday, 03 June 2011 14:52
Well it was inevitable. In Editor’s speak, ‘update once a week’ clearly means something like 'perhaps twice a month’ – what I should have said is that I’ll update it every few days, then perhaps there’ll be a weekly update…
But it has been an exciting couple of weeks. Normally I’m contained to the Sports Boat and RIB closet - which has neither a light, any windows and only an angry badger for company. But happily I recently had the chance to go down to the Quayside Wakeboard and Waterski (the Quays) in Surrey to see a man about a gauntlet...
Raley Challenge
I went down to Quayside as I had received a challenge: to learn how to do a Raley in sixty minutes. As challenges go it makes the Ironman Triathlon look like a walk in the park… well, sort of.
If you don’t know what a ‘raley’ is, I can tell you now that it is the single biggest scourge of the wakeboarding world. It is a trick that looks great, leads on to more gnarly mid air trickery, and the successful landing of it will make you a god amongst men and give you bragging rights for moths on end. Or as in my previous experience, the laughing stock of all the girls as I repeatedly came back down to earth with a rather painful bellyflop, having once again failed at the trick.…
In my mind it is the first of the ‘advanced’ tricks in wakeboarding. The trick sees you getting a large amount of air, stretching yourself out like superman behind the tow handle and then somehow landing it on your feet. The trick can be done both behind the boat and on a cable, but I was to learn it on the brand new training system down at the Quays: the Sesitec 2.0.
This two point cable system is ideal for teaching new tricks which you can then take behind a boat. It is so good in fact, that Phil from the Quays said he can teach a raley in under sixty minutes – which sounds ludicrous. And sort of is.
Did I succeed? Well the full article is in the July issue of Sports Boat and RIB which comes out at the end of this month, but here is a picture of one of my attempts from the day. (right)
There are Sesitecs all around the country from The South Coast, to Wales, with more due to pop up in Scotland and Ireland. If you cant get down to your boat this weekend to enjoy the beautiful weather, then maybe have a look at the link below and see if you can get a bit of wakeboarding in – imagining learning a new trick in a session or two then flummoxing your mates next time you’re out... tempting isn't it?