THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606210426
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER McMENAMIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: 106 lines
``Stand up! Just stand up!'' my instructor hollered from the back of the 21-foot Parker fishing boat.
My mind was racing. Last-minute reminders flew through my brain as I finally flashed a thumbs-up to the boat driver:
Shift my weight to my front foot.
Square my head and sunburned shoulders over my feet.
Bend my arms.
Keep my hands - and the blue, no-stretch Nylon line towing me - tucked into my waist.
And just stand up.
These are the keys, I was told, to the cutting edge water sport called wakeboarding.
Originally termed skurfboarding - when it consisted only of a slick banana-like yellow surfboard with two foot straps - the sport rapidly has burgeoned into one of the hottest inland water sports, complete with international competitions and a magazine devoted entirely to new tricks and innovations.
With an 18-year background in downhill snow skiing and one windsurfing lesson as the only water sport in my athletic repertoire, I began my free wakeboarding demonstration with an open mind.
I welcomed tips, suggestions, reminders - anything that would simplify the task of converting my knees-to-my-chest back float to a steady, upright stand atop a moving board without letting the line I was gripping tip me into the sound.
Add the challenge of jumping the boat's wake - then landing - and you have a pretty accurate description of basic wakeboarding.
But jumps and landings were all in my distant future.
First, I first had to get on my feet.
I began my lesson at Pirate's Cove, where Mac Crisler - a 22-year-old Nags Head resident who earned his captain's license this past winter - launched his boat, powered by two 90-horse-power outboard motors, into the glassy Roanoke Sound.
Chris ``Pig Pen'' Gladding, the 23-year-old wakeboard instructor and buyer at Kitty Hawk Water Sports, was the first to hit the water. Decked out in white, silver-speckled 100 percent plastic surfing trunks and SPF 15 sunscreen, Gladding demonstrated - with ease - the basics of the new sport.
When it was my turn, I nervously accepted the black life preserver and jumped into the sound.
I began by strapping my feet to the board, a task I could accomplish only by lying on my back, relying on the life preserver to keep me afloat. I then curled my knees to my chest, pointing my feet toward the boat.
After several unintentional dips into the sound, I finally achieved the perfect balance of front-foot weight and back-foot weight while keeping the tow line close to my body.
``It was just like he said. It just clicked,'' said Caroline Drumheller, a 30-year-old Nags Head resident who also tried her hand - and feet - at wakeboarding. ``You stay in a little ball until the board is flat and then just stand up.''
Others, including myself, used the word ``click'' to describe their arbitrary success with the challenging sport.
``The first plateau is getting up,'' said Keith Wood, manager of Kitty Hawk Water Sports. ``If you just stand up, the board just starts moving. It just clicked in my head.''
Wood, whose shop bought its first batch of wakeboards in April, said the boards are outselling water skis nationwide by a ratio of 20 to 1.
Leaning against a bench constructed of two wakeboards, Gladding explained why the Outer Banks is the ideal location for wakeboarding success.
``Flat water. Shallow. Sandy bottom,'' he said. ``It's the perfect place. Everybody knows someone who has a boat. It's going to take off.''
Drawing on the finer points of nearly every sport that involves a board or a ski, wakeboarding has been compared to surfboarding, skateboarding and snowboarding as well as water skiing, slalom skiing and downhill skiing.
The shape of the board and the flips and tricks of more experienced wakeboarders are reminiscent of snowboarding - with a much softer landing.
``Water is a lot more forgiving'' than hard-packed snow, Gladding said, running a tanned hand through his shock of salon-bleached blond hair.
And although the concept of wakeboarding is similar to water skiing, the broader surface area of the board makes it easier, Gladding said.
``If you can water ski, this will be easy. There is a big, wide surface area instead of your feet sliding around out here,'' he said, imitating an unsteady water skiier struggling with split skis. ``It is all done by shifting your weight back and forth like snowboarding and skate boarding.''
But unlike the face-front stance of water skiing, wakeboarders' feet are strapped perpendicular to the board, much like the positioning of a surfer, snowboarder or skateboarder.
Drumheller, who describes windsurfing as her ``first love,'' said she enjoyed her initial wakeboarding lesson - although the new endeavor will not top her list of water sports.
``It's OK,'' she said as the boat made its way back to the dock, ending our three-hour trip. ``It's time consuming because the boat has to turn around every time you go down. But I definitely wouldn't pass up an opportunity. There's a little bit more of a rush with this.'' MEMO: WANT TO TRY?
What: Wakeboarding demonstrations, rentals and purchases.
Cost: None for a demonstration; $20 for a full-day board rental to
people who can provide their own boat or waverunner to tow the board;
$500 to purchase a board with bindings and fin(s).
Where: Kitty Hawk Water Sports at Milepost 16 in Nags Head.
For more information: Call Chris or Keith at Kitty Hawk Water Sports,
441-2756. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON
Staff writer Jennifer McMenamin, 20, makes it to her feet on a
wakeboard and goes racing across Roanoke Sound
Color photo
Chris "Pig Pen" Gladding... by CNB