Looking to buy your first wakeboard or upgrade your current setup? With so many shapes, sizes, brands, and technical features available, it’s easy to find yourself chasing your tail and spinning in circles. Whether you're asking “what wakeboard to buy?” or “which wakeboard is right for me?”, we’ve got you covered with all the information you need to narrow down the board that is best suited to your needs, ability level, and budget
What Wakeboard Should I Get?
The first step in answering what wakeboard should I get is determining where you predominantly ride, whether that be cable wakeboarding or boat wakeboarding, as both will utilise different constructions and materials to suit either mostly feature riding or water riding, respectively.
The second question to answer in what wakeboard to get is what level you think you are at. Wakeboards are classified into beginner, intermediate, and advanced, which, depending on your capabilities, will help you pick a wakeboard and how to choose the right one for you.
Beginner boards are generally more stable and easier to control, typically with the addition of center fins and, in some cases, asymmetrical edges. These will cover your first edges through to your heelside and toeside wake jumps, basic grabs, and spins.
Your Intermediate boards will generally lose the centre fin and return to either two outer fins for boat boards or no fins for cable boards, and are generally shaped with more aggressively designed profiles and rockerlines with the aim of generating more lift off the wake and making your cuts into the wake easier and smoother, allowing you more time in the air to develop your spins and flips.
Advanced wakeboards take it all the way, with rockerlines and shape profiles that are designed to varying riders' styles and riding personalities, while also coming in lighter and stiffer constructions, to handle heavier landings and provide you with less swing weight in the air. An advanced wakeboard will help take you the entire way through your trick bag
Wakeboards: How to choose for you and the features you need to consider
-
Do I ride behind a boat, at the cable park or both?
Boat boards are stiffer with sharper edges. Park boards are softer with reinforced bases for sliders and kickers. -
Do I want to progress quickly?
Beginner-friendly boards help you build confidence and avoid frustrating falls.
Rocker Type
-
Continuous Rocker
Continuous rockerline were the first rockerline designs around and tend to provide both the smoothest and fastest rides, allowing you to get into your edges and get those harder pressing carves on buttery water. The other advantage of a continuous rocker is its consistent and predictable 'pop' or height off the wake and allows for more carry across the wake and into the flats. Not only does this make it feel easier on the body during landing, but it can also be a real confidence booster for the ego. -
This rockerline is typically signified by its visually noticeable three panels in its design, with a pivot point where the two ends kick up. The advantage of this approach is to create a more abrupt and vertical pop at the point of contact with the wake, giving you more height but less carry. These guys are all about height. The downfalls of a 3-stage rocker are its tendency to plow through the water due to its abrupt kick, resulting in a slower feel. It will also have a slightly looser feel when boat speed is increased and have a somewhat harder landing due to a reduction in carry across the wake. -
Hybrid Rocker
Exactly as the name suggests, this rockerline will provide you with generally the best of both worlds, with generally a 1/3 and 2/3 split between which rockerline is the more dominant as part of the hybrid, some boards will naturally ride smoother, land softer, but with a bit of extra pop through a more continuous dominant hybrid, or a 3-stage dominant will provide that big poppy arc, but add some speed under your feet and reduce the slap on landings.
Base Design
-
Concaves
Rolled moldings in your base that reduce the amount of drag that water will produce on the board, allowing you to ride faster thanks to greater lift and upwards pressure on the board. -
Base Channels
Serves a dual purpose, acting as water disruptors to break up tension on the water, while also providing a greater flow of water through the edge for control. -
Centre Spines
Centre spines are there to help pivot you into your edges and make transitions easy. They also double down to soften landings and tend to be a key feature of 3-stage model boards due to the nature of their vertical 'pop' -
Featureless Base
In 99% of cases, this is the key feature of a cable model wakeboard, devoid of any shapes or fins on the base; it relies purely on the rocker and core construction of the board to help it react and ride. They also slide over obstacles more easily, hence the cable association. -
Grind Base
These bases are designed primarily with cable riding in mind, typically featuring a tougher, sintered-style base that can withstand the wear and tear from obstacles at the cable park.
Core Materials
-
PU Core
The most common core found in a boat wakeboard is a PU core, which provides balanced weight reduction with strength. The advantage of Polyurethane is that it will still allow for the stiffness required to give you the 'pop' or height off the wake you're chasing, but not break down over time or crumble over the wake like a wood core. In most cases, these guys are borderline bulletproof, and you will have to work to break them. Or ride A LOT. -
PVC Core
Much like a slalom waterski, a PVC core is used firstly to reduce weight and secondly due to its reactive nature. PVC is stiffer and 8 times more reactive than Polyurethane, so it's not a common occurrence in a wakeboard. The advantages are in boards that are looking for a more aggressive ride that will grab and dart through edges and explode off the wake. In this case, you would expect a 3-stage rocker or aggressive continuous rocker, and in most cases, a sharp rail. -
Wood Core
Wood core wakeboards are generally associated with cable boards, but do lend themselves to a handful of boat-style boards. The reason for this is wood's absorbent and flexible nature. A wood core board will allow it to naturally flex over kickers, sliders, and any other obstacle you can think of and hold up to the abuse. They also absorb the impact on landings quite well, softening landings off obstacles or from the air.
Bindings Compatibility
Most bindings are compatible with all boards since 2007, and almost every binding utilises a 6-inch mounting distance and Metric M6 Bolts, with the only exception being Liquid Force's 4D constructed boots, which are only compatible with a handful of LF cable boards.
-
Open-Toe
These guys are perfect for any beginner or a boat board that is going to have a whole heap of people using it. The advantage to open toe's is the wider size range, allowing for Uncle Sam's size 14 to fit in your cousin Joeys size 11 boots. Another benefit when it comes to open toe boots is if you've got young un' about to go through a growth spurt, you can get a little longer life out of them (mum and dad don't want to be buying a new pair every year you know). -
Closed-Toe
When you're looking for a more personalised boot, the closed-toe boot is the way to go. These boots create a full closure over your foot, increasing the amount of control and leverage you can get over edges. This ultimately leads to great response time, and guess what, they even keep your tootsies warm on those brisker days. Note, though, that closed-toe boots are normally in the higher-end range and can carry a higher price tag than their open-toe counterparts. Apparently, that's the price of comfort and support.
Riding Oversized
Looking for the largest wakeboard for smoother, more forgiving riding and landings? Boards over 144cm are typically considered oversized and go up to 156cm.
Answering which wakeboard to buy isn't always a one-and-done scenario, as there is always a difference between any two models. These little nuances can benefit you one way or another, depending on how you ride. The sure-fire way once you have filtered down your choices is to look into all the different aspects of each board's features broken down on our product pages, and to see what aligns best with you, or alternatively, you can also contact us here at Skiforce and we can provide you with even further insight!