I spent an amazing weekend in Cotswold where we went wakeboarding. The whole event was organised by The Wakeboard Club of The University of Plymouth, namely by Gemma Brill and her boyfriend Ali Reader who have been wakeboarding for many years now. Have a look at their videos below:
The adventure started on Friday afternoon when me my friend Jason met with Charles who came to pick us up with his van. It took around 3-4 hours to get to Cotswold including getting lost on the way. After we finally found the place we settled down in our lounge and later spent an evening with the rest of the guys watching movies and chatting.
Next morning we drove to WMSki where we registered and watched a funny health and safety video. After that, those who were experienced wakeboarders went riding and the rest of us were given kneeboards to get use to everything before we would try wakeboards. I felt quite confident trying the wakeboard straight away since I have snowboarded for many years, however, I took the advice and did few rounds on the kneeboard. My first run was a disaster and I ended up loosing balance. Next two trials were much easier and I did not want to waste anymore time with the kneeboard. I picked up a wakeboard and again I ended up in water after straight away. Second run was easy and finally I did 3 or 4 rounds the lake. I must say I find it very similar to snowboarding, perhaps little bit more slippery but that I guess also depends on a board you are using.
After familiarising with the basic control I tried some very simple tricks. Jason and another friend of mine Lydia were much more experienced and motivated me to try some of the harder obstacles. See the pictures below of Lydia, Jason and me sliding the railies (from left to right).
| | |
Other guys like Ali and Charles were doing much more sophisticated tricks and Charles even injured his ankle. My whole body still aches even though I did not do anything particularly hard. Normally I go to a gym everyday but I do not think I will be able to go for a week at least 😀
It was getting late and most of the people were getting cold so we have decided to leave and finished our day going to a spa and later watching The Jungle Book:D
| |
Thanks to everyone who turned up and made it such a wonderful event. I enjoyed everything very much!