| What Is Wakeboarding?
Wakeboarding
is the latest action sport to take over the world. Born through a lack
of waves and a desire to further surfing, wakeboarding has grown from
it's routes in Carlsbad, California to cover every continent around the
world, from Cuba to Russia and everywhere in between. This high speed
action sport is predominantly participated behind a purpose built speed
boat with the rider towed behind at around 25mph where they use the
boat's wake to launch into the air, pulling technical inverts and spins
of up to 1080 degrees.
Over the last 10 years, rails have become
a dominant part of wakeboarding. Wakestock was the first contest in
Europe to embrace this new development and has been home to some of the
most famous rails outside of the USA. The Wakestock rail course in
Pwllheli marina challenges the worlds best riders to not only make it
to the end of their run, but to bring their own style and technical
rail tricks to the table in order to come out on top in front of the
contest's 8,000 spectators.
In the same way that snowboarding
has brought about a cultural revolution in the ski market, wakeboarding
has reinvented water-skiing. Wakeboarding is the fastest growing
watersport in the world and now has over 3 million participants
worldwide. 63% of these participants are under the age of 24. Along
with the three million plus wakeboarders worldwide there is now a
growing faction of wakeskate enthusiasts. When included in the
wakeboard figures you have a community of boardsports enthusiasts who
outnumber surfers by more than two to one. Although very different in
principle, all boardsports like skateboarding, surfing and
snowboarding, crossover very easily, not just through the similarities
in the tricks which are pulled off and the names that they are given,
but also with the fashions and lifestyles which they encompass. It is
this lifestyle that Wakestock embraces and results in a unique,
unmissable event, with a fantastic atmosphere.
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