We recently came across a load of amazing Wakeboard Wallpapers on the Transworld Wakeboarding website. If you’re looking for a new background these are definitely worth a look – some of them are incredible!
A small selection of these is below. For a full list of wallpapers (over 150 of them!) visit the Transworld Wakeboarding website.
Whoever said you need sea legs to wakeboard? Check out Amputee Sean Reyngoudt wakeboarding. The crazy thing is is, he isn’t alone. In fact, water sports is a rapidly growing hobby for amputees. And many of them are better than their able-bodied peers.
Amputee Sean Reyngoudt Wakeboarding at the Ski Rixen from UpDown Productions on Vimeo.
Just a quick post to say hello and welcome to all the new members who have joined us recently (you know who you are!).
We are still recruiting for the 2013 season so if you like join us for some water skiing, wake boarding, wake skating or bare footing we would love to hear from you – it doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, a novice or a veteran, we cater for all ages and abilities. We are one of the friendliest clubs and one of the best value to boot – remember we are non-profit and run by volunteers, no shareholders to please!
Let us know if you would like to check out our facilities, the more the merrier so far as members go.
Numerous Liverpool-based news resources including ItsLiverpool.com and the Liverpool Echo covered a story last week about a cable wakeboarding facility being created on the Albert Dock as a permanent feature. This follows a temporary wakeboarding cable which was erected at the Albert Dock between 18th April and 8th May in 2011.
We recently mentioned that there are discussions about introducing a Cable Wakeboarding facility in Rhyl. Well, it looks like there are also discussions about introducing a similar facility in Liverpool.
The company behind this move is Industry Wake Parks, which has helped create 15 wakeboard park previously, although this will be the first park the company has ran by itself. Red Bull energy drink and Sport England are sponsoring part of the the development, which plans to cater for around 30 people a day, operating from the existing Liverpool Watersports Centre.
This is obviously good news for our club. Deeside Wakeboard and Waterski Club doesn’t offer cable skiing/wakeboarding, however a number of our members regularly partake in this, using DWWC for their fix of being towed by a boat. A wakeboarding facility in Liverpool is arguably better for our members than one in Rhyl, as Liverpool is marginally closer than Rhyl, although it would be great to get both!
A video from 2011 can be found here:
Cable Wakeboarding is being considered by the International Olympic Committee for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games. This story has been covered in the mainstream media recently (including the BBC and Daily Mail) so we thought we would follow it up.
In times gone by the Olympics included Tug o’ war, Rope Climbing and Live Pigeon Shooting
Over time, the list of Olympic sports changes. Women’s Boxing was added at London 2012. In 2016, when the games are held in Rio de Janeiro, Golf and Rugby sevens will be added. In times gone by the Olympics included Tug o’ war, Rope Climbing and Live Pigeon Shooting, although these have all since been removed.
Sports are added and removed by the Olympic Committee, who are working closely with the World Wakeboard Association about introducing wakeboarding. They consider a wide range of factors including popularity and entertainment. Cable Wakeboarding is an ideal candidate because it’s popularity is growing at a phenomenal rate. It is also hugely entertaining to watch, being visually impressive with aerial tricks and use of obstacles, much like to snowboarding which was introduced in Nagano in 1998.
Originally there were 12 sports being considered for inclusion at the 2020 Olympic Games. This list has since been whittled down to 7, so there is a genuine possibility that wakeboarding might become an Olympic sport and we are very excited about this. The UK has a lot of home-grown talent, particularly in younger age categories, so there is a strong chance that Team GB could come away with some medals if wakeboarding were introduced.
We don’t offer Cable Wakeboarding at DWWC, we only use boats, but we are 100% behind promoting it. Many of our members are big fans of cable wakeboarding and enjoy this past time in conjunction with what we offer.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that cable wakeboarding makes the grade. The Olympics is the ultimate platform for promoting any sport, encouraging people to try things like wakeboarding which are healthy and fun. There are 3 cities in the running to host the 2020 Olympics - Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid – the winner of which will be confirmed on 7th September this year.
If cable wakeboarding was there we would be delighted.
There is a rumour that a Cable Wakeboarding facility might be coming to Ryhl as part of a £16 million regeneration strategy. The following statement is from a pdf document detailing the Rhyl Going Forwards project on the Denbigshire County Council Website.
“Consideration is being given to how the water sports provision can be improved at Marine Lake to enhance its reputation and appeal as a visitor attraction. There is also work progressing to try and achieve Blue Flag status for the Marine Lake. We will continue to explore funding opportunities to implement these proposals.”
RhylNewswire.com adds further information, with Rhyl Going Forward programme manager Tom Booty stating “We’re in discussions with a leisure operator about a ski-drag. It will be used to drag water-skiers or wakeboarders around the lake. Water quality in Marine Lake is good, so another attraction has been secured.”
A computer mock-up of the regeneration plans for Rhyl can be found here
Water Sports are expected to return on Lake Windermere
We heard some exciting news for water sports in the Lake District – the speed limit changed at Lake Windermere have been lifted!
Speed limits were introduced in 2005 due to environmental reasons, which saw a huge decline in the number of people water skiing and wakeboarding on the Lake. Local businesses suffered as a result, however this is now set to change.
Dave Lewis from DWWC brought this to the attention of the committee a couple of days ago by saying “I have just heard that they are to allow water skiing and wake boarding on Windermere again. LDNPA have written to some people involved. I don’t know the details yet but I will find out soon”
The ban imposed has now been lifted as they have excluded water skiing in the ban with the conditions, 2 in the boat, one driver and one observer, no drink or drugs. This will be implemented on 13th October.
“To reinstate bye-laws related to water skiing which were removed when the 10 mph limit was introduced. These include carrying 2 comp persons excluding the skier or skiers , one of whom shall navigate the vessel , the other shall watch the skier. Any vessel should have a mirror and tow no more than 2 and should not ski in a manner to cause danger to other . This by-law makes it an offence to ski whilst under drink or drugs.”
This means that we can now go to Windermere again in future. Happy days!
Further information is contained in this BBC article.
Deeside Wakeboard & Waterski Club are holding a Wakeboard Expression Session on Saturday 19th July 2008. Following on from previous club competitions and kicker days, we are hoping to show our excellent facilities by opening the event up to anyone to come and sample what the club has to offer. The day is set to feature tows behind a fully loaded wakeboard boat, BBQ, music and video playback, and the bar will be open well into the night.
The format will be a three minute tow and riders will be allowed up to three falls. The expression session will be judged by two of our club commettee members, tricks will be scored by the WakeWorld Trick List. Each riders tow will be videoed for playback in the bar afterwards. The cost is £5 per tow, open to wakeboarders of all levels.
Registration begins at 9:30am until 10:00am, with riding commencing shortly afterwards, be there early to secure your place.
For more information please email info@dwwc.org.uk.
Three Sisters ski club have a fantastic new lake and invited all the clubs in the North West region to enter a fun slalom competition. Five skiers went from Deeside and had a great weekend. M Johnson, M Penton, M Bentley (with father for support) I Davies and P Neldrett.All but Paul went for practice on the saturday evening which was a little rough to say the least. The water was a little disappointing but we were cheered up when we got to the pub. One or two pints later, well much later, it was back to the camp-site to discuss tactics. This turned into talking broken biscuits. Iwan begin the consummate professional that he is, went to bed first to catch up on some well needed beauty sleep while the other consumed his very expensive bottle of wine. Chris was put to bed by his son Mike (support reversal) after spending a good ten minutes drooling over Mark Penton’s rather large shiny black Dodge Ram.
Sunday came much too quickly for most and the weather was awful with gale force winds whipping the lake into a frenzy. This made for some difficult skiing but we all gave it our best shot. It has to be said that the scoring system was a little difficult to understand but the whole point was that it should be fun.
Mike Bently skied very well in his second round and ran a pass at 30mph which in the conditions was very good indeed. Iwan Davies was pathetic and could only manage a pass at 26mph. He then decided to run the short course at 36 and fell on the gate. What a numpty!!!!! Mark Johnson did very well indeed and actually found the gate and No1 but then got confused. To be fair Mark had a problem with his beloved ski (the other skiers thought it was from a museum) which probably was the reason for his poor showing.
Mark Penton (wakeboarder or failed skier) was very consistent and ran the short course at 32 but the star of the show was Paul Neldrett who ran the short course at 36 and with the handicapping system used won the whole event.
Very well done Paul and the rest for representing the club and meeting other skiers in the region.
