Anyone else going?

The missus and I have tickets for Sunday, not only do we get to see some great Wakeboarding action, we get to see SUPERGRASS and The Streets.

Huzzah.

I thought for a second that this was a festival built around Rick Wakeman.

You wish

JtS wrote:

QUOTE:
great Wakeboarding action

Words fail me.

Oh My God?

It was shit.

The wakeboarding wasn't much cop, and the "festival" was like a travelling fayre.

We eventually found out that Supergrass weren't due to be on until 11pm (this was on sunday). As the missus was feelin ga bit under the weather, and as there wasn't much to hang around for, we left.

Shit.

I'm staggered to hear that the "great wakeboarding action" didn't live up to its billing.

What on earth is wakeboarding? (Is it like waterboarding, only with coffee instead of water?)

Lucia Lanigan wrote:

QUOTE:
What on earth is wakeboarding? (Is it like waterboarding, only with coffee instead of water?)

Haha. Hitchens to thread, then.

It's basically waterskiing with both feet on one (wider, shorter) board rather than two.

The do lots of tricks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lxjUZXRR-A&feature=user

It's basically snowboarding on water.

My wife's boss is mad keen on it, to the extent that he's never in the shop and spends all his time out on this lake wakeboarding with his mates. He occasionally hires out the club as a treat for the staff, and I went along a couple of times.

They haven't got boats, but a system of overhead cables that they pull themselves around on, and go round and round the lake. They've got a couple of ramps out there as well.

Being a beginner, I wasn't allowed to go on a wakeboard, but had to go on water skis instead. Also, being fifteen stone I couldn't get my fat arse up off the water, and if I could, I got jerked forward full-length for thirty yards until I regained the presence of mind to let go. (Tip: remember to close your mouth, no matter how much you're taken by surprise.)

And then you have to swim after your water skis, which have floated off in opposite directions, and then try to get back to shore without getting decapitated by some damned fool on a wakeboard.

JtS wrote:

QUOTE:
It's basically waterskiing with both feet on one (wider, shorter) board rather than two.

The do lots of tricks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lxjUZXRR-A&feature=user

And you get to wear more fashionable 'lifestyle' clothes and shout 'wooooo!' alot.

...Which, of course, you could never do with waterskiing.

QUOTE:
Hitchens to thread, then.

It's a technique they could use to sober him up a bit before TV appearances.

Was wakeboarding known as waterboarding before the latter term took on its unfortunate connotation?

Do all the guys who do wakeboarding still look like Burt Reynolds crossed with David Wilkie? Seeing men like that getting pulled along by boats was the summer equivalent of cyclo-cross on Grandstand when other sports were thin on the ground.