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You might have probably heard of wakeboarding already. And you have the first impression that this is a “no fear” game - for daredevils; that sounds difficult. Perhaps you’re right, but how you approach it is all up to you. Getting started is easy if you follow these simple steps.

Firstly - have the right equipment; the latest pro board is not always the best to learn with. Give yourself a chance and get a board that is forgiving and helps you to progress. Choose a board which is light and easy to manage. A larger board with one or more large rear fins helps to give the board direction, which is important when learning.

Getting closer to the boat is helpful for learning to wakeboard. Thus a shorter rope is highly recommended - about 15 meters (50′). Another essential bit of gear is a buoyancy vest. It is not only basic safety equipment but it will also save you a lot of energy as you hit the water regularly. The driver should remember that you need a lot less speed to get going and to stay planeing than water skiing - 35-40 kph max. A wakeboard offers more resistance when starting, so start slowly!

If you have all the necessary wakeboarding equipments ready, the next thing to do is to learn the stance - how and where to stand on your board. Your first stage is to determine whether you are a regular lead (left-foot-forward) or goofy lead (right-foot-forward). For those who have skateboarded or snowboarded before, this is easy. If this is your first board sport, don’t panic. Stand up, facing frward, feet together and have someone push you from behind. Whichever foot goes forward first is your lead foot.

Now that you know which foot you’ll place forward, it’s time to set up your bindings. Riders just getting started should try placing the bindings at about shoulder-width apart with the rear foot slightly farther back (closer to the rear fin) to aid with directional stability.

The angle of your bindings is important. Start with the rear foot straight across the board (O degrees) or slightly forward to 9 degrees (one set of holes in the base plate). Your front foot should be at an angle of 9-27 degrees (2-3 sets of holes) to get started. For your safety, before you get started, double-check the security of your fins and bindings. Do this again every time you hit the water. You should even periodically check them during your ride after a fall.

Learn first the Deep Water Start by floating on your back with a buoyancy vest. The board should be perpendicular to the rope with your arms either side of your front knee. Signal the driver to put the boat just in gear. As you are pulled slowly forward, the pressure against the board will allow you to get into the proper starting position with most of the board below the surface of the water. Let the pressure on the board push your knees into your chest, then push your front foot forward toward the boat. Signal the driver to hit it and remain in a crouched position.

As the boat begins to go, keep your arms slightly bent near your lower stomach. Shift your weight toward the front foot while keeping the nose above the water. As the water begins to give you support, slowly rise to the standing position by extending your legs until your knees are slightly bent.

Once you are up, get comfortable on your board with slightly more weight on your rear foot. Let your hips and shoulders turn away from the boat. Riders with a skiing background have a tendency to try to face the boat, this will often lead to a face plant as they catch or drop their front edge. Practice getting comfortable in the sideways position and relax. The key to the deepwater start is letting the boat do the work. Stay down low and stand up slow!

Wake boarding has the inherent dangers of all water sports, plus the dangers of motor powerboats, with screw propellers. So always observe precautionary measures and you will not get into trouble.

Niall has been wakeboarding for 2 years and enjoys combining foreign travel and wakeboarding. Visit Wakeboarding Supplies for news, views and information about wakeboarding. http://www.Wakeboarding-Supplies.info

This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact. All rights reserved. Copyright Wakeboarding-Supplies.info

Tags: kneeboarding, wakeboarding, water skiing, water sportskneeboarding, wakeboarding, water skiing, water sports

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Now that the first BCS standings have been released and most of the nation’s top teams have played six games, what do we know? EXACTLY what we knew before the season started, NOTHING! Actually, that’s not quite true, so let me explain.

What we KNOW is that college football has a terribly flawed system. It combines the so-called human polls (this year the new Harris Interactive Poll and the traditional Coaches’ Poll) with computer rankings and hopes to match No.1 versus No. 2 at the end of the year, in its national championship game. When the “system” actually gets it right, it’s typically by pure luck!

The human polls have always been highly subjective and are open to plenty of criticism. For decades, both the AP (no longer part of the process) and the Coaches’ polls have opened the year with a preseason poll, despite the fact that year-in and year-out, the foolishness of these preseason polls are well-documented. For just the latest example, note that the coaches’ poll had Michigan ranked No. 4 and Oklahoma ranked No. 5 in its preseason poll. How about that for EXPERTISE!

As for the new Harris Poll, does ANYONE other than the BCS guys really think it has any credibility? Don’t lament the loss of the AP poll though, as the writers’ had Michigan No. 4 and Oklahoma No.7 in its preseason poll and like the Coaches’ poll, often makes a person scratch his bald head when trying to understand their weekly rankings. Consider this.

Notre Dame jumped from unranked to No. 10 in the AP poll in the season’s first two weeks, after beating Pittsburgh and Michigan. In case you don’t know, the Panthers and Wolverines are currently a combined 7-7 in 2005 and were just 1-3 at the time ND ‘jumped’ to No. 10 (Michigan’s lone win had come over Northern Illinois and Pitt’s other loss was to Ohio U)! Just this week, Texas Tech made it to No. 10 in the AP poll (its highest-ranking since 1977) and No. 8 in the latest Coaches poll. Just for the record, Tech opened the year with three consecutive games against Florida International, Sam Houston State and Indiana State. You CAN’T make this stuff up!

Now to the computer rankings, the ones that are supposed to be less subjective. Despite Texas Tech’s near-ridiculous schedule, the Red Raiders’ combined computer rankings in the first BCS standings came it at seven. SEVEN! Are you kidding me? In comparison, Michigan State which has played Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State registered “zero” in all six BCS computer indexes. Ever heard of the phrase, “garbage-in, garbage-out?”

So what does this all mean? There are seven unbeatens heading into this weekend’s action and at least one will fall on Saturday, as Texas Tech plays at Texas. If both USC and UCLA were to remain unbeaten, one would have to lose when the two cross-town rivals meet in the Coliseum on December 3. If Georgia and Alabama were to remain unscathed, those schools would meet in the SEC title game (also December 3), meaning another unbeaten would fall. Virginia Tech, which plays Thursday night at Maryland, is the only unbeaten team that doesn’t have another current unbeaten team remaining on its schedule.

Are we headed for another season in which we finish with three unbeatens? Since only two teams can ever meet in the BCS title game (Rose Bowl), that tends to be a problem. Can you imagine the screaming coming from the SEC if, for the second straight year, a member of that conference finishes undefeated but gets left out of the BCS title game (remember Auburn in 2004)?

How about this scenario? USC wins out, as does Texas, Virginia Tech and either Alabama or Georgia. USC unquestionably remains No. 1 but can Texas hold on to its No. 2 rank in the BCS with only one ranked opponent left on its schedule (Texas Tech this week)?

Va Tech still has Boston College, Miami-Fla and Florida State (ACC title game?) remaining, a schedule that will surely boost the team’s computer rankings, if not its Harris or Coaches’ poll rank. As for the two SEC teams to remain unbeaten, Alabama would have to get past Tennessee, LSU and Auburn before the SEC title-game showdown, while Georgia would need to beat Florida, Auburn and Georgia Tech. Couldn’t Va Tech and either Alabama or Georgia (Alabama seems a more likely bet) overtake Texas by gaining on the Longhorns in the computer rankings?

It doesn’t seem too far-fetched and wouldn’t many feel (especially in the Pac-10) it would be “just desserts” if Texas was denied a second straight Rose Bowl trip, this time for a national-title showdown with USC, after it leapfrogged Cal for its Rose Bowl bid in last year’s final BCS standings.

However, if USC and Texas both win out, I can’t imagine that MOST people wouldn’t want to see a USC-Texas showdown, featuring Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush against Vince Young? There are seven college football weekends remaining and a lot can still happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if there was some kind of playoff structure in place to avoid the possibility of any number of ‘nightmare’ scenarios?

Next week I’ll check in on how college football’s 23 ‘new’ head coaches have fared in 2005.

Larry Ness is a documented member of The Professional Handicappers League.
Read more of his articles and get his premium plays at http://www.procappers.com

Tags: football, handicapping, ncaaf, sportsfootball, handicapping, ncaaf, sports

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It’s not impossible to find cheap ATVs that are of good quality deserving of a reputable manufacturer. In fact, it’s quite easy. But like everything else in life, you need a little bit of experience and ‘effort’ in order to get around to actually buying a cheap ATV that isn’t a piece of rundown junk deserving of the junkyard. The moment you say the words ‘cheap ATV’, it’s almost automatic that an image of a 30-year-old ATV without wheels and engine that spurts smoke. But that’s not always the case.

Hunting for a cheap, good quality ATV

As mentioned, it might take a bit of legwork if you want to find cheap ATVs that you can count on. After all, we’re sure you don’t want to compromise safety for the couple of bucks you’re going to save. The first rule of finding anything that’s cheap and reliable isto compare prices. Now, as with buying anything of this nature, you should be a little bit more relaxed about the timing. Buying a cheap ATV in a hurry will only end up unfavorably. So, look around, shop around, hunt around, surf around, ask around and note down prices, models, features of these so-called cheap ATVs.

Our advice is for you to keep track of whatever information that you’ve gathered in an organized manner. This may sound like a lot of work but if you want to find a cheap ATV that is reliable, this is what you’re going to have to do. No shortcuts, unfortunately.

Zooming in on eBay

One of the best ways to find a cheap ATV is to go the eBay Way! eBay is a fantastic place to find cheap stuffunfortunately, it’s also the quickest way to meet unscrupulous crooks of all shapes, sizes, religions and sexes. Some people feel very strongly about shopping on eBay; they would shop online anywhere else except on eBay because there are too many thieves lurking around their pages. But what you CAN do is to do your comparison there. One of the most important things to remember if you’re willing to shop through eBay to get your cheap ATV is to contact the seller. If the seller could not be bothered to answer your questions about the cheap ATV that he is putting up for sale, he’s probably not going to be bothered with SENDING you the cheap ATV after you’ve paid for it!

So, make sure that the seller of the cheap ATV has good ratings from different buyers and establish contact with the seller so that you’ll know for sure that you’re speaking to a human being and not a computer.

There are many good quality cheap second-hand ATVs
Going second-hand is a good thing if you’re looking for a cheap ATV. When you’re buying a second-hand ATV, the rule of thumb to remember is that you have to contact the original owner, establish contact and personally the condition of the machine. With a new ATV, it’s probably OK to take that risk because there is always the ‘returns and exchange’ policy that you can (and should) rely on. But with cheap used ATV, it is better that you get a personal look at the machine before you part with your money.

Marsha Maung is an ATV enthusiast enthusiastically promoting ATV riding as a sport and family activity! She runs and is one of the staff for one of the hottest and fastest-growing ATV sites right now…http://www.atv4kids.com Upload and share pictures, articles, views, advice, reviews, ideas, tips and tricks to ATV riding with other ATV enthusiasts through ATVspace, http://www.atv4kids.com/atvspace

Tags: activity, all terrain vehicles, atv, excitement, family, fun, holidays, quads, riding, sport, sportingactivity, all terrain vehicles, atv, excitement, family, fun, holidays, quads, riding, sport, sporting

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