Got an ambition to be the coolest rider alive? There are different kinds of wakeboarders. Some of them play it safe and ride the little swells, while others want a good challenge.

Serious wakeboards want to take that challenging route, or at least most of them will. It takes practice, practice, practice, lots of time, and a large helping of patience to perform wakeboarding tricks. Better get started quick!

There are lots of fantastic and exhilarating tricks just waiting for you: The slides, the spins, the blinds, the inverts, the loops, and more. For starters, you may want to only do surface tricks as you are still getting used to controlling your board, balance, and navigation.

As you start off on your journey through the wakeboarding world, be patient with yourself; you’re going to make mistakes and there’s just no way around it. Some of the better known surface tricks include potato peelers, backside butterslide, backside butterslide 180, perez, surf carve, powerslide, surface 180, surface 360, and tumble turn.

But maybe you’ve got a good dose of confidence or experience and you want to get some air. Well, you could always try some board grabs and some of the simple rotational wakeboard tricks. If you feel at ease with your balance and control, you should be ready to tackle some of these popular wakeboard tricks: The method grab, switching, progressive heelside edge, progressive toeside edge, 180s, butterslides, toeside frontside grab 180, and ollie backside.

Now once you get down some of the more basic grabs and rotational tricks, you can get fancy and try something a bit more challenging. Here’s some wakeboard tricks that intermediate riders should think about practicing: Toeside frontside 540, indy backside 180 (blind), heelside 540, tantrum, heelside off-axis 360, roll to revert, and backroll.

But then you have the advanced riders, who can pretty much do whatever they set their minds to. Advanced riders can dive into learning the most notorious wakeboard tricks around that incorporate difficult moves, like spinning and inverts. These moves are often mixed with cool grabs.

If you are an advanced rider, you should try these out: tantrum to blind, whirlybird, front flip, elephant, crow mobe, heelside mobe, and wrapped KGB. Remember, you can use your imagination to create your own wakeboard tricks.

You don’t have to stick to what others have come up with. As soon as you start feeling confident and comfortable with these tricks, you’re ready to advance to your next personal level.

Are you an avid wakeboarding fan? Visit Wakeboarding Tricks and get all the Wakeboard Tricks and wakeboarding tips you need to look like a pro.

- Jessica N