Wakeboarding on Lake Anna

by contributing writer Kyle Austin

I don’t know about you, but I have never said “I hope it’s really windy at Lake Anna later today so I can take a shred session behind the Supra.” Why is that, you ask?  The answer is short and simple…wake boarders hate wind. It is a smile to a sailboat and a huge frown to wake boarders.

No matter what you are riding, whether you’re wake skating, wake boarding or even water skiing, wind is never a great addition to your set. The wind will make the water extremely choppy, making it almost impossible to hit the wake the way you want to. If you are a wake skater, could you imagine trying to go wake to wake with a board that’s not attached and the wind taking it right out from underneath you. Not exactly what you want to see when the point is to land back “ON” the board.

When you are boarding on Lake Anna however you may run into some wind from time to time. No reason to pack up and go home though. You may just have turn and head another direction. There are a bunch of alley ways and coves on Lake Anna for you to do this as well. One of the main reasons why we have what we call “wakeboard alley” is because of the design of the waterway. It is straight lines and hard turns, so if you have one bad route, all you have to do is get to the next turn and your good to go.

If all you are doing is trying to get out on the water and have a great time, you can always inland surf if the wind is too much to handle out on the wakes. The benefit to inland surfing is that the choppy water and wind don’t bother a rider that much. Being so close to the boat already, the elements don’t get to you as easily and give you a better chance of riding a long time. Inland surfing is a great way to blow off the worries and let the traffic die down as well. When everyone is heading home because of the wind, you are literally riding it out and shredding through it all.

When it’s all said and done, I still say that wind is a wake boarder’s nightmare, but it is not a day killer. Get out on the water regardless of your predictions and shred like there is no tomorrow.