With the Kneeboard Worlds’ being postponed until 2022 some riders may be experiencing a loss of motivation. For many riders it is completely natural to get upset, frustrated or annoyed when burdened with bad news. This can have a negative impact on their training. It can also lead to a loss of motivation and drive. However, below you will find several tips on how to have a positive outlook in any situation and stay motivated to train and ride.

1. MAKE GOALS

This step is often overlooked but if you don’t have a goal, then there is nothing to be motivated for. Not only should you make goals. You must write them down or make note of them somehow. This way you will be able to constantly be reminded of them. If you fail to make note of them somewhere, you will forget about them and they will go out of your priority’s as quickly as they came in.

2. TELL PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR AIMS

Sometimes everything gets a bit much and we can find it really difficult to pursue our personal goals as we have lost our motivation. However, if others (perhaps close family members and friends) are aware of your goals, then they too will push you to achieve them and possibly even give you a helping hand. Additionally, when you tell people of a goal, you set a certain amount of pressure on yourself to fulfil it which might help later down the road.

3. REWARD YOURSELF

This doesn’t mean buying yourself a huge box of chocolates to celebrate the fact that you just had a great set, no, this means that you must have a reward beyond meeting your goals. Sometimes we feel demotivated because the end product of the goal isn’t what we imagined, if this is the case, set more challenging goals for yourself or, if this isn’t possible, treat yourself to something to keep the buzz alive and to keep you motivated.

4. MONITOR YOUR PROGRESS

It can be easy to forget how far you have come since you started working towards a goal. If you plot your progress, seeing how far you have come on in your riding or whatever your goal is, will keep you motivated for the long run. Another bonus to this step is that you will even feel motivated to keep making progress as you know how good it feels to look back and reflect on. For more ways on how to improve your riding check out our page on HOW TO COACH YOURSELF.

5. SWITCH IT UP

Naturally, if we do the same thing on repeat, the process becomes boring and we lose interest which then leads to a loss of motivation. Definitely switch up your riding, timings and way of working towards your goal if you find that you are bored with the current process, there’s nothing to say that you can’t come back to that same process later when you have more motivation!

We very much hope that you find some of these tips useful and that you find the motivation you need to continue riding and progressing!

The Kneeboard Worlds, now under the wing of the IWWF, was set to be held in Orlando, FL in the summer of 2021. However, given the extreme circumstances surrounding coronavirus and the complete uncertainty of the situation, the Kneeboard UK Committee sent out an email earlier this month letting the riders know that it would not be going ahead.

This incident has also brought to light the apparent lack of international events held throughout the year and we have some exciting ideas currently on the drawing board which may fix this. In addition we want to thank the Kneeboard governing bodies for being responsible and putting safety first in this difficult situation. We also appreciate that the postponing of the kneeboard worlds’ was in no ways an easy decision or taken lightly.

There will, however, be a 2022 date and venue confirmed within the next few months. Hopefully this can be seen as a positive and that the athletes may have another year to train. This may mean that 2022 Worlds will be seeing better tricks and more riders! During the next year it might be a good idea to get a new trick run down and progress, ensuring that you perform well at Worlds, or make the team; check out our post on 4 THINGS YOU NEED TO BE DOING for better performances on the water now!

If you are an athlete currently feeling frustrated that your hard work has been useless, go and check out our page on how to stay motivated in the sport as this will give you a few steps to get into a better mental space.

We will update you on the latest news regarding any aspect of the sport as soon as it comes out. So ensure that you keep checking back to this page for more content!

Whatever your event, you need to start doing these 4 things for better performance on the water. You will see the results instantly and will not be able to ride again without doing these essential 4 things.

1. DISCIPLINE

Perhaps the most important step of them all, discipline comes in many forms. The first step to bringing discipline into your routine is to focus on time. Know your schedule and stick to it. Be strict with yourself and make sure that you turn up to the lake/river every time you said you would. In order to be disciplined on with your training on the water, you must start in your daily routine and life.

2. MAKE GOALS

Without a goal, there is no way to measure progress, or any reason to be motivated. Whether your goal is to simply have fun or win a competition, at the start of every season you should sit down and think about what you want to achieve. Don’t be afraid to set hard goals as this means that even if you don’t make them, you’ll still end up in a much better position than you were previously. This is one of the most important steps to having better performance.

3. REFLECT

Once you finish, it is important to reflect on your performance. Get a member of the boat crew to take a video of you doing tricks whilst you ride. It is also recommended that you reflect on other parts of your riding, what the conditions were like, how you felt, and if you spent the right amount of time in the water or not. Once you recognise your weak points, it will enable you to adapt. Therefore, you will have better performance on the water next time your ride.

4. STRETCH

It is obvious that if you want to have better performance on the water, you need as much from your body as you can get. Stretching daily is a great way to boost your performance easily. You can do as little as 5 minutes. There are so many resources online on how to stretch for certain sports, however, we will be releasing one specific to kneeboarding on YouTube in the not too distant future.

If you are looking for similar content on improving your riding but don’t have a coach, or anyone to give advice, check out our post on HOW TO BE YOUR OWN COACH now!

Start practicing these 4 tips today and observe the effect it has on your riding. We hope that you gain success from doing these things to boost your performance, and if you have any other ideas, comment them below!

Competitive kneeboarding is continually present around the world through a variety of national and international competitions. Kneeboarders compete in up to 4 disciplines: Trick, Slalom, Flipout, and Freestyle where the aim is to beat the other competitors by scoring a higher number of points by doing tricks and completing slalom courses. Take a look at our post on HOW TO MAKE A TRICK RUN now!

Average boat speed for towing a kneeboarder will vary from rider to rider, however, a good general speed for competent adults is anywhere from 18-22mph, for beginner children a slow speed such as 10mph is advised.

Kneeboarders usually wear a wetsuit, life jacket or impact vest, and a helmet (if riding on a cable). This is exactly the same as wake boarding and whilst it is not enforced, it is strongly advised that every rider wears a life jacket even if they can swim to help prevent injury or death given a worse case scenario.

Kneeboarding is relatively safe, however, head and neck injuries are the most common as when a rider falls in, off a jump, the head takes the most impact.

Some of the main companies involved in the sport are O’Brien, HO Sports and Jobe Watersports respectively.

There are two main national kneeboarding competitions in the UK, the Cutting Edge for children and the Kneeboard Nationals for everyone.

The Cutting Edge

The Cutting Edge has been running for many years and often takes place one weekend in August. One kneeboard club hosts the Cutting Edge every year and it has recently been held at Cotswold Water Ski Club, Kingsbury Water Park and Church Wilne Water Ski Club.

Each region of England contributes a team to the Cutting Edge and this has worked well in recent years. It is really good that the number of entrants has grown recently and there were ideas for 2020 limit the number of entrants from each region to make sure that the day could run to time.

Anyone of 16 or younger can enter the Cutting Edge.

The Cutting Edge teams are organised on a regional basis and there may well be regional qualifiers if the competition can go ahead in 2020. You will need to contact your regional organiser, who should be well-known in your area, to find out how the qualifiers will work in your region and how to get involved.

The Cutting Edge is a really good weekend with 6 events:

• Kneeboard trick
• Kneeboard slalom
• Barefoot
• Wake board trick
• Monoski slalom
• Trickski

Competitors are encouraged to take part in as many events as possible and the total score for all the events for each region is added up leaving one region as the winner. The big competition of the day is to find out which region has the best team.

In addition to this, podium places are announced and prizes given for the top three positions in each individual event. The scoring system is weighted by age which makes sure that even the youngest competitors have a good chance of doing well.

There is an additional award for the youngest competitor on the day. A few years ago the youngest competitor was seven years old but recently an amazing four-year-old managed a kneeboard trick run, to massive cheers all around!

The host club provides great food and drink at reasonable prices and with camping on site in most years for tents and caravans, there is a real party atmosphere and everybody has a great weekend.

For many years the event has been supported generously by Simon from Wake and ski. Simon has provided not just the boats and many of the prices but also an unforgettable commentary over the course of the whole weekend.

Over recent years many children have taken part in the Cutting Edge, having only started the sport a year or two beforehand. The easy-going, friendly, welcoming and supportive atmosphere ensures that everybody has a great time and that everybody feels able to take part.

It has been great to see the number of entrants growing and after a bumper 2019 competition, there was a suggestion that regional heats might be held to limit the overall number of competitors slightly in 2020.

The Kneeboard Nationals

The Cutting Edge is for children but the Kneeboard Nationals cater for everyone, from the very youngest to people who are old enough to know better! Every year there are three tour stops, each held on an individual day or a weekend, often in early June, the end of July with the final tour stop, the Kneeboard Nationals, in early September.

This is really a multi-event competition with categories including

• Freestyle
• Kneeboard trick
• Kneeboard slalom
• Flip out

To give everyone a chance to shine, the Kneeboard Nationals is broken down by ability, with different divisons, from beginners to the best and most experienced riders in the country.

Kneeboard trick and Kneeboard slalom will be familiar to many people but Flip Out involves scoring the highest number of flips in one run. This makes it sound very difficult but the winning number of flips in 2019 was just two. If you can flip, you can win!

The Freestyle event is a quickfire round with the rider scoring for the best single trick they can perform.

The competition really mounts for the final event of the tour stop, the Kneeboard Nationals. In 2018 and 2019 the nationals were held at Humber Bridge Water Ski Club in Yorkshire.

This is a two day event runing on a Saturday and Sunday with a practice day on the Friday. Like the Cutting Edge, the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming and with only a few entrants in some age groups and disciplines everyone has a chance of winning.

Some people camp on site, others stay locally and with great hospitality, good food and drink this really is a great weekend. The ski club is based on a very small lake just yards from the stunning Humber estuary and the tight turn at the start of the slalom course is a challenge in itself!

A big draw at the Kneeboard Nationals is the Open Division which sees the very best Kneeboarders in the country compete for glory. It’s worth the trip just to see this!

As well as these two big national competitions, there are lots of local and regional competitions to get involved with. Just contact your local club.

We really look forward to seeing you on the water soon at the Cutting Edge and the Kneeboard Tour stops!

One of the hardest parts about a sport is that there isn’t always a coach available to help you all the time, so we made this post to give you some idea of the things you can do to keep improving and self-teach when you’re without someone to direct you.

BUY A CAMERA: This will enable you to film your tricks and then you can find out what you need to change in order to improve. The good thing about a camera is that you can also monitor your progress visually, which can be a big morale boost as you can see the improvement instead of being simply told that you’re riding better. Check out our post on THE BEST CAMERA FOR YOU if you want to be sure of what you will buy.

REFLECT: One of the major advantages to coaching yourself is that you know if you did something wrong or right. You know whether you only half-committed or whether you tried too hard and over-rotated so use this knowledge to your advantage. After you either land or fail a trick, take the time where the boat is coming round to pick you up to assess what went well and what went wrong with the trick. Using visualisation, think through what happened and then if something needs adjusting, then make a change the next time you try that specific trick.

WORK HARD: When you are your own coach and have all the responsibility, it can be easy to cut yourself a lot of slack, put off training your new trick, or just give up for the day entirely. You need to prevent this at all costs as it will put a swift end to your progression. Don’t make excuses, if you’re feeling tired and like you don’t want to ride again for the day then push yourself to try the trick one more time as this is where the real progress happens as it puts you above the people who just don’t feel the need to push themselves out of their comfort zone.

KNOW WHEN TO STOP: Of course it is very important to work hard and go out of your comfort zone in order to improve, however, only to a degree. If you are seriously tired and 100% not looking forward to riding then it could be dangerous to go out on the water and try something new. We cannot tell you when you’re too tired to ride, that is a decision that you have to make yourself. Always remember that choosing to not ride is your decision only, don’t feel pressured to ride if you think that it would be a safer risk, others should respect this decision too.

There you go, we hope that you find these tips useful and that you are able to improve and progress without your coach being there and that you have fun but more importantly, stay safe.

If you want to capture some of your amazing trick runs and slaloms on the water you will need a camera.

But which is the best camera for kneeboarding?

The answer depends on your budget. The latest iPhones (particularly the iPhone 11) have brilliant cameras and you may already have one of these in your pocket if you are lucky. If not, any smart phone camera will let you record your run so you can check your technique afterwards and work to improve.

The most obvious next step is a camera with a bigger zoom. Things happen quickly on the water and the ride can be bumpy so we recommend something with decent video recording ability and optical image stabilisation. You want to be able to zoom and maybe take still photos as well. You need a camera with a quick response so a mirrorless or compact format camera is better than a strict digital SLR. Having the ability to change lenses means you can shoot from further away, so standing on the bank can get you good footage. We use an Olympus OMD EM-10 Mark II but this has been replaced by the Mark III which you can see here. The main difference between the two is that the Mark III records in 4K video. You pay a lot more for 4K recording and you should ask if you really need this. Not many people watch YouTube video at 4K but you may want this if you are watching video at home on a fancy TV. Nobody needs 4K video just to watch their performance and improve their technique.

A really good facility if you want to take still shots is to have a burst mode. This is when you hold the shutter button down and the camera takes a number of shots in very quick succession. You will need a highly rated memory card for this, such as a class VI SD card and it’s worth spending a few more pounds to get a card with a higher capacity (128 GB will keep you going all day and all night) such as the SanDisk Extreme card we use which is featured here.

That covers the photos taken by camera from the boat and from the shore.

If you want to flex you might want to take footage from the point of view of the rider or from the board. For this, we recommend a GoPro and the very best right now is the GoPro HERO8 available here. You can attach this to your chest with a harness like this or you can fix it to the back of the boat using a mount like this with a quick release clip like this.

If you want to, you can fix it to the crossbar of the boat near the rope attachment with a pole mount like this. Crossbars on boats can be quite thick and you want to make sure that your pole mount is is not too small.

If you want to go for the ultimate POV then you can use one of these to fix the camera to the front of your board. A word of warning here because if you go nose down or hit the water hard after some aerial action, the camera might dislodge. Although the GoPro HERO8 is waterproof to 10m it doesn’t float! We always use an attachable float like this, brightly coloured, to make sure that the camera can be recovered after any problems. Just like when you’re learning to monoski and you drop a ski, be aware that a camera in the water is an obstacle and very mind other skiers when starting out with this.

If you really want to go all in, then drone photography is the ultimate. Drones have been really expensive over the last few years and take a lot of experience and expertise but the follow me feature seen on the more expensive DJI drones is a real winner. This “Active Track” makes things much easier by following the rider and keeping the camera pointing the right way and focused. Even better, you don’t need to carry any equipment to use Active Track, so there’s nothing to lose in the water.

The big news for the 2020 season from the drone world is the release of the DJI Mavic Mini which comes in at an amazing £369. This shoots 2.7K video (more than you need) and does not have a follow me function but, with lots of electronic flight assistance and safety measures inbuilt, can be used with only a little practice to get fantastic footage.

You may find that you also need the Fly More Combo featuring three extra batteries and some propeller guards available here. The Fly More Combo is worth it for another £90 and will keep you airborne all day.

Here is some great drone footage taken at Church Wilne showing what you can do with the right equipment and the right skills.

With your smart phone, mirrorless camera, GoPro and drone you will be shooting good quality video in no time!

So you’ve been looking at some videos on youtube of riders doing crazy tricks and you’re feeling all inspired. You have decided that this weekend as soon as you get on the water, you will try a new trick that you have been thinking about all week. The one problem is that there is nowhere on the internet that offers instruction on your chosen trick, well, its good that you stopped by here because we are going to run over some of the fundamentals to learning a new trick.

1. VISUALISATION

Before you even get on the water, before it even gets to the weekend, visualise. Visualisation is where you form a mental image (or video) of what you are going to be doing. This skill is really important as it helps you understand exactly what you will be doing and gives you a clear thought process for the trick. It is important to visualise in as much detail as possible (when, where, why, how) break down every little detail about your chosen trick and examine why you are doing a certain (i.e) cut and how that will help your trick overall. Do not fear if you can’t visualise very well, it can be practiced and improved the more you train the skill of visualisation.

2. SAFETY

Before you are about to ride let the crew on the boat know that you are about to try a new trick. Make sure the driver knows what speed you want to ride at (a slower speed is normally advised when learning a new trick); the spotter will also need to be informed as they will keep a better lookout and pay more attention in case anything goes wrong. If you’re lucky, the people on the boat might know how to do the trick and can offer advice and support as you attempt it. So do not just have a spontaneous go halfway through your set when nobody on the boat is really engaged. Safety is paramount when learning a new trick.

3. PRACTICE ON LAND

Get creative, pop your board onto a trampoline and practice the motion. Get a friend to put tension on a rope and practice the handle movement on land. This is the major step of visualisation where you are now physically recreating what you expect the trick to be/feel like, and so you know what’s coming. Although this is a great way to ready yourself for a trick, as soon as you get out on the water everything will seem different. Don’t let this put you off, stick to what you practiced on land and you’ll be fine.

4. COMMIT

There is nothing worse when attempting a new trick than second-guessing yourself. Of course, it’s natural, we all do it from time to time but if you do second guess yourself then stop, take time to make sure that you can commit and only then retry. If you are not fully committed then you risk bailing which might result in injury, and that’s the last thing you want on a first attempt because an even bigger mental block will come down on that trick. Much like visualisation, committing to a new trick is a skill that gets easier the more you do it. Once you know how to do a 360, your body will be able to understand better what a 540 will feel like etc… so get your favourite tune on and send it!

5. KEEP TRYING

You would be very lucky if you manage to land a new trick on your first attempt so do not be put off when you fall flat on your face. There is no definite number to how many tries a new trick will take but remember, there is a number. You will be able to land it and view it as a matter of time rather than number of tries as this will let you focus on the overall session of attempts rather than worry about whether you will land it next try or not. This will help you to relax and embrace the process of failure, an invaluable lesson in the sport.

Well there it is, we hope that you find these 5 tips to learning a new trick useful and hopefully you will will land that cool new trick which has been gripping you all week.

Good Luck…

They key to progress and improving your riding is practice, but it’s more important that you don’t over practice as this can result in injury, so this a detailed summary of how often you should ride per week.

TIME

The first factor to consider when drawing up a schedule for when you ride each week is time. It’s important to use time to ride when you are completely free of other responsibilities as this will put you more at ease and comfortable when you ride. You may also want to consider to ask your friends what times of the week they are free so that you can all ride together.

FITNESS

This is probably the most important factor to consider when choosing how much to ride each week. The one, very important aim is to not get injured. If you don’t know how much your body can take, start off slow and then build up the number of days you ride per week. No matter how much you think you can ride, you should always factor in a rest day, as this will give your body time to repair the damage done throughout the week.

BUDGET

It’s no secret that you need fuel for a boat, whether that be gas or petrol, and the cost of running your boat many times a week quickly adds up. This is a serious factor to consider so that you can make a realistic schedule for the week, as oppose to having an unrealistic target.

It is no secret that kneeboarding is a relatively small sport in terms of numbers. It has only one major international competition every three years and the nationals usually only have a handful of riders per category. It is also no secret that YouTube is the worlds biggest video streaming site, with the largest audience. So putting the two together offers the potential for a lot of growth for the sport of kneeboarding.

CREATES OPPORTUNITY

No matter which country you ride in, or where your lake is, putting videos on youtube brings riders to one place. If you are feeling particularly isolated, putting videos on youtube will bring riders to your content who may want to ride with you or talk about the sport. Since the kneeboard world is so small, people are very willing to talk to other riders and get involved setting up local ‘ride-along’ events.

COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK

If you have found yourself stuck on a new trick, and there is no-one at your club or lake to help coach you, then youtube is the best place to go. Simply uploading a clip asking for help will prompt support from skilled riders around the world who can help you to conquer that trick so that you can pull it off effortlessly. Just be sure to keep looking over your youtube for when someone comments on your video.

SPONSORSHIP

Now that social media and online marketing and influencers are such a big part of the modern-day advertising market, brands are always looking out for talent on big social media platforms, such as youtube. If you manage to build up a large online following, in this case, a subscriber base, then this will certainly catch the eye of a brand more than if you had no youtube channel at all. So instead of sitting on the couch emailing companies you’d like to work with, get some videos up on youtube and prove how relevant you are within the sport.

So, you’re ready to start your youtube channel but you’re not sure how to start it. Go and check out our page here on how to get started on youtube before you set up anything yourself, for some helpful tips.