Tips on teaching wife to drive the boat so I can wakeboard

[Jgorm]

I go with the bring a buddy plan. It would take hours and hours of training, and even with prefect pass I wouldn't get a good pull. The driver needs to be a wakeboarder! They understand how it sucks when the boat is changing speeds and direction all the time. Or when the driver is always in a slow turn. The pickups go quick because they know they can go as soon as the slack is out.

 

[bronze_10]

Man..... reading through all those suggestions.... really seems like a lot of work. I know my wife won't drive. So go with the easy solution....

Just go get a new wife/ girlfriend!

Or a second one... man im glad my wife doesnt get on here...... much!

 

[Markk]

Thanks gentlemen, we will be going out this weekend and I plan on spending a lot of time with her at the helm. @Blenderhead only ride in salt water so I will try very hard to act like I'm loving it when I fall lol. I've watched a lot of videos about staying in the crouching positition until your out of water and keeping the rope close to you. I may be a little bit over confident in attempting to wakeboard seeing how I had mad skills on the snowboard. This should be interesting. Once My wife gets use to driving I will upload my first attempt at it.

My advice if you're approaching or over 40, ask her to pull you slow and steady out of the water. The rider needs to maintain a chair position, point your toes toward boat to flatten board, keep elbows bent to allow self adjustment on tow strength, lean back and don't worry about board driving under water. With a slow steady pull you'll be up in no time.

 

[KXCam22]

On a flat water day, get her to spend an hour pushing an inflated tube around like a tugboat. It gives them the feel for low speed handling which helps everywhere. As for backing up, if you teach them to ignore the vehicle and think only of where the hitch ball is to push the trailer. Both worked for me Cam.

 

[Gym]

First thing I would do is cancel my life insurance policy to eliminate the incentive.

 

[robbo3]

Have her learn to drive first and be comfortable. Then move on to tow sports.

As many others have said, Perfect Pass is your best friend.

 

[Brian Griffith]

I'm very lucky I guess, mine started out driving on day one this summer. Day 3 she learned to drive the truck. One thing we learned early on and she is the one who discovered it, set the MFD to display digital speed, its more accurate and easier to maintain a set speed over using the analog gauge. Give her a specific speed and it's easy to figure out if the throttles need to go up or down. And once your close use the cruise assist. I do not have cruise control. Also helps to explain how to use one throttle at a time to turn the boat. The ( ) method works best for us.

 

[J-RAD]

Step 1 - as mentioned, install the Hydrophase Ridesteady... it will change your life. My wife is a novice driver but gives new prefect runs both surfing and wakeboarding. I've got a 2016 AR240 and it makes me feel like I'm driving an E- series...

Step 2 - Have her watch some how-to videos on YouTube. My wife did this on her own and did so much better afterwards.