Wakesurf Tricks Guide
Learning how to wakesurf or thinking about trying it out? Wakesurfing is easily one of the best ways to level up your summer fun.
If you’ve finally locked in and mastered the art of getting up on the board, and have found your desired stance then it’s time to advance your skills and start learning some tricks.
This is when wakesurfing gets fun because you start to establish your own kind of unique style while riding.
This guide is all about the top 20 beginner and intermediate wakesurfing tricks to try that will keep you busy for a while as well as build your confidence out on the water.
If you’re still learning how to get up on the board check out our guide on “How to get up while wakesurfing“
(Beginner Tricks) Easy Wakesurf Tricks to Learn First
Floating
This is one of the easiest tricks to learn. Simply put, floating is when you ride on top of the wave. Floating is an awesome beginner trick because it’s simple enough to learn but gives you a great feeling for what it’s like to ride on top of the wave.
In order to float the wave, you’ll want to shift your weight to your toes. This will propel you forward into the wave.
Carving
The art of carving is a perfect beginners trick that will both impress your friends and allow you to feel like a wakeriding pro. Carving is essentially the act of riding straight down one side of the wave, then turning towards the other side and riding back up on the next wave.
To carve on a wakesurf board, you first need to propel yourself forward by pushing your arms out in front of you while keeping them parallel with the wake. Make sure that your legs are flexed to lower your center of gravity as you press off of the water. You can carve all across or make a few turns back and forth for an intermediate-level wake rider.
This simple trick is easy to learn and serves as a building block for future tricks. Get this one down and you’ll have a solid foundation and great edge control.
Pumping
Pumping is when you pump your legs and the board up and down in order to generate speed. This is a good base trick to practice your speed control. Once you get the hang of pumping and floating, you’ll be able to start doing tricks in and out of the wake.
Snapping
A snap while wake surfing is when you carve up onto the wake and snap the board horizontally on top of the wave. Snapping is a fun trick to learn that looks awesome when you get the hang of it. You can think of it as a boardslide but not quite on top of the wave.
How To Snap: Start toward the back of the wave and pump forward to generate some speed. Now dig your toes forward to float up to the top of the wave and snap your back foot forward. This will shoot a bunch of water up making a big splash over the wave.
Ollie
To do an ollie push the wake surfing board up on your toes while simultaneously crouching down and pushing off from the wave as you slide your feet forward to get a little bit of air. For the ollie, you want to really focus on pushing that back foot down into the water, sliding your front foot up while both knees bend up to your chest. Let the water do most of the work for you and land back down with equal pressure on your feet.
Boardslide
A boardslide is similar to snapping, but it’s more of an extended version, and you do it on top of the wake. In order to do this trick, you’ll want to practice those snaps and get them dialed in. Then simply bring them up to the top of the wake and extend it out. You can do these back side (bs board slide) or front side.
360 Turns
Wondering how to do 360s while wake surfing? It’s actually not too hard to learn, but it does take a little bit of practice. This is a super popular spin trick that everyone wants to learn right away. Here’s an in-depth guide we wrote on how to 360 while wakesurfing step-by-step.
To do a 360, you’ll want to pump in toward the boat. Once you’ve got some speed going, with your knees bent turn your board 45 degrees toward the wake and drop your back hand into the water while turning your shoulders and head all the way around in a 360 motion back toward the boat. If done correctly, your body and the board should follow naturally. Now smooth out your weight and ride away clean.
Rail Grab
This is just a simple surf-style trick in which you crouch down to grab the edge of your board. It’s more of a style trick but it serves a good purpose because it will teach you board control and balance while on the water.
Crouch down on the board by bending your back knee toward your front knee. Once in this position grab the edge of your board. Pretty simple, but super helpful to learn.
Fire Hydrant
For this fun trick, you’ll stick one leg and one arm into the air, leaving the opposite hand grabbing the board, and the opposite foot planted on it.
Hang Five
The hang five is a pretty simple trick, it’s when you ride with one foot toward the front of the board unline the hang 10 where you ride with both feet at the front of the board.
(Intermediate Tricks) Wake Surfing Tricks For Intermediate Riders
Riding Switch
To “ride switch” is simply riding on the opposite side of the wake with your non-dominant foot forward. If you are goofy you’d be riding regular and if you’re regular you’d be riding goofy.
An easy way to know if you are goofy or regular is to imagine yourself running and sliding on ice. If your right foot is forward while sliding on ice then you are goofy. If your left foot is forward, then you are regular.
Airing Out
Airing out is when you push yourself into the wake and do and ollie up and out over the wave back into the wake.
For this trick, you’ll want to make sure that you’re on the wave and not on the wake. Now you are going to crouch down toe edge pushing yourself into the wake. No pop that backs foot and does an ollie at the top of the wake to get the air you’re looking for.
Body Varial
A body varial is a wake surf trick that cycles the rider’s body 180 degrees in while the board stays in the same place. You’ll want to have a firm handle on riding the board first because you’ll want to have a nice amount of balance as you’ll be taking your feet completely off the board for this one.
Simply jump up and rotate your body, now try and land back on the board while keeping your balance. It sounds easy, but it’s a bit trickier than you’d think.
FS Shuv
A front-side shuv is when you rotate the board 180 degrees. With front-side the front of the board will rotate toward the front of your body. To do this trick you’ll scoop your back foot while lifting your front foot to get the board to rotate. Once you see the board make the 180-degree turn slam down on both feet to catch the board before it hits the water again.
BS Shuv
This is the same exact trick as above however the front of the board rotates toward the backside of your body. You’ll do the same steps as above except you’ll be scooping your back foot forward rather than backward.
360 Shuv
This is the same as the FS Shuv, however a more exaggerated version where the board spins a full 360 degrees. You’ll scoop harder and jump higher for this one.
Airout Indy Grab
An indy grab is when you air out of the way and grab onto the front edge of your board. To accomplish this trick pop an ollie and air out of the wake. While at the top of your air you’re going to grab the front edge of your board.
(Advanced Tricks)
Kickflip
Believe it or not, you actually can do kickflips on a wakesurf. These types of tricks are pretty rare but super fun to try new stuff once you exhausted all your tricks. The First wakesurf-kickflip was by Zoltan Torkos landed behind the Super Air Nautique G23 in 2014.
BS Big Spin
A backside big spin is when you do a backside 360 shuvit and a 180 body varial in the same direction
FS Big Spin
The FS Big Spin is the same as the BS Big Spin except the rotation happens in front of your body! Just like the example below.
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