boat boom for teaching- best way to teach your small kids

[My 2 Dogs]

OK,

my son who just turned 6 and my other is almost 5 are finally interested in trying to wakeboard. we got them a board and bindings last year and he tried but could not hold the rope to pull himself up. I went to shore and tried to hold him but even with that he just fell over on his face and we would drag him if he did not let go.

My wife was talking to a lady at the local board shop and she mentioned a boat boom. Has anyone tried one of these and how do they fit on a Wakesetter with Illusion tower? Just looking for a easy way to get my kids up on their boards so wakeboarding is fun for them. The longer and harder it is for them to get up at this age the quicker they will lose interest.

thanks in advance.

[WakingMeHappy]

Assume you're talking about a bearfoot boom that sticks out the side of the boat. I have one I use to teach skiers and bearfooters and it works great. While I haven't used it yet for baorders I don't see why it wouldn't work. Start them out holding the boom and once they get the hang of it add a short rope. I use a plain ski rope that's about 4 foot long. Once they have that down stick'em behind the boat. The nice thing about the pole is they're so close you can talk to them. This is very reasuring to little kids who get scared being so far away from the boat when they fall. Granted they're not going to do any tricks with the boom but the idea is teaching them how to get up and stay balanced.

Edited July 8, 2009 by WakingMeHappy

[My 2 Dogs]

Assume you're talking about a bearfoot boom that sticks out the side of the boat. I have one I use to teach skiers and bearfooters and it works great. While I haven't used it yet for baorders I don't see why it wouldn't work. Start them out holding the boom and once they get the hang of it add a short rope. I use a plain ski rope that's about 4 foot long. Once they have that down stick'em behind the boat. The nice thing about the pole is they're so close you can talk to them. This is very reasuring to little kids who get scared being so far away from the boat when they fall. Granted they're not going to do any tricks with the boom but the idea is teaching them how to get up and stay balanced.

yes thanks. Was not certain what it was called. if there is another way of teaching small/young kids how to wakeboard I would appreciate it. My 6 year old is strong enough to lift himself out of the water but being so far back and then knowing when to lift up, etc it hard to explain to him.

[CLOUT1]

Booms are great tools to teach kids or "seniors" for that matter any type of water sport. One of the hardest things for kids or beginners in general to understand is to let the boat pull them up...don't "pull" yourself up. With the boom, it is to stable they pop out of the water before they even realize it. I have used one for years and it has always worked with skiing, surfing, wakeboarding, etc. Good Luck!!!

[Michigan boarder]

The boom is the 2nd best thing I have ever bought. The BU is the 1st. I have gotten a ton of small kids up on wakeboards this year. I use the boom and the wakeboard rope handle w/ 3ft rope. It is wonderful, and takes a frustrating and sometimes painful time and turns it into something with huge smiles. AND, as a driver, I have these kids up on the first or second time, everytime, and makes my day go much better too, as well as young passengers losing patience, etc. I bought it for barefooting, and didn't realize how much it would help with other stuff.

Hands down, buy one! If you decide you don't use it I'm sure you will have a quick sale to someone else.

Good luck!

[My 2 Dogs]

thanks. we are leaning toward getting one but which manufacturer is the best. also are they hard to install? I have the Illusion tower and was wondering how to install it, or does it even install against the tower?

[CLOUT1]

To my knowledge there are three main manufacturers...Barefoot International, Beeman's, and ECI. I looked at all of them when I purchased my Beeman boom and they all have similar features and are all quality products. I would talk to all manufacturers about your specific boat and set-up. As far as putting it on...easy as pie. Good Luck.

[davemac]

thanks. we are leaning toward getting one but which manufacturer is the best. also are they hard to install? I have the Illusion tower and was wondering how to install it, or does it even install against the tower?

as far as install goes, many prefer the "quick clamp" design of the ECI/Skylon, as no tools are necessary, and it is quickly adjustable on the pylon.

[saburkhart]

there is a tower boom, but I think it is made to fit towers made from tubing. I don't know if there is one for your tower or not. Usually they connect to the pylon in a direct drive. THere is also a v-drive version, but once again not sure if it will work with your model. It says it needs 3 inches of untapered pylon above the sun deck. I don't have experience with these, but have been considering the same thing. I'm a year or 2 away from the kids skiing though

[WakeGirl]

M2D,

You're going to be up against a couple of things.

1. Being that you have a vdrive, you need to be looking at a vdrive boom. I don't know about Beeman's, but ECI doesn't make one. Barefoot International is the only one that I know of that makes a vdrive specific boom. With that said, it's supposed to work well if you set it up right (see #2).

2. Being that it's a vdrive, you'll need to address the spray issue. With normal direct drives, this isn't a huge issue, but it most definitely is with a VLX or LSV. So you need to plan on buying at least 1 extension, probably 2 to get the boarder/skier out of the spray of the boat. I spoke with Mike Seipel at BI about it some time back & he assured me that the vdrive boom/clamp setup would work fine with 2 extensions even with a big guy footing on the boom (I asked that question because my husband is a big guy & likes to foot off of the boom).

3. The Illusion tower is a challenge, but Mike was sure that you could get around it by either angling the boom forward or back a little to get around it. I never tried it, so I can't speak to that point personally. But if Mike says it will work, that would give me the confidence to buy his product. He knows his stuff & is very helpful, so a call to BI might be a good idea.

4. The clamp. The pylon on your boat is retractable & not as tall as it could be, so I'm not sure how well that would work. In addition, it would probably be a situation where you'd have to leave it on all of the time. Just something to consider.

With our VLX, I seriously looked at it but ended up opting not to do it. I looked at the tower booms as well, but those don't break down as easily & leaving something like that deployed for the day just isn't something that I would want to do.

[Lakenut]

Have your kids tried kneeboarding? My daughter (now 6.5 years old) wanted nothing to do with skiing or wakeboarding last year. She did have an intrest in kneeboarding. We pulled her by hand in shallow water then started her behind the boat with someone in the water to help. Didn't take much strength but it did get her used to being pulled by the boat and what that feels like. Plus it is super easy for a kid to get up and stay up on a kneeboard. This year she wanted to get a wakeboard and learn how. I told her once she learned how to get up on skis I would buy her a wakeboard. Last weekend we straped on the old cypress gardens jrs that are tied together. 7 pulls later she was up and going. The fed-ex guy delievered her new wakeboard yesterday so we will see how that goes.

Not saying that a boom is a bad idea, just might want to try the kneeboarding thing.

[bobofthenorth]

I'm going to be a contrary voice in this thread. We've had a boom almost as long as we have had the Response and we use it a lot but we stopped using it to start wakeboarders. The boom is great for skiers and we use it every time with a new skier. Its not so great for wakeboards. Tracy has already mentioned the spray problem but that's not the biggie in our opinion. When you get a beginner wakeboarder up on the boom depending on which foot forward they happen to be relative to the side your boom is mounted on they can be alarmingly close to the side of the boat. So close that in a fall they could easily whack their gourd on the side of the boat. And close enough that it can disturb the rider too.

There's really no need for a boom to start a wakeboarder anyway. If the board is sized to the rider it is dead simple to teach a kid to wakeboard. Shorten the rope up as much as you can so the tower tries to lift them out of the water. Tell the kid to keep his knees to his chest, arms straight and outside the knees. If he's got too big a board he won't be able to do that so you need to address the equipment sizing thing first. Then tell him not to stand up until somebody in the boat motions for him to do so. If the kid is motivated to learn he'll wait for the signal. Then all you need is a driver who can go light on the throttle. Little kids can ride under 10 mph. Adults can ride at 10 to 12 mph. Go REALLY slow, just barely rolling the throttle on. Tell the rider to concentrate on keeping the board underneath him and not to freak out when it goes under the water.

Do all that and you'll have a new rider by the 2nd or 3rd pull.

[WakeGirl]

The spray is a big deal on a vdrive, there's substantially more of it than on a Response. For a 5 or 6 year old it will be right in their face. And as far as goofy vs. regular, you can start a regular footer on the port side & they'll typically steer away from the boat to the left, goofy footers on the starboard side will work the same way since they want to go to the right.

I agree that there isn't a big need for it for a wakeboarder, but I have seen instances in which there was no other way that the rider was going to get up. So sometimes it's a God-send to have.

[bobofthenorth]

I didn't mean to suggest that the spray wasn't an issue, just that it wasn't the biggest issue. You can move the boom to the other side but a beginner boarder doesn't always know which foot forward they are going to end up preferring and they can't always control which way they come up. We've never whacked one on the short rope but we've been scared a couple of times. If we're absolutely skunked on the long line we have put them directly on the boom but that hasn't happened for a long time now.

[WakeGirl]

Good points. I've never taught someone on the boom that didn't know which foot was forward (coincidentally that's always been behind the boat), & that would definitely be an issue.

[Michigan boarder]

I agree on the proximity to the boat. If not done right, that could be dangerous. The key is to figure out which foot is forward, by what they do on a skateboard, ripstick, snowboard, hard ice skate stop, video game position, tug of war, etc. Then position the boom on the side of the boat that they will be toe-side towards the boat, heel-side away from the boat. That way they will automatically steer away, even with handle attached to the boom.

[martinarcher]

The spray is a big deal on a vdrive, there's substantially more of it than on a Response. For a 5 or 6 year old it will be right in their face. And as far as goofy vs. regular, you can start a regular footer on the port side & they'll typically steer away from the boat to the left, goofy footers on the starboard side will work the same way since they want to go to the right.

I agree that there isn't a big need for it for a wakeboarder, but I have seen instances in which there was no other way that the rider was going to get up. So sometimes it's a God-send to have.

I've taught about 5 people to wakeboard off our boom after dozens of pulls on the longline. They were frustrated and ready to give up. I threw the boom on and that extra upward pull and the stability it offers works great. they all were up within two pulls. I let them get up a couple times on the boom and then they all got up fine on the longline. Great teaching tool! Ours is the Barefoot International boom and is rock solid.