December Wakeboarding Sesh

Wakeboarding at Liquid Leisure in Slough (90 mins drive from Bristol). Suitable for all levels from absolute beginner upwards.

If you book online at www.llski.com then it costs just £10 for 1 hour or £20 for 2 hours. Equipment hire is £10 extra (board, helmet, buoyancy aid) and another £5 if you don't have your own wetsuit.

The cable runs from 12pm until dusk in the winter. Let's aim to get there for 11.30am or thereabouts, get changed, and get on the water at midday. If coming from Bristol it's recommended to leave at 9.15am/9.30am-ish so you can stop for a coffee en-route too :) Estimated time of return to Bristol is 5pm/6pm-ish.

In the winter the water will be cold. So it's recommended you have a 5mm winter wetsuit, 1.5mm-2mm wetsuit gloves and 2mm-3mm boots. Liquid Leisure only hire Spring wetsuits (3mm), but you can choose to wear two at once which will give you a toasty 6mm. They do not hire out gloves and boots, but do sell them (gloves £40, boots £30). Alternatively, you can get them from websites like Amazon, Ebay, Surfdome, etc. I'd recommend 1.5mm gloves for wakeboarding (3mm or thicker will make holding the handle more difficult and possibly even painful on the tendons in your arms). For boots, go for 3mm. I go for O'neill boots and gloves, and think they do the job well :)

www.getonthewater.co.uk have got Animal 5/4/3mm winter wetsuits for £99.99, and they also have boots, gloves and hats. Please mention Bristol South West Adventure Sports (BSWAS) when contacting / ordering.

Once at the wakeboard park, if you're a total beginner you can choose to use a kneeboard to start with, which is much easier than hopping straight onto a wakeboard. A kneeboard will teach you the feeling of the pull of the cable, and how to take the corners. Once you've done a couple of laps on a kneeboard, pick up a wakeboard. I'm a qualified wakeboarding instructor and will be on hand to give tips.

Feel free to come for as long or as short as you like, or even just come to spectate the first time and see if it's something you might like to try in the future :-)

If you're a beginner, don't worry about the obstacle and ramp in the pic, you won't be hitting those! :-) Instead, you'll be learning how to get off the dock, how to stand up, how to edge, and how to get round the corners.

Liquid Leisure have an excellent site at www.llski.com (http://www.llski.com/) if you need any extra info, or give me a shout!.

When you RSVP please mention if you are a driver and how many spaces you have available in your car and where you're leaving from / where you can pick up from. Or if you are looking for a lift, then please mention that at time of RSVPing too. We can then match drivers with passengers. Passengers will be expected to donate towards petrol costs. As a rule of thumb: 20p a mile divided by all in the car (including the driver). e.g. 200 mile return trip with 3 passengers and 1 driver = 200 x .20p = £40 divided by 4 = a tenner each. Simple!.