About Gary King

I’m a writer, speaker and lover of all things that raise the heartbeat and tickle the senses. If there is one thing that I’ve learnt from my years of extreme sport and adventure travel is that life is for living - not spectating.

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Wakeboarding with Jess Hilbery

By Gary King on 03 February 2010 10:14:47

With Wakestock heading out to Abu Dhabi on the 6th March the world of wakeboarding is alive and well. As the fastest growing water sport in the world (does anybody know if that is true?) it's going from strength to strength. I've not done a huge amount of it myself but I did go out for a day with top boarder Jess Hilbery at JB waterski in Chertsey. We had a cracking day - I did manage to leap off the wake but only after taking a face plant that had water coming out and going into every orifice in my face. Nice.

Gary King getting to grips with wakeboarding. Pic by Clara Molden

I’m crouched down low in the water, bobbing around with just my head protruding from its surface. My white knuckled hands are clutching the submerged tow rope handle that is drawn close to my hips. The motorboat grumbles into life churning up a rich froth and as it begins to surge forward the rope tightens. I lean back taking the strain and somewhat miraculously rise to find myself rattling across the lake on a small fiberglass board.

I’m at JB Waterski in Chertsey, Surrey having a lesson in the UK’s fastest growing watersport, wakeboarding. I bounce across the choppy water feeling incredibly unstable; imagine being strapped to an ironing board and then being towed across a field by a tractor.

“Bend your knees Gary,” shouts my instructor Jess Hilbery from the stern of the boat, “chest up, relax.” I do as I’m told, straightening my back and squatting slightly. The difference is immediate and the whole experience becomes far more serene. Thumbs up from my teacher.

Hilbery, 27 is one of the country’s top wakeboarders. She has represented Great Britain and has won numerous titles although she’s currently under doctor’s orders after having life saving surgery.

Jess Hilbery doing what she does best. Pic by Clara Molden

“I had a kidney transplant in 2007 and was told to convalesce for a year,” she explains whilst we are taking a break, “which I did but then I decided to compete at Wakestock in 2008 after some persuasion from a close friend. I went along and decided to take it easy by just doing one trick at a time. It kind of worked out.”

Work out it did indeed. She came third in Europe’s biggest annual wakeboarding festival. Wakestock typifies how far the sport has come in a relatively short period of time. It was only in the 1980s that an America surfer called Tony Finn came up with the name skurfing for being towed behind a speedboat on a surfboard. Now twenty years on, it’s estimated that over 3 million people worldwide partake in the sport. Wakestock, now in its tenth year will attract over 30,000 thrill seekers to the town of Abersoch in North Wales with a combination of live music, DJs and of course top level competition.

At competition level, wakeboarding is all about tricks. Competitors do a series of runs; each run is judged in three categories, with points being awarded for composition, style and intensity. The wakeboarder who performs the most complex set of spins and flips, in the most extreme manner and with the most grace, wins.

Trying to get some air. Pic by Clara Molden

Back on the water my confidence is slowly building after another series of runs up and down the lake. I’ve just watched Jess perform a multitude of gravity and doctor defying loops and turns and now that’s it’s my turn I’m determined to get airborne.

“Keep the stance,” she shouts whilst gesticulating that I should now come across the back of the boat and use the wake as a launch pad. Just as I hit it, my position falters and I spin round so that I catch the front edge of the board on the water’s surface. In a millisecond all my forward energy is converted into flipping me over into a full blown faceplant. Water shoots up my nose and quite possibly every other facial orifice whilst all of the air is expelled from my lungs.

“Are you alright?” The boat has pulled leveled and a concerned face is peering over the side.

Winded, dazed and very much confused I nod in the affirmative.

“Good. We’re having another go.”

I’m back up again and although tentative at first I go through the whole routine again. Lean back, come out to the rear of the boat, bend knees, adjust stance and zip back across the wake. Bingo. I launch myself out of the water and land again without wiping out. Fantastic. Granted it wasn’t a double somersault with a backward spin but it was still air.

I wonder if they’re still taking entrants for this year’s Wakestock?