Wakeboarding is a fairly easy sport to learn, especially if you have surfing experience. It's a little different than waterskiing, however, because wakeboards travel at lowered speeds and different angles, which might challenge a person accustomed to waterskiing. Whatever your level of water sport experience, in only a few lessons, you can learn how to mount your board, develop skills in several wakeboarding positions and even attempt a jump.

First things first: Getting up onto your wakeboard might seem daunting to a beginner, but it's actually quite easy. Start by sitting with your knees bent, your arms straight, and the board perpendicular to the boat. Let the boat pull you up as it takes off. Once you're standing, maintain equal weight on both feet. Keep your head up and your shoulders in line with your hips.

Now that you're up on your board, you may want to try a few more moves. Two popular jumps are the roll and the flip. When you roll, you move end-over-end (edge-over-edge) -- either toeside-over-heelside or heelside-over-toeside. Toeside just means the side of the board closest to your toes and heelside means the side of the board closest to your heels. You take the wakeboard over your head end-over-end, landing in the same direction in which you started. When you flip, the tail -- the end of the board farthest from the boat -- moves over the tip (nose) -- the part of the board closest to the boat.

These two movements refer to the board itself, rather than the rider. In gymnastics terms, a roll is similar to a somersault as the board goes end over end. A flip is like a cartwheel as the board moves nose over tail.