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So do you have a mind to be the hottest rider around? There are different kinds of wakeboarders. Some of them play it safe and ride the little swells, while others want a good challenge.

Serious wakeboards want to take that challenging route, or at least most of them will. It takes practice, practice, practice, lots of time, and a large helping of patience to perform wakeboarding tricks. Better get started quick!

There are lots of fantastic and exhilarating tricks just waiting for you: The slides, the spins, the blinds, the inverts, the loops, and more. For starters, you may want to only do surface tricks as you are still getting used to controlling your board, balance, and navigation.

You are going to make a great many mistakes as you embark on your wakeboarding journey, but you must be patient with yourself while you're learning surface tricks. These include the backside butterslide, backside butterslide 180, tumble turn, surf carve, surface 360, surface 180, powerslide, potato peelers, and perez.

If you feel like you are ready to get a little bit of air, you might want to try some board grabs and simple rotational wakeboard tricks. If you feel at ease with your balance and control, you should be ready to tackle some of these popular wakeboard tricks: The method grab, switching, progressive heelside edge, progressive toeside edge, 180s, butterslides, toeside frontside grab 180, and ollie backside.

Once you have some of the simple grabs and rotational tricks down, you can attempt at something a little more complicated. Here's some wakeboard tricks that intermediate riders should think about practicing: Toeside frontside 540, indy backside 180 (blind), heelside 540, tantrum, heelside off-axis 360, roll to revert, and backroll.

But then you have the advanced riders, who can pretty much do whatever they set their minds to. Some of the most notorious wakeboard tricks for progressed riders include more difficult moves such as complicated inverts and spins. These tricks are often mingled with cool grabs.

If you qualify as an advanced rider, you ought to try these on for size: Wrapped KGB, crow mobe, front flip, tantrum to blind, whirlybird, elephant, and heelside mobe.

Don't feel like you must stick with what other riders came up with. Once you've been doing some of these tricks and feel comfortable with them, it's time to move on to your next personal level of achievement.