Move over Jack Osbourne because there’s a new adrenalin junkie in town and its me!! A couple of weeks ago it was bungy jumping and on September 23rd it was wake-boarding on the Edo River near Ichikawa on the Tokyo-Chiba border. For the uninitiated wake-boarding is like a cross between water-skiing and surfing.

First to go was Ethan and he took to it like a duck to water showing no fear as he got up out of the water and started to glide through the glossy smooth waters before the inevitable fall. Overall it was a great introduction to the sport in his allotted 15 minutes and a lot for me to live up to when it was my turn.

  

I fastened my feet on to the board and lowered myself into the surprisingly warm water and frustration followed as I just couldn’t get myself into the right position to get out of the water. Eventually at the fourth attempt I was up and cutting through the waves like a hot knife through butter…or maybe i was just relieved to have got up on my feet that I didn’t do anything too fancy as i wanted to make sure I got some value from it!

  

Over the afternoon we had a couple of go’s each (15 minutes each time) with Ethan having no problems whereas I had a few spouts of being unable to get on my feet. Once we did get going though it was great fun riding along on the crest of the waves though it was vey taxing on the upper half of the body particularly the arms which were aching quite a bit.

To do wakeboarding correctly you’re supposed to hold the rope down by your hip but this proved difficult and led to my unorthodox style of looking like I was being dragged along by a dog rather than walking it casually which is how the professionals look when they’re doing it.