New Water Sports: 6 Disciplines to Discover This Summer
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Have you booked your vacation at a camping with water park? Water enthusiasts and fans of aquatic pleasures, to try something different from the campsite pool, sailing, surfing, stand-up paddleboarding, or sea kayaking, experience a new discipline! Indeed, over the years, new water sports have emerged. Here are 6 to discover for your vacation.
Wakeboarding: A 3-in-1 Water Sport
Wakeboarding is a water sport that combines water skiing, surfing, and snowboarding. In practice, the activity involves being towed by a motorboat using a rope about 20 meters long and a tow handle while standing on a wakeboard. Depending on the size and power of the boat as well as the wakeboarder’s weight, they can glide at speeds of 30 to 40 km/h on the water. Sometimes, instead of a boat, towing can also be done with a winch or cable system.
Wakeboarding is a water sport accessible to everyone. Beginners can simply glide over the water on their board. As for more experienced riders, they can perform tricks using the waves created by their board’s wake. An advanced wakeboarding course can also include various obstacles such as ramps and kickers that allow for performing all sorts of tricks and flips.
Where to practice it? In France, you’ll find several wakeparks for this water sport: Lake Annecy, Leucate Beach, Lake Bourget, etc.
Flyboarding: To Fly High Above the Water
Here’s a discipline France can be proud of! It’s thanks to French inventor Franky Zapata, a former jet ski champion, that flyboarding was created in 2012. Both fun and innovative, this water sport falls into the extreme category and promises thrills and adrenaline.
On the water, flyboarding literally lets you fly over the water using a board equipped with two water-jet nozzles. The flyboarder is connected to the board with boot-like bindings, and the board is connected to a jet-ski via a hose about 20 meters long that supplies the water jet. Thanks to this, the flyboarder can rise about 10 meters into the air and perform acrobatic tricks before diving back into the water.
Where to practice it? Flyboarding is a water sport that requires a large space to perform stunts. As such, the ocean remains an ideal playground for flyboarders. You can find interesting spots, for example, at Etretat, on the Breton coast, or in the Saint-Jean-de-Luz bay.
Windsurfing: When Nature Becomes the Surfer’s Ally
Windsurfing is nothing other than sailboarding! Concretely, this discipline emerged in the 1960s. It’s counted among the new water sports because it continues to evolve over the years. Today, to windsurf, you need: a board with or without a foil and rigging—a sail and boom.
Next, to practice the sport, you must rely on nature to propel your board. In practice, the wind must blow in the sail to allow you to glide over the water. Sometimes, you can also perform tricks with your board. Duck jibe, flaka, loop, willy skipper… These are just some of the moves you can learn during a windsurfing course.
Where to practice it? If you want to discover windsurfing in France, you can go to Wissant, La Torche, or La Baule, each of which offers good wind conditions.
Wingfoiling: A Water Sport That Combines Gliding and Lift
Among recent water sports, wingfoiling or wing surfing is a discipline gaining great success with board sports enthusiasts. This activity combines basic kitesurfing and windsurfing techniques and has some advantages over these two. Indeed, wing surfing turns out to be simpler because the wing is light, you don’t get weighed down, and you have complete control of your equipment relative to the wind.
To wingfoil, the rider needs a board with a foil that allows lifting about 80 cm into the air as well as the famous wing, an inflatable “wing” that enables movement using wind power.
After that, you’re free to weave between waves, perform aerial tricks, or race with other athletes.
Where to practice it? For a successful wing surfing day, you need to choose a windy spot that will let you take flight. The Almanarre Beach in Hyères in southeastern France, for example, is an ideal location.
Jetlev: Lift Yourself Above Water with Your Jetpack
Thrilling and sensational, that’s how you could describe jetleveling. But what is it? Jetleveling is a water sport cousin of flyboarding mentioned earlier. Both are new water sports that allow you to fly above water using water jet propulsion.
While flyboarding uses a board, jetleveling is practiced with a jetpack you wear on your back. You’ll be followed by a boat containing the water intake pump that feeds the jetpack hose and produces the propulsion. In any case, jetleveling remains a thrill sport because it propels you up to nearly 10 meters into the air at speeds of around 30 km/h.
Where to practice it? To jetlev, you just need to find a large, open body of water. At the sea, on a lake, or in a water park pool, it all depends on your needs.
Dockstart: A Water Sport That’s Out of the Ordinary
Of all the new water sports mentioned so far, dockstart might be the most unique and innovative… and probably the funniest! This sport especially attracts young people with energy to burn, and indeed, you need a certain enthusiasm to practice it.
The equipment for dockstart: a small foil board that you propel forward by bouncing and jumping. To get started, you need to stand on a dock or rock to build up momentum. This water sport basically requires toned muscles and good balance.
Where to practice it? Just about anywhere you can bounce on the water with your board. Choose, for example, a lake with a dock or head to large campsite water parks.
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