wakeboarding

Question
We recently purchased a wakeboard for my 12 yr old son to learn to wakeboard on the Susquehanna river in PA. We have a 19 ft 140 hp i/o boat. First of all, Do we need a special attachment in the boat to accomodate a wakeboard or can it just be hooked to the back of the boat? Second, what is the easiest way to get started without getting flipped over and pulled under the water? Are there any good videos or books available? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer
There are videos which will help you learn to wakeboard (or if you already know how to wakeboard - help you get better).

Some of them are:
Detention, Vol. 1 &
The Rider's Edge: Complete Wakeboard Riding Solutions - Beginner

These can be found at:
http://www.totalvid.com/Wake-Videos/Instructional/1

What you need is a wakeboard rope & handle - any board shop will sell these.  They are special because they do not stretch and are very strong -usually made of spectra.

If there is a center eye-hook on the boat - you can connect the rope there.  If there is not - you will need a tow-rope harness that will connect to the two lifting eyes in the transom of the boat.  It will have a small pully which will ride on a rope connected to the transom lifting eyes and connected to your wakeboard rope.  A wakeboard shop can help you outfit the boat properly here also.

In the future - you'll want to progress to having the rope tied to the boat about 7 feet above the boat (this is why you will see towers on wakeboard boats).  You can get a universal tower for your current boat but - at this level - you'll probably be ready to get a real inboard v-drive wakeboard boat that will already have the tower standard.  The advantages to the wakeboard boat are huge and way too much to describe in this posting.  

The only other issue is with a 12 yr rider, speeds might be around 17 mph.  This could be hard to accomplish with an IO because you plane at 16 and fall off plane at 20 - making 17 or 18 very difficult to maintain (an inboard will keep any speed very true).