Imagine taking your brand-new wakeboard, ripping off the bindings and shaving down the fins, pulling on some sandshoes and having a go at riding it "freestyle" behind the boat.
Welcome to wakeskating - the skater-style phenomenon sweeping Australia's waterways. It's been around for several years, with US pro riders such as Scott Byerly and Thomas Horales donning their shoes and taking the highly-inverted, big-air sport of wakeboarding back a few pegs to its skateboarding roots.
Riding a wakeskate board, says Double Up and Blindside board importer Craig Davis, is all about control - not being "flashy" with huge tricks. It's a back-to-basics sport, and one used as both an assistant to improve wakeboarding moves, and a down-time of sorts.
"It helps to hone your skills with your balance and your distribution of weight, but it also helps with your edging because you are not using your bindings to get your leverage - you are using your edges and your body weight," he says.
"A lot of the guys are carrying one in the boat at all times. If you've had enough wakeboarding and you want bit of a break, you just jump on one of these."
Riding one of these slippery boards takes quite a lot of technical expertise, and inverts are almost impossible. But that seems to be the point. Wakeskate tricks are more focussed on spins, grabs, sliders on jetties and customised poles, and traditional skateboard moves like shove-its and kick flicks.
FREESTYLER
The essence of wakeskating is style, and a skilled ability to control your board without the safety blanket of bindings.
"It's not like wakeboarding where you can get on the board and become pro within a year if you are really dedicated and prepared to have a few hard falls. Wakeskating is more technical - it's harder to get everything consistent," Australian Pro Tour of Wakeboarding coordinator Mick Watkins says.
Watkins also says the sport is gaining a lot of street cred with the skater crowd, as the similarities become apparent. Die-hard skateboarders are also apparently picking up the wakeskating habit.
While the US Pro Tour of Wakeboarding introduced a wakeskating competition to its calendar of regular events this year for the first time, Watkins says the addition of a similar event to the Australian tour - which kicks off in January at Glenelg in South Australia - is premature.
Watkins says although the sport is growing at an enormous rate, the quality of competitors is not yet high enough to warrant a separate competition. However, he revealed that top US wakeskate competitor Brian Grubb will follow all five rounds of the Australian tour and give the crowd a few demo runs at each event.
GEARING UP
Several brands of wakeskates are already available in Australia, and Davis estimates that the number of boards sold each year is currently about 10 per cent of the overall wakeboard market. Labels such as Hyperlite, Jobe, O'Brien, Liquid Force and the popular US brand Cassette - which only manufactures wakeskates - are zoning in on punters who are keen to give something else a try.
The boards, which range in price from $269 to around $550, are made from either plywood or fibreglass with two varying decks - flat or concave. The flat decks are cheaper and designed for beginners, whereas the concave decks - favoured by many advanced riders - stick to your feet a lot more because of the shape, and ride just like a skateboard.
Some decks have a skateboard-style grip tape for which the riders wear shoes. Cassette importer Dave Fraser says you can use any old sandshoe, or buy a pair of specifically-designed wakeskate models with built-in ventilation to allow the water to run out easily.
The other style of deck is topped with foam, and riders control it with bare feet. Fraser says advanced riders prefer the sandpaper style of grip and shoes for more support.
The beauty of wakeskating, says Fraser, is that you don't need an expensive skiboat to do it. Smaller wakes are just as suitable as large ones.
"You could wakeskate behind a jetski or a tinnie," he says.
If you're a mad fan of spins, grabs and all things skateboard, a wakeskate is definitely the next challenge you should take up this season.
Surfing style...
The latest of latest new things in boating watersports is wakesurfing - a huge phenomenon in the US, where ski boats are loaded to the max to produce massive, surfable wakes.
The rider literally rides the wake as if he or she were surfing on a massive curler off the shore. Provided you don't fall, the ride is longer than most wakeboard runs and less tiring, as the surfer is not pulled by the boat, rather using the wake's momentum to keep afloat.
Australia's top pro rider Daniel Watkins recently competed in the first ever wakesurfing championships, pulling out a respectable sixth place in the Open Men's division.
Wakesurfing boards in Australia cost around $499 - and although they're not a big seller just yet, they may very well turn out to be the next coolest thing on your river.