Boating Industry Canada October 2016 - 22

This is the dock for the second cable system - they have two.
A group of younger kids share the experience and instruction until
their turn comes up.

held on a lake and they use a tournament type tow boat.
Graduates can get their business insurance through
Waterski and Wakeboard Canada and their people get the
basics of instruction through the association as well.
Christine is quick to point out though, there is a big difference between the cable system and a tow boat on a lake. Cable
allows the rider to get up both more easily and faster. There is
no boat wake to contend with, so riders do tricks using ramps
and water features. There's no other boat traffic to contend
with on their lake and for those just learning how to wakeboard, the cable system gets you out of the water faster plus,
falls are much easier to deal with.
Their operator is Chris and he holds a control box that
allows him to precisely adjust the speed the rider is going. He
can stop it, start it and he can also bring the handle right back
to the rider, just seconds after a fall. A tow boat on a lake takes
far longer to return to a fallen rider.
Although it looks like Chris is playing a videogame, he's

Boating Industry Canada

OCTOBER 2016

really the "driver" and he can finesse the speed to take somebody over the jump, around a corner and more. His driving
skills can really increase a rider's success and enjoyment.
The overhead cable system naturally pulls the rider up out
of the water and onto the board. The way the cable is set up
between two towers at opposite ends of the lake, the rider goes
to the end, swings around and the cable reverses direction to
bring the rider back.

The Big Opportunity
Why our industry needs to know more about Rail Yard Wake
Park is that this location is in a high population area. It's not
just close to Aurora and Newmarket, but outside of rush
hour, Rail Yard Wake Park is only 45 minutes from the intersection of Highway 404 and Highway 401. It's quite reasonable to think that the million or more families living in downtown Toronto could get there for a morning of riding and
board tricks.
A cute story that Christine shared with me was that "on the
QT", a 67-year-old gentleman came up to the wake park and
took a series of half a dozen lessons so that he could surprise his
grandkids at their cottage by going wakeboarding with them.

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