Antwerp has always been a city of extremes and extreme sports is no exception. Our town is littered with skate areas and we also have a lot of indoor accommodations to suit your daredevil needs. But somehow: watersports was somewhat of a forgotten brother in this story. Besides the annual Antwerp Street Kicks event, there is not a lot of exposure for them.
After my opportunity to try wakeboarding in the docks in front of the MAS last year during , I was dying to go again and so you can imagine my absolute enthousiasm when I stumbled across a new wakeboard cable line opening up at Galgenweel for the summer.
I could not believe my luck! A cable right outside my doorstep! Plus after a year of boasting about my adventures the previous years, my friends had become quite curious what this wakeboarding stuff was all about.
Immediately we set out to pay a visit to Galgenweel, all of us determined to discover a hidden talent for standing upright on a board on water while being dragged along by an iron cable.
The first weekend of June proved to be perfect for our little adventure and we decided to hire the trail for a full 2 hours. One of the many plusses for the organization is that they provide you with an exclusive use of the cable for your group as long as it’s larger than 5 people! Having found 5 friends who were eager to try it for themselves, we decided that 2 hours would be just enough time to all have a go. Which proved to be a good choice since we all got to do just 2 runs total. Time flew by at immense speed!
Surprisingly, from the 6 of us going, the 3 girls were pretty quick on their feet and by the end of our 2 hour run (!!) we actually managed to stand upright on a board and stay like that. Only for a good metre or 3 but it’s still better than we expected.
The instructor/cable guy was a nice Dutch bloke who was all too happy to explain us how to actually get up on the wakeboard, in the meantime showing infinite patience when we plumited face first in the water for the umpteenth time. Swearing and laughing all the while.
For those of you who are looking for something besides your regular dip in the Galgenweel, Noordkasteel or one of the many outside pools in Antwerp: WakeUpCable provides for an exciting alternative! They will be active until the end of September so there’s plenty of time for all daredevils to have a go.
Just visit their website and make reservations online. Hurry! As places per day are limited.
Text by Joke Tourné -
Pics by Joke Tourné -