Dangerous wakeboarding on Birmingham canals

BE VERY careful indeed if cruising the Birmingham canals as Wakeboading is taking over.

Wakeboarding is a high speed combination of water skiing and surfing with speeds of 20mph easily achieved when pulled by a speed boat as is happening on the Birmingham canals, Alan Tilbury reports.

People stunned

People at Gas Street Basin were stunned by the sudden appearance of a speed boat hurtling along the waterway pulling a wakeboarder who was weaving from side to side of the canal with the speed boat creating a massive wake that rocked the moored boats, then served along the Main Line.

They sped along wetting people on the towpath and creating havoc through bridges where people could not get away, then the wakeboarder came to a sudden halt by 'stacking' his board on the  towpath, which is all part of the sport, narrowly missing walkers.

Fell onto towpath

But though he fell onto the towpath he was soon up and ready for another attempt at this rather dangerous activity.

One of the youths is reported as stating 'we are going to be going at super speeds', and they certainly were in the new water sport that seems to be taking hold on the canals in Birmingham.