When my friend invited me to her wedding in Hungary I really didn’t know much about the country. After a bit of googling, however, I was stoked to discover 3 wakeboard cables on Lake Balaton, only half an hours drive from her fiancée’s village Öskü. So, my boyfriend and I extended our long weekend to a week and paid the extra £20 with Easy Jet to bring along our boards.

Due to environmental restrictions on power boats, the only wakeboarding on Balaton is cable. It’s not at all like riding cable in the UK where the lake is generally pretty small and purpose-built. Being the biggest lake in Europe Balaton is so vast you feel like you’re in the ocean. If you fall, you can’t just swim in to the side; a boat has to come and pick you up. At one of the cables you even have to wade/swim out to the starting dock, which is a good 100 metres from the shore! A totally different experience, but one I would definitely recommend. All 3 cables on Balaton are nice n’ tight, and each has a small flat-bar to jib. It’s just less than £10 for an hour’s ride, which isn’t too bad, although they seem to be pretty strict with time.

Having been out of action for 2 months with my broken ankle, I was super excited to get back on the water and try out my brand new O’Brien set-up. With the support of Ultra Sport Europe www.ultrasporteu.com I’ve just been sponsored by O’Brien www.obrien.com and am now riding Dallas Friday’s pro model ‘The Skyla’ with ‘Xenon’ bindings. The board has a sweet cut and the bindings are super comfy, whilst giving heaps of support and response. The graphics are sick too… love it!!

Stoked to be back riding and can’t wait to visit more countries and ride more cables.

Steph : )