Wakeboarding at Taco Lake Cable Park in Thailand

I’m not really sure when I first learned about Taco Lake and the possibility to wakeboard in Bangkok, but I am very happy that I did. I have been wakeboarding since I was really young, and it is one of my favorite action sports. I thought it would be a very fun excursion while we stayed in Bangkok, and I was excited to see how the cable park would work. I am only used to wakeboarding behind a boat so this experience was sure to be different

My Experience at Taco Lake

Situated about an hour outside of Bangkok city center, Taco Lake is a small lake that houses a Cable Wake Park and a SUP company. You definitely will not find a lot of tourists here, but local Thai families come to enjoy hanging next to the lake and making runs around the park. We arrived right as the park opened (12 Noon), and were the only people besides one local Thai boy. Thankfully he was getting geared up to wakeboard because we definitely needed a demonstration as to how this whole thing worked.You begin by strapping into whatever board you are going to ride and then stand on this white plastic ramp. The cable ropes are moving all the time, but the guy operating the park uses a contraption to hook the rope and handle up to the cable that is passing by. Once it hooks, you have about three seconds before it pulls and you take off. I was really stoked when I made it successfully the first time! After you survive the take off, it feels pretty similar to riding behind a boat. In the first stretch of the park there are a couple jumps to hit (if you are using the proper board), otherwise you can go straight or make some turns.

 

After the first straight away, there is a very tricky section of turns. The course is structured like a rectangle so every time you make a turn the cable speeds up a lot, changed direction, and whips you around the corner. Kevin and I both wiped out the first time (and many more) at each of these turns. When you fall you have to swim back to the shoreline, and then there is a path that will lead back to the start. Thankfully, there is a guy who will come pick you up on a scooter and bring you back.

Kevin and I had a competition to see who could make it around the whole course first. I won. Unfortunately that was the only time I made it all the way around. I don’t know how the local guys are able to make 4-5 laps around at a time. I was exhausted when I tried to do two. I got pretty good at the course and I could consistently make it to the third turn, which is most of the loop, but for some reason that third turn always got me off balance and sent me flying, I had some wipeouts that did not feel great.

Chilling on the deck in between attempts

Although I woke up incredibly sore the next day, I am really happy we made the effort to get to Taco Lake. I don’t think many backpackers can say they wake boarded in Thailand. I would definitely recommend for the action sport enthusiast

You can check out their website here!

How to:
  • We took an Uber from Downtown Bangkok, which cost 300 baht and took about 45 mins.
  • If you google search Taco Lake it will come up
  • It cost 400 baht to use the park from 12-6 pm, if you want to do the night session it is 600 Baht from 12- 10 pm
  • The free boards include kneeboard, wakeboard with straps, or ski
  • It costs 300 baht to rent a wakeboard with boots and binding (we did not do this)
  • They have a small kitchen serving up food if you get hungry
  • We stayed for 3 hours at Taco Lake, and that was plenty of time to wipeout a billion times and chill in the sun.