Imagine surfing a river with a wakeboard.
No cable park. No permanent installation. No boat. Lasting for the whole hot summer day.
Systems like this already exist — but once we looked closer, none of them really fit what we wanted. Portable systems rely on batteries and drain them fast. Bigger installations work well, but they’re heavy, fixed in place, and not something you can just set up for a day and pack away again.
We wanted something different.
Something we could use all day, carry with us, set up temporarily, and remove again in the evening without leaving any trace — especially when riding in public spaces.
That’s when the idea of building our own wakeboard winch started to take shape.
Making Power Portable
Battery-powered solutions sound great in theory, but in practice they would have required hauling around a massive amount of batteries — and still worrying about runtime. Instead, we went for a solution that’s proven and reliable: a fuel-powered motor, similar to what you’d find in motor rollers.
The engine delivers 6.5 horsepower, which turned out to be the perfect balance:
- powerful enough for continuous operation
- simple and robust
- independent from batteries and charging cycles
- lower initial cost (batteries with large capacity are still relatively expensive)
This gave us the freedom to ride for an entire day without thinking about energy management.
Three Friends, One Winch
Two good friends of mine took care of everything mechanical and electrical — from mounting the motor to designing the enclosing and 3d printing housings for all the electronics. I focused on the part I enjoy most: the software.
The First Working Version
The initial system was straightforward but effective.
A motor drives a drum with a wakeboarding rope attached to it — up to 300 meters long. To ride, you lay in the water holding the handle while the rope is fully extended. You drift downstream with the river flow, and once you’re ready, someone on land activates the winch.
The motor starts, ramps up smoothly, and pulls you onto the board. Depending on conditions, you get around 30 seconds of ride time — enough to properly surf the river.
At this stage, the remote was still physically connected via a cable.
And honestly: it worked. Really well.
But it wasn’t the system we dreamed of.
The Missing Piece: Control in the Water
From day one, we had a clear vision.
The rider should be in control.
Starting the winch.
Stopping it.
Choosing how aggressive or smooth the pull should be — depending on riding style or board.
No shouting to the shore.
No hand signals.
No second person required.
That’s when my friends asked me if I could help turn this into a remote-controlled system.
A Remote Built on Cardboard
The first remote was anything but pretty.
Think breadboard.
Think cardboard.
Think “does this even survive water when it is finished?”
But it did its job for developing
The idea was simple: an ESP32 in the rider’s remote talks to another ESP32 at the base of the motor. Communication happens via LoRa, giving us long range and reliable connections outdoors.
Once that worked, everything else became a software problem.
When Software Takes Over
The base station ESP32 doesn’t just receive commands. It serves as main computer for controlling the whole winch.
Start the motor.
Ramp up smoothly.
Hold speed.
Shut everything down safely.
If the remote ever loses its connection, the motor stops automatically. On top of that, there’s a physical emergency stop button that can cut power at any time.
The goal was clear: the system must always fail safe.
Tuning the Winch With Your Phone
One feature we didn’t initially plan — but quickly grew to love — is the web interface.
The ESP32 at the base station runs a small web server. You can connect to it with your phone and adjust parameters on the fly:
- how fast the motor ramps up
- servo angles controlling the motor
- fine adjustments for different riders
No laptop.
No reflashing firmware.
Open Source From the Beginning
All the code for this project is open source and available on GitHub: Source Code
We’ve tested everything extensively on our test bench. Due to winter temperatures, we haven’t yet been able to test the full wireless setup on a real river — but that’s planned for next summer.
Video Of Myself Riding A Wakeboard Pulled By Our Winch
Remote Controller
The handlebar remote enclosure above is very cleverly designed. As it has to house an esp32, a battery and an antenna all while being watertight and attachable to a wakeboard handle. We will see how good this will hold up in the real world testing.
Play Snake On The Remote
Before each run the wakeboarder has to drift down the river for about 3 minutes to get to the starting position. This is just boring or relaxing (depending on your view) waiting time. Personally I thought, why don’t we let the surfer play a game during this time on the remote? I mean we got a screen and some computing power all in place. Thought about it and a few hours later… it is reality. The surfer can now play snake, as seen in the video below, directly on the remote.
It’s Fun
Because building things like this isn’t just about the final result — it’s about the process, the mistakes, and the moments where a cardboard prototype suddenly turns into something real. The process was so much fun! Let’s see what comes next :). Hopefully a lot of wakeboarding during the summer.
Some More Images