Water Skiing

It’s more than likely in many cases that those who are coming to spend a day out or a weekend in Pattaya are going to find a way of getting wet. In most cases this involves heading to one of the nearby beaches or hotel swimming pool to enjoy a dip or two.

One of the more enjoyable couple of hours you could spend getting wet is at the Lakeland Cable Water Skiing park, which is on Sukhumvit Road, on the left-hand side heading south and before the Soi Chaiyapreuk turnoff.

You’ll see an almost non-descript sign for the turn into Lakeland and at first you might be inclined to think it’s going to be one of those poorly-run out-of-the-way attractions you would rather avoid.

What you see when you pull up is a reasonably large-sized freshwater lake. Well, ‘lake’ might be stretching the true meaning of the term, but ‘pond’ would equally not be the right word. In other words, it’s bigger than a pond, but does not quite fit the lake category.

Cable water skiing is, as the name might suggest, undertaken with the water-skier hanging on to a pulley while he or she is dragged around what amounts to an almost rectangular circuit. If you’ve never water-skiied before it really doesn’t matter. If you have, of course you will take to it like a ‘duck to water’ if you’ll excuse the rather poor analogy.

There are those who consider cable water skiing much safer and, arguably, easier than the traditional method of water-skiing behind a motor boat on a river once you have mastered the technique of staying up after the jerky start. It is also, in theory, easier to learn to get your balance and stay upright for longer periods.

Even if you do fall off a few times, you’ll only be getting wet and the walk back to the start point isn’t all that far, unless you come adrift on the far side of the lake.

The price for admission to Lakeland Water Cable Ski is 300 Baht for approximately two hours or you can pay 500 baht and stay all day. The two-hour option might not sound like a very long time, but once you’ve tried hanging on and spinning around the bends it’s not long before your legs and arms get tired. To stay all day you would want to be an experienced water-skier to get the full benefit.

Lakeland Cable Water Ski is open every day from 10:00am until 6:00pm.