Tips to prevent catching an edge

[Pop Addict]

Was trying to clear a HS W2W today and got too aggressive and lost my form in the air (sorry...no vid). Caught my toeside edge on the landing and of course did a nasty faceplant. Had the wind knocked outta me which wasn't too much fun. Got some sore ribs and my upper left pec muscles are very sore, and with heavy breaths I can feel the soreness.

Anyway - I think I wasn't keeping my back straight and chest out, but was wondering are there any tips on things you can focus on to NOT catch an edge in general? Like focus on landing on my HS edge when attempting a HS w2w?

[Wakeboarder3780]

theres no magic solution, but people that progress within their boundaries typically take less and smaller falls than the people that are like holy crap I'm gonna try this - basically the type of "hold my beer, watch this"

[shaggyboarder]

All comes down to board control and technique but even the best of the best take diggers. You will over time learn how to fall and take some of the sting out of them, but theres always those ones that are unavoidable.

[slidin_out]

yeah, you're never gonna get rid of the edges, i tried a switch ollie 180 in the flats yesterday, felt like i took a mike tyson punch to the jaw, thing is i do those all the time, just something didn't go right and SMACK, just sign up for learnwake.com, watch the fundamentals videos and practice what they teach in those, the edges are going to happen but if you progress at your rate and not try things you don't understand well or haven't worked up they will be much less often and you can learn to prevent some of the pain

[LFADAM]

If you are trying to o a HS wake jump and are catching your edge, you are most likely doing one of the following things.

A.)Casing the 2nd wake (coming up short), bouncing and catching your front edge.
B.)Dropping your chest and shoulders forward on your cut/take off/in the air. Make sure you keep your shoulders back the whole time. Start of cut to landing. Its just like tug of war, you never want to let your shoulders get in front of your hips or you will get pulled over. Keep your shoulders back, and youll be fine. (Keeping the handle low and near your hips helps too)

[Chocoholic]

[Pop Addict]

What about keeping 60% of your weight on your back foot? I've heard some suggest that. Seems like that would prevent me from dropping my front leg. Basically my board must not have been flat and I put my front leg down (tilting the board) and caught the front edge. The thing is, I've been doing pretty good at the jumps and landing almost each one the past few weeks and thought my form was getting better and better so this was pretty frustrating.

Should the board be flat when jumping or even tilted with the front tip of the board higher then the back tip like I seem to see a bunch do?

Thanks for the help.

[LakeIolaLuke]

Pop Addict, you weight the board differently for different tricks, but as a general rule, yes, you should weight the back more than the front, I'd say like 2/3 of your weight on the back leg. Tricks where you go off axis, you tend to weight the front foot more, this pushes the board up and around behind you, which, if you can't control it, can lead to catching your edge on regular wake jumps

[Chocoholic]

Well yeah it depends, but you want to keep the edge all the way through, I land on the edge I took off on and keeping it going right the way out the other side.

[fd2blk]

Thanks for putting this post up I have had two relay violent face plants this weekend and a couple of the tips here I think will help. What I found is when I really press for more air I tend to end up with poor from and a bad ending. I have a boat with a fairly small wake and was just edging into the wake when my buddy told me to straiten my legs when hitting the wake for more pop it worked pretty well but I found when I decided I was going to go big all it did was smash my face into the water I suspect I am either getting my shoulders forward or droping the front of the board when I press down hard for extra pop

[Medina]

Get some propper technique, and even with landing blind tricks sometimes youre still be catching edges, you will never stop catching edges for as long as you board!

[Kip]

I was struggling with the same problem the beginning of this year. I have found that coming at the wake at a 45 degree angle and keeping the handle at my waist helped out immensely. These were thing I knew I needed to be doing but was not when I was really going at it.

Also definitely let your torn muscles heal for a couple weeks. I tore/ stretched a muscle by my waist and kept going out every few days and pulling it over and over. Finally I got sick of feeling like crap and took it easy for a couple weeks, now it is fun to ride again.

[Jim M]

Also on heelside jumps remember you want to land the same way you take off which is in a comfortable seated position with weight/pressure on your heels. Typically when I see people faceplant they make one simple fundamental mistake like letting their arms out and then WHAMO.