HS W2W: Need help staying on Axis

303 · Newbie Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 25 City: Dallas

I'm having trouble landing my HS W2W's and could use a few pointers. I have a good idea of the proper progressive edge technique and I understand standing tall at the wake. In fact, getting good pop is not a problem. My problem is staying in the proper position in the air to setup my landings.

I can land 1 out of every 10 attempts. Those that I don't land, I typically come down just past the second wake (or even into the flats) and crash in a huge way. After takeoff I find that my body position starts to tilt so that on my way down the front tip of my board starts to dive towards the water. (Imagine an airplane that runs out of gas and starts falling from the sky) I have trouble getting the board to stay parallel to the water so I can stick the landing. Efforts to offset this nose-dive just leave me launching with too much weight leaning back on the tail and the nose of the board pointing skyward.

Any tips on how to keep my axis in check? Can this be done with better rope placement? I feel like I have plenty of time to make corrections/adjustments in the air, I'm just not certain how to do this. Thanks!

dairyman · Newbie Joined: 08 Jun 2004 Posts: 9

well 303, here are a few suggestions that will hopefully help. It sounds like you may be spotting your landing too early, where you're head goes your body goes, so if you look down then you go down. So try to look at the horizon for most of your airtime then when you start coming down spot your landing. Another thing is you might be ollying too much so the ollie motion may be sending your nose down. Make sure you are just extending your legs as if you were going to stand up and not ollying like you were on a skateboard. And last but probably most important keep that handle in close. Don't yank on the handle but keep it close to your hips during your approach and all the way through your jump. Well I hope that one of these solutions helps you solve your problem. Let me know how it goes and good luck.

303 · Newbie Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 25 City: Dallas

dairyman, thanks for the suggestions. I think you might be correct with the spotting of the landing. I'll try keeping my head up on the horizon and the rope in tight at the hip. I'll be out for the next 5 days, hopefully I can find some decent water..and more importantly put your suggestions into play.

simland · Posted: Jun 30, 2004 8:21 pm Post subject:

Yeah, look ahead and keep the rope to your hip. The rope part might be the most important. If you let it out it will pull you off axis and this is bad.

303 · Newbie Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 25 City: Dallas

PortlandBrder · Soul Rider Joined: 18 Apr 2004 Posts: 352 City: Portland

Simland said it right, your letting the rope out from your hips. Therefore causing the boat to pull you forward. Make sure to build your edge and keep it all the way to the top of the wake. Keep your handle position relative to your hips, stand tall and always look torwards shore. You'll get it.

303 · Newbie Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 25 City: Dallas

Here's a couple of pics from Sunday showing how things looked in the air when I kept getting off axis. The first pic clearly shows why I wasn't coming back down squarely on the board. On Monday, I solved the problem...but unfortunately don't have any pics. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Judging by the pic, I was doing a pretty good job of keeping the rope low at my hip. The main problem was that my front leg was not staying strong into the wake, and it kept bucking the front of the board up; thus throwing my body off-balance. By standing strong at the wake, this kept my board parallel to the water and my body upright (perpendicular to the water) while I was in the air.

Hopefully when I get back out there this weekend, I can pickup where I left off on Monday...rather than going back to the old "heelside quarter backroll."