Trouble with heel side air

[Keith]

I've been a slalom skier all my life and also done plenty of show skiing. A nice (seems nice to me) wakeboard came with a used boat recently purchased within my family so I'm trying it out. The board is liquid force and has three fins at both the tip and tail. I ride regular (just as I slalom - left foot forward). The bindings are mounted close to the center of the board at almost 90 degress with each toe pointed slightly outwards (towards tip and tail).

I find that I'm very comfortable 'skiing' the board on both sides of the wake carving turns holding a solid edge. On my strong side (i.e. right side of wake - toes forward) I'm very comfortable getting air and can easily clear the wake. Week side (i.e heals forward) is another story. I try getting a little air but still find it very strange. The board seems to wash out on my landings. I've see others land with their back arm (furthest from the boat) out and only one hand on the handle. I assume this gets your weight on the back edge more. I've tried it a few times and I'm a little more comfortable.

Anyone have suggestions on how to become more comfortable on heal-side air?

Also, right now the board still has all the fins on (three on each end) which makes learning 180's and learning to ride switch impossible (for me anyway). As a beginer, should I remove the fins to try new tricks or should I leave them on for tracking as I try to catch air - especially from the my weaker heal side?

Thanks,
Keith

[Wakebrad]

Hey Keith,

It's great that you're working on your toeside so early. Many times people are lob sided and can only do heelside jumps.

To start you have your terminology mixed up. Heelside is when you are cutting with your heals in the water. Toeside is cutting with your toes in the water. You're thinking which is closest to the boat, that is backwards.

The fins are probably good for you at this stage. If you took them out the board would seem looser and it would be harder for you to cut into the wake on either side. If you want to learn how to ride switch try getting up switch. It's not that difficult, you just put your right foot in front. If you want to try 180s you can try to do lipslide 180s. I'm sure there are tricktips for that on this site or wakeboardingmag.com.

Toeside takes practice. Start by jumping small and then work into larger jumps. The reason you might be washing out on your landings is because you could be landing with the board parallel with the boat. If you come down with speed you'll need to have the board angled to follow through with your motion. Taking your back hand off helps also. If you are washing out backwards try to lean forward and angle your board more towards shore.

[eliteii92g]

I think you can probably do a surface 180 with about any board, just some are a lot harder than others. Try pushing your front foot down as you're trying to turn the board and it should slide much easier. Just be careful not to let the lip catch, of course. Another way to do 180 if you can't get it to turn is to practice some ollies and then do an ollie 180. Ollie is basically just push your back foot down fast and hard and let it pop the board up.

Switch and toeside is almost always much harder to learn, it just takes more practice. When I jump toeside I have to work against my natural tendency to let the board turn towards the boat. Like wakebrad said, just keep the angle of the board the same as when it left the wake so when you land you keep the same lateral speed like on your heelside jumps.

I'm no pro, but I hope this helps.

[beasoldierprstn]

wow you all type a ton

[J-Ro]

Its called giving good information as opposed to writing 5 word, worthless posts to increase your post count