Help an old guy learn a backroll w/ video

[whitlecj]

Hey guys. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on backrolls. I basically gave up wakeboarding a few years ago for wakeskating and recently got the itch for the big air again. Here is a link to a couple of attempts. Any pointers you can give me to help me pull this off would be great. I tried probably 15 over the last few days and get close but no cigar. My body is feeling the affects so I figured I better get some tips before trying anymore. Thanks.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8239952747043014257&hl=en

[HHI Dave]

I just attempted my first backrolls in the past week. You're a lot closer to landing it than I am.

I'll be at The Wakeboard Camp next week. Hopefully they'll get me dialed in.

[WAKENERD]

You are very close to landing it, good try!

The problem is in your approach to the wake. You need to edge into the wake progressively. Notice how you edged into the wake with the same edging intensity all the way from the start?

Instead you need to increase you edge by leaning back with your shloulders at the bottom of the wake and keep that edge all the way until you leave the wake. That will increase the tension of the rope so it will carry you through the entire rotation.

I notice that your line was loose so you had to pull it to complete you rotation at the end and that is good, but if you had just a bit more tension on the rope then you would have made it.

Also, try to keep your back straight and open up your chest more so your landing position would be a lot stronger.

So in short, open up your chest with back straight; lean back with your shoulders against the rope at the bottom of the wake, keep edging through the wake and land it!

[whitlecj]

Thanks for the comments guys. Its amazing how much you can see when you video yourself on these tricks. I kept telling myself the whole time I was trying them to make sure I edged through the wake and thought I was doing that. But as the video shows, I am definately coming off edge it looks like.

I also feel like I am over-exagerating the looking up over my lead shoulder. Should I keep my eyes focused a little more towards the boat? It looks like in the videos I have watched that the riders are looking more towards the boats rather than up over their shoulder and are just moving their head to their rear shoulder.

I am pretty beat up from all the attempts last weekend so I am going to take it easy this weekend and gear up for next. I am finally over my fear of going upside down. I have tried a couple of tantrums (before I started the backroll) but could not keep my eyes open (out of fear I guess). I may give them ago next weekend too as it seems to be a much more natural flip. What do you guys think? Thanks again for the help.

[WAKENERD]

Don't think too much dude! At this stage, you should focus on what I said before; edging and body position. If you do them correctly, you should have enough tension on the rope and strong body position to help you land this trick.

Just remember backroll is just a basic invert. You can land it in may be 100 different ways, but the foundamentals reamin the same; progressive edge and strong body position.

Just do whatever you were doing before and only focus on your edging and boby position. Trust me you will land it.

If you think fear was the only thing that held you back from landing the Tantrum then you should try it again since you are now comfortable upside down, but if you were not even close on landing it then I think you should focus on backroll since you are very close on this one.

Good luck! Keep me posted on your progress.

[whitlecj]

Thanks alot for your help Wakenerd. Next time out I am going to do my best to follow your advice as I know you are right on the money. I will let you know how it goes. Hopefully next weekend I can land it.

[Chattwake]

You need to cut harder and away from the boat at the wake so you have a faster rotation. When I cut in I concentrate an cutting through the wake as I'm riding up the trough. I try to boost all of both legs and just hold the rope in tight at my front hip with both hands. One thing that helped me was that I started taking much less of a cut than you do. I cut in on a backroll just like a wakejump. The only difference is that I emphasize staying on edge and edging through and away while making sure I get all of the pop. Taking less of a cut will ensure that you don't flatten off at the wake.

[kmoyer]

When i learned a backroll and a half cab roll to revert the guys in the boat told me one thing... ear to shoulder, shoulder to hip.
For you this would be left ear to left shoulder, left shoulder to left hip

it looks like you are concentrating too much on looking over your right shoulder so that your head is almost going toward your right shoulder

in inverts, your body follows your head, take your head to the left sdie and your bosy will rotate very nicely that way

I would think you will notice a huge difference and probably over-rotate...
Also try to take the board away from the boat on leaving the wake, will help you land on your toes more so than on your heels/butt.

Thanks for helping me pass some time at work.

[whitlecj]

No Problem kmoyer. I haven't had a chance to work on this anymore since the video. I bought a new boat last week and have been getting used to the wake before I break this back out. I will be trying them again this weekend hopefully and I will let you guys know how it goes.

[wake_quake]

GOOD! just be more agressive on the last metre of your cut.

[WAKENERD]