Getting more pop/air

[ohdoor]

I posted this in the newbie section a few days ago (originally meant to post it here) but haven't gotten any responses yet. I'm leaving for the lake tomorrow so I decided to repost it here in hopes that i'll get some responses before then.

Alright, so i've been wakeboarding for around 4 years now. I've only really started to progress until this past summer and the summer before that. I ride behind an x-10 at around 22mph. I'm tall and skinny (6ft, 135lbs), ride a 137cm board, and have a non stretch rope. I can get w2w no problem, can consistently land backrolls, and just ride well in general. Theres one problem though... I can't get pop worth anything. Whenever i'm jumping w2w i'm only getting about 3-4 feet of air. Whenever I do a backroll I always get quite a bit more air then I do just jumping regular. I've read tons of stuff, watched videos, and gone out there for hours and done nothing but work on getting pop. I do not have a video of me jumping w2w for you guys to critique, but there is a thread on here (is this a real backroll?) with a vid of me doing a backroll if that would help at all.

It is very unusual for me to have people watching me in the boat that know more about wakeboarding then I do so there hasn't really been anyone there to teach me or give me any advice. What I do is slowly begin to cut into the wake and gradually lean back more and more. When I get to the wake I stay leaning back and dig my legs into the wake as hard as I can and stand tall till I'm off the wake completely. Standing tall seems to be a minor problem for me that I can improve on but even when it seems like i do it perfectly I don't get much pop but only fly across the wake really fast.

I know threads about pop are all over the place, but i can't take this any longer and for some reason nothing that i am doing is working.

[toothpick]

Here's something to work on during your trip.

Work on jumping wake to wake without edging very far away from the wake. Go out only to where the spray from the boat ends. Stop there, bend those knees real good. Wait just a bit til you begin to drift back in to the wake, then lay on your edge and when you stand tall, put your heels down like you're trying to a heel stomp (UFC style).

The likely reason you're going fast and not high is what people at The Wakeboard Camp call the "Oh crap factor." You're edging out so far that when you hit the wake, even without knowing it, your body is either maintaining a consistent edge or, most likely, backing off a bit. Line tension and standing tall gives you good pop. So practice those short approaches which take advantage of the oh crap factor. Instead of saying "Oh crap I'm going to kill myself," you say "Oh crap I'm not going to clear the wake" and so you edge harder, like you should.

Now, that's heelside advice. Don't just do heelside jumps. Go toeside too. Same advice there, but without the knee bending. Stick those toes in the wake and edge away from the boat. Do the short approaches on both sides.

You'll notice a lot more pop when you do it right. You can gradually go further away from the wake, but may find that you really don't need to go very far out. Oh, and you go higher on your back rolls because your edge is probably more progressive at the wake than your normal jumps.

Rock n roll!

[ohdoor]

Thanks for the advice toothpick... unfortunately i wasn't able to try what you said. On the way one of the wheels on our boat trailer was ripped off the axel... bolts and everything. So that pretty much ruined the weekend. Sucks too that was probably the last time we were going to go this year =(

[toothpick]

Oh man, that sucks. I see you're from Edmond, OK. You wouldn't know a Jeff Stuart by chance, would you?

[ohdoor]

Nope can't say that I do.