Ridin swich and Landin switch

[isuckatwakin]

I'm tryin o learn how to ride swich better. I hate landing swich and I hate trying to swich. My boards fins are huge and really long, so would it be easier for me to Ollie 180 or revert in the water? And what is the best way to improve my ability to ride swich?

[STANG KILLA SS]

get up everytime switch, ride for 1 minute switch at the begining of each set, doing switch HS and TS jumps every time.

[GnarShredd]

What STANG KILLA SS said.


Also, your fins shouldn't be hold you up from doing surface 180's if that's what you mean. Both ollie and surface 180's will be fine.

Once you get more comfortable riding switch/moving the handle from one hip to the other to turn 180, do the following drills. It's something that really helped me (thaks the wakeboard camp!) in my riding and within a week I was able to get all of it down.

-Regular inside-out Heelside and Toeside jumps
-Switch Inside-Out Heelside and Toeside jumps (Make sure you lean against the rope on your toeside and keep your head up, looking at the shoreline!)
-Regular and Switch inside-out 180's. (start with whichever makes you feel comfortable.
-Wake 2 Wake 180s toeside & Heelside (regular, then switch!)

Make sure you get each step down well before moving to the next or you'll be frustrated. Even just doing these drills at the end of your set a few times each time you ride will help a lot.

[dalderman]

They are spot on.
It's uncomfortable and awkward but like Gnar and Stang said, you need to devote a few minutes each set to riding switch. The more you do it, the more familiar it becomes.
One tip I got was to get switch when the boat turns around. It's a point during the set when you can get more comfortable because of the increased speed.

[Dredd]

Take the fins off?
Might make for a little bit of a slippery ride but switching won't be a problem. On the other hand, maybe there's a reason the other guys didn't already suggest that...

[Wakebrad]

Long fins can make surface spins more risky. I would consider getting shorter fins. With longer fins you just have to make sure to lean back more on your surface spins or ollie. I personally like to dig my nose into the water halfway around on surface 180s, which really whips you into the 180. Feels kinda cool and something I do on the snowboard all the time.

Definitely start trying ollie 180s, inside out 180s and jumps, and then take them wake to wake.

One drill that really helped me out was to pull the rope in a few feet and do small wake to wake 180s over and over. regular, switch, heelside, toeside. etc. Pulling the rope in makes is so you don't have to cut so hard to clear the wake and makes the wake smaller so you have more control.

[isuckatwakin]

[GnarShredd]

there should be no reason for you to take the fins out (especially molded ones, what board are you riding?).

Even if you could take them out, they will not be prohibitive in surface 180's. It's better to learn the right technique than to cheat yourself.

[isuckatwakin]

[b33nine]

FWIW I had an older premier and part of the reason I didn't like it was because it felt so locked in. It wasn't that I couldn't break it loose when I wanted to, just that it didn't break loose as easy as I preferred.

[Chocoholic]

Hehe I struggled with this for ages. It's all just about practice, but try taking off on your switch side and landing on your regular side - feels more comfortable. Then as you feel better about riding switch do it the other way around.

One thing that's really helped me when landing on the toeside, is to slightly drop the lead shoulder, it helps to keep the line and edge you're on making it feel a bit more stable.

I worked up to riding half me set goofy and half my set switch, now it doesn't matter which way I ride, it's good either way.

[GnarShredd]

isuckatwakin, It might help at first to slow the boat down a bit to get used to breaking your fins free. Once you get up, have the driver slow down to about 13-15mph or so and just slide sideways for as long as you can. Once you get comfortable with this, add weight to your right foot, then your left (or whatever, doesn't matter what order). This drill will help you get more comfortable not only switching between switch and regular, but also get you a better idea of edging in general and how the board reacts on different edges.

the biggest thing is practice, practice, practice.

[tcaseymcclure]

When I was learning to land switch I found it helpful to over exaggerate the rotation a little bit.

[Millertyme]

Get up switch everytime and ride a bit switch more everytime. tcasey those pics look like bullards.

[Medina]

You should be able to curve switch as you do regular... I am also training on carvind on switch, in the beginning its so odd, but on this moment i can really get pressure. Just do some carving 5 minutes a set and then youll see how fast you progress.

[Christobull]

Invest in a longboard and ride it switch. By no means is it like wakeboarding, but it's the muscle memory that makes it difficult for me. Even switch, my mind reacts as if I'm riding regular. The longboard helps me feel more comfortable, and carving isn't an issue now, especially HS.

[Enygma]

The book has a GREAT 2 minute drill on it that focuses on riding switch while working on surface 180's front and backside. I can maybe rip them and upload the drill to youtube. It's also a GREAT warm up. Wont be able to do it till tonight though. probably another 9 hours from the time of this post.

[Christobull]

You can go to their website to watch the sample chapter that has the 2 minute drill. It's chapter 6: Board Control Drills on the video clips page.