Tips for Jumping Strapless?

[tswierkocki]

I’ve been riding my strapless surfboard in the surf for awhile now and I'm looking to improve my strapless jumps.

Can anyone offer some tips on how to get the board out of the water and into the air without using a wave, chop, or straps?

Thanks,

Tom

[noel]

It's just and ollie. Try, try and try again. Try to point the board into the wind as soon as you ollie to make it stick to your feet. I have found that the epoxy boards work best but that may be just me.

[laz]

strapless is awesome
Thinking about putting a front strap only soo i can jump and ride aggresive while having freedome

I wanna learn to pop it also
I can do shove its but just a strait ollie the board gets lost from my feet

I guess practice practice I need

[Da Yoda]

Noel called it... it's all about the OLLIE! And the right technique, which takes some practice.

I've been skimboarding for over a quarter centry and ollies are the only way to get the board into the air without waves, chop, straps, ramps or some other means.

Here's some footy of the type of skimming I do in addition to ocean and kite skimming... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5R0z8QCkh4
Most of these guys in the vid ollie onto the rails and mix it up with ollie-shuvits and spins. You can see me ollie a 2foot high barrel at 1:46 into the flic. Notice there are no waves or chop just flat, ankle deep water.

Once you learn to ollie a skim or surfboard you can bust HUGE strapless airs. I found when surfing it helps to have a good traction tail pad with a raised bar at the tail section. This is what I use on both my surf and skimboards. It lets you know where your back foot is without having to look down. The farther back you place your foot towards the tail, the better to power the ollie and get more pop.

[magic%20Ed]

Start with a bit of speed, than some pressure on the front foot, followed by pressure on the back foot (which is placed way back).

Steering a bit upwind wile performing will make your board stick at your feet.

Bending the knees and having a wide stance helps a lot to.

Observe how surfers jump. Usually they grab it also, but they stand really deep through the knees, wide stance, back foot way back (on the kicker).

Without the transition of pressure from front to back it is not really an olly and you wont jump.

[Kaito]

Here's my method..with my skim in flat water.
- get speed, maybe go downwind a little if need.
- edge upwind real quick like you're going for a wake-style pop.
- release/ollie.
- when you've realeased/ollied, point the bottom of the board into the wind & freeze your position.
- as you come down, you should naturally straighten out.
- try it again cause even if you landed it, there's no guarantee you'll nail it again..
~ have fun & expect plenty of splash downs..

[kakanala]

... when going for big air strapless the board has a malicious tendency to flip itself between your legs. So... you know where the board will hit you first in those landings?
Take care.

[530N52]

Great advice in the posts about stance, pressure transfer from front to back of board for pop and using wind pressure on the bottom of the board. I only ride surfboards and one milestone for me that helped landing strapless jumps and jump jibes was learning to grab the rail. This greatly improved my odds of getting my feet placed for landing. It seems like I kind of bring the rail within reach while shoving the bottom into the wind for stick. Putting it altogether is really fun. As someone said earlier, practise, practise practise. I landed on the deck of my board with my arm, shoulder, ribs and my ass many times before getting it down.

[tswierkocki]

Thanks for the info everyone. Sounds like I need to get my back foot futher back, get a wider stance, and practice.

Do you strapless airs are easier on a skim or surfboard?

[noel]

Thanks for the info everyone. Sounds like I need to get my back foot futher back, get a wider stance, and practice.

Do you strapless airs are easier on a skim or surfboard?

I find it much easier on a surfboard. I still have alot of trouble getting good pop on my skim but not really the reason I ride skims.