Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

strapless backroll how to?

Forum for kitesurfers
User avatar
laz
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 882
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:11 am
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

strapless backroll how to?

Postby laz » Wed Sep 04, 2013 5:39 am

Looking for any tips.

I can jump off waves 2 or 3 feet and land back on skim but every time I try grabbing the board it never works....help 8) lol

User avatar
ulx
Frequent Poster
Posts: 354
Joined: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:31 pm
Local Beach: St. Peter-Ording, Germany
Favorite Beaches: Klitmøller (Denmark) and South Africa
Style: Strapless Surf- and Foilboard
Gear: Slingshot SST 8,7,6,5
Firewire Vader
Ketos Foil with Kakoo board 108x44
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: strapless backroll how to?

Postby ulx » Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:58 pm

i only ride surfboards, no skims. so that's all i can comment on.
there is a nice tutorial from herve boure, strapless society, about it. what i took from that is how important it is to bend the foreword knee the moment you take off.
other things that help me is keeping me plus the board very compact. very important in the second half of the rotation, too.
i find it much easier in strong onshore winds. well powered on a 6 m is perfect.
boure says never to grab the board. i don't agree to that but avoiding grabing helps getting a better feel how the board should be angled to the wind.
what i like most are powered backrolls with strong onshore wind and waves somewhere between one and two meters. really pushing you as high into the air as possible and than doing a slow rotation is just so awesome.
for a better chance to land them and keep going it is good not to pull the Kite too far back when rotating. i always try to keep it between 11 and 12. what i find quite hard. in the beginning i did a kiteloop after hitting the water but i don't really like that because i need even more downwind space. at the moment my goal is to change hands at the bar shortly before landing. in the moment i let go of the board i try to get the front hand to the bar and take the backhand off of it for better balance.
another thing i enjoy at the moment are ungrabed backroll transitions. nice to see in the late herve boure videos, too. the good part about them is that you don't have to care about getting the kite in front of you after landing.
i love backrolls. which might have become clear by now ;-)
and i find them much easier accessible than frontrolls.

PVITfrumBYRAM
Frequent Poster
Posts: 211
Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 3:20 am
Local Beach: Hatteras Island, NC
Style: Instruction
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: strapless backroll how to?

Postby PVITfrumBYRAM » Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:29 pm

Yeah grab if you can. I recently learned them in flat water so I can't wait to hop in the waves and try without grabbing, I think it looks sick.

I also keep my kite a little below zenith. Usually a fairly steady climb from parked at 45 degrees to about 11 and then really kick my back foot down so the front will pop up. I tend to loose all contact with the board just before the front of the board catches some wind and falls right into my hand. I have just sheeted in as well to start getting some air hopefully able to keep a grip on the board and I found holding the board longer than I thought necessary helped the success rate, otherwise I would let go and end up to forward and sink the nose. If I let go early now, I tend to throw it a little somewhere instead of just letting go.

My progression started as this:
Transition by just turning upwind, swinging around the bar downwind and ride away toeside, never leaving the board or changing stance (pretty fun to do actually)

Next were small transitions in the air trying to pop the board at the right time up into my hand. Many times I was moving too fast and flew past the board or I popped late but popped the board out were I was going not up in the air next to me so the board flew away.
I didn't worry about getting the board totally out of the water, just made sure to try to get the board in a place I could grab it easily and then float with it as my kite gained some power. Sometimes I landed back on the board toeside and sometimes heelside for the transition but keeping the kite at zenith or near while in the air means you can send the kite down hard to keep you going. Next I started occasionally landing less in a transition but more a full on backroll pointed more down wind or more towards the direction I went. I now had to loop the kite really and felt comfortable doing that so I started trying to be faster with the kite but still steady, hit a big piece of chop and sheet in hard and once the board was in my hand, I cranked the bar pretty good. The travel through the air changes and my feet tend to be way behind so I try to make sure to really put the board downwind of me for these and hopefully the kite is just about to loop down through the power zone here. It's Awesome!

Best thing to take away from this is if you are going to grab, try to dial in where to put the board as your kite climbs. In higher winds you'll really feel how laying the board out might make it easier to hold onto. I'm going to try and find some good examples on my videos and post it. Good luck!

User avatar
bnthere
Frequent Poster
Posts: 391
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:50 pm
Local Beach: South Padre Island and South Texas USA

Hood River and the Columbia River Gorge USA
Favorite Beaches: South Padre Island Texas: year round the best flatwater and fall - winter - spring fun wave riding as well.
Style: all styles of kite riding
Gear: Blade
Mystic
WindAlert
Brand Affiliation: Blade
Mystic
WindAlert
Seadoo
Headzone
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: strapless backroll how to?

Postby bnthere » Thu Sep 05, 2013 11:37 pm

i want this one too, i have been working on it lately. no success. i think i am getting pulled forward too fast, so probably a higher kite will help that.

but the other problem is a lot of the time i cant keep the tail of the board where i want it (where it needs to be) even in straight airs - it banks upwind too far, and the nose points downwind too far, i land on the board pointed straight downwind (or more) and bail. (or lose the board and crash in front of it) its gotta be in the pop, or just after, but so far i cant change it.

any pop advise to keep the board from trying to rotate? do you slam the tail straight down, or use some edging? i think i definitely use some edging, that might be the problem, i dunno know yet.

Westozzy
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2918
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2012 11:25 am
Local Beach: Mandurah
Style: Freeride, wave
Gear: Rebel, Vegas 2012
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: strapless backroll how to?

Postby Westozzy » Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:17 am

Cool thanks for the tips, been trying for ages on my skim t do this.

1. Bent front knee.

2. Push hard down on the back of the board.

3. Kite between 11 and 12...

got it.

vladeto
Rare Poster
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:37 pm
Style: Freeride
Gear: RRD Hyper Type 7 & 12m
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: strapless backroll how to?

Postby vladeto » Fri Sep 06, 2013 12:58 pm

Here is a nice instructional: http://vimeo.com/41638123
enjoy it :)

PVITfrumBYRAM
Frequent Poster
Posts: 211
Joined: Sat May 22, 2010 3:20 am
Local Beach: Hatteras Island, NC
Style: Instruction
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: strapless backroll how to?

Postby PVITfrumBYRAM » Fri Sep 06, 2013 5:44 pm

https://vimeo.com/73949263


Totally different conditions than in waves but I think this it probably easier than powering through a wave like Ben Wilson does. If you have small waves or chop this might be worth trying. I grab pretty far up on the nose and just tend to hover above the board.


Return to “Kitesurfing”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: alford, Bing [Bot], Chriz76, cmilea, droffats, elrizo, funalex, Google [Bot], knotwindy, KVL, mrcrss, Pitu, SolarSet, tilmann, Yahoo [Bot], zegermans and 529 guests