Video:
Toeside Back Roll - AVI File (676k)

Pre-Requisites: You must have a progressive toeside edge through the wake. In other words you must be able to start your cut off slowly and accelerate through the very top of the wake, never leaving your edge.

How To: You should cut out about 15 feet. If it requires you to cut out more than 15 feet to do the trick, your progressive edge isn't ready for this trick yet and you need to work on short approach wake jumps, while concentrating on a nice progressive edge.

Edge into the wake progressively on your toeside. Start your carve towards the wake nice and slowly and build speed as you approach the wake. You should take off for this trick at the very top of the wake. This is very important to get the pop that you'll need.

Hold onto the handle with two hands. Keep the handle kind of close to your leading hip. Not really close, but just don't have your arms in a locked out position. When you pop off of the top of the wake, you want to continue with both hands on the handle and then simulate a back flipping motion.

Half or three quarters of the way through the trick, you want to release with your back hand. You should be able to spot the landing fairly easily.

Upon landing, you want to make sure to land on your toeside edge or on the middle of your board. You do NOT want to land on your heels. If you land on your heels, your board will slip out from under you and you'll either butt-check or fall back badly enough to where you can't land the trick. So when you land, you want to be edging out on your toes.

NOTE: In the video, Kyle landed on the middle of his board. If possible, land a little more on your toes. You'll notice how the board, once he landed, wanted to slip out from under him a little bit. Once you get comfortable with this trick, it really doesn't matter how you land.

Pro Tips: Nine times out of 10, people don't have a good enough toeside edge when they try the toeside back roll for the first time. A good test for your edge is this: If you do a toeside jump and your board goes in front of you when you are in the air, then you let off of your edge and did not edge all the way through the wake. When you take off, your board should stay perfectly under you and when you land, you should land in a perfect toeside edging position (on your toes).

Also, for me, grabbing the board indy helped a lot. I had (and still kind of have) a weak toeside edge, so I learned the toeside back roll with an indy grab. When grabbing indy, you want to try to take the trick straight up and grab real early. You want to grab before you flip back. I personally think this is the easiest invert to grab.

Video Rider: Kyle Schmidt
Kyle will be in the upcoming Bump Films release, Shaft 3. You'll also see him landing everything in the book on the Clermont Chain, which is home to the Wakeboard Camp in Clermont, Florida. He is sponsored by Liquid Force, UGP, Blur Optics, The Wakeboard Camp and Performance Ski and Surf.

Author: Mike McLin
Mike is sponsored by Neptune, Malibu, Reef, Rainbow, and Performance Ski and Surf.

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