any tips on how to land a backroll without twisting and landing goofy....im told by my mates that if i could land it it would look great but im not trying to do a roll to revert...just a normal back roll....a couple of people have suggested letting go with the back hand 1/2 way through...any ideas ?

Hi Stuart, <BR> <BR>My backrolls were rolls to 1/2 revert w/butt check for a long time. I fixed it by concentrating on (a) edging all the way through the wake, (b) standing tall at the wake (w/o coming off edge--just like a normal wake jump), (c) pressing the handle toward my front hip/thigh. <BR> <BR>The most important of the three is to edge all the way through the wake. Sometimes it's hard to know if you're edging all the way. One way to "check" is to try an air roll in the flats (the cut is very similar to what you need for a back roll off of the wake). If you're not easily making it 1/2 way around with no wake, then you're not holding your edge enough. By the way, crashes on air rolls don't hurt...I know from repeated experiences! <BR> <BR>When I was at The Wakeboard Camp, I saw Kyle Schmidt drilling students in the flats w/air rolls before letting them try a back roll off the wake. <BR> <BR>JR

What exactly is this air roll in the flats, and how do you do it? Im workin on a backroll right now and wanna try this air roll thing.

If you are keeping both hands on the handle then there is no reason you should be landing goofy ,the only reason your landing goofy is because your letting go with your back hand,that causes you to go revert..

Hey Abe thats not entirely true ive seen many guys do R2R with both hands on the handle,how do you think they progress into a Heel mobe?When i was working on my rolls and trying to take them bigger id go a shade toward Revert and eat it also.I too let go with my back hand and im 90% on my rolls now however it made me behind on my R2R now and i dont as big as i like.I like being consisntent though so maybe a decent trade off for now.Letting go with your front hand on R2R is just a sure way to get rotation but not the only way.later <BR> <BR> <BR>Bill

Honestly what it comes down to is stregnth and fundamentals. First, even though you keep both hands on the handle, you will still want to pull harder with your lead hand keeping the handle favoring your lead hip. When you start going bigger, the pull against you gets longer and harder. You know you have to keep the handle in and in the above mentioned position. As you feel it the pull increasing, you backarm starts to compensate. This compensation causes you to spin slightly to revert. So to keep this from being an issue, some drop their back hand. This helps with learning the roll, but will prohibit you from progressing to bigger rolls or advancing to R2R or mobe. <BR> <BR>Keep both hands on the handle. Work on being stronger with the handle, and forcing it where you need it. If there is one thing I have learned it is this: <BR> <BR>Your ability to manipulate the handle is 90% of mastering tricks.

Kevin--no one answered you. Air tricks are tricks w/o use of the wake. An air roll is a back roll in the flats. I'd love to give you a perfect description of how it's done, but I've only hit it 3 times (out of 20 or so tries). <BR> <BR>That won't stop me from giving my two cents <IMG SRC="http://wakeworld.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif">: <BR>drift away from the wake on your heels (on the left side of the boat if you're regular), set a *hard* and quick edge (I'm most successful if I focus on putting a lot of pressure on my front foot), and let the board release. If you stand tall and bring the handle to your lead hip at the same time, then the board will rotate up and around just as with a back roll. Seems like this trick really wants to go to revert (but I've been too chicken to let it). <BR> <BR>JR

Yes Bill its true that you dont have to have both hands on the handle for a backroll , depends on the rider. But the proper way is the way I described the way they teach in camp is that unless your grabbing a backroll both your hands should be on the handle throughout the whole process then you can let go of the one hand ,wipe your forehead and thank god !!!!!