whirly bird help
 

I used to be able to do whirly birds a long time ago. Probably have done 50 of them or so. But I stopped wakeboarding for a couple years. Now I am getting back into it. I tried a whirly bird yesterday got to the board with the handle and fell over.
Anyway my rotation on the whirly bird has always felt funky (feels like hucking it) and I feel it looked ugly. I can do big worms and that rotation feels smooth like butter so I think I am doing something wrong.
Anyone smooth out a whirly? More tantrum? Wait longer to start the spin? Just do more?

Thanks, Mike

Hi Mike. I have experience with whirlybirds infact it's my faveroit trick. When you fell down did you fall over your front foot or out the back?

whirly bird help
 

How solid are your tantrums and tantrum to blinds? Anyways, the rotation is all in the arm; I like to whip the handle over my head and use the line tension to pull me through the rotation, the line spinning my arm and the body following. Growing up in Florida we had these tricks perfected on the trampoline before we ever hit the water. Get a good enough whip and you can trick yourself into a whirly-5...!

Austin,
Land hard on front foot and going out the front. I think if I tried five more I would land one or two. Problem is my rotation is just kind of ugly.

Todd,
I can do handle pass tantrum to blinds pretty good but I don't land blind very well regular to switch (great switch to regular). I can do moby dicks and land them about 50% of the time. I can do whirlys and whirly 5s on the trampoline. I can do big worms on the water and that rotation is much prettier and feels better (obviously regular big worms not switch so rotating in the other direction).

Thanks, Mike

Like I said, lots of my tricks I've learned from "whipping" the line using the tension and you'll feel a smooth follow through with your body. When learning on the tramp we would tie off the handle then bounce away from the rope simulating the tension. How big is your wake? You might not be getting enough trip on your tantrum. To clean your rotation try to relax your body in the air (very tough to get used to as your handle arm will be tensed); might need to try a slight tuck as well to speed up your spin.

Ill give you a couple things that can help out. 1: It could be your tantrum pop like listed above. Try to weight your front foot more on take off this will send you tantrum more straight up. 2: when you take off to start your Tantrum instead of letting your arm all the way out when dropping your back hand keep it in. This makes it where you only have to get the handle over your head. Instead of in and over your head. Which will make it much less line tension for a smoother rotation. 3: If your a falling over your front foot you could be under spinning and over flipping focus more on the spin and less on the flip. In my opinion keeping your arm in can make a world difference. Hope this helps!

Mikey,

Good to see you are back to charging. We are on the Dirty D and you are always welcome to roll with us on my TWB.

Most guys I have seen work on this including myself back in the day, tend to start the upper body rotation before leaving the wake, which throws the whole axis off. Think of it kind of like an indy tantrum where you delay the pop, before it. Than stick your bicep on your nose, and that is the rotation.

A video would sum it up in a hurry though.

[QUOTE=buffalow;1868081]Mikey,

Good to see you are back to charging. We are on the Dirty D and you are always welcome to roll with us on my TWB.

Most guys I have seen work on this including myself back in the day, tend to start the upper body rotation before leaving the wake, which throws the whole axis off. Think of it kind of like an indy tantrum where you delay the pop, before it. Than stick your bicep on your nose, and that is the rotation.

A video would sum it up in a hurry though.[/QUOM

My wife's pregnancy and birth of my son put riding on the back burner for a while. But it gave my body some time to heal up.

A video would probably help but I am always riding dirty because we can't find a third. My 11 month old son isn't ready for the camera yet but I see if I can get some video this weekend.

If you ever make it up to Tulloch let me know.

Later, Mike

After thinking about it. I just think I am letting the handle out too much. I am going to try and keep it in this weekend. We will see what happens.

This weekend just landed on my face. I guess I have some work to do. Was too worried about doing everything right and did nothing right. Try again next time. Landed a couple more big worms. I sure wish I could get the rotation as smooth on the whirly.

You will have wired soon I am sure. I remember your early days with big worm and they were silky smooth as they are now I am sure. If you had a trampoline that would probably really help as well.

Can you do a T to B? If so you can always to it like a T&B /late extra 180 like some of the guys do, might help the process.

You can come ride with me this week and I can dial you in.