WhirlyBird tips???

Does anyone have any good tips for mastering the Whirly?

I've tried several, but can't seem to make the full 360. I think my biggest problems is, pulling the handle across my face, and then spinning the last 180. I've been told to pull the handle in tight, after throwing it across my face... Which helped, but it didn't do enough.

Does anyone have any good pointers, or tips, that'd help? Thanks.

-Blake

Blake, I wish i can help you but i still don't have that Tantrum down.(lol) George Amodei- Need to start riding with you

I guess no one can land the Whirly... That explains a lot .

-Blake

Hey Blake...just post it in the Wakeboarding Discussion section. No one seems to return a post or add to a thread on the Trick Tips section for some reason anymore. Don't know what the deal is, but just not much traffic there anymore.

read these:

http://www.wakeworld.com/Tricklist/TrickTip024.asp

http://www.wakeworld.com/Tricklist/TrickTip014.asp

First learn it on the trampoline. This helps so much. Then if you are getting hung up on the water throw the handle that way you can at least get used to the rotation of getting all the way around. Next have the boat make mild turn to the left if you are left foot forward, this will get rid of a lot of the line tension when learning the trick and will save you a lot of hard crashes. The final tip and one that turned my whirly from just alright into a good whirly is to bring your front foot up when you take off the top of the wake. This helps with rotation. Before I did this I was landing like a pile of bricks on my whirlys and moby dicks. This fixed them both. Good luck

Christopher/Mike,

Thanks, I'm working on it this weekend... I hope to have some better results... I'll let you guys know. Thanks again.

-Blake

soooo....?

Haa!! You know, I was saving my attempts for a later run... But I was distracted by someones cooler, instead... I'll definitely give it a go the next time I'm out... And I'll post my results... I swear .

-Blake

LOL! i just was perusing some of the older posts in this forum and found this post from blake responding to mike, who was asking for tantrum advice:

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quote:

By Blake Hughes (blake_hughes) on Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 8:46 am

Mike,

Couple questions for you, that might help others answer your post...

Why did you slow the boat down? Are you coming up short, going from wake to wake? What's making the ankles crush?

I'm not the most consistent tantrum'er, but I'd say that you need to pick your speed back up, cut harder, and try to take your flip straight up, and not out(most common error). I don't spot my landings until I'm about 75% of the way through the rotation... But that could be why I'm not so consistent.
-Blake

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so just two months ago you weren't a consistent tantrum'er and now you're going for whirly's? either you've progressed an impressive amount this summer or you're crazy! ;)

Doesn't that date say August 26, 2004???

Last summer my tantrums weren't very consistent. I could land them all day long, however, I noticed my pop/height was inconsistent... Which was caused by the way I left the wake. Now, my tantrums are very consistent, and am looking to progress to the whirly.

-Blake

This wasnt to me Mike I have done tantrums for ever. I learned whirlys like three years ago except it took me a long time to get them dialed. I am old school man, been around for ever. He was giving advice to someone else.

I think he was trying to point out that I was asking for advice on a trick that he thought I wasn't ready for... However, I wrote that post last summer... I guess he overlooked the date, which he quoted... Which, to me, is worthy of a "lol!" Thanks buddy... Here's your sign .

-Blake

Cool man give the whirly a try but try it with a turn from the boat that is the key to get the slack out of the line. Good luck!

ah yes, missed that digit! good to hear then! but can you do a tantrum to blind? ;)

Nope, no tanny-to-b... I suck at riding switch.

-Blake

Did you guys see that tantrum to blind that Daniel Watkins threw at the end of his 1st pass in this year's X-games? He saw the end of the run course coming up and knew he had to throw in some "easy" trick so at the last second he cut from about 7-8 feet out and threw it really high and fast...landed blind completely flawlessly and then all in one motion slid around to regular stance. Point I guess is that watching pro's ride on TV will piss you off...they make it look so easy. The way Watkins through this tan-to-b looked like he could have done it 50 times in a row.

Tantrum to blinds are way different then whirlys. I can do up tantrum to blinds (with handle pass) like they are nothing but you got to have really solid late backside 180's to be able to land them blind. On the other hand a whirly bird is more of a huck trick because there is no handle pass involved. So you definately can do whilry birds without having to do tantrum to blinds. Good luck, Mike

good to hear! doing a whirly is my ultimate goal - so if i can skip t2b so much the better. hehe. though i'd love to do a tantrum to blind as well.

Hey man, whats up? I like to look at the ol whirly bird in three different stages. But before we begin really make sure that you have a solid wake to wake tantrum. Step 1. Think about popping off the wake heavy on your front foot. -this will insure good pop. Step 2. Once you have felt the pop, start a normal tantrum. and think about punching your face with your lead hand and looking over your rear shoulder- make sure to wait, think tantrum and then ole' Step 3. If you have done it right you will get a quick glimpse at your landing, spot it and get ready to land edging away from the boat.

I'm landing one this summer. I tried and tried last summer, with no luck. I'm not sure what it'll take, but I'm ready to give it a try. I have a solid W2W Tantrum, I just had a hard time spinning the whole 360... It seems like I'd get the 1st 180, and my spin would stop, slapping my goods on the water. Any ideas what'll help my rotation?

-Blake

Learn a 360 first?

JK, but hey I got a bet for you... if I land one first, you gotta come down to SD and visit us, if you land one first, I'll come up and hang with you. How's that sound?

-Steve

I'll take that bet, BUT... I think there will be an unfair advantage. I'm positive I won't be able to hit the lake, as much as you will. But hell, I'll still try to stomp it before you do... And, just for grins, I'll go for the 360, too. Remind me, what's a 360?

-Blake

Of course I have an unfair advantage! Why else would I propose the bet?

-Steve

Any luck dude? Oh yeah, i forgot, you didnt get to ride last week!

-Steve

PS: I landed a HSBS 360 and a BIG indy tantrum this week. The whirly will be coming soon...

Sounds good... I'd like to see someone land it. And yes, damn-it... I DIDN'T get to ride last week, and I'm NOT getting to ride this week either... I'm telling you, this isn't MY year of wakeboarding.

-Blake

ok ok,

so what you need to do is throw a normal tanty then is kinda like a s-bend, but you gotta look under the opposite armpit while twisting the board bs!!!

if you get that!!! works for me!!!

l8ers

I'm a little confused to which armpit you're talking about? I'm regular footed, so I think I'd want to look under my right armpit... Which is the same for an S-Bend, right? Or, I could be confused, because the S-Bend scares me THAT much!

-Blake