Need Backroll Help - Video inside

http://www.wakepics.com/img/16536

Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong in the backroll attempts. These are the first three I have ever attempted, but I have tried a few more with the same results. I can't seem to complete it because my rotation is so slow. Plus I wanted to see if I could make and post a video, it's my first one, so go easy on me.

the reason why you're rotating slow is because you're coming in super flat at the wake and letting the handle away from you. hold your edge all the way up the wake and stand tall. keep the handle in close to your lead hip with both hands. shorten your cut. you don't need a hard cut, just progressive.

(Message edited by dakid on August 11, 2005)

yep. Wrong edge. You're edging hard then backing off at the wake. You need to do the exact opposite.

a couple of those look painful. How fast are you being pulled?

Nicely Said Joe! That is exactly all the right elements of a back roll.

Joe...I'm also trying to stick a backroll. I've got the rotation and hight, just keep slipping out on the landings and landing on my butt. When you say "keep the handle in close to your lead hip with both hands", how far away from your body would you say you are holding the handle and where is the handle placement exactly? Do you hold the handle below your waist, around your waist, just above? I think improper handle placement could be while I'm not landing this trick too...although I might not be standing tall enough at the wake also. Thanks.

OK, thanks for the information, I'll try it again this weekend, hopefully with better results. The falls weren't really too painful, a whole lot less painful than my botched 360 attempts where I land on my back and get whiplash. About 22mph is the speed.

IAN- Your cutting in from too far out, causing you to flatten off your edge the last 2-3 feet up the wake. Keep both hands on the handle and right at your lead hip... as your coming up and off the wake put your chin on your lead shoulder.
ANDREW- Keep the handle at your lead hip right where your belt would be.. If your over rotating and slipping out because of that, try letting go with your back hand as your coming down on landing. If that doesnt help... my buddy did the same exact thing. What helped him was 'nothing' he just went out and did them over and over a couple days until he just started sticking them. It's going to happen if you can land on the board!

Good Luck

(Message edited by wakeriderixi on August 11, 2005)

Does anybody else feel overwhelmed when people start talking about looking around and making adjustments while your in the air. I don't know as if I am aware or thinking of anything until I slap down on the water(whether it be board or face first). I hope that it's just my lack of experience and not that my brain just isn't as fast as everyone elses. I think that is why I started taping, so I could look at what I'm doing and try to fix it by thinking about it ahead of time before I am rushing at the wake.

when your leaning you really arnt that away because your just waiting for a crash... so make sure that you do the steps listed above all the way up until you leave the wake... assuming you did all of it right you'll land on the board every time and more then not land the trick... after your comfortable with that and it because routein you can start to focus on one aspect of the trick to make it better and better... when that starts to happen you start to be alot more aware when your actually in the air.

Ian, I know what you mean about the "looking around" thing. The advice to "spot your landing" has never been much help to me. I'm spinning too fast to see anything. If I get a big floaty launch where I could spot my landing then it's so easy I could close my eyes. For me it's all a matter of feel.

As previously mentioned, you are coming off your edge way too soon. Here's a vid of me a few years ago. You'll see that my cut is not that far out and I flatten out right before I snap the board backwards off the wake.

http://john.panelmagic.com/w800kbps.mpg

Another thing that will help you is too get more weight in the boat. While your wake is big enough, a bigger wake makes a good crutch for landing that first roll. Way back when I first learned, I tried about 200 backrolls behind my unweighted Nautique (doing what Andrew described) and was ready to get a lesson when some guys asked me if I wanted to try behind their heavily weighted 2001 (the pre 90's hull) Nautique. I landed 3 in a row. Got me about 700lbs and was go to go after that.