Backroll help, with video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uDT1G_lkGo

This was my best attempt from the weekend. I could put up a few other vids but they were not as close. I'm not sure if I'm still throwing it too early off the wake or what. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

the first thing i noticed is your cut. you need a more progressive cut, you cut in to hard right at first. ease in to it and make the hardest part of your cut when your at the wake.

Ok, thanks. I'll try to make sure I'm more progressive. I often feel like I don't cut out all that far before I start my turn in, so I end up cutting in hard really fast to make up for it.

I agree. You need to ease into the wake and then your hardest cut should be right at the wake.

Gerald, I know the feeling. Try to avoid the thought of "I need to clear the wake". This will happen easily when you load the line correctly. Drift in, don't even cut at first. Wait until right before the trough of the wake and then cut hard. Everything else seems to be fine. It's all in the cut. Mellow drift in and then right at the end take that hard cut. You are cutting really hard first and then it's pulling you off your edge because you have no where else to go with the cut.

Good luck and keep us posted.

(Message edited by mellowman on July 02, 2008)

also, your cut at the wake should be perpendicular. you should then push the board up and away from the boat. Try and touch your chin to your lead shoulder for the roll.

It looks to me like your throwing it too early. Try and wait that extra second, this should help getting you all the way around and also give you more pop if you ride up the wake. What the others said above is good advice as well. Keep at it, you will have it in no time!!

Thank you all for the help. I'll definitely post some video from this weekend.

This is a general question, but also related to this - How do you know when you're at the top of the wake? Just experience? Even on my w2w jumps I think I tend to stand tall closer to the trough of the wake instead of the peak. And of course if I look down too much than that doesn't work either.

As for throwing the roll, do you "push" with your hips and legs at all? Or does the opening up and the head on the shoulder force the body to turn that way?

(Message edited by sloshake on July 02, 2008)

You want to wait for the pop off the backroll to make sure that you take the trip up. You'll feel the release at the lip of the wake if you work on the progressive cut and load the line properly.