Need some pointers!

I need some pointers on how to improve my fundimentals. The first thing i saw was my torso position was wrong. I am leaning forward instead of keeping in line with my lean. The second thing i saw was i am not standing up at the wake.
I am getting very little air.

If you see anything else please post.

Sorry this is my first time posting pics.

That 1st pic in your first post doesn't look bad at all, but do you see how bent your knees are in the 2nd pic? This tells me you "sucked" up the pop from the top of the wake with your knees when you jumped.

Keep going with the momentum you are creating in that first pic, and really push off the top of the wake using your legs. It really is timing and learning to push off the wake at the last possible moment.

(EDIT) - after seeing the pics in the second post, I can also tell you it appears that you are cutting in way to fast and way to early, whcih explains why you can't stand tall at the wake. Start your cut into the wake as slow as possible, building up speed (edging harder) as you cut in. Your fastest speed on your cut should be right at the top of the wake.

(Message edited by craiger on August 29, 2005)

Thanks, i know i relly need to stand up better, that is going to be what i work on this weekend. And i will try to slow my initial approach.

just stand tall to maximize your pop.

try to keep your hands as low as you can toward your hips. this will strighten up your torso.

in the 4th picture your hands are incredibly high. You need to get your hands down as your cutting in. Put your elbows in at your sides and push that handle down, like you were trying to work out your triceps and lats.

As for standing tall, think of it as jumping on a tramponline. As your jumping and you want to stop jumping immediately, you come down and suck your knees up. That is similar to what you're doing. When your jumping on the trampoline, as you come down to bounce, you bring your knees up, and as your feet hit the tramp you push down and the motion of the tramp moving up sends you into the air. Hitting the wake is similar.

As your board reaches the trough, that's like your feet touching the tramp, your knees should already be bent. It's at that time you make your legs as rigid as possible, by pushing against the wake. When your legs are rigid, you won't absorb the wake and you will go up. Don't be afraid of the wake, just do it once and get booted and then learn how to control it.

Your progressive edge should work like this: Edge out away from the boat leaning on the rope, once you stop your edge, make your board go flat. With your board flat, you will start drifting back in towards the wake even though you're not putting any pressure on your edge. Once you feel your board start to drift back in, slowly put more and more pressure on the edge. This works for both toeside and heelside.

I think i will start getting back into the gym to work on my tricepts. But thanks for allthe help. i am going to try to ride this weekend, i got my CTI2 brace so that shuold help my knee a little. I have been baording this entire season with a torn PCL. I will come back with some more pics, hopfully a foot or two higher in the air.

keeping the rope low doesn't put lots of pressure on your triceps. The visualiation of doing a tricep pull down is accurate but there really isn't that much pressure on your tricep(extra gym work probably isn't necessary). I actully keep my arms pretty straight when cutting into the wake. You have your hands way up by your chest. Also, Looks like your not standing tall. A lot of people subconsciously have a very difficult time standing tall at the wake. I've had a lot of success with having people with this problem by having them shorten their cut to about 10 to 15 feet. Cut super hard and keep your legs very rigid. By doing this you won't have tons of speed at the wake but you can build up enough pressure under the board to get a decent pop. Don't crouch during your cut. I will try to get some decent pics of a solid cut on Monday. Pictures are way more valuable than words.

Thane said it best, a "progressive edge" is KEY...Hold that edge up the wake for maximum results. Practice the progressive edge technique for a while, keep the handle low, when you feel more and more comfortble keep adding more weight to your leading leg, so that you can eliminate that rocket air approach that you demonstrated in one of the pics. Practice, practice, practice!

Forth pic is definately not progressive edging

Push off the top and the wake and be rigid with your legs. Look at this picture...legs are almost all the way straight at the top of the wake. This is at the same point in the jump as your first picture, so look how much more bent your legs are in your first picture compared to this one. Notice elbows are in although you could keep the handle (elbows) in even a little bit more than the joker in this picture. Please ignore the facial expression.


(Message edited by eubanks01 on September 02, 2005)

Also, compare this picture with your 4th one on the cut into the wake. Keep your elbows in more and the handle lower...you will have much more control than having "chicken wings" with your elbows far from your body.

Good luck!

Standing tall doesn't make sense to everyone. You want to make your body, more importantly your legs rigid as you leave the wake so you don't absorb the pop.

throw your sholders back and your belly button should be facing upwards

dont absorb wake, keep handle in at your waist

think about jumping on a trampoline. When you land on it, you bend your knees, as it recoils (for lack of a better word) and begins to push you back up, you stand tall to push off of it. If you didn't push off of the tramp as it kicked you back up, you wouldn't go very high. Sort of the same thing.

if you have an injured knee then you probably don't want to land into the flats. From what I am seeing you are taking a hard edge, flattening out, handle is high, you are off balance and you are absorbing the wake but still going wake to wake...
First... are you going wake to wake?
Next if you want to continue going wake to wake I would suggest shortening your cut which will further emphasize the progressive edge thane talked about and standing tall at the wake to get the pop.
Another thing you could do is lengthen your rope a bit, it appears the wake is still clean another 5+ feet back. That will allow you to still go wake to wake and not worry about the knee as much and you won't absorb the wake just to go wake to wake...
As others have said, keep your arms in a relaxed position, handle oriented to your hips
In short... lengthen rope a bit, shorten cut, think about what thane said

I might try lengthening the rope, because many times i land in the flats, and it does make my knee a bit tender.i will let you all know with some pictures on tuesday if i got it figured out.

I'm sure the wind and the chop isn't helping much.

(Message edited by breadbutta on September 02, 2005)