360's

When ever i try a 3 i lose the handel and freak out in mid air.
Help
John

dont try and rush the spin, wait till you're comfortably in the air.

yank on the handle a bit with your rear hand and pull it till the small of your back while tuning your shoulders and body letting your head follow.

this will help initiate the spin, and position the handle in the easiest spot to grab it.

grab the handle and try and spot your landing.

thats pretty much what i do

also keep your chin up, don't look down. Otherwise you'll get off axis and it won't be pretty. Trust me I know.

my directions are assuming your trying a frontside 3.

one thing that helped me was to pause before you pull the handle. pop -> pause(just a tiny bit) -> pull -> pass. also, think about pulling the handle down (not just straight back) towards the small of your back. this will help with the "leaning away from the boat" body position when you are facing away from the boat. and don't freak out.

heel or toe?

How you approach the wake matters a lot in the amount of tension that there will be on the rope in mid air, which in turn will determine your spin axis and the ease at which you can catch the handle.

You should approach the wake with almost no edge on your board and with your knees fairly bent. When you jump, think height, not distance.

Practice jumping (without spinning) over and over again until you feel that you are getting a lot of height, and especially that you are feeling no tension in the rope while in the air. Only then should you be ready to try spinning.

Last weekend, I kept spinning without even thinking about the handle. Jump, spin, try to land in the same direction, fall, repeat. This weekend or tomorrow, I'll try it with the handle. It seemed like once I knew I wasn't going to land, the spin part seemed really peaceful. Good luck mang!

I had the same problem of landing the hs fs 3 but not able to grab the handle...it was always out of reach. I then did what these guys here are saying about pulling the handle in towards your hip/small of back. as soon as I started pulling the handle in i was able to take tension off the line in the air making the handle pass easy.

Just dont pull too hard or you will spin off-axis and might not get it back.

you'll get it.

3 p's: pop, pull, pass

that's what worked for me. i didn't even think about spinning.

I seem to have a hard time getting the handle pass whenever I do blind 180s or HS FS 360s. The tension on the line seems almost too much, I guess I need to let off my edge some more? Maybe Im focusing more on the spin than the handle pass?

If youre getting laid out, youre probably not showing the bottom of the board to the boat. Try spinning the board first (not your body or head first). Make sure the bottom of the board is always angled towards the boat. You dont want to get pulled over with the board trailing behind you.

Thanks guys youve been alot of help
sorry for not posting in trik tips though

(Message edited by puck-to-wake on May 16, 2007)

that's a little ironic because i was going to ask kinda the same question....but i got a different question...is a HS BS 360 easier/harder than a HS FS 360?

Jeff,

my first 3 was backside, but now that i can do them frontside, frontside is so much easier

do a frontside heelside