Loading line and standing tall

I have a quick question. When you are coming into the wake, should you by physically leaning back in a sense using the pulling the handle and the rope to you? Also do you pull the handle to your hip as you are approching the wake or hold it there the whole time? I remember hearing on some instructioanl that you should pretend to try to pull the tower down. And when you stand stall, should you start slowly coming out of your crouch in the trough then extend or should it be more of an explosion up. Most of the pros look pretty mellow when then stand tall, but then again they make everything mellow.

(Message edited by brianthomas on May 29, 2004)

i faced a similar question last weekend at the water. i tried to pull the handle at the top of the wake and had an off-axis pop, resulting in a major crash (my backside still hurts). my instructor simply asked me to keep the handle low around the hips and not to pull during the pop. after a few trial-n-errors, i manage to pop and land consistently.
hope this helps.

When you start your turn outside the wake you should get your body in position as you will go off the wake except your knees will be bent just a bit more.

Don't lean too far back because you will go screaming in and will have to let off before you hit the wake to be in a good jumping position. Just start your cut easy pick your line to the wake and stay on that line keeping your body in one position.

As the boat moves forward and you stay on your line, you will build tension (energy) in the rope. Stay steady. Don't lean back too much and don't let off when you get to the rampy part of the wake.

When the front of your board hits the curl, stand tall, keep the handle low (near your hips), keep your eyes on the landing area and your body straight.

You will fly.

Don't pull the rope, it pulls you forward, off edge and releases your energy (tension) in the rope. Let the boat do the pulling. You simply stay in one position and build tension as the boat moves forward faster than you do.

Ask someone in the boat to watch the rope when you leave the wake. If the rope is tight, you're doing good because it means there's tension there. If the rope is slack, that's bad and you've come off edge loosing all of that precious energy.