This series of articles will expound on the original wakesurfing surface 360 article. This is truly the holy grail for folks as they progress with their skills. So, we’ll spend some time and post articles on each of the steps and then try and offer guidance on correcting things you may be doing wrong.
Now these articles will be specific to a surf style wakesurf board. Skim style boards inititae the rotation easier, but then tend to want to over-rotate, whereas, surf style boards are more difficult to get the rotation started, but typically lock into place coming around.
So let’s look at your equipment. You DON’T need little baby fins on your wakesurf board, my middle aged father spins 3′s using 4.5″ fins, so YOU CAN TOO! However, if you are riding a quad or a thruster YANK THOSE TRAILING FINS NOW! I know you’ve seen super skilled riders do 360′s on quads and thrusters but right now, YOU AREN’T a super skilled rider and don’t let yourself fall into that hype trap. Ride your board as a twin while trying to learn this trick, the pivoting won’t be restricted like it is with a quad or a thruster, or make your life easier and buy a FlyBoy Wakesurf Board – the high performance board without a steep learning curve! If you are over-rotating at the end of your 360, get some deeper fins. If you are having difficulty turning up and IN to the wake, you might want to step down, or find fins that have a greater cant (angle) to make the initiation of the 360, easier.
Now let’s look at your wake. Soften it up somewhat, not to where it’s mushy, but back to when you were a newb and just getting started. Reduce the steepness and also the height. You’re going to want to spin the rotation as flat as possible and NOT having to blast down a vertical wake face will really help. Also, typically, this will lengthen your wake some. The extra length will help you when you’re first learning giving you more space for recovery.
The driver has a role in this also. Watch your rider and if they are almost landing that 3, turn into them to get them that longer pocket. The rider will learn to pump out of the late rotation, eventually bringing it all together.
Now that you have all the basics in order, it’s time to start working on the rotation. We are going to break the rotation down into 4 components. The initiation, the top, the drop back into the pocket and catching back up.
This first article will focus on initiating the rotation. The initiation really is about 80% of the success of this trick. If you’re going over the top or falling out the back, most often it’s associated with the initiation of the trick.
You will want to throw the trick such that the nose rotates at 90 degrees right at the height of the spine. What this means is you’ll be placing the nose ahead of the peak, so that it rotates to 90 degrees right at the peak. The water rushing up the spine will help you with the rotation. The next thing to focus on, is where your front foot will cross the wake. You’ll want to focus on your front foot, coming across the lip – that is to say, you don’t want your front foot on the other side of the wake and you don’t want your front too far down the face of the wake. By rotating the board so that it rotates across the peak, that will place the tail of the board on the wake face so that you’ll rotate back down into the pocket.
That’s a TON of information and you can see why it’s as hard a trick as it is. Next time out, try working on setting up the rotation. Focus on placing your front foot on the spine and having the board at 90 degrees in the rotation right at the peak.
A couple of visuals to drive the points above home.
Setting up to place the front foot on the spine at 90 degrees in the rotation.
Not a great picture, but you can see the front foot on the peak of the spine at 90 degrees of rotation.
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Arnulfo Mondelli
September 15, 2011 at 4:35 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
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September 16, 2011 at 10:05 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
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October 18, 2011 at 4:35 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
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