Wakesurf trick Widow Maker

We want to talk today about a wakesurf trick that was named the Widow Maker by Drew Danielo and introduced to the wakesurf community back in 2008 at the WWSC in Tennessee. The history of the trick is a little clouded, but nonetheless it takes mad skills to land it and Drew has demonstrated that!

We have to reflect back in history to just before the WWSC in 2008. Up until that time no one had really done any combo tricks, minor ones like a bottom turn to slash, but that’s just barely a combo. The widow maker is the combination of an air 3 to a surface 3 and a really significant trick.  Drew had a history of bring a significant trick to each WWSC, like a board transfer! Now prior to the WWSC it was announced that Centurion was changing the scoring mechanism to include subjective points for combination tricks. It was met with some resistance, but being that Centurion staged that contest, they could do what they wanted with the scoring mechanism. Lo’ and behold in his finals run Drew threw down the first legitimate combination move in wakesurf contest history! Drew really is the father of the modern combination trick and you can’t take that from him. The WWSC is now run with great care in scoring and is part of the CWSA which collectively works on scoring criteria. That is a GOOD thing!

So back to the wakesurf trick iteself, as mentioned the wakesurf trick is a combination of an air 3 and a surface 3. We didn’t get the entry of the wakesurf trick into the pictures, but James Walker is actually in the air for this part of the wakesurf trick, the air 3.

Here is a big part of the trick, James has landed back on the water from the air 3 and is preparing for the surface 3, you can see he is pretty far back on the wake, but he is also focused on where he wants the next part of the combination to be initated. Eyes are on the wake, weight slightly forward and arm positioned to hit the wake.

Here is the initiation of the surface 3, you’ll see James Walker has both arms in the wake. There is a lot going on here. One is that James is starting that surface 3 way far back. He has the skills to land that, but he needs some extra help to get it done quickly in the wake. Also, as he lands from the aur 3, the surface of the wake is CRAPPY, it’s all torn up from the first trick and so makes the surface 3 harder and lastly, not much pocket left!

This picture gives a great shot of that second trick, the surface 3 and also points to the difficulty of linking tricks. A single trick or component has GREAT surface water, but also the rider can initiate the trick in a more favorable spot. If you look at this picture you can see that James Walker is half way down the length of the wake, increasing the likelihood of falling, but also it’s a crappy spot to try a surface 3 and again, the wake face is ugly, sloppy and dirty from the preceeding air 3. SUPER HARD, is the bottom line.

Here is James at about 180 and once he gets this far around he can always save it. His Flyboy Wakesurf wake surfer helps him, but James just has mad skills here.

…and bringing it home. James lands that combo very cleanly!

Here is a video of the trick. James Walker does an ollie 7 just before it and then the Widow Maker.

Thanks so much for following along!  We really appreciate you taking the time.

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