Sunday, March 29, 2009

Wakeboard Tricks and Terminology

Wakeboard Terminology and Tricks

Most people who, for the first time, see wakeboard tricks are usually taken aback and are impressed by all the spinning and aerial maneuvers experienced riders can perform. Often times beginner wakeboarders, while enthusiastic about the tricks involved, are often clueless about trick names or the differences between them. Many beginner wakeboarders cannot easily differentiate between the different tricks and oftentimes most tricks appear the same. They can easily identify the difference in a wakeboard flip or spin, but when you start combining the two, things can start to get a little confusing. In this article we will cover the basic wakeboarding tricks and terminology involved to help beginners become a little more educated about all the wakeboarding trick terminology.

Toeside and Heelside:

Simply put – a wakeboarder rides the board sideways. When a rider cuts outside the boat wake on either side, either their toes or heels will be facing the wake. For one to initiate a jump, the rider must effectively edge back in towards the wake. This is where the reference for toeside and heelside come in. If someone wakeboarding edges in towards the wake while their toes are facing the wake is is known as a toeside edge. Vice versa, if a rider edges in with the heels facing the wake, this is known as the heelside edge. Most beginners in wakeboarding find that the heelside edge is generally the easiest to get used to as the toeside edge requires more twist in the hips to properly initiate. Ultimately whichever side of the board a rider edges on is determined by either heelside or toeside.


Frontside and Backside:

These are two terms that usually reference the direction that a wakeboarder is spinning. The rule of thumb is that if the rider’s chest is open to the boat first in the wakeboard spin, this is considered a “frontside” spin. On the other hand, if the rider spins with his back facing the boat first, this would be considered a “backside” spin. Different people will find different difficulty levels based on personal preference. A wakeboard frontside spin is easier in the beginning as you can pull the handle across the front of your body to initiate the spin, but harder because you have to pass the handle near the end of the trick before you land. A wakeboard backside spin is harder at the beginning because you have to initiate all of the spin without much leverage by pulling the handle to your back, but is easier because the handle pass is early and your body will be open to the boat upon the landing. Some people find spinning one certain direction while wakeboarding is easier, and others will find that both are of the same difficulty.



Wakeboard Spins:

Spinning on a wakeboard can be one of the most difficult things to learn for a beginner. Most people consider spins (360 or more) to be harder than most wakeboard inverts. One of the factors that makes wakeboard spins difficult is the fact that there’s a wakeboard handle involved. You can’t successfully execute a full spin and keep riding, obviously, if you do not successfully complete a handle pass. With a skateboard or a snowboard there is no rope, so all you need to do is initiate the spinning with your body. While frontside 180’s are fairly simple spins, anything more than that will require a handle pass. With spins there is also the choice of either spinning on axis or off axis. On axis wakeboard spins, or sometimes called flat spins, mean that the wakeboard will remain flat throughout the entire spin – from the time the jump is initiated all the way through the landing. An off axis spin will be one in which the rider will angle the board away from the boat after jumping, but will bring the board back beneath them before landing. Like most things in wakeboarding, people will generally find one easier than the other based on personal preference. Pro wakeboarders can do frontside wake to wake spins both on axis and off axis that include 360, 540, 720, and 900’s. The best wakeboarders can do backside spins all the way up through 720. Off of double ups, some of the best wakeboarders have even landed 1080 and 1260’s. That is incredibly difficult and involves a lot of handle passes and spinning. Most beginning wakeboarders will start out with basic 180’s and later move on to the 360 and so on.

Wakeboard Inverts and flips:

Most of the time beginners see someone do a wakeboard flip, that is the first thing they want to learn. Wakeboard flips, or more commonly called inverts, usually take some basic wakeboarding experience and a little bravery. A back roll or a tantrum are usually one of the first wakeboard inverts most people will learn.
A back roll is a sort of reverse cartwheel motion invert when approaching from the heelside. A tantrum, also performed from the heelside, is a back flip. The inverts tend to be two of easier and more popular among those learning to wakeboard. Toeside inverts can be a little more tricky as the edging technique required can take more time to properly develop. The two most popular toeside inverts first learned are the toeside backroll or the scarecrow. While fundamentally it is better to learn a toeside front roll on a wakeboard before the scarecrow, most people learn the scarecrow first simply because the landing is easier. The toeside backroll is performed by edging in toeside and performing a back flip. The front roll can be done by coming in toeside and doing a front flip. A scarecrow is a front roll with a frontside 180. This is oftentimes easier for beginners to learn because a scarecrow allows a wakeboarder to land open to the boat while the front roll requires more rotation for a rider to land over their toes. Wakeboarding inverts can be exciting and will definitely impress your friends and onlookers from other boats. One of the best feelings in the world, that you’ll probably never forget, is what it feel like landing your first wakeboard invert.


Wakeboard Raley Tricks:

The Air Raley in wakeboarding is the single most sought after wakeboard maneuver that anybody who ever sees one in person wants to do. It is a trick that only exists in wakeboarding, as a rope is a definite requirement to complete it. A wakeboard raley is where a rider takes a very progressive cut into the wake at a high speed propelling themself into the air. Once in the air the rider lays out stretching flat out on their stomach almost as if they’re flying like superman. Beginners even refer to the raley as the “superman trick” often. Air raleys are popular because they are generally taken very big and it is quite the spectacle to see someone fly through the air, laid out like superman. For whatever reason it seems this is the most requested wakeboard trick by the females. Raley tricks can also be performed from the toeside. One of the more popular toeside raley tricks is the batwing. A batwing is a toeside raley where the rider grabs indy, or between his feel toeside, with their trailing. This is a very stylish wakeboard trick and can be done several different ways. The hoochie glide, which is a raley with a method grab, is another very popular wakeboarding trick that can be taken very big. Most every beginner wants to learn an air raley because it truly is an exciting trick, and part of that reason is because it is exclusive to wakeboarding (because of the wakeboard rope).

Advanced wakeboard tricks:

The most advanced of all wakeboarding tricks are the ones that combine both inverts and spins. In wakeboard speak, these tricks are usually referred to as mobes. Any mobe is a trick which consists of both an invert, and atleast one full 360 with a handle pass. Examples of some of these tricks are crow mobes, the heelside mobius, moby dick, pete rose, kgb, slim chance, and dum dum. Mobes, along with high level spins such as the 720 and 900 are easily considered some of the most difficult tricks in the sport. These are usually the tricks you will see that make up a competition run of some of the best wakeboarders in the world. A whirlybird is another trick which involves both an invert with a 360, the difference with this being that the rotation is done with the handle rotated over the head (since whirlybirds are done without a handle pass most do not consider this trick a mobe. When these mobes are done with a 540 instead of a 360, they are called mobe 5’s. Examples would be a crow mobe 540 / crow 5, or a whirly 5. Other wakeboard tricks that are considered some of the hardest are those in which riders are landing blind. Blind, in wakeboard terminology, means that the riders back is to the boat and therefore cannot necessarily see the landing. Most blind landings are done by landing wrapped. The term wrapped, in wakeboarding, means that the rider opts to land with his lead arm twisted behind his back rather than opting for passing the handle. Such examples would be a tantrum to blind or a roll to blind. Like with many other aspects in this sport, some people will find that mobes come easier than landing blind or landing wrapped and vice versa. Truth be told they are both very hard and can only be achieved by more advanced wakeboarders.

These are just some of the terms and definitions surrounding the sport of wakeboarding. You should always start with the most basic fundamentals and build upon them when you first learn the sport. Wakeboarding progression will come much faster down the road if you take the appropriate time to learn the basics and truly have them down pat before trying to move on to more difficult and advanced tricks. Hopefully this article will leave you with a better understanding of some of the wakeboard terminology involved in this sport, and like anything else, the more you watch it the more you will begin to recognize what tricks you are looking at. Now go grab your gear and get out there and learn some new wakeboard tricks!

1 comment:

Zumi said...

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