Yesterday at the Skyway I decided I needed to improve on my bag of tricks, ok all I have was one trick. So I decided why not learn to do a back roll. Here are the conditions.
Wind: NE at 15 - 18mph
Tide: really low
Kite: 15M ION
Board: Underground FLX 152
My first attempt: I was in deep water since it was really shallow by the beach due to low tide. I sent the kite to 12:00 and edged hard away from the kite. I kicked the board over my left shoulder pretty hard. When I threw my back roll, I landed a bit over rotated. I did a 2 and half back roll. :shock:
Second attempt I decided to throw the kite a little harder to get a bit more air and I slowed down my rotation. I got yanked hard and smacked the water just as hard.
WTF
Third attempt was about the same as the first but I didn't get turned around and I ended smacking the water on my back very hard. Lost my shorts and my glasses. :x
I came in to shore to take a break and then I talked to Alex Fox who saw me trying my back roll. He noticed that I was doing a backroll and looping my kite. This explains the big yank that I was noticing which proceeded with the big smack on the water. :idea:
So now I know what I was doing and I hit the water again for another try.
I proceeded to head for the deeper water again since trying to do a new trick in 6" inches of water is a little crazy.
I was riding to my left and this time I slowed my speed down a lot and sent the kite slowly from the 11:00 position and edged hard away from the kite. I felt the lift coming so I popped of the water and began my rotation. I felt the yank starting and I was ready for it. I got my head turned around to spot my landing and my bodied followed. I landed with my board pointed down wind and I let out a big woot. I then went to spin my bar to untwist my lines and noticed they weren't twisted. So I knew I just pulled a back roll with a kite loop.
So all day I had been learning to do a backroll with a kite loop and pulled it off after 4 tries. I am one stoked guy today and I am also quite sore. But it was well worth it.
Thanks to Alex for giving me some pointers.
-Chris