UNHOOKED FRONT-SIDE REVERSE

HOW TO NAIL THIS UNHOOKED KITE MOVE

The frontside reverse is a stepping-stone to much bigger and better moves. Learning how to do this move properly first really helps you feel what it’s like to go backwards on a wave and understand how your board will spin in relation to your body. So although it’s not the hardest or most technical move, it’s really fun and can lead to better moves down the track. You can do these hooked in, however I really like to do them unhooked that way you can pass the bar and you can even do like, some type of ‘ole’ around the back of your head as well.

There are a few options; I’m going to show you both. Like I say with most things, start out on small ones first and work your way up. 

STEP BY STEP CHECKLIST

1. Get ready by unhooking, position your kite a little higher than 45 degrees and ensure it’s flying in the same direction you’re going. The aim is to have the kite drifting down the line without pulling on you during the turn. You don’t want to turn your kite too fast when you’re spinning around backwards - your kite could power up or do a kite loop during the turn and rip you off your board. I can’t stress this enough, it’s so important to have your kite positioning right or else you’re just not going to be able to complete the move.

2. Once you’ve got the kite in the perfect position, do a standard bottom turn to initiate the rail change.

3. Hold the bar with your leading hand, and as you reach the top of the wave, swap hands to throw your body weight in the opposite direction.

To initiate the turn off the top, push really hard off your back foot, but keep applying some front foot pressure. In order to do the 360 spin, you need to look over your leading shoulder and hold that composure throughout. If you get halfway through your turn and stop looking over your leading shoulder, you’re going to stop the turn, power up the kite and get ripped off your board.

4. Once you’ve turned all the way around you can do an ole’ or a handle pass.

Ole’ - you’ll need to keep the bar in the same hand and then just loop it over the top of my head instead of passing the bar to the other hand. Make sure that on the last bit of the turn you really duck your head, or else you’re going to get your neck wrapped around the lines.

Handle pass - reach around with the other hand, grab the bar, and then keep sliding the board around to straighten up.

5. As soon as you can, grab the bar with both hands and either hook back into your harness, reposition the kite, or make subtle adjustments for you to do your next turn.

CONDITIONS

Choose a wave with a nice open face and a pretty crumbly lip. When you’re first starting especially you don’t want the wave to be too vertical and too steep because it’s more likely to cause your tail to dive into the water and send you over the hangers.

VARIATIONS

Ole’

Handle-pass

UNHOOKED?

Best done unhooked although can be done hooked in too. 

WHAT CAN GO WRONG

INCORRECT KITE POSITION: you absolutely need to make sure that your kite is positioned perfectly, or else during the turn it’s going to rip you off your board. Also, just to add on the kite positioning, as long as you’re traveling at the same speed as what your kite is you’re going to be good most of the time. You’re going to have a little bit of room for error, but it’s once you change the speed of your kite opposed to how fast you’re going, that’s where the problems are going to lie.

BOTTOM TURN TOO FAST: you don’t need to go all crazy with your bottom turn to set this particular turn up. You just need to use your bottom turn to steer you up the face of the wave and put yourself in the positon that you want.

POOR WAVE SELECTION: you don’t need the steepest, most vertical wave in the world. Just find a nice open face and a nice crumbly lip. Start off small.