TS wtw and more HS air
 

just wondering if you guys had any tips for a TS wtw. I have only gotten it once and the boat was probably going 25mph and I just shot across the wake with little air but at around 22-23 mph when I try to get more vertical air its hard. Also any tips on my HS to get more air, sometimes I get pretty good air sometimes i just dont feel that pop. any help would be appreciated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBy80HL6Npo

TS: Slow everything down in your head and exaggerate everything. You don't look comfortable TS and your hunched over, not standing tall. No need for such a wide cut, start by going out a few feet from the wake and then working up from there, standing tall at the wake. You're making it harder on yourself taking such a long cut at the wake.

HS: Looks like you might be absorbing some of the wake with your knees, I used to do this too and it was tough for me to stop. For me it worked to just think of standing tall right before the top of wake almost like locking my knees (but not actually). And same thing, slow everything down and exaggerate movements in my head with smaller cuts at the wake until I got everything down and could work up. For simple w2w it should look like your standing tall throughout the jump, you can see your bending your knees as soon as you leave the top of the wake.

Looking at your switch HS it looks like the same issue. Your nose drops as soon as you leave the wake because your pushing it too hard too quick. Slow it down and think about the proper form, don't try to go w2w right off the back. Shallow, slow cuts and work up, it goes way faster

okay cool, yea I noticed I am hunched TS on the approach, its weird I don't do that cutting out before my HS must be a mental thing where I want to get low then stand tall a the wake.

and for HS My knees are pretty bent approaching the wake and when I hit it I am certainly standing up but right when I am in the air there is a slight bend in my knees, is that what you mean? should I just not think about getting low in my cut as much and then lock out just before the wake? and stay "locked" out until i am 100% in the air? because I feel my timing is off and sometimes the timing is right on.

so slow it down in my head and dont cut so aggressive?

You don't really need to focus so much on crouching down to cut in so hard. Its a progressive cut on your edge and you should be continuing this edge up the wake, through the air if you wanna think about it like that, and then continuing the edge out as you land; all one nice smooth action. Next time your out think about it like this:

- Stand tall, slight bend in knees like normal
- Cut out 5-8 feet
- Slowly edge in without bending down so far, and speed up your edge so it is the hardest at the wake -> you don't need to be a speed demon at the wake, you just don't want to let off and let your board go flat like you are now, keep your board edging through the entirety of the wake)
- As you reach the bottom of the wake start to stand tall, and then hold this through the rest of the jump until you need to absorb the landing

You're putting too much bend in your knees right now, bend slightly, then start to stand tall at the wake and hold it through the jump. Most importantly, keep your board on edge and think of it as riding up the wake, and you'll feel the pop. A lot of times when I take new people out they sit their ass in the water and cut real hard, then let off the edge at the wake and don't get any pop. You want some bend in your knees so you can cut against the rope and then continue this throughout as you go up the wake. It looks like you're kind of letting off your edge right before the wake expecting momentum to be enough to carry you up.

There's a place for more advanced edging techniques when you learn different tricks, but for right now do this and you can establish the basics. Letting off your edge before you hit the wake at this point just kills the pop that you are looking for going w2w.

alright, think i get it. Too bad I live in Canada and won't be on the water until may/june lol oh well I will certainly keep it in mind.

thanks a lot

You are not holding your edge through the wake. Wakeboarding isn't about building speed and pushing off the wake like a kicker. You need to build line tension all the way through the top of the wake and extend off the top. I tell folks that have this issue to just hold a medium edge all the way through the wake just to feel it. Once you feel it, you will never go back. This applies to both toeside and heelside.

cool, Thanks a lot guys!

Head down to florida for a couple days of riding. We head to Cali and arizona for a week of riding early fall...it makes the season start much earlier!

Ticket to Florida is booked Feb 21 to March 2nd O-dub here we come! Ill probably do a day at the cable and a lesson behind the boat. Do they offer any deals for visitors from another country?

Use Wake 101 for the TS issue..

After a long layoff I started to get sloppy on mine and didn't have an instructor handy so I looked it up and followed it . My problem was I was starting to bend over to cut hard into the wake and -jump- off it rather than let the boat do the work...

My 2 cents is stand up straight, keep your hands close to your body at your butt, and twist away from the boat more.....