Intro

Have you been popping airs on the surfboard for a while now and you’re searching for the next step?
The “Air reverse” might be just that. What you see above is quite an advanced version from this trick, but when you look closely you can break it down in various bite size chunks. Focus on landing the actual Air reverse, which is a heelside air where you twist and land toeside (fins first with the board). When you have that dialed, it’s time to start thinking about that “Olé”

A step by step guide

• Ride in with decent speed and steer your kite from 2 o’clock up towards 12:30
• Edge towards the wind and pull your front leg in whilst pressing hard on your back foot to pop out the board.
• Grab the board by the nose and push your back foot in the wind whilst looking at the nose / landing. (by twisting this way you can load up a rotation towards your toeside)
• At the highest part of the jump you place your grabbing hand back on the bar and twist your board towards toeside.
• Just before you hit the water you let go with your front hand to make the last part of the rotation.
• Keep a lot of weight on your new back foot so the fins stay out of the water. Absorb the impact and preserve stability by bending your legs.
• Press the bar down towards your knee, this will gain you some slack for your bar swing that you’re doing shortly.
• Look over your back shoulder to continue rotation and swing the bar around your head with both hands.
• During the rotation you constantly have to shift your weight around to prevent the board from diving into the water.
• In the last part of the rotation your fins will catch grip in the water and you can finish your move by keeping speed in your riding direction.

Tips to keep in mind.

• The moment that your tail releases from the water it’s important to press on your toes. This should angle your board down so the wind presses on it from the bottom.
• Keep pressure on your toes when twisting on the water to avoid catching a heelside edge.
• Practise this trick with fairly strong wind. That will make it easier to let the board stick and manage the revert to toeside.
• Use small fins if you have them available, this makes the landing on fins first a lot easier!
• Keeping your kite at 1 o’clock for the landing makes for an easy bar swing.
• Steer your kite down after the rotation on the water to preserve speed.

Want to learn more tricks? Check out my latests posts:

• Strapless air reverse ole with seatbelt grab19/05/2019