hi Guys,

Been trying to land some flat 3's in some relatively small chop.

I have landed them before off bigger waves where i just bombed down wind however with the smaller kicker I am making the rotation however am missing the bar on the pass. I don't have any footage however i am assuming i am not bearing enough downwind however as the kicker is only about 1 foot i can't slow down too much or will be hitting too side on.

Any advise for cross onshore conditions would be helpful.

Also when making the pass do people actually look for the bar when passing?

Cheers

Cross onshore is sometimes a little harder than cross shore or cross off shore as you can't bear off the wind as much. What you can do though is go faster, it's always easier when you are going quicker and as you say, try to bear off as much as you can.

Reach for the bar as soon as you are take off, you don't need to look for it. Maybe tie a handle in a tree, or tie a rope to a bottle full of sand and spin it around your back, then you will understand better how the handle feels behind your back so you don't need to worry about learning that part on the water.

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sir ROWDY said..
... you don't need to look for it. Maybe tie a handle in a tree, or tie a rope to a bottle full of sand and spin it around your back, then you will understand better how the handle feels behind your back so you don't need to worry about learning that part on the water.

Or go to the cable park and practice of a kicker. Super easy with all the slack you get from the cable and good practice to get the hand and arm movements right. Just watch out for injuries...

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curls said..

sir ROWDY said..
... you don't need to look for it. Maybe tie a handle in a tree, or tie a rope to a bottle full of sand and spin it around your back, then you will understand better how the handle feels behind your back so you don't need to worry about learning that part on the water.

Or go to the cable park and practice of a kicker. Super easy with all the slack you get from the cable and good practice to get the hand and arm movements right. Just watch out for injuries...

Cable will help, but you can repeat the movement far more times like I mentioned. It really makes a difference and also helps build the stabilising muscles in your shoulders.

Yeah the sand-bottle-rope-tree-handle trick is a good option as you said Rowdy, I used to have a handle on a trampoline with a few water bottles for pull. Great to practice jumps and passing the bar, however you need a lot of weight to imitate the pull of a kite.

There are also a few videos out on youtube. And the last Progression dvd is usually a good source of inspiration but I don't think they show flat 3's, only BJ3 and 313.

Thanks boys!

I will try the tree things over the next few weeks.

in reference to the bottle on a rope, i assume you just swing it around to get momentum then make the pass???

cheers

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James01 said..

in reference to the bottle on a rope, i assume you just swing it around to get momentum then make the pass???

The way I was thinking and that I did it last time was that I took the bar and laid out the lines around something high, like a tree branch, top of a fence or the top beam of a swing set. Then on the lines side I made a little loop and tied in a few water bottles. So basically you pull the bar down and the weight in the other end gives it a bit of resistance and makes the bar go back up when you stop pulling. I used it on a trampoline so when I was jumping the bar would get pulled away from me and then I'd pull it hard to get it towards me and spin in the air to make the pass.
Another way is to fix the lines on a high anchor point so the bar is hanging down chest or head high, then you jump and pull yourself up to get the bar around your back.

I used a 12/16kg kettle bell with a water ski handle and about 1m of rope, you can vary the length of rope to speed up the rotation. A longer rope will work your core more to stabilize you also.