Hey guys,

Needing some advice to finally get the frontloop. I always rotate halfway, but can't seem to be able to complete de rotation and end up crashing sideways.

Haven't understood what I am doing wrong (maybe oversending the kite), if anyone can drop any advice from their own progression experience I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

front roll is not as cool and horizontal as the backroll. it looks quite a bit more vertical and lame because you cant get that long sweeping edge to guide you with the rotation. just watch some progression videos or check out iksurfmags technique section for it.

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jennavzla said..
Hey guys,

Needing some advice to finally get the frontloop. I always rotate halfway, but can't seem to be able to complete de rotation and end up crashing sideways.

Haven't understood what I am doing wrong (maybe oversending the kite), if anyone can drop any advice from their own progression experience I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Duck your head under your front shoulder

Thanks guys,

Ive been watching many videos and found this one one of the most clear:

Still cant seem to crack the trick down, but thanks for the advice!

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Miser said...
front roll is not as cool and horizontal as the backroll. it looks quite a bit more vertical and lame because you cant get that long sweeping edge to guide you with the rotation. just watch some progression videos or check out iksurfmags technique section for it.

Front and back rolls are inverts! Bad backrolls look like an off axis 3. Look at an uhooked backroll for trying mobes, theyre almost facing the other way and the roll is almost a backflip.

If you're stalling mid roll, two things two keep an eye on don't fly your kite up as it stalls the roll and pull your back leg in mid roll.

www.kitesurfingtrick.com/popped-front-loop/

your body will always follow your head

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Rails said...
www.kitesurfingtrick.com/popped-front-loop/

your body will always follow your head

Best advice yet!

More physical than back roll, sometimes I need to force my way through the rotation, so good kite postion and trim is a must. If you can throw your legs and board up, which is much easier in a backroll, it helps. Pop is good, raily type pop, but a little more upwind angle. Really try to push some water to initiate the rotation as you tuck in the leading leg, leading hand in the middle ready to sheet out if needed. Removing the trailing hand/arm seems to add stability/giro and helps. Same speed as backroll, medium-ish.

This is what worked for me, I'm frothing just trying to describe it. It took me a very long time to nail it, but I still get it wrong almost 50% of the time. Big, powered, inverted front roll with a hot landing.. damn hard to beat

Just close ur eyes

ever used a tramp before? not the ones in asian massage parlours but these ones:

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jennavzla said..
Hey guys,

Needing some advice to finally get the frontloop. I always rotate halfway, but can't seem to be able to complete de rotation and end up crashing sideways.

Haven't understood what I am doing wrong (maybe oversending the kite), if anyone can drop any advice from their own progression experience I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Hey Jennavzla! How have you done since that advice? Have you made any progress? I really love this trick, and I still remember watching this exact video (the one you posted) and thinking, 'yeah but how is all that sposed to come together?!' and I was also having some rotation stalling and found that the advice of "really exaggerating this posture" (the head tuck and shoulder throw) didn't seem to really 'click'. I mean, I did it for sure, but when I got what I thought was pretty much all the way through the roll and ready for the landing, low-and-behold- i was opening the posture (stretching my body back out) only halfway through the rotation- stalling the roll facing with my back down wind, then twisting desperately like a falling cat to try and finish the rotation before hitting the water and landing on my ass.

What I learnt when getting it completed (which only took a few sessions before I could land most attempts) was that the head tuck and shoulder throw needs to be REALLY REALLY REALLY exaggerated! In the video tutorial they make that part look so easy, but that's because they are using muscle memory in their whole body after nailing the trick a million times already. As a newbie, you need to throw some serious aggression into the head and shoulder tuck as if you were literally trying to headbutt the surface of the water. To make sure you do this tilt your head right back before the throw so that you have even more aggression to your headbutt. You won't actually head butt the water- because you are also sending the kite, hitting some chop, tucking your legs right in and pivoting on the harness hook.
HOLD THIS TWICE AS LONG as you think you need to. If you over rotate...then dial it back a bit.
All this is exactly what they are saying in that video, but i've just put more stress on the key areas. I guarantee your stalling because you need more aggression in your shoulder throw combined with more leg tuck, and/or releasing from the tuck too early.

Good luck!

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Samuellae said..

jennavzla said..
Hey guys,

Needing some advice to finally get the frontloop. I always rotate halfway, but can't seem to be able to complete de rotation and end up crashing sideways.

Haven't understood what I am doing wrong (maybe oversending the kite), if anyone can drop any advice from their own progression experience I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Hey Jennavzla! How have you done since that advice? Have you made any progress? I really love this trick, and I still remember watching this exact video (the one you posted) and thinking, 'yeah but how is all that sposed to come together?!' and I was also having some rotation stalling and found that the advice of "really exaggerating this posture" (the head tuck and shoulder throw) didn't seem to really 'click'. I mean, I did it for sure, but when I got what I thought was pretty much all the way through the roll and ready for the landing, low-and-behold- i was opening the posture (stretching my body back out) only halfway through the rotation- stalling the roll facing with my back down wind, then twisting desperately like a falling cat to try and finish the rotation before hitting the water and landing on my ass.

What I learnt when getting it completed (which only took a few sessions before I could land most attempts) was that the head tuck and shoulder throw needs to be REALLY REALLY REALLY exaggerated! In the video tutorial they make that part look so easy, but that's because they are using muscle memory in their whole body after nailing the trick a million times already. As a newbie, you need to throw some serious aggression into the head and shoulder tuck as if you were literally trying to headbutt the surface of the water. To make sure you do this tilt your head right back before the throw so that you have even more aggression to your headbutt. You won't actually head butt the water- because you are also sending the kite, hitting some chop, tucking your legs right in and pivoting on the harness hook.
HOLD THIS TWICE AS LONG as you think you need to. If you over rotate...then dial it back a bit.
All this is exactly what they are saying in that video, but i've just put more stress on the key areas. I guarantee your stalling because you need more aggression in your shoulder throw combined with more leg tuck, and/or releasing from the tuck too early.

Good luck!

Nice write up
pretty sure I head butted the water a few times when I forgot to send the kite

I agree with the head throw, and keeping it turned in that direction - your body will follow. But for me the real "aha" moment was when I started pulling in the back leg and stretching the front leg - it makes the rotation so much easier and more controlled.

Also important: send kite to 12 upon take off but keep back hand in the middle of the bar and on the way down pull on the front hand to redirect the kite in time for landing.

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Samuellae said..

jennavzla said..
Hey guys,

Needing some advice to finally get the frontloop. I always rotate halfway, but can't seem to be able to complete de rotation and end up crashing sideways.

Haven't understood what I am doing wrong (maybe oversending the kite), if anyone can drop any advice from their own progression experience I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Hey Jennavzla! How have you done since that advice? Have you made any progress? I really love this trick, and I still remember watching this exact video (the one you posted) and thinking, 'yeah but how is all that sposed to come together?!' and I was also having some rotation stalling and found that the advice of "really exaggerating this posture" (the head tuck and shoulder throw) didn't seem to really 'click'. I mean, I did it for sure, but when I got what I thought was pretty much all the way through the roll and ready for the landing, low-and-behold- i was opening the posture (stretching my body back out) only halfway through the rotation- stalling the roll facing with my back down wind, then twisting desperately like a falling cat to try and finish the rotation before hitting the water and landing on my ass.

What I learnt when getting it completed (which only took a few sessions before I could land most attempts) was that the head tuck and shoulder throw needs to be REALLY REALLY REALLY exaggerated! In the video tutorial they make that part look so easy, but that's because they are using muscle memory in their whole body after nailing the trick a million times already. As a newbie, you need to throw some serious aggression into the head and shoulder tuck as if you were literally trying to headbutt the surface of the water. To make sure you do this tilt your head right back before the throw so that you have even more aggression to your headbutt. You won't actually head butt the water- because you are also sending the kite, hitting some chop, tucking your legs right in and pivoting on the harness hook.
HOLD THIS TWICE AS LONG as you think you need to. If you over rotate...then dial it back a bit.
All this is exactly what they are saying in that video, but i've just put more stress on the key areas. I guarantee your stalling because you need more aggression in your shoulder throw combined with more leg tuck, and/or releasing from the tuck too early.

Good luck!

Hey Samuellae, its good to hear that other people have nailed and struggled before with this trick. To be honest, it made me quite scared at the beginning to do it as I always got smashed.

I got the hang of it not thanks to my own, I'll have to give the credit for this one to Christian (cbulota). I realised that it does pay off to get an instructor to coach you as it took me 30min with Christian to understand my mistakes and correct them, something that would probably take me 10+ sessions to figure out on my own.

I found that tucking in my feet and really pulling on that front hand worked well for me. Some people say that tail grabbing makes it even better, but havent tried that yet. I do the frontroll with my kite at 12' which gives me a little bit more height than I would desire, but hey practice is everything!

Good luck and thanks everyone for the gold advice thrown in this thread!

awesome! next up- frontroll to blind! I'm super keen to try that, how hard could it be haha

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Samuellae said..
You won't actually head butt the water- because you are also sending the kite, hitting some chop, tucking your legs right in and pivoting on the harness hook.

I'd shelved frontrolls after actually headbutting the water a couple of times (along with other hilarious frontroll downloop drubbings), but a common point kept coming up about sending the kite. I had learned backrolls with no send (then adding more send with experience) and was expecting frontrolls to be similarly easy to learn with no send. Turns out that a moderate send makes this trick a breeze and much easier to work back toward pop only.