LearnWake

Landing blind is fun for me because it relies so much on technique and not power. In this video we will be teaching you how to land blind on your toeside edge, or toeside blind. The most common way to get into this position is by doing heelside tricks with backside 180's or toeside tricks with frontside 360's. For this video we'll mainly be showing you examples of a heelside backside 180, because that is the easiest way to get into the blind landing position, and also because it is the trick that most of you will perform when trying to learn how to land blind for the first time.

I've broken the blind landing into 3 key points, which deal with your momentum, shoulder position, and finally weight distribution at landing. Lets take a look at the first key point, which is momentum. When I say momentum, I am talking about your spinning momentum. It plays a key part in body position at landing. There is a reason why tricks like tantrum to blinds rotate the 180 at the end of the trick. You'll notice that on this Heelside Backside 180, i rotate the 180 late. This allows me to pull the handle not only to spin the trick, but also to use that spinning momentum to position myself in the correct landing position. You'll notice here, that when the 180 is rotated early, the 180 is complete, but now there is no rope or momentum to be used on the landing to position yourself properly. You are basically letting the rope control you at landing, instead of you controlling the rope. What usually happens is the rope slowly pulls you out of the correct landing position. Usually the result is the boat will pull you back onto your heels which will cause you to fall, or you will pop the handle. When you look at these two side by side, you can see the rotation is delayed on the left side so the pull and momentum from the rope isn't just used for the spin, but also used to get into the proper landing position.

The second key point is your shoulder position. Generally upon landing you break at the waist and point your shoulders away from the pull of the rope. Depending on where you are landing, your shoulder position angle will be different. When looking at this clip, you'll see what I mean. The closer to the wake you are, the more your shoulders will be pointed towards the trailing boat path. As you get further outside the wake, you'll notice your shoulders start angling out more towards the flats. This brings up a good point for learning to land blind. Most people practice landing blind, by going out into the flats and doing ollie backside 180s. This is fine, but not the best way to learn to land blind. Why? Cause of what I just showed you. The pull of the boat and where you point your shoulders is different way outside the wakes out in the flats than it is close the the wakes. The majority of you guys will be eventually wanting to go wake to wake with your heelside backside 180's, so you should try to replicate the landing by doing your ollie 180's closer to the wake. Doing little 180's off the back of the second wake as known as inside-out is a great way to learn to land blind. You can even take-off a little earlier than Kurt is here, so you can land coming down the second wake just like you would for a wake to wake Heelside Backside 180.

OK, the final key point is weight distribution. You'll notice that in this clip, the physics of the rider is the exact same as a rider riding around toeside blind. Don't believe me, just look. The physics are the same. In both clips the rider is leaning away from the boat with the the handle in his rear hand. So while, the rider might be in a different riding position, the overall physics of whats going on is the same. The reason I am showing you this is because it'll help you to understand weight distribution better. You'll notice that when you cut out with the handle only in your rear hand, you have to put more weight on your back foot than normal. Why? Well, let me show you... If you don't put enough weight on your rear foot, then your board will want to spin out beneath you. Now apply these same physics to your blind landing. You need to put enough weight on that rear foot, so the board doesn't want to spin out. If you decide you do want to spin out or tic toc the board, you now know how, unweight your back foot...Just to make sure to lean away from the rope while doing it so you don't catch a nasty edge.

OK, well that's about it. I hope this gives you a better understanding of how to land Toeside blind. If you remember these 3 key points, you'll be landing new blind tricks in no time.