Billy down the green always asks “How do I do this handlepass” or, “How do I do that handlepass”. The problem Billy has is he only just learnt front rolls and back rolls so when he goes for one of the new school handlepasses and gets it all wrong I say “Back to Basics Billy!”, just like Neal Hilder Bells used to tell me when I got into unhooking. One of the best basics probably has to be the 180. Massively overlooked due to the 360 (or ‘Flat 3′), 540 or 720 the 180 can actually be just as fun and is a good place to start with handle-passes.
1) First of all let’s find a smallish kicker to start with. Start looking for one in the distance.
2) Here’s a good one. Small but it will do the job. Even off a small kicker if you time your takeoff right before the wave breaks you can get a good bit of height. Go in fast edging for power and unhook just before the kicker.
3) Pop off the kicker keeping your elbows into your chest and push down on the bar. This will keep your weight over the bar making it easier to pass as the kite won’t be pulling it away. Try to time how fast your rotating in relation to your height. Already you can start to spot the landing as your looking down. A good tip I’ve heard of from other riders when learning this is to look at your toeside edge on the way round.
4) Eyes on the landing still and hold off the pass as you rotate round. Passing the bar too early is a classic mistake as you can be concentrating on the bar pass rather then the rotation leading to an off balanced position. Only once your facing away from the kite go for the pass. Most of the rotation should already be complete by the time you get your other hand on.
5) Try and take the landing. Landing slightly over your heels is preferred as you can ride out some power heading towards the kite and absorb a lot of power through the legs. Landing heavily on the toeside edge can drive you away from the kite which can power it back up before everything is under control. In some cases landing heavily on the toeside can deliver a face first entry into the water. A successful difficult landing can be described as a “Good Take”.
Learning to pop to blind and pass the bar afterwards can really help with the 180 because the body movement is very similar. A good tip when going for any pass is to try and rotate around the bar rather then passing the bar behind you. After a while you can build the speed up more and decrease the kite angle for one of the best feeling tricks I think there is in kitesurfing.
p.s thanks to Martyn Wells for the photos.
hi dude , nice write up , may have seen these pics before lol , did you get the email i sent you before about me taking pics of u e,c,t ?
take it easy
Martyn
kurts lookin good dude
I just lurve watching Neal on the water he has some amazing tricks up his sleeve.