I need help yet again!

I was just wondering if anyone could give me step by step instruction into how to do a spin and a small air. All the videos i've seen haven't really helped...

Im looking for things like:
*What size wave does it have to be to do an aerial?
*Which part of the wave is most effective for spins and airs?
*How, Where and When plus personal ways to pull spins on the face of a wave and airs.

I know at least one of us crazy sponges know how to pull these...

Cheers, for any help you can give.

By Spins do you meen barrel rolls, if so the size of the wave doesnt matter, it just needs to be sucky. Wait for a sucky section, and throw your self into it, go around with the wave, and get ready to bury your rail again, as soon as you come back down. For spins on the face, its easiest to go for it, whilst at speed, but approaching a fat section, bring your legs out of the water, and throw your self into a 360, its easiest to spin towards the bottom of the wave, rather than towards the lip.

I havent sponged for years now, but I think thats how I remember doing them!!

Hi shem,

Great! I didn't realise that you could do spins starting by spinning to the bottom of the wave, i'll give it a try, im sure you can also do spins the other way?

Plus i would think it would be hard to spin towards the bottom of the wave (left breaking wave spin right towards the bottom not to the lip) because you might bail because of how steep it might be and balance?

Thanks though.

Could anyone tell me where to put your weight on the board during a spin, do you cross your legs at the ankle...and how about if i just wanted to get some air? (some of the firts questions i started out with haven't been answered so keep posting pleese).

I just wanna get this sorted before my next trip to the coast.

Thanks for any help.

Airborne,

I've hardly ever taken off in the air while bodyboarding. The few times I have it's been similar to a floater while surfing.

For those you have to find a section that is about to break ahead of you or a closeout. The size, well depends on how much you want to fall. Something about 4 foot is good for learning.

You want to have some nice speed, just coming down the face and pulling a nice flowing bottom turn, nothing too rad or else you lose you speed with all the spray.
Now, with the speed you have you can aim for the top of the wave.
As the wave is a section that is aobut to fall if you put your self at the right height you will come down with the falling lip. Depending on how fast and on how you turn at the top you'll have one of these:
- you keep on carving a bit allong the top of the falling wave, then coming down with it
-you riding of the back shoulder and of the wave
-you come down with the lip over you

A lot comes from just having the right wave and feeling what is about to happen.

Another move is the rollo or barrel roll. For this one you can do it in almost any wave. Ideally you want a nice sucky one, but pro's in competitions will do it on tiny 1ft waves just to get some points.

For this one you do something similar as with the floater, but as you are going up the face of the wave you want to be close to the back of the board, legs in the water. While going up the face and about to reach the top you want to shifting the weight on to the rail not in the wave, acompany this with a twisting of you upper body compared to your legs in the water and you'll end up with two options:
-you do a rollo and land neatly right side up
-you land upside down and wipe out

It took me a really long time to get this one right. What made me most angry was finally pulling one off and then seeing some 10 year old pulling them off one after another on the next wave.

The best thing is practicing and experimenting. All waves will be slightly diferent and you just need to get a feeling for them and what you can get out of them.

Just keep it going and you'll see what you can achieve. If you can go out with a friend, well even better as you can go comparing notes, one checks out hte others moves, commenting on them. It's also great if you try to compete with you friend as to who can pull the first one off , etc.

Thanks a lot Mexican Bandit

That's really good explaining/info you got. That's really helped me.

Next time i'll go to the coast i'll try it out. The friend thing is a good idea, hopefully when i've finished my GCSE's we're all gonna go on a surf trip, then we can compete all we like

I liked the part where the 10 year old was pulling the moves off when you just started to learn it.
That just proves that im not the only one that needs help or starts off with not knowing how to do thing, but im learning!

Thanks once again.

Hi Airborne!...

To get some aerials going in my experience your gonna need some decent swell happening. If its sloppy and weak your just not going to get enough speed..... and speed is the key!

What everyone has said here is spot on, so i'm not going to repeat them But there is one more option that will guarantee 10ft aerials with enough air time to practice all sorts of stunts!

Its called "a jetski" lol!

I know this is a "Force-of-Nature" website, and we don't do jetskis, but daaaaaaamn.... you can go high when they tow you! If you manage to hire one and try this out, be prepared for bruised ribs on landing and snapped boards! hee heeee!

cheers Thodd,

lol, i've seen those tow in sponges. It would be really good to have a go, but your right i wouldn't fancy the pain. I always remember Chris White on the Metaphyzikal video, he uses a jet ski to get big speed then hits the lip...WHAM! Straight in the air doing sick moves in only 3ft shorebreak waves!
The water looks pretty shallow in some parts its gotta hurt. Plus he gets through loads of boards a year.

Airbone, its sorta hard to explain how to do an air just gotto watch some of the good guys at your local but that may be hard in england cause there isnt any good boogers (just jokin mate) but for spins the key i rekon rather than speed is where u pull it on the wave, the more critical the position the quicker u can spin, but in saying that its hard doing spins in barrells etc, start out by hitting a bottom turn and go into trim position then quickly center your body weight on your board by moving foward so you can pivot around easier, then arch your back and look in the direction you want to spin, turn tight and release your rail, bring your legs out of the water and if u can try to cross them and when crossed pull your legs as tight as you can towards your arse, this helps with spin momentum cause the closer ur fins to your arse the quicker u will spin

thanks for that, i will try it out on my summer hols