Srapless Back-Loop – Andy Grandolfo // Strapless Kitesurfing

The RRd rider Andy Grandolfo’s vision of the strapless Back Loop.

So, here I’m with my ideas… hope they will help some one 😉

First of all, if coming from a strapped background, as I do (sorry! every one has his flaws…) and able to do a smooth and hesitated back loop… I do believe that quite a lot is already done… at least that is what it was for me. I just felt that the same way of controlling the rotation, through an aggressive impact on the wall/ramp (looking more for high than spin) without forcing too much the rest of the motion, and by stretching the body to slow motion down once the revolution is completed, made in a quite similar way will give a lot of time in the air to let you have a feeling about what is going on with the board… To have an idea of what I’m talking about see this vimeo.com/40520420 at 01:10.

So… the board… for the first part of the jump, going very aggressive on the pop (the bigger the wave the better I feel) it all goes itself: the hull of the board is against the wind (easier in a side/side-on wind, no doubts) and till the wind is not blowing at your back the board stays under your feet. As sons as you do reach that point you either make sure that the nose of the board is already pointing down (so that the wind will be still under the board, or you hold the board very firm to avoid the wind blowing it away. The more I try the more I find out little different variations, but I would say that this one in the movie is what I feel like I want to go for.

So, step by step on this particular one: 1st – 00.06)  aggressive impact, looking for the nose of the board to reach high more than going on the side, that will make easily the nose drop immediately down and let the wind blow on the hull instead than on the deck. 2nd – 00.07) once the nose is really at top (the front knee is bent a lot to let the nose reach up) is quite easy to reach the board with the front hand, go for it, it will make the body compact and will help to keep the board if something goes wrong with the wind. 3rd – 00.09) on the way down pushing the board toward the water more with your toes than with the whole feet will make it possible to still have the board forced against your feet from the wind as soon as you will be in the original riding direction (without letting the wind catching the deck and blow the board away). If you manage to do this and you stretch the body to slow down the rotation, it’s done, you are landing from a simple strapless jump!

Don’t forget to start turning the back wrist in the air (as at 00.08) in a way that the kite will start diving down before you even touch the bar with the front hand, that will reduce a lot the impact on the water just because the kite power (due to it’s diving) will hold your body a lot more. Of course if when you touch down the stretched legs are relaxed and flexible, the shock absorption that will come from their natural bending will make possible to control quite a lot the landing…

Well… again, those are just my ideas… Keep trying, and see how it is!

Nd 😉

Follow Andy in kite Camps here : http://www.ndfly.it/

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